Josh Cobb has signed for Worcestershire

I’m sure he wouldn’t have been everyone’s choice but I just hope that everyone can get behind him and not get on his back from day 1.

He’s been named as batting consultant for the England Lions tour of India this month.

From the Cricinfo live text: “(On the hamstring) We’ll say it is a cramp (smiles) but will have to assess with the physio. We will see how it is”

He was never consistent enough for me, he’d have a great game followed by a shocker. In four day cricket he was always a bit expensive. If he can find that consistency then he’ll be a good player.

I’d be in favour of a festival of some sort. I think it would be good to make it a bit more than just a game at a different ground, make it something that not only the county diehards will want to go to.

BosworthBear wrote:

GerryShedd wrote:

Regarding out-grounds, I agree that it will be interesting to see which locations are chosen.
Middlesex are so strapped for cash that they are playing two of their T20 matches at Chelmsford on dates when Lord's is unavailable. According to The Telegraph, this will save them "a six figure sum" even though they will pay Essex a hosting fee.

At the end of season dinner the CEO and Performance Director said they were actively looking for an outground and would make an announcement in due course.

I always felt this was logical given the square was so over used at Edgbaston last year and the 50 overs matches became a joke as did a couple of proper County matches towards the end.

At the dinner he said South Warwickshire but I wrote saying this would be a major PR blunder if announced as majority of population live in the North of the County and there is a greater tradition of County cricket played there. He reassured me saying they were looking at the whole of the County.

But given that one of the purposes of outground cricket is to expose people to the game that might otherwise not attend, somewhere in the south might not be a bad idea?

I think one of the main things is that it needs to be easily accessible by train. Somewhere like Leamington or Stratford would fit the bill on that basis, though I have no idea if there are suitable grounds there.

Seems a little strange to me that "blast off" won't be our first T20 match of the season

This Maxwell chap looks quite good, perhaps we should sign him for the Blast next season..?

Good news! Let’s hope we have him for the full stretch this time

Did they have two fireworks nights at Edgbaston? I saw some videos which looked pretty good.

Thing is, for better or worse, T20 is where the club makes most of its money (aside from internationals/Finals Day) so if we can have a successful winning team in the Blast that results in larger crowds then this should lead to a larger playing budget for the other formats as well. In theory at least. I’m sure we don’t want to prioritise one at the expense of the other so it’s a balancing act for sure.

Who’d have thought that preventing the best players from playing in the one day cup would have such disastrous consequences..?!

Highveld wrote:

Even worse than the poor record of the overseas players was probably the largest signing made by Robinson, and the fact that all 3 full county caps given out this season were to players whos contribution to the club did not deserve the honour.
Ed Barnard deserved to be capped, but wasn't.

You don’t think that Rushworth deserved to be capped?

ExiledBrummie wrote:

So we finish 3rd if we draw and Hants lose?

Correct

Is there any prize money up for grabs for third place?

Edit: Last season it was £290k for second place and £145k for third, so I guess it’ll be something similar this season

50 wickets for Rushworth this season, what a great signing he’s been.

Mikkyk wrote:

Highveld wrote:

white-lightning wrote:

28/2. Ridiculous decision by the umpire to give Mousley out stumped! His foot never left the ground! Albeit by a toe.

Actually an excelent decision from the umpire, and Mousley is very lucky he isn't facing a level 1 charge of dissent.

Would he have been charged already if he was going to be? Because I agree he should be charged based on his reaction, whether he was out or not.

And incidentally he was out and it's nice to see an umpire have the cajones to give a tight stumping without any third umpire available - even if it was against us.

Seemed like he was reacting as much to what was said by Simpson as the umpires decision to me.

Super win. A shame that we weren’t able to force the win against Notts or Somerset as we might still have a sniff at the title if we did, but I suppose there are always lots of these “what ifs” in a season

Highveld wrote:

If the council had signed a contract to loan the money, they are legally obliged to honour the contract, or face legal action, and extensive costs, for breach of contract.

We can only hope that the voters of Birmingham remeber which party caused the severe financial mismanagement at the next local elections.

We can also hope that voters remember which party are the reason that local authorities across the country have no money to spend in the first place.