Cricket: General Chat

[PaulC]

So PaulC, if it was your decision would you look to keep Maurice Chambers , assuming Warks had the option ?

 

From what I hear,  pop welch is not interested. High maintenance I think!  We went for Compton and failed, we are after Josh Butler who wants to leave Somerset. We may have competition from Notts with the possibility of Chris Read retiring. I'd love Moeen Ali back but that wont happen.

 

To be fair we have loads of seamers but most of them have been injured or picked for England squads. surely next season that wont happen. Batting is priority. Evans and Javid have been a big bonus but Porterfield isn't up to it, but Giles gave him a long term contract so we are stuck with him. Also Jim Troughton has to recover from a quite serious back injury.

[veloman]

Warwickshire need a few batsmen before they think about adding more bowlers to the squad.

 Ay  - you might be right, We might also need an all-rounder to replace the excellent (IMO) Darren Maddy. I have just the player - David Willey at Northants; surely he would come to a 'bigger' club.

But don't forget this is coming from the bloke who thought James Taylor was a cert for us ( and didn't rate Sir Ron Saunders when he was appointed    )

Edited September 9, 2013 by veloman

[PaulC]

 

Warwickshire need a few batsmen before they think about adding more bowlers to the squad.

 Ay  - you might be right, We might also need an all-rounder to replace the excellent (IMO) Darren Maddy. I have just the player - David Willey at Northants; surely he would come to a 'bigger' club.

But don't forget this is coming from the bloke who thought James Taylor was a cert for us ( and didn't rate Sir Ron Saunders when he was appointed    )

 

 

Yes Maddy will be difficult to replace. Don't think we'll get willey. Northants are coming up anyway! We were after Taylor but Notts were always favourites, which worries me about Butler. I was told by a good source that its a done deal, then someone else tells me Notts are interested and we missed out on both Broad and taylor to Notts.

[The_Rev]

Clint McKay has just got a hat trick for Australia.  England 8-3 in the ODI. 

[tonyh29]

Surrey pretty certain to be relegated

Alex Stewart has managed a Shearer ... Don't know if he will be in charge next season to bring them back up ?

[veloman]

Well that's that; Warks definitely safe and have managed to relegate Surrey. Couldn't happen to a nicer County e.g. one that contains both Batty and Pieterson. Sorry if I have upset someone on here who I think supports Surrey.

Now for next season; I see PaulC was right - we won't get Willey; he has signed a new contract. Will be glad to see Chris Wright back but next season could be difficult especially if we lose Boyd Rankin to England.

Oh - just Derbyshire away to come. 

[blandy]

could just about still finish 3rd.

[tonyh29]

Meh , hope Warks are pleased with themselves after today's result

[PaulC]

Yes win at Derby and we finish above Middx and Sussex are only 2 pts ahead going into the last game. Big knock from Javid today. Remember seeing him as a 15 yr old. He has finally come of age.

[PaulC]

Moeen Ali PCA Cricketer of the year 2013. Congratulations. Been a fan since his younger days at Warwickshire. Great player to watch.

[veloman]

I have just read the most awful news since I heard Liberace was gay. It says in The Birmingham Mail that Trevor Francis supports Warwickshire ! !

[rjw63]

Adenoidal diving small heath nancy boy

[snowychap]

Reefer Madness

 

 

Things to do in Dunedin when you're desperate. It is a short list that just got a little longer. New Zealand's first museum of marijuana, Whakamana, has opened in a house on David Street. You can't miss it. There is a mannequin in the window posing with a phoney spliff. The local police, wary of this new venture, have already been for a visit, seeking, and receiving, assurance that "visitors would not be supplied with anything but information". Judging by the video clip shown on the local news they won't have found anything much more than a few glassy-eyed blokes with beards staring at pinboards covered with curly-cornered clippings of old newspaper articles about the long-going, on-going campaign to legalise the drug.

The first major exhibition at the marijuana museum opens in a couple of months, to coincide with the start of New Zealand's Test against West Indies at the Oval across town. Curator Abe Gray says it will be about the culture of cannabis use in cricket: "We'll be looking at the history of cannabis use among cricket teams, cricket players, and the New Zealand cricket team." A novel idea, and one which the MCC will, no doubt, be keeping a keen eye on in case they decide to stage a similar installation in the museum at Lord's.

If you want to look at the many highs and lows – mainly highs – of cannabis and cricket, New Zealand is a good place to start. The grass seems to be greener on the far side of the world, which may be why so many England players have got into trouble there. It was on the infamous "drugs, sex and rock 'n' roll tour" to New Zealand in 1983-84 ("I know I was there because I've checked the record books," writes Vic Marks. "Obviously I don't remember anything about it") that members of the England team were accused of smoking pot by the Mail on Sunday. The Test and County Cricket Board held an enquiry, which resulted, in Wisden's diplomatic words, "in the party being cleared of having done anything off the field which might have affected their playing performance".

The TCCB was less lenient when, two years later, Ian Botham admitted in that same paper that he had dabbled with the drug. Frank Keating, sickened by suggestions that Botham should be banned for life because of his moral turpitude, suggested instead that he should be "paid for bringing the game into repute". So started the era of 'Reefer Madness'. Stephen Fleming, Matthew Hart and Dion Nash all confessed after being caught smoking at a barbecue in South Africa in 1993. Nash made like Bill Clinton and insisted that he "didn't inhale".

Keith Piper, Paul Smith, and Dermott Reeve all admitted using it at Warwickshire. Phil Tufnell was accused of using it but later cleared of doing so by the England management (on tour in New Zealand again) in 1997, and banned when he skipped a drugs test the next season. Five South African players, Roger Telemachus, Andre Nel, Paul Adams, Justin Kemp, and Herschelle Gibbs, were caught smoking it at a party in 2001. In 1993 Wasim Akram, Waqar Younis, Aqib Javed, and Mushtaq Ahmed were all arrested and accused of possession during a stopover in Grenada, although the Pakistan management strongly protested the charges. Much more seriously, their Pakistan team-mate Qasim Umar insisted years later that as a young player he had been shown by 'a senior international' how to carry a cricket glove in his kit in which the fingers had been opened up and the stuffing pulled out so that cannabis could be packed in in its place.

West Indies' David Murray said that he smoked pot "before and after the day's play, but never in the breaks – you can't do that". Which shows just how disciplined you needed to be to play professional cricket in the 1970s. Murray never made it as a Test player. Club players have the luxury of being a little more lax. In Penguins Stopped Play, Harry Thompson describes his team-mate Cie. "A devilish spin-bowler, his performances could be erratic," Thompson wrote. "Finally we discovered his secret: dope. Without it, his bowling was no more than ordinary. But give him several oak-tree-sized spliffs behind the pavilion during the tea interval and he could make the ball fizz, swirl, bite and spit. 'Yeah man' he would exult as he bamboozled his way through the opposition. The ball, it seemed, was as stoned as he was."

The very occasional exception aside, marijuana is reckoned to inhibit performance rather than enhance it. Which is one reason why Wada, which classes it as a "specified substance unlikely to have been taken for performance enhancement", recently raised the threshold for a positive test from 15 nanograms per millilitre to 150. Even Thompson admits of Cie that "after a joint or two, he couldn't bat for toffee".

Its debilitating effects were never better illustrated than by the tale of the Australian team Nerrena CC. In 2005 they travelled to Inverloch for a crucial league fixture. The Nerrena players were pleasantly surprised to find that the hosts had laid on a spread of suspiciously moreish chocolate cupcakes for their guests. "I thought, gee this is pretty good," said Nerrena player Tim Clark. "They usually feed us crap." He ate five of them. Soon his team-mates began complaining of "sunstroke-like symptoms". Two broke into hysterical giggling fits, and had to leave the field because their mouths were so dry. Clark said it took him 20 minutes to put his pads on once play started, and almost four hours to assemble a kit bicycle at the end of the day. "I was all over the shop. I was putting the handlebars where the seat was meant to be."

Inverloch denied everything. One of Nerrena's players pointed out afterwards that "if the police had tested me for drugs as I drove home, and I came up positive, what could I have said to them? 'It wasn't me, I was fed drugged cupcakes at cricket?'"

 

 

[PaulC]

I have just read the most awful news since I heard Liberace was gay. It says in The Birmingham Mail that Trevor Francis supports Warwickshire ! !

 

Not as bad as Cameron supporting villa. There's bound to be some ex blues players who support Warwickshire. There's a couple of Warwickshire players who support Blues.

[dAVe80]

First tour game under way, and the first test coming at the end of the month, what are our thoughts on The Ashes Down Under then?

 

Going to be a hell of a lot closer I think, but I think England will come out on top. The top three (I assume Cook, Root and Trott) need to find some form, and it would be nice if Prior gets back to anywhere near his best. Finn still looks to be lacking any confidence, so may be a weak link. We need someone of his ilk to step forward, as the wickets will be made for bowlers like him. If not Finn, then I hope Tremlett or Rankin can fill the void.  

 

I'll go for 3-1 England.

[veloman]

Errrmm . What do you Bears fans think of Warks releasing Steff Piolet to SUSSEX !!!! (of all Counties)

[PaulC]

We signed him from Sussex. I have no issues really as he was never good enough for first class cricket. So he could only ever be t20 player and ocasional one day player for us.  He came as a batsman and then they discovered he could swing the ball but problem is he was never really quick enough and he wasn't a top order batsman either.

[dAVe80]

We signed him from Sussex. I have no issues really as he was never good enough for first class cricket. So he could only ever be t20 player and ocasional one day player for us.  He came as a batsman and then they discovered he could swing the ball but problem is he was never really quick enough and he wasn't a top order batsman either.

 

He's a local boy (to Sussex) isn't he? As you say only been used in limited overs matches. Can't say I've paid a great deal of attention to him, but I don't get to see the Bears as much as I'd like to, living away from Brum. I only ever see his name on score cards and in match reports, but he hasn't really made a major impression on me.

[Avfc96]

Piolet just isn't good enough really, yes he can swing the ball but his inability to bowl at a decent pace and with decent consitency is his undoing really. Would like Warwickshire to hurry up and get a few players in as the squad is getting smaller and smaller.

[dAVe80]

Looking like Carberry might have batted his way into an opening spot, in the first test. Fantastic ton last night, all be it against an third rate Australia A bowling attack. Hopefully if he plays, that will solve the problem number 6 spot, as Root can move back down the order. Looks good on paper, hopefully it'll come good out in the middle.