Must be but, having lost Stevens, we are, effectively two bowlers down from the last game. We still, in theory, have six frontline bowlers but it, effectively, means we have picked Stewart as a batsman only at 7. Contrast that to say Warwickshire's Kai Smith (plays for Sandwich in the Kent League and who is a keeper batsman but who isn't keeping in this game) who has batted at 9 in both his Royal London games (but not actually made it out to the middle in either of them).
This is down to the Hundred legacy - batsmen such as Crawley, Billings, Cox, Leaning and DBD are all missing and with Denly, Stevens and O'Riordan are all injured, the only other fit members of the squad (Logan, Podmore and Singh) are all bowlers.
With Denly and O’Riordan injured it does make us look a bit short on batting. No youngsters battering h the door down in the 2s ?
None who are consistently making scores. The nearest one would be someone like Joe Gordon who has hit three tons in the Kent Premier League in the last month or so. I see George Ealham has taken a couple of catches as sub - he started the season batting at 3 and bowling a bit but now he bats at 8 and is used more as a bowler.
Love it or hate it , this is an ideal opportunity to test some of the youngsters. Would it be fair to say we aren’t producing enough at the moment ?
Surely Stevo must have some grandchildren who can play the game?
Must be but, having lost Stevens, we are, effectively two bowlers down from the last game. We still, in theory, have six frontline bowlers but it, effectively, means we have picked Stewart as a batsman only at 7. Contrast that to say Warwickshire's Kai Smith (plays for Sandwich in the Kent League and who is a keeper batsman but who isn't keeping in this game) who has batted at 9 in both his Royal London games (but not actually made it out to the middle in either of them).
This is down to the Hundred legacy - batsmen such as Crawley, Billings, Cox, Leaning and DBD are all missing and with Denly, Stevens and O'Riordan are all injured, the only other fit members of the squad (Logan, Podmore and Singh) are all bowlers.
With Denly and O’Riordan injured it does make us look a bit short on batting. No youngsters battering h the door down in the 2s ?
None who are consistently making scores. The nearest one would be someone like Joe Gordon who has hit three tons in the Kent Premier League in the last month or so. I see George Ealham has taken a couple of catches as sub - he started the season batting at 3 and bowling a bit but now he bats at 8 and is used more as a bowler.
Love it or hate it , this is an ideal opportunity to test some of the youngsters. Would it be fair to say we aren’t producing enough at the moment ?
Surely Stevo must have some grandchildren who can play the game?
Must be but, having lost Stevens, we are, effectively two bowlers down from the last game. We still, in theory, have six frontline bowlers but it, effectively, means we have picked Stewart as a batsman only at 7. Contrast that to say Warwickshire's Kai Smith (plays for Sandwich in the Kent League and who is a keeper batsman but who isn't keeping in this game) who has batted at 9 in both his Royal London games (but not actually made it out to the middle in either of them).
This is down to the Hundred legacy - batsmen such as Crawley, Billings, Cox, Leaning and DBD are all missing and with Denly, Stevens and O'Riordan are all injured, the only other fit members of the squad (Logan, Podmore and Singh) are all bowlers.
With Denly and O’Riordan injured it does make us look a bit short on batting. No youngsters battering h the door down in the 2s ?
None who are consistently making scores. The nearest one would be someone like Joe Gordon who has hit three tons in the Kent Premier League in the last month or so. I see George Ealham has taken a couple of catches as sub - he started the season batting at 3 and bowling a bit but now he bats at 8 and is used more as a bowler.
Love it or hate it , this is an ideal opportunity to test some of the youngsters. Would it be fair to say we aren’t producing enough at the moment ?
Certainly none that are ready to play in the first team
Slowly roasted in the members stand, scoreboards which were either broken, or erratic, stewards doing some very random things with rope behind the sight screens, one bar that wouldn’t work, charmless food outlets and, above all, Kent were bloody awful!
Somehow it’s the fault of the hundred & chemtrails…..
Slowly roasted in the members stand, scoreboards which were either broken, or erratic, stewards doing some very random things with rope behind the sight screens, one bar that wouldn’t work, charmless food outlets and, above all, Kent were bloody awful!
Somehow it’s the fault of the hundred & chemtrails…..
I relied on the online scorecard, as the only working scoreboards were either tiny, or a large screen type which was too small to actually read much
Weird that the bar near the Copers Cope entrance has such a small selection, and then wasn't working anyway. That left just the one working bar - credit due, there was one very friendly woman there - though the queues were horrendous until it ran out of lager...
Oh, and we got mullered. Out spinners got smacked around, whereas their main spinner Felix Organ bowled 10 overs, taking 3-39
It's been a dire season for Kent .. so frustrating. Was at Beckenham yesterday and seen a few games at Canterbury. Really got to question a) the coaching set up ... always bowling too full and too fast when a bit of guile and variation is needed, cheap wickets; b) Medical set up - seem too be carrying alot of surprise injuries without replacements lined up via recruitment c) Captaincy - the club must have a captain who is there most of time and not £/glory hunting elsewhere. Lack of consistent on field leadership and game management is costing us dear .. there have been some poor decisions after winning the toss too! The club captaincy should not be a glamorous off-field birthright ... it's about on field/dressing room authority and leadership. It was Bell Drummond (and Crawley) captaining the side that got Kent to the 2021 T20 finals day via the group stages ... not Billings.
It's been a dire season for Kent .. so frustrating. Was at Beckenham yesterday and seen a few games at Canterbury. Really got to question a) the coaching set up ... always bowling too full and too fast when a bit of guile and variation is needed, cheap wickets; b) Medical set up - seem too be carrying alot of surprise injuries without replacements lined up via recruitment c) Captaincy - the club must have a captain who is there most of time and not £/glory hunting elsewhere. Lack of consistent on field leadership and game management is costing us dear .. there have been some poor decisions after winning the toss too! The club captaincy should not be a glamorous off-field birthright ... it's about on field/dressing room authority and leadership. It was Bell Drummond (and Crawley) captaining the side that got Kent to the 2021 T20 finals day via the group stages ... not Billings.
So far as the captaincy is concerned the issue is that we don't have anyone who is a candidate and around for all the competitions and guaranteed their place - Billings, as you say is missing for franchise and England duty as is Crawley and the likes of DBD and Leaning disappear for the Hundred too. Blake only plays white ball and Robinson isn't in our T20 side. Denly and Stevens are the other obvious ones but both have previously refused to do it and whilst Denly has now agreed to do so, he is out injured yet again. And none of our bowlers can stay fit enough to do the job.
I suppose the nearest we are going to get to being certain of his place and around most of the time would be Leaning as he just misses the Royal Insurance games - ironically, he is at the Hundred but I think he's doing a poor man's imitation of Billings carrying the drinks because he isn't playing. Even our Head Coach is at the Mickey Mouse competition rather than with the County.
Slowly roasted in the members stand, scoreboards which were either broken, or erratic, stewards doing some very random things with rope behind the sight screens, one bar that wouldn’t work, charmless food outlets and, above all, Kent were bloody awful!
Somehow it’s the fault of the hundred & chemtrails…..
I relied on the online scorecard, as the only working scoreboards were either tiny, or a large screen type which was too small to actually read much
Weird that the bar near the Copers Cope entrance has such a small selection, and then wasn't working anyway. That left just the one working bar - credit due, there was one very friendly woman there - though the queues were horrendous until it ran out of lager...
Oh, and we got mullered. Out spinners got smacked around, whereas their main spinner Felix Organ bowled 10 overs, taking 3-39
I am hearing embarrassing tales of a lack of money at the County which would serve to explain the desire to "under" rather than "over" order stock and the somewhat poor facilities and scoreboard arrangements. I've also heard how one player, who is attached to one of the Hundred franchises, being really impressed by how he is looked after at one of the franchises in terms of what is on offer. And that is what playing for those franchises do - they open the conversation for players to join the County that is attached to the Test playing ground because of the money and how well they are looked after.
To be fair to Billings, it's only the IPL where he's deliberately choosing a glamour franchise over Kent, and in future years he might not even get that as there are so many younger players coming up in the T20 game.
I might hate the Hundred, but every county player is entitled to play in the ECB's flagship event, while we can hardly penalise players for being good enough to be called up for England. Obviously if Billings was away all summer with England, that would make him a poor Captain, but it does seem that he's out of the white ball picture now and is just the backup keeper in the Test team.
Slowly roasted in the members stand, scoreboards which were either broken, or erratic, stewards doing some very random things with rope behind the sight screens, one bar that wouldn’t work, charmless food outlets and, above all, Kent were bloody awful!
Somehow it’s the fault of the hundred & chemtrails…..
I relied on the online scorecard, as the only working scoreboards were either tiny, or a large screen type which was too small to actually read much
Weird that the bar near the Copers Cope entrance has such a small selection, and then wasn't working anyway. That left just the one working bar - credit due, there was one very friendly woman there - though the queues were horrendous until it ran out of lager...
Oh, and we got mullered. Out spinners got smacked around, whereas their main spinner Felix Organ bowled 10 overs, taking 3-39
I am hearing embarrassing tales of a lack of money at the County which would serve to explain the desire to "under" rather than "over" order stock and the somewhat poor facilities and scoreboard arrangements. I've also heard how one player, who is attached to one of the Hundred franchises, being really impressed by how he is looked after at one of the franchises in terms of what is on offer. And that is what playing for those franchises do - they open the conversation for players to join the County that is attached to the Test playing ground because of the money and how well they are looked after.
Wouldn’t those conversations have happened anyway? Players and agents talk to each other all of the time, which is why there has been an exodus from the smaller counties to the Test Grounds for a long time. Notts and Surrey being probably the biggest benefactors.
Unless you are going to split all of the revenue earned from Test Matches, ODI’s , 100 evenly across all of the counties I cannot see how you are going to stop this ?
Slowly roasted in the members stand, scoreboards which were either broken, or erratic, stewards doing some very random things with rope behind the sight screens, one bar that wouldn’t work, charmless food outlets and, above all, Kent were bloody awful!
Somehow it’s the fault of the hundred & chemtrails…..
I relied on the online scorecard, as the only working scoreboards were either tiny, or a large screen type which was too small to actually read much
Weird that the bar near the Copers Cope entrance has such a small selection, and then wasn't working anyway. That left just the one working bar - credit due, there was one very friendly woman there - though the queues were horrendous until it ran out of lager...
Oh, and we got mullered. Out spinners got smacked around, whereas their main spinner Felix Organ bowled 10 overs, taking 3-39
I am hearing embarrassing tales of a lack of money at the County which would serve to explain the desire to "under" rather than "over" order stock and the somewhat poor facilities and scoreboard arrangements. I've also heard how one player, who is attached to one of the Hundred franchises, being really impressed by how he is looked after at one of the franchises in terms of what is on offer. And that is what playing for those franchises do - they open the conversation for players to join the County that is attached to the Test playing ground because of the money and how well they are looked after.
Wouldn’t those conversations have happened anyway? Players and agents talk to each other all of the time, which is why there has been an exodus from the smaller counties to the Test Grounds for a long time. Notts and Surrey being probably the biggest benefactors.
Unless you are going to split all of the revenue earned from Test Matches, ODI’s , 100 evenly across all of the counties I cannot see how you are going to stop this ?
They do but spending a month in the company of and at the ground of a Test hosting County makes it that much easier to have that conversation especially when there is a link between the county and the franchise. Last season Phil Salt played for the Manchester Originals (hardly on the door of Sussex who he was with last season) who are captained by Jos Buttler and who have the Lancashire Head Coach as their assistant coach, Phil Chapple. It was then announced that Salt was joining Lancashire from this season and is once again with the Manchester Originals.
I'm not going to go into the details of the "embarrassing lack of money" at Kent but, suffice to say, the instances are not something that one could expect from a professional sporting outfit.
To be fair to Billings, it's only the IPL where he's deliberately choosing a glamour franchise over Kent, and in future years he might not even get that as there are so many younger players coming up in the T20 game.
I might hate the Hundred, but every county player is entitled to play in the ECB's flagship event, while we can hardly penalise players for being good enough to be called up for England. Obviously if Billings was away all summer with England, that would make him a poor Captain, but it does seem that he's out of the white ball picture now and is just the backup keeper in the Test team.
And now the England Lions captain. Because he is a good egg and captain too. Not sure that the Head Coach and batting coach should be missing our games for the Hundred though.
To be fair to Billings, it's only the IPL where he's deliberately choosing a glamour franchise over Kent, and in future years he might not even get that as there are so many younger players coming up in the T20 game.
I might hate the Hundred, but every county player is entitled to play in the ECB's flagship event, while we can hardly penalise players for being good enough to be called up for England. Obviously if Billings was away all summer with England, that would make him a poor Captain, but it does seem that he's out of the white ball picture now and is just the backup keeper in the Test team.
And now the England Lions captain. Because he is a good egg and captain too. Not sure that the Head Coach and batting coach should be missing our games for the Hundred though.
In this case, being the Lions captain just means he isn't playing for the Bovril Invincibles, as he was already away from Kent!
As for the coaching staff, well that's down to the ECB. Someone has to coach the 100 teams.
To be fair to Billings, it's only the IPL where he's deliberately choosing a glamour franchise over Kent, and in future years he might not even get that as there are so many younger players coming up in the T20 game.
I might hate the Hundred, but every county player is entitled to play in the ECB's flagship event, while we can hardly penalise players for being good enough to be called up for England. Obviously if Billings was away all summer with England, that would make him a poor Captain, but it does seem that he's out of the white ball picture now and is just the backup keeper in the Test team.
And now the England Lions captain. Because he is a good egg and captain too. Not sure that the Head Coach and batting coach should be missing our games for the Hundred though.
In this case, being the Lions captain just means he isn't playing for the Bovril Invincibles, as he was already away from Kent!
As for the coaching staff, well that's down to the ECB. Someone has to coach the 100 teams.
But Walker isn't even Head Coach - almost all of those jobs have gone to overseas coaches so why poach a county coach to assist? Because it serves to undermine the counties even further? Shouldn't he be with Kent especially given the awful season we've had?
And what about the likes of Leaning and Bell-Drummond who might not play a match in the Hundred. Surely they could be released to go back to their county for certain games?
Equally, how do counties have the gall to legitimately sell annual memberships and match tickets for the Royal London in the knowledge that most of the first choice team will be missing and the bowling coach will be in charge? £25 to watch a team, many of which you could have seen for free at other times playing for the 2s or on a Saturday playing club cricket - Compton, Robinson, Logan, Bell-Drummond, Blake, Stevens, Singh and O'Riordan plus Niijar (Essex) have all turned out in the KCL and you can add to that list another dozen or so overseas who are professionally contracted in their homeland (such as Luke Schlemmer, Jack and Michael Edwards, David Moody, Ryan O'Beirne, David Grant, Lloyd Pope, Calum MacLeod and Ed Moore for example) or those that have played the pro game (the likes of Adam Riley, Adam Ball, David Masters, Greg Lamb, Sean Ervine, Chris Lewis, Yasir Arafat, Warren Lee and Elliot Hooper) and not to mention the numerous age group players who have played for Kent 2s. Minster, for example, could put out a whole side (bar a keeper) who have played a minimum of county 2s. At times Bexley have had five bowlers who have played First Class cricket. It doesn't cost £25 as I say to watch them.
To be fair to Billings, it's only the IPL where he's deliberately choosing a glamour franchise over Kent, and in future years he might not even get that as there are so many younger players coming up in the T20 game.
I might hate the Hundred, but every county player is entitled to play in the ECB's flagship event, while we can hardly penalise players for being good enough to be called up for England. Obviously if Billings was away all summer with England, that would make him a poor Captain, but it does seem that he's out of the white ball picture now and is just the backup keeper in the Test team.
And now the England Lions captain. Because he is a good egg and captain too. Not sure that the Head Coach and batting coach should be missing our games for the Hundred though.
In this case, being the Lions captain just means he isn't playing for the Bovril Invincibles, as he was already away from Kent!
As for the coaching staff, well that's down to the ECB. Someone has to coach the 100 teams.
But Walker isn't even Head Coach - almost all of those jobs have gone to overseas coaches so why poach a county coach to assist? Because it serves to undermine the counties even further? Shouldn't he be with Kent especially given the awful season we've had?
And what about the likes of Leaning and Bell-Drummond who might not play a match in the Hundred. Surely they could be released to go back to their county for certain games?
Equally, how do counties have the gall to legitimately sell annual memberships and match tickets for the Royal London in the knowledge that most of the first choice team will be missing and the bowling coach will be in charge? £25 to watch a team, many of which you could have seen for free at other times playing for the 2s or on a Saturday playing club cricket - Compton, Robinson, Logan, Bell-Drummond, Blake, Stevens, Singh and O'Riordan plus Niijar (Essex) have all turned out in the KCL and you can add to that list another dozen or so overseas who are professionally contracted in their homeland (such as Luke Schlemmer, Jack and Michael Edwards, David Moody, Ryan O'Beirne, David Grant, Lloyd Pope, Calum MacLeod and Ed Moore for example) or those that have played the pro game (the likes of Adam Riley, Adam Ball, David Masters, Greg Lamb, Sean Ervine, Chris Lewis, Yasir Arafat, Warren Lee and Elliot Hooper) and not to mention the numerous age group players who have played for Kent 2s. Minster, for example, could put out a whole side (bar a keeper) who have played a minimum of county 2s. At times Bexley have had five bowlers who have played First Class cricket. And as I say it doesn't cost £25 as I say to watch them.
Because the overseas coaches know nothing about the players.
Your 2nd point is a really big one. Surely the franchises would rather their fringe players were playing some white ball cricket (when it doesn't clash with drinks carrying duty) so they are ready to go if needed. Similarly, Burns was released to Surrey from his franchise for the whole comp but Surrey have decided to rest him (and Amla) from the whole of the RLODC run in which further undermines the comp. I get being rested for a week or so but surely playing some 50 over is better than a 5 week gap with no cricket.
Nice life if you can get it. Burns somehow is still on an England central contract and isnt even having to play the easy cricket. Plenty cash for a nice midsummer break. Wonder if hes got any holidays planned?
Perhaps I should have asked "why allow the ECB to poach the county coach?".
Can anyone imagine Man City saying that it's OK for Guardiola to go off for a month in the middle of the season to be assistant coach for a team at the African Nations? Players go to that comp (which is an international event and not a franchise) but coaches certainly don't. If they want to do that then fine. Get someone in who is happy to have a clause inserted in their contract preventing them from doing so. There are a hell of a lot of coaches who would be more than content with that because there are only 18 counties and 18 jobs. Our season is only six months long after all and not ten months as football is. If a county coach wants to be a journeyman then that is their right to be one but if that's the case then they shouldn't be under contract with us. If they are happy to travel the world for months at a time good luck to them. But they want their cake and to eat it too.
This is nothing against Walks who is a great bloke but the bottom line is that he is Kent's Head Coach for the duration of our cricket season and any continuity of message, analysis, conversations with individual players etc etc is simply broken. I can't get confirmation of it but I believe our batting coach, ten Doeschate is there too. So two of our three main coaches are missing in action for the whole of one of the three competitions we are playing in. That simply isn't right.
The Evening Standard has said that it looks like Darren Stevens has played his last game for us. One of our greatest players and his achievements, especially with the ball, are remarkable especially as he came to us virtually a non bowler. If this does, indeed, prove to be the case, then good luck Stevo whatever you decide to do next.
The article also states that Crawley is out of contract. One would have thought that an extension would have been sorted by now, given that we only have six weeks left of the season and for that reason I wouldn't be surprised if he is off too.
The Evening Standard has said that it looks like Darren Stevens has played his last game for us. One of our greatest players and his achievements, especially with the ball, are remarkable especially as he came to us virtually a non bowler. If this does, indeed, prove to be the case, then good luck Stevo whatever you decide to do next.
The article also states that Crawley is out of contract. One would have thought that an extension would have been sorted by now, given that we only have six weeks left of the season and for that reason I wouldn't be surprised if he is off too.
Comments
At the least the football season has started again.
This is getting embarrassing.
Ran out of lager already, which has at least reduced the length of the queue.
Somehow it’s the fault of the hundred & chemtrails…..
Weird that the bar near the Copers Cope entrance has such a small selection, and then wasn't working anyway. That left just the one working bar - credit due, there was one very friendly woman there - though the queues were horrendous until it ran out of lager...
Oh, and we got mullered. Out spinners got smacked around, whereas their main spinner Felix Organ bowled 10 overs, taking 3-39
Heel injury, so played as a batter only
I suppose the nearest we are going to get to being certain of his place and around most of the time would be Leaning as he just misses the Royal Insurance games - ironically, he is at the Hundred but I think he's doing a poor man's imitation of Billings carrying the drinks because he isn't playing. Even our Head Coach is at the Mickey Mouse competition rather than with the County.
I might hate the Hundred, but every county player is entitled to play in the ECB's flagship event, while we can hardly penalise players for being good enough to be called up for England. Obviously if Billings was away all summer with England, that would make him a poor Captain, but it does seem that he's out of the white ball picture now and is just the backup keeper in the Test team.
I'm not going to go into the details of the "embarrassing lack of money" at Kent but, suffice to say, the instances are not something that one could expect from a professional sporting outfit.
As for the coaching staff, well that's down to the ECB. Someone has to coach the 100 teams.
And what about the likes of Leaning and Bell-Drummond who might not play a match in the Hundred. Surely they could be released to go back to their county for certain games?
Equally, how do counties have the gall to legitimately sell annual memberships and match tickets for the Royal London in the knowledge that most of the first choice team will be missing and the bowling coach will be in charge? £25 to watch a team, many of which you could have seen for free at other times playing for the 2s or on a Saturday playing club cricket - Compton, Robinson, Logan, Bell-Drummond, Blake, Stevens, Singh and O'Riordan plus Niijar (Essex) have all turned out in the KCL and you can add to that list another dozen or so overseas who are professionally contracted in their homeland (such as Luke Schlemmer, Jack and Michael Edwards, David Moody, Ryan O'Beirne, David Grant, Lloyd Pope, Calum MacLeod and Ed Moore for example) or those that have played the pro game (the likes of Adam Riley, Adam Ball, David Masters, Greg Lamb, Sean Ervine, Chris Lewis, Yasir Arafat, Warren Lee and Elliot Hooper) and not to mention the numerous age group players who have played for Kent 2s. Minster, for example, could put out a whole side (bar a keeper) who have played a minimum of county 2s. At times Bexley have had five bowlers who have played First Class cricket. It doesn't cost £25 as I say to watch them.
Your 2nd point is a really big one. Surely the franchises would rather their fringe players were playing some white ball cricket (when it doesn't clash with drinks carrying duty) so they are ready to go if needed. Similarly, Burns was released to Surrey from his franchise for the whole comp but Surrey have decided to rest him (and Amla) from the whole of the RLODC run in which further undermines the comp. I get being rested for a week or so but surely playing some 50 over is better than a 5 week gap with no cricket.
Nice life if you can get it. Burns somehow is still on an England central contract and isnt even having to play the easy cricket. Plenty cash for a nice midsummer break. Wonder if hes got any holidays planned?
Can anyone imagine Man City saying that it's OK for Guardiola to go off for a month in the middle of the season to be assistant coach for a team at the African Nations? Players go to that comp (which is an international event and not a franchise) but coaches certainly don't. If they want to do that then fine. Get someone in who is happy to have a clause inserted in their contract preventing them from doing so. There are a hell of a lot of coaches who would be more than content with that because there are only 18 counties and 18 jobs. Our season is only six months long after all and not ten months as football is. If a county coach wants to be a journeyman then that is their right to be one but if that's the case then they shouldn't be under contract with us. If they are happy to travel the world for months at a time good luck to them. But they want their cake and to eat it too.
This is nothing against Walks who is a great bloke but the bottom line is that he is Kent's Head Coach for the duration of our cricket season and any continuity of message, analysis, conversations with individual players etc etc is simply broken. I can't get confirmation of it but I believe our batting coach, ten Doeschate is there too. So two of our three main coaches are missing in action for the whole of one of the three competitions we are playing in. That simply isn't right.
The article also states that Crawley is out of contract. One would have thought that an extension would have been sorted by now, given that we only have six weeks left of the season and for that reason I wouldn't be surprised if he is off too.