Time to turn to youth

Well what a good weekend that was for Kimberley Institute! On Saturday, all four teams won their respective league games, something that doesn’t happen very often. Then on Monday, the 1^st XI followed it up with another excellent win against a strong Welbeck Colliery side to make it three wins on the bounce in the Nottinghamshire Premier League. Winning is a habit, so they say.

We now have a fantastic opportunity this weekend to build up that momentum by winning again on Saturday at Ratcliffe-on-Trent. Then on Sunday we face West Indian Cavalliers for a place in the group final of the ECB National Club Championship. It would be great to see as many people down as possible at Newdigate Street on Sunday to cheer us on in what will no doubt be a tough match.

It was also very pleasing to see the England cricket team win the first Test Match against New Zealand at Lords on Monday. The team, and captain have taken a lot of stick recently, much of it slightly harsh in my opinion, so it was great to see them come out and play such excellent cricket in the second innings despite being up against it.

England still have a major problem however, with their choice of spin bowling. Moeen Ali is clearly a good all round cricketer. He can bat in the top or middle order as required, and within the current structure of this England team, is capable of holding an end up with his bowling. If however, England are going to be capable of winning Test Series regularly abroad, in particular in the sub continent, they must look away from Ali.

Moeen Ali can hold up an end but will he win tours away from home?

When I watched him bowl last summer at Trent Bridge, I was struck by how little he offered variation in flight and pace, such an important facet of any spin bowlers armoury. For all the variations Shane Warne had in terms of delivery, many of his wickets were down to deceiving players in the air, something Ali does not do often enough. In fact, I actually think that Joe Root has more potential as an international spinner than Ali as he has a better variation in flight and pace and can actually turn the ball more. If you invested more time into developing Root’s bowling, it could then allow you to bring in a young spinner in place of Ali who has more of what it takes. It was great to see England give young Mark Wood a chance this week, and no doubt people will be pleased with what they saw. 

Simon Kerrigan was given just one Test in the heat of an Ashes series.

Yet how many times have they given an opportunity for a young slow bowler to establish themselves? The last player they gave a chance to was Simon Kerrigan who struggled with nerves. But, the lad continues to do well in county cricket, this week spinning them to victory with another young finger spinner Arron Lilley, and maybe it is time for them to give one of these boys a chance. People often say, that there are no spinners in county cricket, and they are definitely correct in that there is a limited pool. However, until English cricket starts to take the role of spinners seriously, and works with counties to ensure that they get the right pitches and thus opportunities to bowl, we will always be left with ‘a batsman who bowls a bit’ and our chances of success limited in wider formats rather than just Test Matches in English conditions.

Bouncing back

Last weekend proved to be a very successful one for us at Kimberley. After a frustrating start, things started to click for both the 1^st XI and the 2^nd XI which resulted in two excellent wins. I was given the chance to have a good run out in the 2^nd XI this week, where I got the rare opportunity to open the batting, something I really enjoyed. Although, by Sunday I was regretting it as I was struggling to get up the stairs!

The first team game was dominated by a superb innings from Dominic Brown. Dom is a young man who works extremely hard on his game, and I was delighted to hear that he has scored his maiden 1^st XI century. Any hundred is special, but the context of this one in chasing down a big score of 270, after the results we have had in the first couple of games, makes it all the more impressive. I know Dominic has high ambitions with his cricket, and every season I have played with him I have seen improvements. This year he looks to be really blossoming, and I am of the opinion he could do something very special.

Dominic couldn’t have reached the target on his own though, and Kimberley were indebted to a superb supporting knock from Tom Rowe. Tom has really started to build up a head of steam, scoring 150 runs in two innings a fortnight ago, and then a good 70 on Saturday. If he can continue in that vein, with the positive way he bats, then our middle order starts to look very strong.

This coming weekend we face two league matches. Firstly, Attenborough away followed by Welbeck at home. Both will provide different challenges but they will be stern tests, and it is important we now build on the good batting display from Saturday.

Our success this season will be dependent on how well our young side are able to cope with pressurised situations. Performing well when your backs are up against the wall, and having the determination to turn around situations is a vital component for any successful side. Saturday was hopefully a big step in proving that we have the quality, but perhaps more importantly the shrewdness not to panic when things are not going for you. Here’s to another successful weekend. C’mon Kimberley! 

Can you smell it?

Can you smell it? If you just open your window a little bit you might catch the distinctive smell of freshly cut grass mixed with over cooked sausages on the neighbours BBQ. That’s right the summer is finally here! Well OK then, maybe not wall to wall sunshine, but it looks as though we are finally going to get some weather that is set fair for a period of time, which means for me, the cricket season starts in earnest.

The early weeks of a cricket season are always a funny time of year. It can often be tricky to build up any momentum as the training schedule and early fixtures are interrupted by inclement conditions. Down at Kimberley Institute, the winter has seen us continue the process of building a side which we hope can start to challenge for honours over the coming seasons. We are fully aware that the method we are using may take us time to fulfil the potential we think we have. However, this must not be an excuse for the fact that we have not yet in the league managed to put together an all round performance. Anyone who knows Nottinghamshire cricket, will know that the Premier League is an unforgiving place when you make too many errors. So we will continue to work hard to get the detail right. It is this approach of focusing on getting the smaller details right which should help us put together some stronger performances over the coming weeks.

In the week after a historic and unexpected election result, you would expect the headlines to be full of news of David Cameron fine tuning his new cabinet, which includes our local MP Anna Soubry who I would like to congratulate on her new role, especially as she is a keen supporter of our local Kimberley sports clubs.

Yet there is an enigmatic maverick who has been stealing the headlines once again (and I am not talking about Boris Johnson). Kevin Pietersen has once again split English cricket down the middle. Even within our changing room this week I have seen keen supporters of ‘KP’ arguing passionately with those who were happy to see the back of him. He is very much a marmite character.

However, this is all a real distraction from the serious business of how best to organise the governance of the national cricket team. The problem over the last two years, and especially since the Ashes whitewash, has been who is accountable for the performance of the England set-up. In my opinion, the new role of Andrew Strauss must be all empowering. It should be he who chooses the coach, the captain and the squad for each match. From here, he can select a squad for each match which gives the coach and captain the flexibility to use whichever blend they want. It is a naive view that players do not need technical coaching at international level (a criticism levelled at Peter Moores). They still need the environment from which to practise, develop and improve. However, they do need to be able to hone their skills in different environments, and I would like to see more of our top players encouraged where possible to play in tournaments such as the IPL and the Big Bash. There are some really talented players in the English game, but it is only when this happens that it will be possible to really start to change the brand and style of cricket that England play, something people have been asking for now for a while.