Ian Shepherd: Six needed and that could be the winning hit it is it's six for Lewis Gregory and Somerset have won by six wickets. Tremendous win for Somerset chasing down 194 to win with Will Sleed leading the way. Hello there. This is always look on the bright side of life. The Somerset Cricket podcast. My name is Ian Shepherd on the eve of the new county championship season. I am joined first of all by Dan Kingdom. Dan, how's it going? Have you wintered well and how excited are you for Friday? Yep. Good winter. Thanks. Yep. Very excited for Friday. Hopefully the weather holds. Yes, it's not looking great. Also with me is Peter Wandless, president of the club. Peter, you're ready to receive your Nottinghamshire guests on Friday? I am, yes. Thank you very much. We've got some guests coming down, ready to give them a warm welcome, but not be too accommodating on the pitch. Good stuff. And finally with us today is the voice of cricket on BBC Radio Somerset, who will also be receiving a guest, Dave Bracegirdle, down from Nottinghamshire in the commentary box. And I hope he's got a brand new Nottinghamshire track suit give-o. I've been going on at you for years and years. You need to follow in Dave's footsteps and get your own Somerset training wear. I work for the BBC. I'm very, very fond of Somerset County Cricket Club, but I do actually work for the BBC. Good stuff. should we have a little, I'm trying to think what we've missed since we've been on. Shall we just start with the pre-season? Obviously that was all a bit went a bit cock-a-hoop with the limited skirmishes that are going on in the Middle East at the moment. they ⁓ alternative arrangements were made. They went to Desert Springs, had a two-day game against Yorkshire, had a two-day inter-intra or inter- whichever squad game ⁓ at Torrington, followed by a friendly against Glamorgan. I caught most of it via the stream and I went up on Sunday. Peter, I gather you were there for a couple of days as well. ⁓ Yeah. I mean, apart from being bloody cold, it was a reasonable workout, I thought. Yeah, it was. I watched most of ⁓ the first day and about halfway through the second day, I confess, it felt a bit like people were going through the motions and at least I hope they were going through the motions. ⁓ because we're going to need to be, have a much more of a kind of competitive edge on Friday. And I thought, do you know what? This is quite cold and uncomfortable. And actually it's slightly ruining my sense of anticipation and excitement about the real stuff starting. Came home midway through the second day and yeah, gave it a miss on that very cold day when you were present. I did manage to catch a little bit of you doing a bit of practice live stream though. Yeah, I think me and Ben were just mainly sort of chatting about all the memberships and the various days for the one day cup that were coming up over the summer rather than concentrating too much on the action. A of points sort of raised for me is Archie Vaughan and Josh Thomas opened in Spain. This time it was Josh Thomas and Tom Carter-Cadmore opened in both innings in this match. So I don't know if that gives us any potential clues to where they're going. And it seemed that, know, Cooper Associates County Ground pitches are sort of doing what they did last year. It looks green on the first morning, does a bit and then it calms down. You know, look things that very easy when Glamorgan were batting on that second day. ⁓ And Jack Leach seemed to get a bit of turn out. Josh Torres did get a few to turn as well. So hopefully Nick Pepper has maybe come up with the right formula to get a bit of spin over the next few days, Gibbo, because that's going to be the key, isn't it, if we're going to win our home games? It certainly is, ⁓ particularly early season. mean, our seam attack is experienced, you know, that's really a cutting edge these days, you know, without Matt Henry, without anyone with express pace. And Jack Leach, know, everyone will be looking to Jack Leach to take the wickets that he did last year and put in the overs that did last year. I mean, he bowled superbly, but he needs to have the right sort of pitches to bowl on. And it was, you know, it was hard work. If you remember that game against Worcestershire, first game last season, you know, when it just got flatter and flatter and flatter. And in two days, we couldn't pull Worcestershire two days in a bit. couldn't pull Worcestershire out. So, yeah, but I didn't pick up anything on Monday at the sort of preseason media day to suggest pitches are going to be markedly different. I asked Jason Kerr about it and he said, you know, there's a balance. They've got someone said, have got a balanced attack. So they want something in it for their seamers as well as for Jack Leach and hanging over it all is the sort of Damocles of points deduction if they go too far in the spin friendly direction. Jason said there is a sort of almost an inbuilt prejudice against pitches that spin. ⁓ Counties get penalised for spinning pitches, it seems, much more often than they do for pitches that offer excessive seam movement to boulders. So it's hard for Nick Pepper. He's got to find a balance and let's hope this year he finds the right balance. Absolutely. Dan, you of course would have enjoyed Eddie Byram's unbeaten 100. I didn't actually want to. need that to be honest. If you don't, oh my god. 100 unbeaten for Eddie. I mean, yeah, we're looking ahead to Friday now, the performance of this game, Dun & Dustin, yeah. M &B made 100 in the second and was able, made 80 and it was sort of, it ended in quite sort of odd circumstances. Jack Leap's was sort of looked like he was just got a bit lost and was wandering off towards the pavilion. Lewis Gregory charges down in his track suit and sliders and next thing you know they're all shaking hands. I suspect it was because it was creeping up towards 80 overs and where in a conventional match you'd have been looking to take the second new ball and none of Glamorgan Seamers particularly wanted to get warm in that freezing cold temperature and potentially do themselves a mischief by pulling a fat lock. because it is so freezing cold and then facing the likes of Acer Tribe and Kieran Carlson is no good to Mandelbeest when it comes to practice for the county championship. didn't even get to see Eddie Byrom's majestic legs spin before they all shook hands and went in and had a nice hot cup of cocoa and warmed themselves up. Enjoyable as it was to see Eddie Byrom get a hundred, James Drew dropped an absolute sitter. before Byron had really got going and TKC dropped another one which yeah and I mean that that I guess it's very cold and fielding out there and the concentration isn't quite there. that is true but they really yeah that was that was disappointing because we're not used to seeing catches drop certainly not seeing easy ones drop so we can't be having that this week coming. get him out the way pre-season. That's my motto, that's would be advising. The ball that Alfie got, ace a tribal, was an absolute seed. That's what he's capable of ⁓ and I think he should be given the chance to do that this season. Feeds into a question that I asked Sarge at the press conference. On behalf of poor old Andy Cleve, who has been at Somerset CCC and virtually every social media post since October asking about the second overseas. It's a lot. You can go and listen to the press conferences on YouTube, it was basically, everybody said that the right candidate, a world-class candidate wasn't available. If one does become available, i.e. Matt Henry, for example, their ears would prick up and they'd be in the hunt for him, but they want to give the youngsters a chance. And you can understand that given the lack of game time players like Ned Leonard have had, like Sonny Baker has had, and they've gone off to pass to you. that happening without the Ogdenwall and JT language. When I asked Jason about that in my interview with him, he was rather more positive. I said, are you looking for ⁓ an overseas quick? And he said, yes, definitely. It isn't as if they've given up yet. They just haven't found the right one. But if someone does miraculously emerge from the woodwork, then Somerset will be in the market for him. What they're saying is they don't want to put a run of the mill, just get anybody in ahead of an Alfie Ogborn type. So I think that's Sgt. saying. Oh, the President is I'm sure he'll back in a minute. I can understand that. I think that's fair enough. Brett Randall would be, you know, talk about Randall. Brett 5 5 Randall. You never look much like taking 5 in 5 for us. He didn't like to take five in five games, let alone five five balls for us. But anyway, it is difficult coming over the end of season and trying to get yourself into a team that's been together for the best part of five months or whatever and sort of being a newcomer into that group. That is quite difficult. And I think we always should be too harsh when judging September overseas, unless they're really VJ. Dan, you did quite a lovely thread about the second overseas boulder situation. If you're not on Twitter, do want to quickly go over the recap of that? thought that was a really good read. Yeah. After losing Aldridge, Davey, Green, we don't have Matt Henry this year and following our failure to acquire any new domestic signings except Josh Shaw, who has a pretty poor Red Bull record, it has to be said. He averages 50 in Division 2 across the last couple of seasons. And I know that's... probably partly because he's part of a generally poor side in Gloucestershire who've been... very, very poor side, I think. A really, really bad side, I think, yeah. ⁓ yeah. He's probably not quite as bad as that. played a pretty horrible ground and they're like, let's stop it. I would agree, it'd be quiet. He's probably not quite as bad as that, but like, I just thought after, you know, failing to get any of the other guys who were available, because there was, you a few guys, mostly Gloucestershire players, a few guys from other counties, you know, probably all better than Shaw. We didn't get any of them, we just got Shaw. So thought, surely we're nailed on to sign two overseas pace bowlers. And we got MIG done early in the winter, got that business sorted, great. But I find it astonishing that after all these months, we're now on the eve of the season and there's been no one else. know, everyone knows that you need a decent, you need decent pace stocks to challenge the title or to even have any success at all. We've got eight pace bowlers, nine if you include Keirin Roberts. Three of those nine haven't played any first-class cricket yet. Ogborn is still very inexperienced. He's played, I think, three first-class games for us. Obviously, I want, you know, to phase those guys in. But we don't want to be putting too much on them too soon. We don't want to be, you know, worse case scenario. We don't want to be relying on them to, you know, keep us up. You know, beyond those guys, we've got Shorver, as I've said, pretty poor Red Bull record. Jake Ball's 35. Pretorius is coming off an injury as well. He got, obviously, the injury he picked up with us, and he's... Hardly played all winter. His only cricket has been a few one-day games in South Africa in the last month or so. Obviously Gregory has, you know, obviously ongoing injury problems. Doesn't always bowl. So we rely massively on Craig Overton being at his best, and we haven't won a county championship match without him since 2019. So, I just, given all of that, all that together, I'm just surprised we've not signed anybody. And I know, yes, okay, we ideally want someone who's world-class, but... Counties are capable of finding gems. think you said a lovely there, which you probably didn't realize. You said, we've not signed anybody because we don't want to go out and sign anybody. Yeah, yeah. know Hampshire went out and got Jaden Seales. That's what was about to say. They don't have to be brilliant. They can be someone like Fergus O'Neill or Cody Youssef who are under the radar. No one had really heard of them, but they've come into County Cricket and done pretty well. Cody Youssef's going to Hampshire. Hampshire wants Michael Nyssa. They lost Jaden Seals and they've now signed Koda Youssef. Yeah, I know. I'm just saying there are players like them out there, but we could have got Youssef potentially. But the hamster got there first, which is potentially a shame. don't know. We probably didn't want him. You know, we would have probably got him if we wanted him. But I just struggled to believe there's no one out there who could have added some value to our attack because I just think we're a little bit worried. We're a little bit thin going into the season. Given the various issues that I mentioned. most of the bowlers and our best fine we you know we can take 20 wickets but can we do it consistently can we do it you know we've got six games in seven weeks to start the season are we going to be able to win enough of those games to put us in a position to push for the title in the second half of the season because i'm less concerned once he gets in second half of the season particularly as we've got six games in august and september after the one day cup when hopefully spin will be more a factor and leech and vaughan can hopefully win us a few games but we've got to have a good start to the season and At the moment, I just don't know if we have the weaponry to do that. I mean, there's two factors I'm sort of looking at now, are in Somerset's favour. Number one is obviously the best left arm sprint in the country who could potentially bowl you 30 overs a day in any conditions and go for two or three and over. Might not pick the wickets up. But you can rely on Jack Leach to do a job for you, whatever the conditions, whatever the weather, whatever the opposition. So that instantly takes a bit of pressure off your pace bowling attack. You've got the Jack Leach tractor. Another thing is our schedule at the moment. Three games in three weeks and then a week off kind of gives you the opportunity to have a massive blast at those three games with your first choice attack. And then they can all go and put their feet up for, you know, the best part of nine or 10 days before they've got to play again. So think that's a real important factor as well. So I would not be surprised if we see somebody arrive after the, what are we, the Hampshire game at Utility Bowl. I would be surprised if in that week somebody arrives. Because you've had a look at Alfie. I assume they're going to play Alfie in at least two of these first three games after the way ball against slam at the weekend. Craig is obviously a shoe in. Miggie, you mentioned coming off an injury. you know, is he fully fit for three, four day games in three weeks? Maybe, maybe not. knows. Lamas ball tidy enough against Clamorgan. He's been bowling a little bit more. Tom Abel says he's bowling a little bit more as well. And I rate Tom Abel as a lot more than a part-time bowler. I know you're a massive fan of Tom Abel as we all are with his batting, but I think very, very underrated with with the ball as well. agree. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Well, I hope he hasn't bowled for two seasons, has he? And he's very useful seamer to have up your sleeve. If you want someone to break a partnership, he'd be your He always moves the voice. Very, very good. He presented a very, very good seam. He always gave it a bit of wobble. So you feel like even if he's bowled at 80, 85%. Quicker than you. Quicker than the batsman often. often think as well. Yeah, definitely. Yeah, I don't believe that Sarge and Jason are oblivious to the analysis which Dan has laid out. And I think, you the answer you got from Jason is exactly what I would give in the situation that we're in at the moment, because you've got to motivate the players that you're on your books to believe in them and give them the opportunity to do their best. But, you know, other things being equal, I think like others, including Andy Cleve, I might have expected there to be another signing and there hasn't been one, which leaves us with this potential ⁓ risk if things don't go according to plan or if one or two pick up an injury. Having said that, you know, I... We've seen other counties already experiencing last minute dropouts of one kind or another. I know the coaches are very hot on chemistry and culture and bringing people in who demonstrably add value to what we've already got and will fit with the team-based culture that has helped us be successful. Yeah, no one's bigger than the team sort of thing. which is not everyone's cup of tea, but it's been quite important, I think, to our success for an extended period. these are factors to sort of take into account. But yeah, think I didn't expect, to be honest personally, that we would be sitting here at the start of the season still with an overseas potential vacancy to fill. But there we are, as Jason said, and if you've kind of reiterated, just bringing someone in for the sake of it could be counterproductive. And there are all sorts of ⁓ uncertainties. There were people being picked for franchise tournaments and so on. And we had to wait and see how some of that was going. yeah, I just think it's a point well made. And I haven't got a magic answer. There's not someone... I can't think of a bowler out there at the moment who's just twiddling their thumbs and thinking, well, why on earth aren't we signing them? It's having that kind of network and ability to unearth the next Fergus O'Neill, whoever it might be, isn't it? I mean, I'm just looking at this the other way around. I I can imagine there's furor about certain members that we haven't got an overseas bowler in, but then flipping that round. I can imagine some of the comments if we'd have bought in a Johnny nobody just for the same show, would have been twice as bad. you know, sometimes you're damned if you do and you're damned if you don't, which is now we've been spoiled the last sort of few years having one of the best, certainly well, Bumrah, Henry. he first best second having Matt Henry and coming over to the last three seasons. So, yeah, they do. They do find them occasionally and you know, I would guess that not Matt Henry coming over later on in the season. Did we decide if he's available after the 100? Maybe, but he'll be coming off a lot of cricket because he's got the IPL, then the Test Series against England and then the 100 and then yeah, whether he fancies a Stimapost after that I think is the only possibility. I think he's somerset through and through. put the contract in front of me. never know. I'm sure he would. don't like his moustache very much. looks like, ⁓ you follow American pool, looks like Earl the Pole Strickland. Look that up. Earl the Pole Strickland is great. He's the most mad mental pool player in the history of the game. He's an absolute lunatic. Look him up on YouTube. He's smashing his cue when he plays a bad shot. He's shouting at people. He looks just like him. Matt Henry with his new tassel. Let's hope he hasn't inherited some of his... his characteristics. Looking ahead to Friday then, ⁓ what team are we going with? I mean we assume that the 11 that took the field against Glamorgan, well was a 12 with Jake Ball not batting, Miguel Pretorius, you assume would come into that, I believe he's here now, he arrived yesterday, certainly touched down in the country yesterday, so you assume he's going to be in the equation. We've got a lot of talented batters, ⁓ Givbo, but what order do we put them in? Well I think the first question is who's going to open the innings and I think the answer is Thomas Contigli C. Well I like Tom Coler-Cadmore opening against the Kookaburra ball in the middle of summer. I'm not so sure I like him opening against the Duke's ball in the first week of April. Well I think, again I asked Jason about this and you know, It's a left-hand, right-hand combination and it's youth and experience combination as well. I honestly don't see them opening with Archie Vaughan and Josh Thomas, two youngsters in April against good seam attacks on greenish pitches. I think, you know, they need some experience. How well TKC will do under these circumstances is another matter altogether. You I think... ⁓ somewhat ambitious shot in the first innings and then I think he got done between bat and pad in the second innings. Yeah, that's very much in the Somerset tradition. know, Harold, you'd let Marcus Drisgothic go out and, you know, take the attack on the enemy right from the start. I mean, I would I know it's tinkering around with it again, but I'm just looking at that top six and I just feel that TKC will give you more value maybe down at six and Goldsworthy. Who's going to go in first with Josh Thomas then? Well, Goldsworthy? I think though it's easy to forget April is not a bad month for batting It's kind of a myth that April is actually a good month for bowling a bad month for batting The batting averages actually go down as the season progresses April I think is statistically the best month for batting and it'll be the case every single season but Largely, it's a better month than people think for batting because the pitch is actually fresher then I mean it might also depend on the winter that we've just had if and how green green the pitchers are but I don't think there's necessarily anything wrong with TKC opening in April. And I think there's good reasons to think that he should be one of the openers. I just feel he just goes a bit hard. He just needs to be a little bit softer hands, little bit more Tom Able, just a bit more waiting for it. know, Joe Root just really waiting for it to come to you. He just goes a little bit... It's the way I play. Well, yeah, I know it's a way play. It's a brilliant way. And yeah, it gets a cooker very fantastic. think I don't know. just think he brings more value to the side a bit more down the order. I think, you don't are you going to. It's difficult, he's a fantastic player. But I just, yeah, I think you get more value from TKC down at sort four or five. But then you're going with two inexperienced openers if you do that. That's the problem. And are we then leaving out Goldsworthy? Because it's then two out of Goldsworthy. I put Goldsworthy up. mean, had a Goldsworthy's done really well in the middle order. Like, he's not had many chances in recent years. know, literally the last game we played, he scored a century at Chelmsford. And that's why he's been back in the preseason game to keep that role. I had kind of thought before the season that goals that he might end up being squeezed out. But in the Morgan game, was Vaughan who was squeezed out. And that might be the case for the first game of the season. Because Josh Thomas is the one who also just scored 8-6 against Essex in the last game he played. Vaughan didn't score any 50s opening last season. His only 50 was when he scored 80 down the order against Sussex. So it might be that logically... Vaughan has to be the one who misses out, which would be a shame for him and it wouldn't be a long-term thing, but right now it might be him that has to miss out, sadly. But when I spoke to him yesterday, he said he wasn't going to do it again. I'll go with a little scraggler and get yourself on top of the order. And get TKC comes in lower down. That's what then enabled Vaughn to go down and get a bit of confidence back. And you can put him as a silencer. Just gives us a lot more balance. But I want to do it again. It is a tricky one. Maybe TKC's got the big shots out of his system now and he's just been working on it a bit later. I wouldn't say it's actually. I know there's a sort of Zach draw the element to this, isn't there? Not really. So I mean I think we're there's a group that was sticking with Josh Thomas and Tom Kohler-Cavmore. Yeah. Lamonby at three, at four, Ru's not. I'd like to Ru at media day, James Ru at media day. He's not not for moving. He likes it at four. ⁓ Abel at five, Gosworthy six, Gregory at seven. And then we've got the four bowlers. We'll leach from Craig Overson to Defenes. So the other two would be what, Migo and Alfie Ogborn? I would. I think so. as long as makes fit, know, but definitely for me, definitely for me. OK, so we're definitely people. So let's say Victoria's isn't Who do we go for then? would you would go what you would be Josh Shaw, be Jake Ball, JT Langridge is an outside pick. Jake Ball against this former county. Yeah, would it be a bit of extra edge for him there? don't know. Possibly. think balls are better at bowler than short, I think. So I would go with him ahead, sure. But they'll be rotation, and they're sure will go games at some point. Really soon. Good stuff not still of course Josh tongue not in there 11 and he's being rested We know in the last time he played was was it the last actually stasis. He wouldn't played a Hell of a lot of cricket between now and then and he sort of rested the game Yeah, because the bend up and I guess been tested as well as any despite how it's not been rested as well Yeah, and it seems a while since the t20 World Cup which I know he was in the squad, but he didn't play a massive part in so I mean that only I looked on the It's completely bonkers with the ECB saying they want to take more notice of county cricket and get the England players playing more county cricket. You get a batsman like Ben Duckett who must be absolutely desperate to get out there and bat after, you know, sitting on the bench throughout the T20 World Cup, not getting any runs in the ashes, desperate to make the case for him to keep his place in the England side and they don't let him play. Absolutely barmy. And I've just looked as well. not only play two games before their bi-week as well. So they have two games, rest week, then four games. So you think that Duckett could easily play both of these first two, because he could play game two, then have a week off anyway. I mean, we shouldn't be, we're not complaining obviously, but... Yeah, I looked on the Nottinghamshire website, they've got 31 players signed up to their men's squad. Now some of them are blast only, but the scale of, you know, talk about squad rotation, they've got a lot of people to think about in terms of who to squeeze into their team. So they can, they've still got a pretty strong team, even without tongue and duck. We're about 20, 21, aren't we? 23 but that's including Sam's and Merida's. It's not a lot is it? know, sort of demonstrated by a conversation that Ipatorius is in a bit. He's down to Ball and, he said Ball and Chain now. Ball and Joffre who are, yeah I Ball was sort of well down the peck in order when Davey and Aldrich went so it is. Yeah, that's kind of focused the issue a little bit, but you know, nobody's ever going to get injured ever again and we'll be fine. Joe Clark, we've seen Joe Clark score too many runs in years gone by against us, haven't we? Hamid's another one who'll bat forever. Hamid can be a little bit like a little bit of a buddy for Craig early on, but then he just drops anchor. Craig can, if Craig nips him out for two or three overs, then he gets past that, he's in. ⁓ Yes, very much looking forward to it. Well, the last four tauntings we played nots have been absolute ball draws, haven't they? That's two at Taunton and two at Trent Bridge. So, I mean, we'll see how the game goes. I don't know if we'll be praying for a draw or not. So I don't know if it's going to be a good omen. the game in last season was the one where Matt Henry went open with TKC as a sort of a quasi night watchman and then tried to put, was it Liam Paterson White in the River Tone on the final day? Yeah. Anyway, I mean that goes back to our earlier point about Torren pictures because that was a relatively sedate and worry free navigation towards the draw on day four wasn't it? Helmed by TKC. Was he not out 100? Definitely got a really big 100. Yeah, he got on. Good stuff. What other news has been going on then? I think Lord Barber left since we last recorded Peter. Obviously very He was very influential, very well connected man and certainly fought the club's cause in not looking for any reductions to the Championship Quick or indeed any cricket. Unfortunately, he wasn't able to convince a number of his peers that that was the way to go. yeah, we did talk about this, didn't we, on our last one? We did. You made a joke that him and Lord Botham wouldn't be political Soviets and in fact was the title of our last podcast. But I will, are you, there's a rumour that you're throwing your name into the ring, is that? It's a rumour that I've just started but you know. It's a rumour. Is that true Dan? Are you in the running to be the next chair? Sorry, me? Yeah, see that was true there, you see, you thought I was talking a bit. Oh, yeah, I totally am, yeah, before my business comes. my networking skills. emailed ECB on regular occasions about a myriad topics. I have lot of influence over them. Absolutely. But joking aside, Peter, I guess the recruitment process is well underway. Yeah. So the closing date, I think is the 10th of April, Richard Bryce is the acting chair. And the plan is to try and have a new chair to take for approval to the to the AGM which I think is end of June so there's a bit of time to to work it through and in in the meantime Richard's holding the reins. stuff if any of our listeners are interested please just email your CVs to recruitment at Somerset Countycc.co.uk and I'm sure you'll be invited in for an interview. I don't know, is it down the wall, on the wall in the job centre? Maybe not, maybe it's more of a... All that accountability and all that responsibility for zero, zero money. It's a much better gig being the president because you're accountable and responsible for nothing. Well, it seems like it's an even more better gig being managing director of England Men's Cricket because you get all the accountability and all the money, but actually none of the accountability and zero risk of being sacked. Fantastic. There's a point. So we have five minutes on that. What a joke that's in. I mean, I'm sure every other podcast has jumped on it before we have, but I mean, how can... Well, it's interesting the number of players that speaking out in the last few days, isn't it? People who feel that what they must either feel that their bridges are burned or the strength in numbers, but there's five or six of them now that have expressed concern about how they feel they've been treated. And I expect there are fair few others who haven't actually played yet who might feel similar but couldn't or wouldn't say that because there's an opportunity. now to potentially be selected for the summer but ⁓ doesn't feel a very happy situation does it i mean i think He's just got no credibility left in that role, has he? He might have with the players, but certainly with the fans and the media. Everyone's looking at McCollum now and going, how are you still in the job? What are you still doing here? And he's either got to go completely against his principles, which is why he was picked for the job in the first place, is this, you know. And he did, you know, let's not get things wrong. He did give a new Lisa Leiter to the senior players in the side who are coming towards the end of their careers. But he's not really done much to help the younger players in the team. I mean, no one's really got gotten any better. mean, you know, our old mate bash, he looked pretty much the same bowl or he was when he went into the side. And then they kind of don't a massive load to his confidence by taking him all the way around the world to Australia, and not picking him when they should have done. And you got all this sort of the discipline issues, you can tell a Joe route and a James Anderson, don't worry, boys, I trust you don't have a curfew. Can't really do that to 21 year old lads, because no matter how much quickening talent you've got, and how much of good player you are, you still have the brain of a 21-year-old idiot. And if you are allowed to go out on the piss, you will go out on the piss. A lot of the elements of McCombs' philosophy have been exposed, haven't they? And yet we're still persisting with him. None of the fans really want him to continue, none of the fans really want Rob Keyes to continue, but we are. this summer we've got New Zealand and Pakistan, which... ⁓ Easy series New Zealand's not an easy series Pakistan easier. It's one of the lower key so it's every other summer It's a lower key summer than the other summers off to Australia. This is the lower key The test series we might win both those test series and things like that Okay, we're okay again, but then the ashes comes around next year and then we might we could easily struggle again But we might not though because Australia aren't this this I know they just beat us But like they're gonna be even older then they've got quite an old team. So We might win accidentally in the ashes and McCollum might secure his legacy that way, but I don't know. No one is, I just feel like no one is satisfied with this going forward. And I think there's an element of ECB just not being bothered. These are kind of bothered to make a change. They don't want to make the payout to McCollum to end this contract early. So yeah, it's just, yeah, no one is happy at the moment. would be nice to feel that people are working collectively on improving the pathways between county cricket and test cricket. I mean, that's what really bothers us and people like us, isn't it? Where's the connection and the progression from the sort of long form cricket which we are watching and the long form cricket that appears in international cricket? And it's been asserted to us for a considerable period now that these games are so completely different that ⁓ you can select people on a kind of hunch or a whim and they will succeed international cricket because There are people who really understand international cricket and then there are other people who will play very nicely at county cricket but that's their level and we'll leave them to it. Every bit of me feels that it can't be that simple and that detached and it feels like there's an acknowledgement somewhere that they haven't quite got that right and there's supposed to be this meeting next week between the directors of cricket and and the ECB to talk about all that and who knows that one would like to think that something constructive and a stronger sense of collective, you know, endeavor and appreciation might come out of that. who knows? I'll tell you something that's just popped into my mind. Every so often when you go to watch Quigley at Dawn, you'd get like a little bit of a Chinese whispers, oh, there's a selector here. I remember James Taylor being there one day and I count for the life in the last three or four years remember that happening. Get in the room and select it, Luke writes it, whoever's here, Brandon McCollum's here or whatever. I think that goes back to your point Peter, about this disconnect. Bashir was picked off the live stream wasn't he? Didn't people say Bashir? Bashir was picked because someone saw him on the live stream bowling to Alistair He on the YouTube clip. Oh yeah. When he was bowling at Essay. They have said there's a bit more to it than that. I think there is, but you know, if something that you see a player doing on it, doesn't matter where the sources, you know, if you see somebody, your first introduction to a brilliant player is by what they do on a TikTok video, whatever. And then you go further. think that's right. I don't think you would just, they saw that and then he made him a plane ticket to India. He did go to Alliance training camp and and was spending a good few weeks out there being assessed along with a load of other English gym bowlers. But yeah, McCollum's on the other side of the world. I think he needs to win back hearts and minds as well as winning cricket matches. Possibly, you know, be seen out among the Shires. Possibly. ⁓ know, talk to people. Something that's strange is that we've known for ages that Luke Wright is stepping down as selector or has to down. But they've only just powered the advertisement for the new selector. So they won't even be in place for the start of the season. Like, why were they not making sure we got to you if they wanted to connect county cricket and England team again, why wouldn't they making sure the selectives in place for the first round of games? No, it's mad. They just don't engage their captain. Yeah, I mean, mean, do you remember when you used to have selectors with a chairman? or charters, they go around the country and they report back on players. Apparently they do have scouts now, don't they? I just don't think they really will. And the selection panel now is basically Key, McCollum, Stokes and the selector. But the selector, i.e. Luke Wright, doesn't really have as much influence as the old sort of chief selector used to have. So it's different. There's no perfect way of doing selecting, I don't think. Every country uses different models of some countries have the captain have a vote, some don't, know, it changes all the time. There hasn't really been a golden age of English cricket, test cricket selection has there? mean, there's some horror stories from back in the day when the youth staff selection committees who would, I'm not sure they saw very much more cricket than they see now, but they had very good long lunches at Lord's and then picked half the team from Surrey and half the team from Yorkshire. forget whose book it was in is they picked Monty Lynch because someone said lynch scatting said yes and it turned out he thought they said lunch that is the apocryphal story of how montly once ended up paying for england so But yeah, I mean, it's a common theme in all the autobiographies you read. Generally, Mr. Raymond Dillingworth is at the heart of most of those. Talking of gapping, have you seen that a whole load of Middlesex players have written a letter to Middlesex complaining about how their county has been run? And a whole lot of Lancashire players have written to Lancashire complaining about how Lancashire's been run and a whole lot of Sussex players have written to Sussex complaining about their being run. I'm not quite sure what the ex-Summerset players are up to, but a vote of confidence from them would be welcome. Well, I think Andy Cleve is the chief complainant about that. He's confined to the lack of recruitment of a second overseas. Is this where you're officially for compliments and you want to sort of say that to your wife? I'm very content with how the club's doing at the moment. It's interesting, isn't it? How the and these are ⁓ particularly Middlesex and Sussex, you know, these are counties that are suffering as a consequence of being non hundred counties, I think, and some of the kind of pressures that they are now facing and the difficulties and challenges are being seen by a whole lot of people in the game who perhaps haven't been as quick to understand some of the ways in which the tectonic plates are shifting in in cricket. It's funny because from what I've gathered is that the Middlesex and Sussex members, they're suffering because they're not 100 county and that's where the members are based off. Whereas Lancashire is a bit the opposite way around is the members are based off that they are 100 county and that's all the board seem to care about is 100 and hotels and not the fact that you know we're in division two what are you doing to get us out of division two? That's true yeah I think you're right. ⁓ but, there's a lot of unhappiness in a number of places in the run up to the season, which, you know, we're feeling a bit more buoyant than that. Aren't we? think we are. And I think we also need to recognize that as not just fans of Somerset and members of Somerset, but of all the other counties fight like fuck to keep your mutual status. So you do have a, ⁓ a voice. Resist. Absolutely resist any changes to demutualize your counties, put them in private ownership because that is really the start of the slippery slope. I we only had the one question from Andy Cleve which we dealt with for the listens questions this week. ⁓ I feel like there's something in the back of my mind that we've forgotten to talk about. found there's three things which I think have come up since the last podcast which we've not talked about. So the first thing kind of relates what we were just saying. sorry I haven't listened to that. I meant the last podcast. get used to these daily podcasts kids, they're not going to be good. Do remember we did them every night for the Bob Willis Trophy? ⁓ yeah. We were all locked in our houses and we couldn't do anything else apart from look about the cricket that we watched that day. Yeah, sorry Dan. ⁓ Yeah, so the competition must not be named auction obviously happened and just to talk about the auction before it happened and just in relation to the one day cup, we've lost eight. players. So basically, it's the guys we we expect to lose plus the two ruse which is going to be a big blow to our chances in the one day cup. That's the you know, our number four and five ripped out of the side but it's you know, it's going to create opportunities for other guys to go up the order. Josh Thomas and Finn Hill will have more responsibility this year. So hopefully they can take on that mantle if we're going to try and look at it positively and we obviously don't have a wicketkeeper now and I know at the media day they were asked about that and they They're going to cross that bridge when they come through the other sides of it. So that'd be fun. mean, Finn Hill was keeping to ⁓ Archie Vaughan during breaks in play at Le Morgan. He wasn't just admitting, he was probably kitted out and keeping gear. And there's also the lad Ben Church, who's on the academy and has been keeping his captain of the twos in a few games as well. So he's also going to come into contention. I'd probably rather go with an established keeper. somebody who's kind of on the pathway rather than trying to make Finnear who's been buying a bit of offspring as well into a keeper. Obviously I would prefer really that the 100 and stolen four of our keepers. I think my coming out of retirement is a pipe dream. don't think I'm pretty much on the radar, which is very distressing to me. Maybe they'll do a competition for publicity. A cricket star competition hosted by Prigo. You could be the next Somerset keeper. Exactly. ⁓ Maybe if we're out of the tournament and we dead rubber last at home to Lancashire. the UR Somerset match, it? It's like they kind of fuzzed it with the theme. You literally are Somerset. They'll chuck the beach balls into the crowd or something or whoever's got one left. Wasn't there a manager who was like they'd already got promoted back in the football league. just brought himself on as a sub at the 94th minute of a game. can't remember. brings about. Some of the prices as well I think now it's the auction. mean so James went for 31 grand, Thomas went for 80 while he was in a was it changes from what story you read it was either a chemistry lesson or an economics lesson that he was in and was naughty James Roo had his phone on him in a lesson watching Thomas Roo, sorry, not Thomas Roo. I've got detention for that. Reason for detention. Watching myself get an 80,000 pound contract in a competition that should not be named. But surprisingly, Lewis Gregory is the absolute bargain of all time at 55k. It's just auctions are weird. You shouldn't read too much into the prices of players. It doesn't mean that so and so is better than another player because they got more money. It's just that the players that are available at the time, if there's a bit of a bidding war, you shouldn't read too much into it, I don't Poor old Lewis Gregory's got wife and kids to feed. Thomas Ru only 18. on. Poor professional cricketers. ⁓ Yeah, but anyway, so yeah, we're down the way and you know with the squad being shrunk as it is, it doesn't, it does rather point the one day cup team sort of bare bones. Skipper, who would your one day cup skipper be? ⁓ that's a very good question. ⁓ will. There's no sport. Jake Paul. Paul. At media day, sat in the captain's position, so we know that it's not going to be him. Jake Paul. Paul. Jack Leach is another option. I don't know if Jack's ever fancy being captain. Has Jack ever captain the side before? We that season where we had about nine captains, didn't we? Maxwell did it. Josh Davy did it. Greener did it. Leech has never captained the first team, he has captained the second team I'm pretty sure on the odd occasion. I mean my left field bat, I'll go for, Alpha Yardborn might be. about. think he's got a good character Alfie. like the way he talks. He's very young. needs to concentrate on his book. I'm going to look now at the age that Alfie Oldbourne is. He's not going to be 40. think he's like a year or two older than you think he is Alfie. So Alfie is 22 years, 260 days. Alfie is the 15th of July. So that's not going to be far off what Tom Aver was. Tom was 23 I think wasn't he? Yeah, so it's got to be more or less. think Vaughan and Lamonby are also candidates. Yeah, Vaughan's obviously done it for England under 19s. Peter, who's your, I mean, we're just, you you can tell we're running up the wall, the clock down a little bit now we're talking about. I don't know. I haven't thought of it. I quite like a few weeks of just kind of wandering around the ground and chatting to a few of them and thinking about it with that thought in mind, because we don't need to decide that. that, so I don't know. It's an interesting one, isn't it? It worked well for Ben Green. It worked well for Sean Dixon. I think we've shown good judgement in who we've... Well I suppose they've left but they did it, I think they both did it well. It could be good for Lombi. MS Tony's still playing, you never know. He doesn't do much outside of the IPL, so he will be free. think it's been admitted that he basically can't bat for very long because he's that unfit. Not that he's unfit, but he's just so old and his joints are creaking, so he can barely bat. It's astonishing that he's still an IPL player. Anyway. I share his pain. Right any other any other business then? was things. things. Oh come on. It's the women's team. So the first thing is we named our leadership group which obviously Lough's been confirmed as captain and we've in a very Australian manner with Aaron Osborne as head coach. We've named joint vice captains which is Neve Holland and Emma Corne, no not Emma Corne, Bex Alderson. So I'm guessing Holland will be first choice vice captain. She did captain a few times last season didn't she when Lough was injured in the during the blast. The other things obviously we signed the bit more to talk about the women. Their first game isn't for, it's the 11th of April isn't it? that'll be next Saturday. Yeah. Yorkshire I think, so we'll have a good old chat about the women next time round. Do we want to mention about the overseas player we signed? should we leave that? Let's do it. Yeah, just Annika Leroyd who I had to... had to research her to find out how good she was. But I think she's a solid signing. You're not an international player, so she won't be taken by Australia. But she's sort of on the fringes, plays for Australia A, has a pretty good record in domestic cricket. She's basically Fran Wilson's replacement as top order batter. She's not had the best seasons, it has to be said, in the 50-over competition in Australia. But across the last few years, she's sort of been one of the top players over there. She should be a solid signing. I think she's around for the second game of the season. yeah, happy to have her. Good. Yeah, we'll have a good old chat about the prospects for Somerset women next week ahead of their first game against Yorkshire as well as hopefully chatting about Somerset win against Notts in the championship. Do we have any other business chat this week? Not this one on the head? Good stuff. I'm going to be there on Friday and possibly Monday if there's any chance of a result. I can't make it over the weekend, unfortunately. So I'll catch up with you with you all then. It just amazed me to say thank you very much for listening. Best of luck to Lewis, Gregory and the boys as they kick off their bid for a first ever county championship against the reigning champions of Nottingham at the Premier Associates County Ground on Friday. Hopefully see you all there. yeah, thanks for listening and good night.