Leicestershire County Cricket Club

[Mark 'expert' Lawrenson]

Don’t the club have to spend a certain amount on players anyway? Pretty sure that money can’t be siphoned off around the rest of the club either. It’s ECB rules or have I imagined it? 

[MaidstoneFox]

5 hours ago, Graceroad said:

The blame  for the mess we are in lies sorely with Jarvis.Why give Wright a 2 year contract when you knew he would be suspended  for half a season why give Patel a 3 year contract on Div 1 wages yes he's a great player and of course we didn't want to lose him but don't go out and pay players money we can't afford why go out and sign 2 OS players for the one day cup again money we could have saved.Also it's just bizarre that nobody told Jarvis that signing Rahane would not attract  Indian fans to Grace Road they didn't even turn up when we signed Schwag  at the height of his powers.

Wright - because he's our best bowler and a great pro who will help the younger bowlers.

Patel - because he's a great prospect and the only way of holding on to him. There is also the chance he may get an ECB contract which would relieve us of some of his wage load.

OS players - we're defending champions. Only right we gave it a go at defending our title, and we weren't far off.

Rahane - I don't think it's just about appealing to Indian fans. He's a quality player and we still have a chance of promotion to div 1. Furthermore, he's an ex-Indian captain and another experienced pro that the youngsters can surely learn from.

 

Aside from all that, it's surely Claude's responsibility to decide on players and contracts. Jarvis would just sign off his recommendations.

[MaidstoneFox]

On 19/08/2024 at 16:56, LBTufty said:

Two years after leaving the county, spinner Nathan Bowley is back playing in our 2nd XI clash with Glamorgan. Rishi Patel opened the innings and made a brisk 45 from 54 balls. No sign of Rehan, nor Mike (presumably still injured).

And he scored 98. He's been doing well in the Birmingham Premier League, which is a good standard, as much as a batter than bowler, so maybe the club are taking another look at him. Good to see quite few of the under-18s in that second XL.

[Cakey]

3 hours ago, Father Ted said:

Realistically, how many of those seamers are fully fit and/or available? 
 

And realistically, how much are we forking out towards a loan? I’d imagine it’s quite a minimal amount anyway as it’s beneficial to both the player and Somerset at this moment in time.

Most are fit I think. Don't know how much we are paying, not alot hopefully. 

 

He is a good white ball bowler but nothing special in red ball cricket imo

 

Hopefully proves me wrong

[Graceroad]

1 hour ago, MaidstoneFox said:

Wright - because he's our best bowler and a great pro who will help the younger bowlers.

Patel - because he's a great prospect and the only way of holding on to him. There is also the chance he may get an ECB contract which would relieve us of some of his wage load.

OS players - we're defending champions. Only right we gave it a go at defending our title, and we weren't far off.

Rahane - I don't think it's just about appealing to Indian fans. He's a quality player and we still have a chance of promotion to div 1. Furthermore, he's an ex-Indian captain and another experienced pro that the youngsters can surely learn from.

 

Aside from all that, it's surely Claude's responsibility to decide on players and contracts. Jarvis would just sign off his recommendations.

Don't disagree with any of that but you are missing the point we are losing money hand over fist and spending money we haven't got. Of course we didn't want to lose Patel but offering the same amount of money as Warwickshire is just total madness.  Have to disagree about the central  contract and not sure he can be called a prospect at 26 he's already behind the 2 Warwickshire boys who are way younger and also obvs  behind Lawrence and Cox

[Beagle]

Alfonso has gone on record saying that the Club’s philosophy is to keep a small permanent playing squad and rely on loan players to fill in the gaps caused by injuries and other absences. The Green loan is consistent with that. 

[CrawlingFox]

2 minutes ago, Graceroad said:

Don't disagree with any of that but you are missing the point we are losing money hand over fist and spending money we haven't got. Of course we didn't want to lose Patel but offering the same amount of money as Warwickshire is just total madness.  Have to disagree about the central  contract and not sure he can be called a prospect at 26 he's already behind the 2 Warwickshire boys who are way younger and also obvs  behind Lawrence and Cox

I don't think it would make much difference in any of these examples. The difference in what we offered Wright or Patel vs what we'd have to pay replacements isn't touching even a fraction of 500k and neither are short term overseas signings which frankly don't cost that much. Handscomb was here for the season in anycase and imagine Neesham and Stirling signed relatively cheaply on a gamble of making the knock outs. I'd rather the club was ambitious and fell short than settled for achieving nothing. We might risk financial hardship with the former approach but guarantee it with the latter.

 

A much bigger risk in my opinion would have been not signing these players, being crap again and losing whatever positive momentum we do have. Of course we might be doomed either way.

[CrawlingFox]

Just to add Rahane is maybe more of a debate but isn't he here for the run in? If he scores a lot of runs and we're promoted suddenly it's money well spent. 

Edited 20 August by CrawlingFox

[Tommy Fresh]

25 minutes ago, Graceroad said:

Don't disagree with any of that but you are missing the point we are losing money hand over fist and spending money we haven't got. Of course we didn't want to lose Patel but offering the same amount of money as Warwickshire is just total madness.  Have to disagree about the central  contract and not sure he can be called a prospect at 26 he's already behind the 2 Warwickshire boys who are way younger and also obvs  behind Lawrence and Cox

Have you mentioned giving Swindells a new deal purely based on the final? As good as that innings was, don't dish out deals on emotion

[Beagle]

5 hours ago, Cakey said:

Also signing Green on loan when they send that email is taking the piss really. 

 

We have four players on full time contracts who never play, two of them haven't played all year. 

 

Why do we need another bowler we have Holland Green, Hull, Wright, Walker, Salisbury, Scriven, Curry, other Green, Ahmed, Trevaskis and when fit Mike. 

Holland (loan) fit; Green still very young and inexperienced; Hull ditto; Wright still not quite up to speed yet following a long absence and has recently picked up a niggle; Walker fit I think; Salisbury injured short term; Scriven fit after recent injury; Currie (loan) fit I think; Ahmed who knows!! ; Trevaskis fit after recent injury; Mike injured. Taking Somerset Green on loan makes sense in the face of five fourth-day games in five weeks, especially if he is just twiddling his thumbs at Taunton. And you’ve overlooked Sam Woods - also very young and inexperienced. 

[Beagle]

4 minutes ago, Tommy Fresh said:

Have you mentioned giving Swindells a new deal purely based on the final? As good as that innings was, don't dish out deals on emotion

Sometimes you just have to do the right thing! 

[Tommy Fresh]

Just now, Beagle said:

Sometimes you just have to do the right thing! 

Not when you're talking about money being tight

[Cakey]

1 hour ago, Beagle said:

Holland (loan) fit; Green still very young and inexperienced; Hull ditto; Wright still not quite up to speed yet following a long absence and has recently picked up a niggle; Walker fit I think; Salisbury injured short term; Scriven fit after recent injury; Currie (loan) fit I think; Ahmed who knows!! ; Trevaskis fit after recent injury; Mike injured. Taking Somerset Green on loan makes sense in the face of five fourth-day games in five weeks, especially if he is just twiddling his thumbs at Taunton. And you’ve overlooked Sam Woods - also very young and inexperienced. 

I don't mind loans if it's an improvement but not sure he is. Curry Holland and Goldworthy were but let's see. 

 

If he makes an impact great.  

 

We can I think.look to get another seamer in closed season.

 

I mean Swindells and Evans were just pointless contracts. No intention to play them at all seemingly. That must be the best part of what 80k right there 

[Cakey]

1 hour ago, Beagle said:

Holland (loan) fit; Green still very young and inexperienced; Hull ditto; Wright still not quite up to speed yet following a long absence and has recently picked up a niggle; Walker fit I think; Salisbury injured short term; Scriven fit after recent injury; Currie (loan) fit I think; Ahmed who knows!! ; Trevaskis fit after recent injury; Mike injured. Taking Somerset Green on loan makes sense in the face of five fourth-day games in five weeks, especially if he is just twiddling his thumbs at Taunton. And you’ve overlooked Sam Woods - also very young and inexperienced. 

Sam Wood does look good I'd forgotten about him, I'm told Green (our green) is a very good rugby player also. Obviously decided to go down the cricket route, good luck to him. 

[Harboro]

How do the reciprocal county agreements work? Could I rock up to any county match where there’s an agreement or only when it’s that county v leics

[MaidstoneFox]

2 hours ago, Graceroad said:

Don't disagree with any of that but you are missing the point we are losing money hand over fist and spending money we haven't got. Of course we didn't want to lose Patel but offering the same amount of money as Warwickshire is just total madness.  Have to disagree about the central  contract and not sure he can be called a prospect at 26 he's already behind the 2 Warwickshire boys who are way younger and also obvs  behind Lawrence and Cox

It's a tricky balance the club has to make between retaining players, showing ambition and balancing the books. Part of our remit is also to develop players for England, which we're clearly doing with Rehan, Hull, Patel and Green in the under-19s. Remains to be seen where Rishi will be in 12 months, performance wise. I didn't think he'd have such a good Blast season and all it takes is a run of good form, a couple of injuries and you can end up in the England picture. Jordan Cox was nowhere near the England side last year. I know Northants have made a profit this year but they've also been unable to retain their talented opening bat, who has gone to Durham.

 

I've no idea how county have managed to make a loss of £500k this year and £400k last, when we've been trimming the squad to reduce the wage bill. Paying off Nicko probably had an impact in one of those years. The concerts haven't been a big success, I think Elton was the only one they made decent money from.

[HaroldBazBo]

The grounds massive, we need planning for apartments on the far side to generate a dollop of cash.

[FarmerWhite]

This post and links are from a Somerset supporter and are about the recent semi-final. I have not posted on this site before and so, if this post is in the wrong place I would be grateful if it could be moved to the correct place.

 

The boat may have sailed on this one, but for anyone interested the link below will take you to my report on the Somerset v Leicestershire semi-final at Taunton.

I am a lifelong Somerset supporter (I well remember the rivalry between Brian Close and Ray Illingworth when they were captains of our two Clubs) who writes about Somerset cricket. I publish match reports from time to time on my 'blog' - Farmer White Somerset Cricket Writing. I write from a Somerset perspective but try to be even-handed in my description of a match. I try to capture the experience of being at the match as well as the play itself.

 

This match was one of the best white ball matches seen at Taunton in many years, and there have been a few. It was 50-over cricket its very best. Two teams gave their all from over 1 to over 100, and in the end, perhaps the difference between the sides on the day was a few millimetres of bat's width determining which hits went for six and which were caught on the boundary, or something else as close. Neither side had its top white ball players available and, on the day, the absence of none of them was noticed. The standing ovation as the two teams walked off was entirely deserved by both. May all matches be played in such a spirit. And good luck to Leicestershire for the rest of the season and beyond.

 

For anyone who fancies a (long) reliving of the match, here is the link:

 

https://farmerwhite.co.uk/2024/08/20/a-wonderful-game-of-cricket-somerset-v-leicestershire-metro-bank-one-day-cup-2024-semi-final-18th-august-taunton/

 

And this link will take you to one or two other reports on Somerset v Leicestershire matches I have written in recent years:

 

https://farmerwhite.co.uk/tag/v-leicestershire/

 

Links to all other sections on the site can be found in the maroon panel at the side or bottom of thr page depending on what type of device is used to access the blog.

 

With kind regards to all

 

Farmer White

[SemperEadem]

9 hours ago, Harboro said:

How do the reciprocal county agreements work? Could I rock up to any county match where there’s an agreement or only when it’s that county v leics

It is different at each club. Used to be a little more straight forward but some say only allowed in when we are not the away team.

[Harboro]

1 hour ago, SemperEadem said:

It is different at each club. Used to be a little more straight forward but some say only allowed in when we are not the away team.

Ah ok thanks for that! Maybe a question for the ticket office when next season’s have been agreed. Living outside of the county it definitely makes a membership more appealing

Edited 21 August by Harboro

[Graceroad]

13 hours ago, CrawlingFox said:

I don't think it would make much difference in any of these examples. The difference in what we offered Wright or Patel vs what we'd have to pay replacements isn't touching even a fraction of 500k and neither are short term overseas signings which frankly don't cost that much. Handscomb was here for the season in anycase and imagine Neesham and Stirling signed relatively cheaply on a gamble of making the knock outs. I'd rather the club was ambitious and fell short than settled for achieving nothing. We might risk financial hardship with the former approach but guarantee it with the latter.

 

A much bigger risk in my opinion would have been not signing these players, being crap again and losing whatever positive momentum we do have. Of course we might be doomed either way.

We would still have made a huge loss agree with you on that however regarding Patel he turned down Warwickshire  and Essex and signed a new 3 year contract so he will be on way more then the Club normally pay and can afford must be around the £100k kind  of range we don't generate anywhere near enough money to justify those kind of figures.Also have to disagree  the OS players were not  relatively  cheap  Neesham has a decent market value Stirling earned around £10k for 2 matches we could easily have played Lewis Hill in those games and your not signing Rahane unless you pay very decent money.Agree it's finding the right balance our last CEO Karen Rothley  cancelled the old players day when she was in charge to save the club £200 quid

[Graceroad]

30 minutes ago, Harboro said:

Ah ok thanks for that! Maybe a question for the ticket office when next season’s have been agreed. Living outside of the county it definitely makes a membership more appealing

From my understanding you can attend any championship game that the club are in agreement  with unless they are playing the foxes. I attend Trent Bridge a few times a season on my Leicestershire membership

[Graceroad]

11 hours ago, MaidstoneFox said:

It's a tricky balance the club has to make between retaining players, showing ambition and balancing the books. Part of our remit is also to develop players for England, which we're clearly doing with Rehan, Hull, Patel and Green in the under-19s. Remains to be seen where Rishi will be in 12 months, performance wise. I didn't think he'd have such a good Blast season and all it takes is a run of good form, a couple of injuries and you can end up in the England picture. Jordan Cox was nowhere near the England side last year. I know Northants have made a profit this year but they've also been unable to retain their talented opening bat, who has gone to Durham.

 

I've no idea how county have managed to make a loss of £500k this year and £400k last, when we've been trimming the squad to reduce the wage bill. Paying off Nicko probably had an impact in one of those years. The concerts haven't been a big success, I think Elton was the only one they made decent money from.

They did quite well  with the Tom Jones concert. It's a mystery why this year wasn't so successful just wasn't a fantastic day

[Tommy Fresh]

2 hours ago, Graceroad said:

We would still have made a huge loss agree with you on that however regarding Patel he turned down Warwickshire  and Essex and signed a new 3 year contract so he will be on way more then the Club normally pay and can afford must be around the £100k kind  of range we don't generate anywhere near enough money to justify those kind of figures.Also have to disagree  the OS players were not  relatively  cheap  Neesham has a decent market value Stirling earned around £10k for 2 matches we could easily have played Lewis Hill in those games and your not signing Rahane unless you pay very decent money.Agree it's finding the right balance our last CEO Karen Rothley  cancelled the old players day when she was in charge to save the club £200 quid

I'd rather we try and keep players like Patel albeit on big wages then dish out average wages and new contracts to players we have no real intention of using.

[CrawlingFox]

4 hours ago, Graceroad said:

We would still have made a huge loss agree with you on that however regarding Patel he turned down Warwickshire  and Essex and signed a new 3 year contract so he will be on way more then the Club normally pay and can afford must be around the £100k kind  of range we don't generate anywhere near enough money to justify those kind of figures.Also have to disagree  the OS players were not  relatively  cheap  Neesham has a decent market value Stirling earned around £10k for 2 matches we could easily have played Lewis Hill in those games and your not signing Rahane unless you pay very decent money.Agree it's finding the right balance our last CEO Karen Rothley  cancelled the old players day when she was in charge to save the club £200 quid

These numbers are all speculation.

 

Stirling was on his way back to playing domestically in Ireland. Probably paid him a fraction of £10k.

 

Neesham may have cost something but again he was only here for a few matches so might have only been a few grand for a weeks work.

 

Given we lost Mulder we may have only been re-investing the money saved by him leaving early as well.

 

I'm also big Lewis Hill fan but he's not having a good season and his t20 record isn't great.

 

The club had a punt chasing finals day and fair play to them. Would rather that than meekly accept failure.

 

As I said before about Rahane if he scores lots of runs in the remaining CC games and we get promoted is it still a waste of money? Probably not.

 

In my opinion the club is right to show ambition on the pitch and the playing budget isn't the issue. Where Jarvis has work to do is off the pitch.