Larsen, the so called "performance director". Let's see him earn his money now because to date all he has done is bring in second rate cheap Kiwi players.

Sibley left because we wouldn't select him in T20s. Scored a march winning knock for Surrey in their quarter final. Similarly Rhodes is leaving because of a similar situation and will probably go to Durham and win matches for them. Yet we can keep picking serial failure Benjamin and the like.
Go now Robinson and Frost.

Davies already moaning about the slow pitch. Surely Gary Barwell will have prepared a pitch to order with our home advantage. Also the usual talk about 'positives'. Rubbish. Season over.

Robinson must go after this. There isn't a winning mentality.
All of our playing budget went on this competition and we failed again.
The recruitment has been abysmal. The leadership is poor.
We cannot continue to accept the excuses or platitudes which will no doubt follow this latest pitiful showing.

Devon_Bear wrote:

I think they will go with the extra batter at 7, and i think they will stick with Benjamin. He played in all 14 of the group stage matches, and seems to be favoured over others in this format. Predicted team:

Davies
Moeen
Mousley
Hain
Bethell
Barnard
Benjamin
Garton
Briggs
Lintott
Gleeson

Come on you Bears!
If they select Benjamin again then Robinson has no backbone. He has done nothing to warrant a place in the team, other than as a back up wicketkeeper.

Of course Benjamin will play. And with Hassan out I guess Foulkes will fill that spot. From what I've seen, he looks like a bang average bowler brought over on the cheap (Now I hope he proves me wrong and breaks Neil Carter's record T20 bowling figures).

An update at last! By the sounds of it they are anticipating him coming back next year.

We did what we had to do today. Kent must be one of the worst team's ever to grace the top divison though.

Highveld wrote:

As mentioned last week, he was realeased as he was unable to fulfil his contract.

I missed that, thanks. Any further detail?

What ever happened to Hassan Ali? He had a minor knock at the end of the T20 group stage and hasn't been seen or heard of since.
Will he be back for the T20 quarter final? Silence from the club as usual.

Is the wicket a green seamer? It was obviously a red herring to include two spinners in the squad with no intention of playing them.

Another century for Kai Smith.

https://edgbaston.com/fixtures/first-xi/warwickshire-vs-kent-thursday-29th-august-2024/#match-match-previews

Lintott in. Hain still a doubt.

Good news for the players but bad news for our hopes in the Blast competition, and Robinson's job prospects.

Viewing figures are down a quarter. Shame, that.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/cricket/2024/08/20/hundred-viewing-figures-bbc-sky-sports-olympics-tv-ecb/

The club are not very good at communicating team news or player availability/injuries.
We will probably get a squad published today. Who knows whether Hain or Rushworth will be playing? I assume Davies, Mousley and Bethell have returned for duty.

GerryShedd wrote:

I have no interest in The Hundred whatsoever and from a selfish point of view would love for it to disappear because of its effect on the competitions and the team that I do care about. But there is no doubt that it has found a market and achieved some of its aims.
The BBC reports today:

"The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) announced that 540,000 tickets were sold for this year's tournament, taking the total beyond two million over the first four years.
Of those, more than a million attended women's games and there were record crowds for women's matches at seven of the eight grounds used in The Hundred in 2024.
For all that the competition continues to split opinion, confirmation that 41% of tickets this year were sold to families and 30% to people new to cricket suggests it has been successful in its aim of bringing people to the sport.
Despite that, TV viewing figures were down on previous years. Although being up against the Olympics for two weeks in the middle of the tournament, perhaps that is to be expected - and the BBC's coverage of the men's final still attracted almost half a million more viewers than the 2023 final."

BBC propaganda. They have some skin in this game. It is cricket for those who don't follow cricket, which is fine but should not be run at a continued cost to the One Day Cup, which is the best format for me.

Hugely disappointing to lose another semi final but we did well to get that far with the resources available. We struggled to get big totals on the board and really lost momentum after losing Yates and Hamza.
The emergence of Kai Smith is a big positive and both Taz Ali and Booth made strides forward.
I keep saying it, but we really need a top class batting coach to improve these players. Look at Somerset and the talent they are producing along with vastly improving someone like Andy Umeed, who is unrecognisable from his time with the Bears. Time for Frost to go.
Robinson 's job surely now hinges on making T20 finals day as a minimum requirement. And the small matter of securing our championship status.

Surprised that Crane hasn't been added to the Glamorgan squad. Good news that Yates and Hamza are in for the Bears. Big day ahead.

Excellent summary Andy. What a win.

Top knock from Smith. I sincerely hope Kai is given time to develop in this format and not be whisked away next season to sit on the sidelines for a franchise. He has definitely overtaken Benjamin this season.

We could do with Yates and Shaikh being available for Sunday. Straight swap for Malik and Wylie. Depending on conditions, Taz Ali or Booth for the remaining spot.