So it is that time of year again. The time when the summer can really start. The time the cricket purists hate. The time the cricket-hater actually comes to a game. The time when orthodox goes out the window and in flies unorthodox. The time is Twenty20!!!
It all kicks off tomorrow with a repeat of last years final, Hampshire versus Somerset. Its a welcome change of format for us after a very difficult start to the season for the Hampshire squad that had high expectations in all competitions. There will be changes in the team with South Africa's World Cup star Imran Tahir coming into the team, along with Shahid Afridi, and Michael Lumb, who has returned from the Indian Premier League. This might be just what the doctor ordered as hopefully we can release the shackles and play freely.
Baring an absolute miracle, this is the only realistic chance of bringing silverware to the Rose Bowl this summer. With only one victory in all forms of cricket so far this season I admit we may not be favourites but the nature of Twenty20 gives every club optimism for success at the beginning of this tournament. The bookmakers odds prove this as even though we are in a poor run of form the bookies still have us at 2nd favourites to win the competition outright.
With the rewards of success in Twenty20 for Club and player being great Counties have made large investments in their overseas players for the competition. World class players like Muttiah Muralitharan, Shahid Afridi, Scott Styris, Murali Kartik and Kieron Pollard are all coming over to star in this years Twenty20 so there is no shortage of crowd pulling names. So this is the chance to attract new supporters to the game. Its short, its fun, its loud and its a great excuse for a beer or two in the setting sun!!
Amongst all this razzmatazz we have some serious business to get down to, preparation for the Test match which is only 15 days away. That hallowed piece of turf was brushed and cut out today, and its ready for a bit of water after the match tomorrow night. There is huge unspoken pressure for this game to be a success on all fronts for the Rose Bowl. I just hope the first ball doesn't roll along the ground and bowl the England Captain!!!!
But the sleepless nights haven't started yet, and I doubt they will. Its a good pitch that has been proven in the past. I am more interested in how it develops over the 5 days, (that must be the grass nerd in me), and how much it changes and deteriorates as the game goes on. Ideally it goes to the afternoon session on the 5th day, everyone will be a winner then!!!
For up-to-date pictures, news and maybe a bit of gossip follow me on Twitter @Karl_McDermott
Tuesday, 31 May 2011
Tuesday, 17 May 2011
County Cricket......Does It Work??
I watched a programme on BBC recently that had Sir Alan Sugar taking a look at football and its current financial situation. It got me thinking about County Cricket and I found myself making comparisons to County Cricket and professional football.
Most Counties have released their financial figures for 2010. Of the released figures only 4 Counties have recorded an operating profit. Hampshire are unlikely to record a profit, Lancashire are talking about a £2 million loss, and Yorkshire were similar. How long could this continue for?
A lot of Counties are doing ground and stadium redevelopment of some matter to keep up with the times and give their players, staff and customer the best experience when they walk through those gates. Counties cannot rely on cricket as their only income anymore and need facilties for weddings, seminars, functions etc to make their Club financially sustainable all year round. Hosting pop concerts is also another road some Counties are going down to make money. Obviously this all costs money. The Test Match grounds are spending multi-millions to provide a world class environment for player and spectator, with the smaller Counties too spending vast amounts of money redeveloping their grounds and buildings. It is a process of speculating to accumullate in the future, but can Counties record a million pound loss year after year?
So why are these losses happening? As in every walk of life the economic downturn has hit cricket hard. The ability to attract sponsers and sell corporate hospitality is more difficult than ever. The money is just not out there. For us at Hampshire a huge amount of investment has gone into hosting our first Test Match in 4 weeks time. Whether we hit our budget forecasts remains to be seen. To give you an idea, last year Yorkshire hosted the neutral Test between Australia and Pakistan. They lost over £1 million pounds on the game. Test Match ground Counties rely on sold out grounds and successful corporate hospitality to make these games a success. Does the punter have the money to spend??
Twenty20 was an initial success for all with big crowds and huge interest in the game. It was a novelty, a good night out in the height of summer, good weather and beer! Then the number of games increased. There is great debate whether this is good for County Cricket or not. Essex, Somerset and Sussex for example rely hugely on Twenty20 as they pack out their smaller grounds for every game. Without these games they would be lost. With the Indian Premier League being so big a lot of world class players are now becoming T20 specialists. The cost of these players has risen hugely, a T20 specialist now costs more than an overseas player cost for a whole season in years gone by. And most Counties have two!
Is there light at the end of the tunnel? I hope so or else I will be unemployed!! One Counties Chief Executive has been in the press saying he would not be surprised if a County went bust in the near future. Hopefully this will not be the case. There are only 18 First Class Counties with a lot of proud people behind these Clubs that are working hard to ensure this will not happen.
So heres to the immediate future at The Rose Bowl, which is our inaugral Test Match, England vs Sri Lanka. It is an exciting month ahead! Lets hope for some good weather!!
Most Counties have released their financial figures for 2010. Of the released figures only 4 Counties have recorded an operating profit. Hampshire are unlikely to record a profit, Lancashire are talking about a £2 million loss, and Yorkshire were similar. How long could this continue for?
A lot of Counties are doing ground and stadium redevelopment of some matter to keep up with the times and give their players, staff and customer the best experience when they walk through those gates. Counties cannot rely on cricket as their only income anymore and need facilties for weddings, seminars, functions etc to make their Club financially sustainable all year round. Hosting pop concerts is also another road some Counties are going down to make money. Obviously this all costs money. The Test Match grounds are spending multi-millions to provide a world class environment for player and spectator, with the smaller Counties too spending vast amounts of money redeveloping their grounds and buildings. It is a process of speculating to accumullate in the future, but can Counties record a million pound loss year after year?
So why are these losses happening? As in every walk of life the economic downturn has hit cricket hard. The ability to attract sponsers and sell corporate hospitality is more difficult than ever. The money is just not out there. For us at Hampshire a huge amount of investment has gone into hosting our first Test Match in 4 weeks time. Whether we hit our budget forecasts remains to be seen. To give you an idea, last year Yorkshire hosted the neutral Test between Australia and Pakistan. They lost over £1 million pounds on the game. Test Match ground Counties rely on sold out grounds and successful corporate hospitality to make these games a success. Does the punter have the money to spend??
Twenty20 was an initial success for all with big crowds and huge interest in the game. It was a novelty, a good night out in the height of summer, good weather and beer! Then the number of games increased. There is great debate whether this is good for County Cricket or not. Essex, Somerset and Sussex for example rely hugely on Twenty20 as they pack out their smaller grounds for every game. Without these games they would be lost. With the Indian Premier League being so big a lot of world class players are now becoming T20 specialists. The cost of these players has risen hugely, a T20 specialist now costs more than an overseas player cost for a whole season in years gone by. And most Counties have two!
Is there light at the end of the tunnel? I hope so or else I will be unemployed!! One Counties Chief Executive has been in the press saying he would not be surprised if a County went bust in the near future. Hopefully this will not be the case. There are only 18 First Class Counties with a lot of proud people behind these Clubs that are working hard to ensure this will not happen.
So heres to the immediate future at The Rose Bowl, which is our inaugral Test Match, England vs Sri Lanka. It is an exciting month ahead! Lets hope for some good weather!!
Tuesday, 12 April 2011
Is It Still Only April??
As I write this I am tending to my sun burnt nose!! With the way the weather has been over the last weekend it is hard to believe it is still early April. All my complaints and moans about cricket starting too early over here have been blown out of the water by the best pre-season weather known to me in all my years in the game. An obvious plus to this good weather is all the pre-season work on the ground went better than one could imagine. It makes such a difference to the spirits of the groundstaff when you know you're not going to be coming in and mopping up water off a couple of 100ft by 100ft sheets so as you can get some work done on the squares before the next rain shower comes. In my short time that I have been here I've never known us to be this far ahead, it feels like mid-July. Saying that, my next blog will be all about the wettest April in history now that I've put the 'commenators curse' on it!!!!
A result of the good weather has been excellent pitches and practise facilities for the players. They had two practise games, 2 two-day games against Surrey and Middlesex, accompanied by the usual full squad training sessions within and around these games. We did have some typical 'precious player' behaviour in our game against Middlesex, though I hasten to add it wasn't from our team. We were having our afternoon break when the players walked off the field, we presumed bad light or an early tea break, the hours of play aren't really set in stone in the practise games. I come out to see the Middlesex bowling coach and their England opening bowler practising on the match pitch. I go out and ask whats happening and he says the game has been called off!!! Bear in mind that it is still April so the outfield and surrounding square aren't as dry as it would be in the middle of the summer, but they were not wet. He said that he saw nothing wrong with the conditions, so much so that Steven Finn continued to bowl after the game for half an hour!! I'm sure they will cite that they are scared of losing players to injury early in the season etc etc but if their number 1 bowler, and I presume hes their 'prize asset', comes out and bowls it makes a bit of a mockery of the situation. I sometimes wonder do cricketers realise they are in an entertainment business........
So then we moved into our first County Championship game against a highly fancied Durham team. With us having a lengthy injury list (Michael Carberry, Kabir Ali, Imran Tahir, Dimi Mascarenhas to name a few) we opted for no pitch tinkering and were requested to produce the best possible pitch. Thank you I said! For this we went to the best pitch on the square, pitch number 5. When the square was originally constructed the County agreed to lay one 'trial pitch' for the ECB. It was the same soil type as the rest of the square with the exception of having a higher percentage of sand in it. This was hoped to encourage spin as the game went on, but the outcome was a good hard surface that was excellent to bat on at all times, so much so that we have already re-laid the middle six pitches with the same type of soil, and over time the whole square will be re-laid to the same specifications.
The combination of pitch 5 and the excellent weather resulted in a great looking pitch for the first Championship game. It was a must win toss, which we didn't win!! With the sun beating down any early morning moisture assisting the seamers was soon gone and we were made to toil and Durham finished the day on a very healthy 413 for 6, and ended up on 473 all out. We were on the back foot from that stage onwards. It is almost unheard of to win a game from this position. Despite our middle order all getting decent starts, no-one kicked on to give us the big 100 we needed to make life comfortable for us. We were bowled out for 294 but Durham didn't enforce the follow-on, probably thinking they wanted to bowl last on a wearing pitch. So they batted us out of the game, leaving us a mammoth 489 in 116 overs. That would have been an awesome chase!! Needless to say we didn't really go for it, it was a more 'see what position we get in to' innings. Apart from a couple of hiccups we comfortably batted out the last day to finish on 345 for 6.
So it was an eventful game. 3 hundreds, loads of runs, not many wickets, and even a chance of seeing 6 sixes in an over when young Ben Stokes hit Liam Dawson for 5 sixes in a row only to fail on the final ball of the over to hit the 6th six. When I saw Liam he said with a smile on his face that he was sort of disappointed not to get into the record books!! I wonder if Angus Dunlop felt the same when Allan Border did the same to him!!!!!
The umpires gave the pitch their top mark 'very good'. I suppose if I was being critical I think it lacked a little bit in seam movement. It was probably a bit flat but there was decent pace and carry, and spin towards the end. Its everything they look for. When I was watching the last session I see the 'keeper standing 60 feet back taking Liam Plunketts bouncers over his head. That's decent pace, but then I see in one of the newspapers that they said the pitch was 'easy paced' and got slower as the game went on! This is why I don't read the papers, even when things do go well!!!
And so we move on. The lads are away for the next week in Trent Bridge and then its back to the Rose Bowl for our first Pro40 game against Warwickshire which will hopefully contain two of our World Cup heroes, Boyd and Purdy.
If anyone has any questions, or topics they would like me to discuss, feel free to leave a comment, or follow me on Twitter @Karl_McDermott for regular pictures and comments.
A result of the good weather has been excellent pitches and practise facilities for the players. They had two practise games, 2 two-day games against Surrey and Middlesex, accompanied by the usual full squad training sessions within and around these games. We did have some typical 'precious player' behaviour in our game against Middlesex, though I hasten to add it wasn't from our team. We were having our afternoon break when the players walked off the field, we presumed bad light or an early tea break, the hours of play aren't really set in stone in the practise games. I come out to see the Middlesex bowling coach and their England opening bowler practising on the match pitch. I go out and ask whats happening and he says the game has been called off!!! Bear in mind that it is still April so the outfield and surrounding square aren't as dry as it would be in the middle of the summer, but they were not wet. He said that he saw nothing wrong with the conditions, so much so that Steven Finn continued to bowl after the game for half an hour!! I'm sure they will cite that they are scared of losing players to injury early in the season etc etc but if their number 1 bowler, and I presume hes their 'prize asset', comes out and bowls it makes a bit of a mockery of the situation. I sometimes wonder do cricketers realise they are in an entertainment business........
So then we moved into our first County Championship game against a highly fancied Durham team. With us having a lengthy injury list (Michael Carberry, Kabir Ali, Imran Tahir, Dimi Mascarenhas to name a few) we opted for no pitch tinkering and were requested to produce the best possible pitch. Thank you I said! For this we went to the best pitch on the square, pitch number 5. When the square was originally constructed the County agreed to lay one 'trial pitch' for the ECB. It was the same soil type as the rest of the square with the exception of having a higher percentage of sand in it. This was hoped to encourage spin as the game went on, but the outcome was a good hard surface that was excellent to bat on at all times, so much so that we have already re-laid the middle six pitches with the same type of soil, and over time the whole square will be re-laid to the same specifications.
The combination of pitch 5 and the excellent weather resulted in a great looking pitch for the first Championship game. It was a must win toss, which we didn't win!! With the sun beating down any early morning moisture assisting the seamers was soon gone and we were made to toil and Durham finished the day on a very healthy 413 for 6, and ended up on 473 all out. We were on the back foot from that stage onwards. It is almost unheard of to win a game from this position. Despite our middle order all getting decent starts, no-one kicked on to give us the big 100 we needed to make life comfortable for us. We were bowled out for 294 but Durham didn't enforce the follow-on, probably thinking they wanted to bowl last on a wearing pitch. So they batted us out of the game, leaving us a mammoth 489 in 116 overs. That would have been an awesome chase!! Needless to say we didn't really go for it, it was a more 'see what position we get in to' innings. Apart from a couple of hiccups we comfortably batted out the last day to finish on 345 for 6.
So it was an eventful game. 3 hundreds, loads of runs, not many wickets, and even a chance of seeing 6 sixes in an over when young Ben Stokes hit Liam Dawson for 5 sixes in a row only to fail on the final ball of the over to hit the 6th six. When I saw Liam he said with a smile on his face that he was sort of disappointed not to get into the record books!! I wonder if Angus Dunlop felt the same when Allan Border did the same to him!!!!!
The umpires gave the pitch their top mark 'very good'. I suppose if I was being critical I think it lacked a little bit in seam movement. It was probably a bit flat but there was decent pace and carry, and spin towards the end. Its everything they look for. When I was watching the last session I see the 'keeper standing 60 feet back taking Liam Plunketts bouncers over his head. That's decent pace, but then I see in one of the newspapers that they said the pitch was 'easy paced' and got slower as the game went on! This is why I don't read the papers, even when things do go well!!!
And so we move on. The lads are away for the next week in Trent Bridge and then its back to the Rose Bowl for our first Pro40 game against Warwickshire which will hopefully contain two of our World Cup heroes, Boyd and Purdy.
If anyone has any questions, or topics they would like me to discuss, feel free to leave a comment, or follow me on Twitter @Karl_McDermott for regular pictures and comments.
Friday, 18 March 2011
The Past, The Present And The Future
Now that I'm in the big bad world of paying a mortgage I was delivered the last of my boxes from home. My Mother did seem very keen to get rid of my stuff so she either needs the space or is making sure I don't come back!!! So I spent an evening working my way through the contents not remembering what I had packed in there. That's where my journey down memory lane began. I don't think anybody would be surprised to hear most of the contents were cricket related! Castle Avenue was such a huge part of my life, I did try over the years to collect memories and keepsakes so I would have something to look back on.
So sifting through photos, match stumps and scorecards from the years gone past brought the memories flooding back. Without doubt the best and proudest day to date of my cricketing career was the World Cup match in 1999. It was such a huge occasion for Clontarf CC, and to be a part of that success is always something I look back on fondly and probably something that will never be matched for me. To see the ground transform from a club ground into an international cricket ground for the world to view on TV was fantastic! I have a large framed aerial photo of the ground on match day that will take pride of place on my wall.
Castle Ave hosted a lot of County games, and I always looked forward to them. There were a couple of great matches to reflect on. Beating Middlesex in 1997 was probably one of the hardest games ever. It went into the second day due to bad weather, I lost count how many times the covers went on and off, but we had a famous victory. Beating Surrey in 2004 was another great day, one which I enjoyed and will always remember as a big run chase on a good pitch. Another time I look back on with fond memories was the ICC Trophy in 2005 when we qualified for the World Cup in the West Indies. To host 3 matches in 5 days was a challenge in itself. I loved the intensity and pressure.
Those experiences gave me the desire to aim towards working at a higher level. With cricket in Ireland growing I got opportunities, with the help of then coach Mike Hendrick, to travel to England for work experience at Derbyshire. I met him again last year at the Rose Bowl and had a good chat and laugh. He looks back very fondly at his time in Ireland. Other opportunities to work further afield came about as well. Stints in Johannesburg for a couple of winters came about by Ireland playing there in the Under 19 World Cup. Another opportunity to work in Australia came about too when I met umpire Daryl Hair on one of his trips to Clontarf. He said to drop him a line if I was ever Down Under. I did that and I was working at a club two days later! And then Adrian Birrell organised me a spell at St Georges Park in Port Elizabeth for the 2003 Cricket World Cup.
So as much as the Ireland players are getting fantastic exposure to the world nowadays I feel I got the similar exposure too, and all that has helped me get to The Rose Bowl where I am very excited about my involvement in my first Test match this coming June. Thats the present for me, the fast approaching County Cricket season, an England Test match against Sri Lanka and an ODI against India, and my first view in person of Sachin!!
What does the future hold? Heres hoping to a successful Test match, and many more! A lot of where this venue wants to be depends on major match days and securing long term regular Test matches. But the reality is there is too many Test match venues in England. There is much debate about how Test matches are allocated. At the moment we bid for a package of matches, which may include a Test match, one or two ODIs, Twenty20 Finals Day, over the course of a couple of years. Is this bidding system fair? Some say no. Headingly lost money on the neutral Test match with Australia and Pakistan, they now say they won't bid for an Ashes match in 2013. So time will tell to see whats sustainable and whats not. There are numerous Counties releasing their financial figures at the moment, a lot have made a loss. So nowadays its not just a game, its a business, and a big business to us.
Finally, well done to the lads in the sub-continent, you did us all proud, and its especially great for me everytime I walk into work knowing we beat England! I can't wait to see Corky!!!
Follow me on Twitter for more regular comments and pictures @Karl_McDermott
So sifting through photos, match stumps and scorecards from the years gone past brought the memories flooding back. Without doubt the best and proudest day to date of my cricketing career was the World Cup match in 1999. It was such a huge occasion for Clontarf CC, and to be a part of that success is always something I look back on fondly and probably something that will never be matched for me. To see the ground transform from a club ground into an international cricket ground for the world to view on TV was fantastic! I have a large framed aerial photo of the ground on match day that will take pride of place on my wall.
Castle Ave hosted a lot of County games, and I always looked forward to them. There were a couple of great matches to reflect on. Beating Middlesex in 1997 was probably one of the hardest games ever. It went into the second day due to bad weather, I lost count how many times the covers went on and off, but we had a famous victory. Beating Surrey in 2004 was another great day, one which I enjoyed and will always remember as a big run chase on a good pitch. Another time I look back on with fond memories was the ICC Trophy in 2005 when we qualified for the World Cup in the West Indies. To host 3 matches in 5 days was a challenge in itself. I loved the intensity and pressure.
Those experiences gave me the desire to aim towards working at a higher level. With cricket in Ireland growing I got opportunities, with the help of then coach Mike Hendrick, to travel to England for work experience at Derbyshire. I met him again last year at the Rose Bowl and had a good chat and laugh. He looks back very fondly at his time in Ireland. Other opportunities to work further afield came about as well. Stints in Johannesburg for a couple of winters came about by Ireland playing there in the Under 19 World Cup. Another opportunity to work in Australia came about too when I met umpire Daryl Hair on one of his trips to Clontarf. He said to drop him a line if I was ever Down Under. I did that and I was working at a club two days later! And then Adrian Birrell organised me a spell at St Georges Park in Port Elizabeth for the 2003 Cricket World Cup.
So as much as the Ireland players are getting fantastic exposure to the world nowadays I feel I got the similar exposure too, and all that has helped me get to The Rose Bowl where I am very excited about my involvement in my first Test match this coming June. Thats the present for me, the fast approaching County Cricket season, an England Test match against Sri Lanka and an ODI against India, and my first view in person of Sachin!!
What does the future hold? Heres hoping to a successful Test match, and many more! A lot of where this venue wants to be depends on major match days and securing long term regular Test matches. But the reality is there is too many Test match venues in England. There is much debate about how Test matches are allocated. At the moment we bid for a package of matches, which may include a Test match, one or two ODIs, Twenty20 Finals Day, over the course of a couple of years. Is this bidding system fair? Some say no. Headingly lost money on the neutral Test match with Australia and Pakistan, they now say they won't bid for an Ashes match in 2013. So time will tell to see whats sustainable and whats not. There are numerous Counties releasing their financial figures at the moment, a lot have made a loss. So nowadays its not just a game, its a business, and a big business to us.
Finally, well done to the lads in the sub-continent, you did us all proud, and its especially great for me everytime I walk into work knowing we beat England! I can't wait to see Corky!!!
Follow me on Twitter for more regular comments and pictures @Karl_McDermott
Friday, 4 March 2011
Its That Time Of The Year Again......Pre-Season!!
I thought it was about time that I got back online and started up my blog again. Its been a while since I last blogged, and a lot has changed. I'm about to start my third season as Deputy Grounds Manager at The Rose Bowl, home of Hampshire County Cricket Club. It seems like only yesterday and not 3 years since I was saying goodbye to friends and family at my leaving party at Clontarf Cricket Club to start my new life at Worcester!
Its been a whirlwind time since my move across the pond. After a brief but enjoyable stint at New Road, including a flood, I got an offer to come down south to the Rose Bowl which was too good to turn down. The club had plans for extensive ground and stadium development,and with Test cricket coming this year it was a place I had always aimed to end up in. The development work has started, albeit slower than desired due to the economic downturn. We have two fantastic new stands that house 5000 people, a £650,000 free-draining new outfield that was laid 15 months ago, and the hotel that will house corporate boxes and media facilities at the northern end of the ground should be starting construction soon. Its an exciting place to be!
So couple all of that with our first Test Match that we are hosting in July its a busy time ahead. Putting all of that to one side there is still the 'bread and butter' county cricket season to prepare for. The season starts earlier and earlier over here. Our first 'friendly' fixture is on the 30th of March, with our first 4 day Championship fixture 9 days later! So whilst the players spend 3 weeks in the West Indies for their pre-season, we get to sit on a roller in icy cold temperatures trying to get some pitches firm. Who said life isn't fair!!!!
In preparation for all that the first pitches were cut out today, the 4th of March! We've been covering the squares for the last week to enable us to work on them. The problem this week hasn't been rain but frost! With the season approaching quickly we can't afford to let the cold nights eat into our working day. We have 5 squares here, the main square has 20 pitches, the nursery ground has 16 pitches, and 3 net blocks that cover about 280 feet wide so theres a lot of preseason rolling to do!!! We've cut out and started to prepare 5 pitches across 3 squares for practice and pre-season matches against Surrey and Middlesex. The players will be keen to get outside as soon as they get back from the West Indies no matter what the weather as they hate being stuck indoors!!
Anyway all this talk is making me cold, so lets move on. My plans are to update the blog as regular as I can with news, views and pictures. As I've said its a hectic year ahead with an England vs Sri Lanka Test match, an England vs India ODI and plenty of other cricket including our defence of the Twenty20 Cup with a team of current and ex-international stars like South African players Imran Tahir and Neil McKenzie, Pakistan captain Shahid Afridi, England players Michael Lumb, Michael Carberry, Dominic Cork and Simon Jones, and England A players aplenty!. Hopefully we will be fighting for trophys on all fronts this year.....lets hope we can get the pitch right!! :-)
Thats all for now folks. Feel free to leave a comment or just say hi, its always good to hear from home.
Follow me on Twitter for more regular comments and pictures @Karl_McDermott
Its been a whirlwind time since my move across the pond. After a brief but enjoyable stint at New Road, including a flood, I got an offer to come down south to the Rose Bowl which was too good to turn down. The club had plans for extensive ground and stadium development,and with Test cricket coming this year it was a place I had always aimed to end up in. The development work has started, albeit slower than desired due to the economic downturn. We have two fantastic new stands that house 5000 people, a £650,000 free-draining new outfield that was laid 15 months ago, and the hotel that will house corporate boxes and media facilities at the northern end of the ground should be starting construction soon. Its an exciting place to be!
So couple all of that with our first Test Match that we are hosting in July its a busy time ahead. Putting all of that to one side there is still the 'bread and butter' county cricket season to prepare for. The season starts earlier and earlier over here. Our first 'friendly' fixture is on the 30th of March, with our first 4 day Championship fixture 9 days later! So whilst the players spend 3 weeks in the West Indies for their pre-season, we get to sit on a roller in icy cold temperatures trying to get some pitches firm. Who said life isn't fair!!!!
In preparation for all that the first pitches were cut out today, the 4th of March! We've been covering the squares for the last week to enable us to work on them. The problem this week hasn't been rain but frost! With the season approaching quickly we can't afford to let the cold nights eat into our working day. We have 5 squares here, the main square has 20 pitches, the nursery ground has 16 pitches, and 3 net blocks that cover about 280 feet wide so theres a lot of preseason rolling to do!!! We've cut out and started to prepare 5 pitches across 3 squares for practice and pre-season matches against Surrey and Middlesex. The players will be keen to get outside as soon as they get back from the West Indies no matter what the weather as they hate being stuck indoors!!
Anyway all this talk is making me cold, so lets move on. My plans are to update the blog as regular as I can with news, views and pictures. As I've said its a hectic year ahead with an England vs Sri Lanka Test match, an England vs India ODI and plenty of other cricket including our defence of the Twenty20 Cup with a team of current and ex-international stars like South African players Imran Tahir and Neil McKenzie, Pakistan captain Shahid Afridi, England players Michael Lumb, Michael Carberry, Dominic Cork and Simon Jones, and England A players aplenty!. Hopefully we will be fighting for trophys on all fronts this year.....lets hope we can get the pitch right!! :-)
Thats all for now folks. Feel free to leave a comment or just say hi, its always good to hear from home.
Follow me on Twitter for more regular comments and pictures @Karl_McDermott
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