GerryShedd
Super Moderator
There have been rumours that the BBC radio coverage of county cricket was under threat. In fact, the only loss will be the One Day Cup which will not be covered.
The Cricketer reports:
"Every day of County Championship and T20 Blast cricket will again be available.The only change sees the One-Day Cup group stage, which since 2021 has clashed with The Hundred competitions, lost from the schedule."
The Cricketer also points out:
"The move comes as counties themselves continue to shift from using the BBC commentary for their live streams, instead preferring perhaps a more favourable in-house team. The quality and sophistication of streams have exploded in recent years - significantly so since the pandemic - and last summer saw 30 million views across the 18 first-class counties."
To be fair to Lizzie, she does say: "Warwickshire are set to announce a new performance director in the coming days but it is not thought that Ashworth was considered."
My money's on Elon Musk.
The Times article makes it clear that alongside Jim Troughton on the shortlist for the Performance Director role are "some names from outside cricket".
With regard to Moeen, it seems that he will have a player-coach role with the Bears during the Group stages of the Blast but his contract will end in July so, unless there is a new agreement, he won't be available should the Bears qualify for Finals Day. Also it seems that, after this season, he will have no playing role in English domestic cricket but will still be up for hire in franchise tournaments around the world. He is already committed to the IPL in April and May and the Caribbean Premier League in August and September.
Although I don't regard The Times' Lizzie Ammon as the most reliable source, the gist of her article is being repeated elsewhere.
Matthew Walker has joined as batting coach on a one-year contract.
I think he's a good guy so I won't make too much of the fact that he guided Kent to relegation last season (and in the process did the Bears a favour).
https://edgbaston.com/news/matthew-walker-joins-bears-as-batting-coach/
George's article puts the responsibility for the poor overseas signings on Larsen as well as blaming him for problems with contract renewals. He suggests that the better quality of recent overseas signings was down to Robbo.
It would be interesting to know the full story of what happened between October and February. As we all noted on here, Robinson disappeared for quite a while from all of the Club's website articles. Then he was back, then he was gone!
George Dobell's latest on-line article for The Cricketer is very sympathetic to Robinson. He also deals with the mutual consent fiction:
"Robinson came in to work as normal last Tuesday (February 11). He coached all morning and then, at lunchtime, the chief executive asked for a word. And that, basically, was that. Forget all that talk of 'mutual consent'; this was a sacking. Six weeks before the season, Warwickshire had made a major change."_
To be fair to The Cricketer who put their on-line content behind a pay wall, I don't think I should copy the rest of the article; but it has some interesting things to say, not just about Robinson but also about Larsen, about pitch preparation and fixture congestion.
In The Cricketer review of how counties intend to spend the money, 15 out of the other 17 counties mention ground development in one form or other, six mention debt clearance or reduction and two mention increasing (non-playing) staff. The only ones not to mention ground development are Essex, who are not sure what they want to do with the money, and Worcestershire who are currently reviewing their possible options to move away from Worcester.
Regarding the windfall that has come Warwickshire's way as a result of The Hundred sell-off, George Dobell says on-line in The Cricketer:
"Warwickshire's situation is actually quite simple: they have planning permission for further ground development and this money will alleviate the need for costly loans at commercial rates. The latest development plans will see a hotel built in the area currently occupied by The Priory stand.
This will include extra seating, raising the ground capacity a little, as well as more hospitality options. With Birmingham City Council - who are effectively bankrupt - pulling out of a loan agreement for it, there has been some lending agreed with the West Midlands Combined Authority.
The combination of that and this windfall will allow Warwickshire to build without needing to be overly reliant upon commercial borrowing rates. The club have paid off around £5m of debt on their previous development (at the pavilion end of the ground) over the last couple of years. Their long-term borrowing arrangement with Birmingham City Council, which has featured low interest rates and payment holidays, is not affected."
Olly has just been elected Chair of the PCA:
https://www.thepca.co.uk/members/olly-hannon-dalby-to-become-pca-chair/
It's difficult to imagine a better choice.
Well done Olly; and well done PCA members for electing him.
It looks like a lot of this is in line with what many on here have been asking for - Robinson goes, Tony Frost is no longer batting coach, a Bear (Ian Westwood) is now first team coach. But the timing is unfortunate so close to the new season. I think we can assume that the "mutual" bit of Robinson's departure involved a lot of persuasion and that he really didn't want to go.
I guess it depends on what the criteria were for assessing any contract bids - did the Club put in anything about value for money?
And the contract for supplying ridiculously over-priced food goes to...
https://edgbaston.com/news/edgbaston-agrees-new-food-supply-deal-with-fordhall-farm-event-caterers/
The match referee clearly got the "like for like" ruling wrong in this case. The rules say:
“In assessing whether the nominated Concussion Replacement should be considered a like-for-like player, the ICC Match Referee should consider the likely role the concussed player would have played during the remainder of the match, and the normal role that would be performed by the nominated Concussion Replacement."
It looks like Claire Daniel is moving on so there is a vacancy to be filled:
https://edgbaston.com/news/job-vacancy-operations-director/
For those who have any interest:
https://www.espncricinfo.com/story/tom-brady-stardust-cricket-birmingham-phoenix-acquisition-1471284
He seems almost to have made the grade but not quite:
https://edgbaston.com/news/amir-khan-leaves-warwickshire/
No sign that another county has picked him up yet, which is a shame.
As for what influence a member of the Committee has, it would be interesting to talk to Marina Dorward who used to post occasionally on the old Bearfans forum and has been on the Committee since 2019. I presume that she wouldn't be standing for re-election if she thought it was a waste of time.
I do, however, understand that the pleasure of being outside the tent peeing in can be greater than that of being inside peeing out.