The way forward

[Notsport2]

Leicestershire are having another great season (not).

One particular area of concern is the pace bowling attack. I never believed it was right for the club to release Malik who was performed reasonably ok in all three formats and I don't see how Buck, Ireland, Freckingham, Williams, Wyatt can be seen as any better. When your most experience pace bowler is coming to the end of his career - Hoggard it is stupid to then release a bowler with 235 first class wickets including 7 five wicket halls, with a strike rate of 60 and 361 wickets in all competitions. In the same context would the club release Naik, when Henderson will retire at the end of the season and promote Sykes......

What are the speeds and varieties of the attack bar Taylor (left arm) they all seem to be right arm med to med-fast at best?

There is also a lack of consistency in the batting especially in the first innings and in one day cricket. They go from great one game to totally collapse the next.

I don't see Leicestershire changing until there are significant changes to the coaching and management of the club. There was a time when the club used to produce promising players, but even that is on the decline as majority of the second II now seem to be imported from other county youth systems and already released players.

A step in the right direction would be for Phil Whitticase to offer to resign, as during his reign as head coach the clubs first team and second team has not improved - many of the players have stalled or gone backwards.

 

[Redditch Fox]

Leicestershire are having another great season (not).

One particular area of concern is the pace bowling attack. I never believed it was right for the club to release Malik who was performed reasonably ok in all three formats and I don't see how Buck, Ireland, Freckingham, Williams, Wyatt can be seen as any better. When your most experience pace bowler is coming to the end of his career - Hoggard it is stupid to then release a bowler with 235 first class wickets including 7 five wicket halls, with a strike rate of 60 and 361 wickets in all competitions. In the same context would the club release Naik, when Henderson will retire at the end of the season and promote Sykes......

What are the speeds and varieties of the attack bar Taylor (left arm) they all seem to be right arm med to med-fast at best?

There is also a lack of consistency in the batting especially in the first innings and in one day cricket. They go from great one game to totally collapse the next.

I don't see Leicestershire changing until there are significant changes to the coaching and management of the club. There was a time when the club used to produce promising players, but even that is on the decline as majority of the second II now seem to be imported from other county youth systems and already released players.

A step in the right direction would be for Phil Whitticase to offer to resign, as during his reign as head coach the clubs first team and second team has not improved - many of the players have stalled or gone backwards.

Never looked likely that we could field a bowling attack that could take 20 wickets in a 4 day game. The squad is better suited to the shorter formats but it has become clearer this season that the bowling is the weakest discipline in all formats.

I don't want to go into any detail or particularise but things point to the bowling coaching in terms of player development not being very good - but clearly the whole coaching set up has to take collective responsibility.

However, there is such a massive disparity in resources between the test ground counties and the 'small' counties that it is a wonder that we can give Nottinghamshire for example any sort of game. That said, Derbyshire, a county of similar size and potential have sorted themselves out. We remain in what I fear is a terminal decline.

 

[fox58]

Naik out for 4 months with a shoulder injury and Burns returns to Auss with a hip injury, threadbare squad becomes a little thinner

 

[tpearce]

Never looked likely that we could field a bowling attack that could take 20 wickets in a 4 day game. The squad is better suited to the shorter formats but it has become clearer this season that the bowling is the weakest discipline in all formats.

I don't want to go into any detail or particularise but things point to the bowling coaching in terms of player development not being very good - but clearly the whole coaching set up has to take collective responsibility.

However, there is such a massive disparity in resources between the test ground counties and the 'small' counties that it is a wonder that we can give Nottinghamshire for example any sort of game. That said, Derbyshire, a county of similar size and potential have sorted themselves out. We remain in what I fear is a terminal decline.

We shouldn't let the county continue to get away with this excuse. We are a small county, but are under-performing - we should be able to compete with the likes of Northants, Derbyshire, Worcestershire, Kent, none of whom have test grounds. That's before we start on Somerset and Sussex, who are light years ahead of us without test ground income. The strategy, of combining promising young players with discards from other counties who have potential but have lost their way is the right one, but isn't working, and you have to look at the coaching. The likes of Cobb, Buck, Smith and Thakor have all played for England under 19s but aren't fulfilling their potential. When Boon was at the helm players like Broad and Taylor went from promising but raw to top county pros, but I can't see even Nottinghamshire bothering to send scouts to watch us play now.

 

[Lako42]

When Boon was at the helm players like Broad and Taylor went from promising but raw to top county pros, but I can't see even Nottinghamshire bothering to send scouts to watch us play now.

Yet I am told Buck may be Trent bound........seriously

 

[fox58]

Threw a few youngsters in today at Glams, currently batting 181-8