Inside the pavilion: We will win the Championship in 2020 (From Gazette Series)
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Cricket column by former Gloucestershire chairman John Light
10:12am Thursday 19th August 2010 in Sport
IT IS stocktaking time in English cricket. Clubs are assessing playing staff and looking to next season.
It is not easy. For so many counties, decisions are driven not by cricketing needs but by financial considerations.
One neighbouring county had a board meeting last week and discussed signing Ryan Sidebottom. They baulked at his basic salary demands.
This season the total of captain casualties is six and of chief executives three. Worcester have just suffered a double resignation - captain Solanki and chief executive Newton. Solanki could be heading for Warwickshire, who like Middlesex and Surrey have scouting parties seeking ready-made cricketers.
So far we have not lost a player to a big-money bid - our players are loyal, but despite a profitable Cheltenham, the county is heading for another loss.
All is not gloom however. I have a personal annual stocktaking conversation with gravel grandee Roger Cullimore. We have a joint hope - that in our lifetime Gloucestershire win the County Championship.
Roger and I think 2020 will be the year we achieve title glory. We invite you to join us for drinks to celebrate on October 1. How about The Crown at Frampton Mansell?
Gemaal Hussain, Ian Saxelby, David Payne, Chris Dent, Louis Gegg, Ed Young, Liam Norwell are all fine cricketers for the future. Two more, Michael Beard and Graeme McCarter, have achieved international recognition. They will soon be playing against each other - Beard for England and McCarter for Ireland.
Discussions are going on at every level about next year’s first class programme. Inevitably finance will be the driving factor.
T20 Finals day at the Rose Bowl produced some stunning cricket and at Cheltenham we saw the merits of the Clydesdale Bank Pro 40 competition with crowds in excess of 4,000 for each game. It is my favourite competition and fits pleasantly into a Sunday afternoon.
The problems of this year’s fixture list mainly stem from insensitive scheduling. The ECB should enlist someone with a proven record in time-tabling medium-sized Comprehensive Schools. They know my phone number and the editor knows I am not expensive!
Congratulations to Lechlade. This go-ahead cricket club on the eastern edge of Gloucestershire have just made a handsome donation to the local junior school. The £1,000 given will further stimulate cricket there.
Many of you make the easy but inaccurate statement ‘Schools have given up cricket’. This ignores the growing and effective "Chance To Shine’ scheme" where groups of schools are linked to clubs. It also ignores the healthy number of clubs who have active youth policies. Youth cricket is a thriving feature of cricket in Gloucestershire. When I was growing up in the 50s there was none.
I moved, totally unprepared, from playing for Rodmarton one week and my university the next. I wish I was 15 again - there are so many opportunities now.
Readers of this column spotted me playing truant from the Cheltenham Festival. I plead guilty but for the best of reasons.
I attended a tea party in Sheepscombe for village veterans. Regrettably, I easily qualify. It was a pleasure to meet Sheepscombe cricketers of the past, notably Ken French and Stan Beard.
Do you agree with John Light?
Have your say below.
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Jonathan Winsky says...
12:51pm Thu 19 Aug 10
There are two things I disagree with in this week's edition of John Light's weekly column in the Wilts and Gloucestershire Standard, the first thing being a throwaway comment and the second simply being a differing opinion.
Light says that Middlesex, Warwickshire (who he believes could be Vikram Solanki's next county) and Surrey are all guilty of signing players from other counties as opposed to producing their own.
Warwickshire: When a player of another county becomes out of contract, Warwickshire always seem to be linked with these players. Yes they have Ian Bell in the England side, but apart from that the only other player they have in the England side, Jonathan Trott, isn't even English.
Surrey: Last winter, they signed Steven Davies, Gareth Batty, Rory Hamilton-Brown and Chris Tremlett, and they have no-one in the England team.
Middlesex: Last winter, we didn't sign a single player who is ready-made and will be available for many years (Iain O'Brien, Scott Newman and Pedro Collins are ready-made but are all at the back-end of their careers while Tom Smith is not ready-made), while we are certainly doing our bit for England by producing Andrew Strauss, Eoin Morgan and Steven Finn.
So, Light shouldn't be mentioning Middlesex in the same breath as Warwickshire and Surrey.
Throwaway comments really annoy me, so people need to learn not to say them.
The other thing Light said that I disagree with is the Clydesdale Bank 40 being his favourite of the three competitions. How can anyone give a monkeys about that competition? The matches are scattered all over the place and unlike the County Championship and Twenty20 Cup, it does not have its own set place in the season, so it passes many people by and people spend little time thinking about it