it seems an odd choice, to me. I feel pretty confident in saying Dan Mousley is never playing test cricket for England, but then they haven't seriously been using the 'Lions' as a feeder for the test team in many many years. who needs stuff like that when you can pick people based on 90 second clips on youtube? #vibes

I guess they liked his leadership when he captained those white ball games? or maybe they like his #vibes

of course I am largely grumbling from a selfish perspective but i feel like the Bears' loss is very unlikely to translate into either Mousley's, or England's gain, in terms of him getting a place in either red or white ball teams.

Mikkyk wrote:

Could Zak Crawley be a long term solution for us at the top of the order?

replace a batsman who has been very inconsistent as an opener with.... Zak Crawley? 'brave' call

Mikkyk wrote:

Surely even with his ego he can accept that he's struggling big time right now and that dropping down the order is better than being dropped completely?

well thats the thing with ego isn't it, it isn't always going to do the rational thing. I hasten to add I am merely speculating based on the reasons/background he came to us in the first place and an overall impression that he's a somewhat stubborn character.

The Davies/Kai/keeping situation is a problem, Davies is obviously a walking wicket right now but Kai's keeping is miles off. Does Davies drop down to 7?!

I definitely think he needs to be taken away from the new ball but I also suspect his ego would violently object to his being dropped down the order.

strange, in some ways he started coming into his own as an all-round cricketer last year, the 50ovs showed real development in his batting and his fielding had become pretty good too. His bowling though seemed to have gone backwards slightly, whether from people working him out and getting used to his odd action or maybe a case of the yips.

I'd love for him to have stayed as the l/a wrist spin is an x factor thats nice to have and he's definitely a whole-hearted cricketer. I'm sadder about this than I would have imagined, actually.

on the bright side that hopefully opens up the field for Taz Ali to play a big role in the T20 this year.

Andy wrote:

I was sort of hoping Taz Ali would get a go in the Blast this season.

same here, absolutely gutted and not very happy with this at all. seems like a bit of a kick in the balls for the young man after an outstanding last season in the 'development cup'.

what a game

Andy wrote:

Akhter has shaped up nice, hes demonstrated he can play proper shots down the ground, and I feel like Harmer always gets runs against us. If these get it below 40 required it could be panic stations...

i was surprised to hear Harmer 'only' has 2 first class centuries, it feels like he's a better batsman and more consistent scorer than that

Inside-edge wrote:

I would imagine if you were new to cricket then Topley would be a good commentator as he describes the goings on in minute detail (often more than once) However, he loves the sound of his own voice and talks over the top of whomever he’s commentating with. I find him very biased and irritating.
That’s not bitching, it’s my opinion.

If i was to discount all of the comms guys working the county circuit on the basis of their bias I'm pretty sure there wouldn't be a single game I could listen to, they're all biased as hell!

I feel like it pretty much comes with the territory, mixed comms team from each country, each contributor is there to provide a bit of local colour and background knowledge specific to that county, which I always appreciate, those little asides 'of course he played for years for Sudbury CC in the East Anglian premier league' etc etc. happy days

GerryShedd wrote:

ITE7376 wrote:

GerryShedd wrote:

That would be the Don Topley about whom Derek Pringle said: "A strange cove, not always popular with his team-mates, Topley often gave the impression that he felt hard done by."
My own experience of him is that he joined me at a table for two at the back of the Lord's press box and totally ignored me - not a "do you mind if I join you?", "Hi, I'm Don" or "Ahoy, matey!". Just a blank stare.
Despite all of that, he might be an excellent commentator (or not).

yes, that would be the same Don Topley
it wouldn't really be 'despite' any of that, though, would it, seeing as none of what you describe would necessarily factor into how good he is, or isn't, as a commentator. Two things can be true at once: Don Topley is a strange man, who was also rude once to a random in a commentary box. Don Topley can also be a good commentator. But let none of that get in the way of a good old forum bitching session.

I shall take great delight in my new identity as a random.

taking delight in things is good for you, I hear

GerryShedd wrote:

That would be the Don Topley about whom Derek Pringle said: "A strange cove, not always popular with his team-mates, Topley often gave the impression that he felt hard done by."
My own experience of him is that he joined me at a table for two at the back of the Lord's press box and totally ignored me - not a "do you mind if I join you?", "Hi, I'm Don" or "Ahoy, matey!". Just a blank stare.
Despite all of that, he might be an excellent commentator (or not).

yes, that would be the same Don Topley
it wouldn't really be 'despite' any of that, though, would it, seeing as none of what you describe would necessarily factor into how good he is, or isn't, as a commentator. Two things can be true at once: Don Topley is a strange man, who was also rude once to a random in a commentary box. Don Topley can also be a good commentator. But let none of that get in the way of a good old forum bitching session.

I always look forward to the Essex fixtures each year as they mean the opportunity to listen to the brilliant Don Topley on the radio coverage.

paulbear wrote:

I think we should get a spinner in just for variation and being early season, so many batsmen will not have any real form so facing a spinner will be as difficult as facing pace bowler. Mason Crane got 8 wickets for Glamorgan against Yorkshire so why don't we just try it.

i'd whack taz Ali in there. but then my answer to most cricketing problems on the bowling side involves more (wrist) spin

****The_Lickey_Banker wrote:**

I think it's still very difficult to predict our first choice lineups. A few new (and old!) seam bowlers and no idea how involved Woaksy will be. My main concern is lack of an experienced spinner.

Other than the lack of a spinner,**

do we assume that taz ali is first cab off the rank ?

paulbear wrote:

I wonder if there will be a host of vacancies as far as the England team is concerned. There should be, I feel very sorry for anyone who has spent money to go over there

I went over in 2013-14. 'trip of a lifetime', I thought, 'wouldn't it be great to watch us win in Australia?', i thought, 'win or lose it will be a great experience', I thought.

sadly only the last one was true, of course. I only got to Oz for the melbourne test so of course the series was already done by then. It was, despite that, a great experience, albeit I suspect much of that was to do with being able to have a holiday with my good mucker (turned out the to be last before he got married). It was also tinged with sadness having seen the unravelling of Trotty and his obvious suffering at that point in time.

Andy wrote:

Just remembered, Jordan Thompson will be in that Hassan Ali role.

he loves bowling at the death, he's one of those who sees it as an opportunity to shine, always 'puts his hand up' as the terrible cliche goes, mixes up his slowies and yorkers and so on.

he's a good white ball cricketer is Thompson, I like the cut of his gib. His body language is very much 'up and at'em'

Andy wrote:

Just remembered, Jordan Thompson will be in that Hassan Ali role.

yeah, he's also probably in the 'Garton role' with the bat, or, he is at least as effective as garton is with the bat (I recall a great 50-odd off 18-odd balls from Thompson on finals days around 2023 i think it was)

to me if we do sign Sams (who may also be better with the bat than Garton or is at least as good), Garton would become entirely surplus to requirements as we wouldn't even need him to provide a left arm option

on which note- it seems at this point we aren't looking to sign a spinner as direct replacement for Briggs?

Andy wrote:

It's on the clubs social media.

Good news, definitely a player we should be backing. Got a decent amount of game time last season. Hope he gets a go in the Blast next year.

yeah we definitely need to give him as much experience as possible, as early as possible, especially now we don't have Lord Danny to spin us out of a hole.

Andy wrote:

I'd have said he's stepped up?

i guess i was thinking club/ground size, and assuming M'sex can afford bigger salaries in general, but yeah point taken