Hampshire Cricket History

There was nothing

South Africa A batted first today and reached 1-0 after one over and two balls

Then it rained, so James Vince’s side are 2-0 up with two to play

Now it’s the Big Boys’ turn

James Roy made a century but James Vince had a disappointing end to another fine innings. He reached 99* whereupon Ben Stokes kept pinching the strike, facing nine consecutive balls. Vince finally got to the right end, missed a straight one and was lbw

Still , when it happened to me, I used to say it was better than being out for nought

(OK, it never did!)

Lions are set for a BIG score: 333-4 with four overs to go.

Michael Carberry is in the field (with Adam Voges) for this Big Bash Final. Michael Lumb went cheaply. Meanwhile Yorkshire have signed Glenn Maxwell for next year’s T20. It’ll be Sod’s Law if he does well I guess after his failures here last year.

The second Lions ODI begins (our time) at 12.30pm

Probably the best score updates:

http://www.espncricinfo.com/ci/engine/match/scores/live.html

PS Just spotted that our new signing Yasir Arafat is in the team with ‘Carbs’ and Voges. Apologies, I haven’t really been paying attention to it

PPS: ‘Carbs’ (9*) and Yasir (1*) together at the successful conclusion in a thrilling finish. May be a (positive) omen? Also, Captain Vince going well for the Lions (31*)

I’ve been at the ground today. There were a good few cricketers and coaches around. The Hotel is coming on nicely and looking somewhat ‘sparkly’ now:

Muppet that is

KP is off again. You can see his point about importing the best players to become the best. After all it worked brilliantly in the 1970s/1980s in England when we had LOADS of top overseas players in county cricket and England kept winning everything

(Didn’t they?)

Much the same in football. The Premier League today is crammed with overseas players and boy aren’t England good? After all, next year we can all celebrate that World Cup win’s 50th anniversary.

Here’s the Muppet (from the BBC):

“Former England batsmen Kevin Pietersen and Michael Carberry say English Twenty20 should adopt the franchise system used in India and Australia. Both played in this year’s Australian Big Bash League, where there are eight city franchises instead of state teams who contest longer forms of the game.

“The franchise system works, everybody has made it work, the whole world has gone that way,” Pietersen said.

“Why can’t they do it in England? It’s strange.”

The Big Bash League spans six weeks, with a match almost every day, while England’s T20 Blast, featuring all 18 county sides, lasted over three months in 2014 and will do so again this year. County cricket is also reportedly set to lower salary caps, with sides encouraged to bring through players from academy ranks.

But Pietersen said: “What’s frustrating is they say they want to help home-grown players. The best way to make them become better is to play against better players. All the muppets who are on £18,000 or £15,000 – either you become better or you go and do something else. The best players would play against each other, week in week out. That’s how you become better. You don’t do that by reducing salary caps.”

‘Carbs’ is more polite and you can find it all on the BBC site. The one unanswered question is whether English culture/society is the same as Australia and/or India. It may work, but maybe local loyalties are more fiercely held in a very different country. We have 18 first-class counties because we have lots of counties in a tightly populated country  Australians have a wide-spread open country with a State system of far fewer teams – same with India – in both countries the (few) major towns are long distances apart. That’s before you get into questions of culture more deeply.

But maybe I’ve become old-fashioned simply because I’ve no interest it’s what’s mooted?

James Vince has made a good start as captain of England Lions. His bowlers have dismissed the hosts in under 40 overs for just 172. After four overs, the Lions are 19-0.

PS They won very easily although sadly the captain failed to score. Never mind they won (he got a few ducks as skipper last year too)

Meanwhile I gather “Carbs’ hit a quick fifty for his upside-down T20 team as they won their semifinal against KP’s lot.

When ‘Tommo’ led the Div 2 Champions from the field at Cardiff he had a full beard. A couple of days later at the Awards Evening he looked like this (above). I saw him again last night and can report he is now fresh-faced and clean shaven. It’s taken years off him.

I saw him at Jimmy Adams’ Benefit launch night at one of the West Quay hotels. There were about 300 people there, with magicians, a band, raffle, auction run by Shaun Udal and silent auction. I’ve no idea about the expenses for the night but about £30k was raised and some part of this and further collections will go to a Parkinson’s charity.

There were of course lots of cricketers there including James Hildreth from Somerset and former Hampshire players  John Stephenson, Chris Tremlett, Darren Flint, Jon Hardy, Adi Aymes, Chris Benham, Lawrie Prittipaul, James Hamblin, Jason Laney, James Bruce – and recent departures David Balcombe and Michael Bates (of whom still no transfer news I gather).

Current players included ‘Tommo’ and Jimmy (of course) Chris Wood (who won a magnum of champagne in the raffle), Joe Gatting and Will Smith – part of an auction prize for a day’s racing at Goodwood. Many of the others are abroad, but some have contributed to a bumper benefit brochure with lots of contributions.

It was a very pleasant evening and there was such goodwill towards a really popular cricketer – just the sort for whom benefits were designed. I wish him well.

(BBC site):

Hampshire batsman James Vince will captain the England Lions in their 50-over series against South Africa A.

Vince will lead the Lions for all five matches of the one-day series, which gets under way on Sunday.

“It was a huge honour when our coach Mark Robinson asked me if I would lead the team,” said Vince.

He led Hampshire’s Twenty20 side last season, and is also Jimmy Adams’ deputy in one-day and Championship cricket.

“I have played under some great captains both at Hampshire and with the Lions, and I really enjoyed the captaincy experience I gained at Hampshire last summer,” he said.

“We have already seen from the four-day games that South Africa are tough opponents, and if anything their squad for the one-day series looks ever stronger. But we also have some new faces in our squad and it is a challenge we are all relishing.”

Robinson added: “James had success captaining Hampshire last year in the T20 and we think giving him further exposure here will be beneficial to both the Lions as a team and James in the future.”

Michael Carberry is in the MCC side for the season’s first match. The MCC, to be led by Middlesex batsman Nick Compton, will take part in a T20 tournament with Lancashire, Sussex and Yorkshire in Abu Dhabi on 20 March and then play a four-day day-night game against Champions Yorkshire on 22 March.

A couple of weeks ago I was concerned that James Vince was not translating his considerable talent into good scores for the England LIons; well no longer. He reached his 150 (152*) today and with England Lions safe, they declared. At the conclusion of the second innings Vince has finished top of their ‘Test’ averages:

Vince – 261 runs in 2 completed innings, average 130.5 (HS 152*)

Trott – 263 in 3, average 88.0 (211)

Rashid – 178 in 3, average 59.3 (78)

Bairstow – 117 in 3, average 39.0 (63)

Lyth – 109 in 3, average 36.3 (65)

Plunkett – 92 in 3, average 30.6 (55)

Wood – 54 in 2, average 27.0 (44*)

(Lees, Robson and Riley all averaged under 20, Brooks 53*, Rankin 0*)

Next, five ODIs

PS: see also: http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/cricket/30918525