Hampshire Cricket History

Happy New Year folks – here’s hoping it’s a year of promotion for Hampshire and a sell-out Test Match in FINE weather (with an England team capable of making a game of it!)

Thanks for your interest and congratulations to Bob – Number One! (Scroll down and click)

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2013 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

The concert hall at the Sydney Opera House holds 2,700 people. This blog was viewed about 32,000 times in 2013. If it were a concert at Sydney Opera House, it would take about 12 sold-out performances for that many people to see it.

Click here to see the complete report.

Next Sunday, 5 January, actor Charles Collingwood who plays Brian in the Archers will appear on the seasonal Celebrity Mastermind (BBC) answering questions about post-1988 Hampshire Cricket.

… must be disappointing. Some days this winter have simply been rubbish throughout but today England had two chances of forcing home an advantage. In the first hour, the bowlers gave it away and then again after lunch the batsmen did the same.

It was also disappointing for Michael Carberry who, despite some reasonable efforts in the series seems to have seized up, albeit that it could hardly be more tough in the current world context (not as tough as Paul Terry in 1984 however!). I’ve said before that I’m a real fan of Michael but consider this: when he was selected at the end of the season he had over the two Championship seasons of 2012 & 2013 played 34 innings for Hampshire with two not out and scored 1,101 runs at a combined average of 34.4 with just one century. It wasn’t an unanswerable case was it? – certainly less so than Chopra for example. I hope he plays in the limited overs games because he’s a different player there but if they decide to give Ballance a go in the Fifth Test (and why not) I reckon Michael may have played his last Test. We’ll see.

Once again Michael Carberry made a reasonable fist of his difficult job but on 38 left alone a ball from former Hampshire player Shane Watson and off he went – one fifty in nine Test innings isn’t enough really and his Test record is very similar to Bairstow last summer when he was dropped after four Tests.

Meanwhile Hampshire have signed Joe Gatting from Sussex. He tended to play mostly limited overs stuff down there but I hope the arrival of Gatting and Smith won’t limit Terry’s opportunities. Giles White suggested they needed to cover Carberry’s likely selection for England through the summer, but given that he’s doing ok but no more, and given his age, I wonder whether England will look to rebuild with younger players.

The sudden retirement of Swann has merely confirmed that Danny Briggs is not yet close to Test Match selection – despite the lack of quality spinners in county cricket. There is an issue around Swann’s departure which I have not seen raised in all the media comments – he follows Trescothick and Trott in leaving a tour before the conclusion. I’m not seeking to condemn that, but it’s interesting that Kallis and Tendulkar have recently brought their careers to a close at the conclusion of a series. It may well be that international cricket is increasingly stressful and demanding and I have expressed sympathy with Trescothick and Trott previously but why is it only English players that seem unable to complete tours? Whatever the reason, it’s certainly nothing to do with county cricket, as those guys hardly ever play it.

Not for life either

But a new Coach is for a substantial period and Hampshire have said today that the process may take a while yet. From the BBC Website today:

Hampshire cricket manager Giles White says the club are in no hurry to appoint a first-team coach. White was doing both roles until the end of last season, but intends to take on a director of cricket position from next summer. Hampshire began interviewing candidates last month, but White said it was important to make the right choice.

“If the right person is not out there, then we will wait until he is,” the 41-year-old told BBC Radio Solent.

Former Surrey director of cricket Chris Adams is among those interested in the coach role.

“We’ve had a fair few apply,” White added. “It’s going through an interview process and maybe approaching a couple of people we might feel are appropriate. It’s important to get this appointment right and it’s important for me to get this process right and we we won’t rush into anything.”

I was at the ground today and heard this news, now confirmed on the website:

“Hampshire Cricket is delighted to announce they have agreed a five-year extension to their ground naming sponsorship deal with Ageas UK. The agreement, which originally began in 2012, means that the deal will now run to 2022, guaranteeing a partnership of at least 11 years.

In addition to the ground naming rights, Ageas has extended their brand exposure to a number of new areas including: the main logo position on Hampshire’s two one-day shirts and naming rights to and branding on the new media centre and large conference space in the Hotel”.

This will be very significant for the funding of the ground and the club over the next decade – and it gives the management of the club time to breathe and develop other projects. I have met a number of Ageas people over the past couple of years, conducting tours around the ground and they are delightful people, very keen on the relationship.

We are only just past the halfway mark in the series but the Ashes have almost gone, although Stokes impressed late on day four. Michael Carberry has now played eight Test Match innings and in six of them he has reached at least 30, which suggests he is good enough. However, only once has he passed 50 and then not by many.

Meanwhile compare these scores in this match – one which England will probably lose by about 150 runs

Australia, first innings were 143-5 and England first innings were 85-0

Australia, second innings were 223-3 and England second innings are 251-5

Yet England are being stuffed.

I imagine like many other people, the state of the series and England’s performances have persuaded me to have a reasonable night’s sleep before tuning in to the 3rd Test around 6am (a little later this morning)

So yesterday morning I switched on an over or two after George Bailey was dismissed with England on top – and proceeded to watch Australia rack up about 180-1 through the rest of the day.

Nonetheless I was delighted to switch on this morning with England 79*, Carberry 39*. He then hit Lyon for four since when England have scored 12 runs in 13+ overs for the loss of two wickets! Maybe I should sleep through the day and watch in the early hours.

Carberry has again done enough to keep his place without doing enough yet to ensure it’s a reasonably long stay. Meanwhile James Vince is in the Lions squad to tour Sri Lanka in Feb/March.

Putting Things into Perspective?

Christmas 1943 – exactly 70 years ago

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

I went to the Ageas Bowl today to begin discussions with the firm we hope will design our new Museum (Floor One, Shane Warne Stand). Sadly fog in Manchester meant the cancellation of their flight so no meeting – but at least things are happening.

While there I saw a number of players going off to the nets, including Adams, Dawson, Ervine and Tomlinson. Meanwhile following up the Jimmy Anderson quote (sledging is a “skill”) I was able to check with the Cricket Board Coaches on how this skill would be added to their coaching programmes for club and colts cricket. The best suggestion was to create a new coaching level for such things – one, two, three etc PLUS Neanderthal. I liked that idea.

Apparently tenders for the Hotel build are in and down to the last two so it’s hoped work will be underway early in the New Year. It seems unlikely that it will be complete until after next season but some debenture facilities might  be finished by the Test Match – everyone is confident that the Media Centre (essential) will be ready in time. Whether the England team will be is an entirely different matter, and I guess current performances are not boosting ticket sales!