I was in Barbados in 2015 to watch  England vs West Indies .  A couple of people from Barbados told me about a game played against Jamaica where the greats of West Indian fast bowling came up against each other, on a lightening fast pitch, in front of a capacity ++ crowd.  I did a bit of searching and think the most likely candidate was the Shell Shield game in  1986 . Jamaica had a fearsome pace trio of Holding, Walsh and Patterson (Michael Holding first change); Barbados responded with Marshall and Garner.  Barbados won, with their 224 all out in the first innings being the top score in the game.  The first change bowler for Barbados in the game was RO Estwick who I had never heard off but who had a first class bowling average of just over 21 and was one of the South African Cricketers of the Year in 1988.  An indication of the strength of West Indian bowling in the 1980s. The same furious five bowlers were to play in another Shell Shiel...

I have only seen two days cricket at Cardiff.  One before the ground was modernised and the other the Anderson /  Panesar / Rorke's drift ashes game, but not the final day, sadly.   I don't really follow the county but from what I can see this is the  history  of the redevelopment and why it is causing such controversy in 2018 . In 2007 Glamorgan began work on a £9.5m redevelopment of its Cardiff ground, financing coming from Allied Irish Bank ("AIB") and Cardiff Council ("CC").  The sad fact was  Glamorgan, like other counties who redeveloped at the same time, couldn't generate enough cash to pay the financing costs on debt incurred.  Glamorgan's plight was particularly desperate, in part due to bad luck and weather and, perhaps, because there is limited enthusiasm for cricket in Wales. By 2015 Glamorgan CC was in a desperate state, the £9.5m million borrowed had swollen to £16m and there was little prospect of it ever being paid...

I had a bit of a look at Eoin Morgan's career stats.  My motivation was the decision by Adil Rasid and Alex Hales to turn down first class contracts with Yorkshire and Nottinghamshire to focus on 1 day cricket and 20/20.  Presumably the ECB must be happy with their decisions as both players are on England 1 day contracts and the ECB could have lent on them to play first class cricket.  As usual Trevor Baylis was impressively o ff message Eoin Morgan's career might be a guide to how that decision will impact on the performance of Hales and Rashid. Morgan has, effectively, also retired from first class cricket. Although there was no big announcement, the last first class game he played was in the English summer of 2015.  In fact Morgan is a poster boy for a light schedule, in 2017 I reckon he played 43 games of cricket, made up of 18 50 over games and 25 20 over games.   Morgan has played in 200 ODIs in total, and 46 from 2016 onwards (i.e. sinc...

Steve Smith averaged  137.4  in the 2017  - 2018 ashes series.  Since then he has shown a little vulnerability against spinners who turn the ball away from him.  Adil Rashid dismissed him twice in the five ODIs following the ashes and in the South African test series he has been out three times out of four to left arm spinners.  (Once Dean Elgar and twice Kesav Maharaj). England selected an ashes squad which guaranteed Smith would not have to face this type of bowling, there was no orthodox left arm spinner and the leg spinner, Mason Crane, was a selection for the future not a realistic option for selection. My first thought was this apparent vulnerability was really just random and,  before the ashes,  there was no way,  England could have realised Adil Rasid or Jack Leach might play an important part.  That was before I saw  cricviz , who in their 11 November 2017 article wrote: " Although Smith has an exceptional re...

I had a flashback moment recently.  Caused by an email asking me to buy World Cup  2019 Tickets.  I'd seen quite a lot of the last World Cup held in England, in 1999.   I have a erratic memory.  I  can't recall any of the games in detail or the tournament's precise format (there was some sort of Super Six Arrangement) or how many games I saw. ( I couldn't resist and went back and looked up what actually happened, anything in red is me commenting on my powers of recall. )  We met somebody in the queue at the Edgbaston semi final who had certainly seen more games than us.  But we saw all of England's games in the qualifying group ( No, wrong we didn't see Eng v Kenya or I think v Zimbabwe ) and, I think, some other games as well.  Plus all the Super Six games, probably ( No we missed some including the biggest game of the tournament, India vs Pakistan when the two countries were at war ); both semi finals, definitely and, half the...

The Warwickshire website includes the club's accounts for the period to  30 September 2017 This post looks at the accounts and comments on Warwickshire's financial position.  I've also taken the opportunity to go into a bit more detail on how I prepared the  Bentley - Forbes Consulting Rankings If you don't want to get into all the detail, I'm giving Warwickshire a 4/10 mark for its financial position.  Here's why: You can judge an organisation's financial position in two ways: A profit and loss account - How much money has the organisation made (or lost) in the last year. A balance sheet - what is the cash and money due less the money owing at the end of the year. Taking each in turn: Profit and loss Warwickshire made a loss in the year to 30 September 2017 of £929,000.  This compares to a loss of £2,298,000 in 2016 and a profit! in 2015 of £59,000.  So on  average Warwickshire loses £1 million or so a year.  In...

I am a member of Warwickshire County Cricket Club.  I recently received my notification of the club's Annual General Meeting.  This included notice of a Special Resolution to revise the club's governance.   What is proposed is that the Committee - a body of members which (in theory) runs the club is replaced by a Board.  The Board will have an equal number of members and non  - members (5 members, two executives and three appointed non  - executives).  The ostensible purpose of the proposed reform is to bring the club into line with the Sport England governance code.  But this is difficult to believe as Warwickshire is not in receipt of public funding and is not subject to the code. It seems more likely that the intention is to prevent the club's membership from being able to constrain the Chief Executive.  Another proposal in the Special Resolution is that applicants for the board will have to be approved by a nomination commit...