Essex Outfielder : The Unofficial Essex CCC Forum
Cricket => Essex Eagles T20 => Topic started by: JasonP on May 18, 2026, 06:35:58 PM
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First match on Friday. We were the worst team in the comp last year and it's certainly the format we are least suited to. It's hard to see us going much better this season. Our bowlers are all better red ball bowlers than white ball. We don't have one specialist white ball bowler, really. It was awful last year and the one decent bowler we had, Amir, isn't back. The batting lacks firepower aswell. No Allison for the first 4 matches and probably no Cox for the same period. Pepper, along with Cox our best T20 batter, is not in form.
The team for the first few matches may well be something like?
Elgar
Walter
Pepper
Critchley
Mulder
Benkenstein
Harmer
Thain
Snater
Akhtar
Cook
Looks very weak. Akhtar has played little T20 but will probably get a chance. Cook and Snater will almost certainly be rested at times as well. So Bennett or Killeen may play at times.
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The biggest insult I can give regarding that line-up is that I expect Middlesex to turn us over!
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First match on Friday. We were the worst team in the comp last year and it's certainly the format we are least suited to. It's hard to see us going much better this season. Our bowlers are all better red ball bowlers than white ball. We don't have one specialist white ball bowler, really. It was awful last year and the one decent bowler we had, Amir, isn't back. The batting lacks firepower aswell. No Allison for the first 4 matches and probably no Cox for the same period. Pepper, along with Cox our best T20 batter, is not in form.
The team for the first few matches may well be something like?
Elgar
Walter
Pepper
Critchley
Mulder
Benkenstein
Harmer
Thain
Snater
Akhtar
Cook
Looks very weak. Akhtar has played little T20 but will probably get a chance. Cook and Snater will almost certainly be rested at times as well. So Bennett or Killeen may play at times.
I didn't realise Allison was out. I think it's worth giving Das a go to open rather than Elgar, or possibly giving Fernandes the gloves to allow Pepper to concentrate on batting? Maybe Thain can be pushed up the order? With no Cox and no Allison, it's all looking a little lacking in spark.
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With Das opening, the silly shot will be over and done with a lot earlier. That will remove the sense of anticipation.
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First match on Friday. We were the worst team in the comp last year and it's certainly the format we are least suited to. It's hard to see us going much better this season. Our bowlers are all better red ball bowlers than white ball. We don't have one specialist white ball bowler, really. It was awful last year and the one decent bowler we had, Amir, isn't back. The batting lacks firepower aswell. No Allison for the first 4 matches and probably no Cox for the same period. Pepper, along with Cox our best T20 batter, is not in form.
The team for the first few matches may well be something like?
Elgar
Walter
Pepper
Critchley
Mulder
Benkenstein
Harmer
Thain
Snater
Akhtar
Cook
Looks very weak. Akhtar has played little T20 but will probably get a chance. Cook and Snater will almost certainly be rested at times as well. So Bennett or Killeen may play at times.
I didn't realise Allison was out. I think it's worth giving Das a go to open rather than Elgar, or possibly giving Fernandes the gloves to allow Pepper to concentrate on batting? Maybe Thain can be pushed up the order? With no Cox and no Allison, it's all looking a little lacking in spark.
Critchley opened in the 50 over comp last year so if Elgar doesn't play then they may open with him. He's actually been really poor over the last 2 or 3 years in T20 so maybe they could try him in a different position.
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Can the performance improve on last season, that there is not a competition with the teams in other groups. As to who will get the wooden spoon.
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Could be worse. Middx have signed Rosso.
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Middlesex must be mad or desperate, or perhaps both.
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Could be worse. Middx have signed Rosso.
A hundred incoming against Essex no doubt*
*Or perhaps lots of doubt.
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We may be thinking, when we play Middlesex. Is this the same Rossington?
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We play Sussex on Friday and I noticed today they warmed up today against Berkshire where a guy called Johnny Connell who has been playing for Essex 2nds over the last couple of seasons made 121 off 53 balls against them. Hard to see Das, Elgar etc ever doing that.
https://live.nvplay.com/ecb/?tab=m_scorecard#m0a7dc617-396c-4355-badf-ab3876e845f9
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Can performances against a minor guide be taken a good guide to ability.
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Can performances against a minor guide be taken a good guide to ability.
He's got ability, don't you worry about that.
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Got 5 for the seconds today in a T20 match against Kent. Fernandes got 49, with 4x6's, but is not keeping wicket. Essex 175 after 20 overs. Das failed again.
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Squad:
Harmer, Akhter, Benkenstein, Bennett, Critchley, Das, Fernandes, Jones, Mulder, Pepper, Snater, Thain, Walter
"Sam Cook is unavailable due to suffering a fracture on his wrist during training this week. He will be working closely with our medical team as he goes through rehabilitation and recovery.". Just get fit for the red ball stuff Sam.
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No Cook, Elgar, Cox or Allison. Looks an awful team. Killeen missing aswell. Not playing for 2nds today.
Probably
Das
Walter
Pepper
Critchley
Mulder
Benkenstein
Harmer
Thain
Snater
Akhtar
Bennett
With Jones and Fernandes missing out? Although Jones has been playing some T20 with Scotland and doing ok at times and had much better figures than Bennett today for the 2s so he may play instead.
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Bennett, Akhter, Fernandes and Das played this afternoon v Kent 2s at Garons.
Fernandes and Akhter batted well, Arnold bowled well but Robin Das, oh dear...............
Killeen was not there, Jones was less than impressive.
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No Cook, Elgar, Cox or Allison. Looks an awful team. Killeen missing aswell. Not playing for 2nds today.
Probably
Das
Walter
Pepper
Critchley
Mulder
Benkenstein
Harmer
Thain
Snater
Akhtar
Bennett
With Jones and Fernandes missing out? Although Jones has been playing some T20 with Scotland and doing ok at times and had much better figures than Bennett today for the 2s so he may play instead.
I think that's what they'll do. Snater isn't great in this format, but they'll probably want his experience with Cook missing. Plus he can give it a whack at the end of the innings. Maybe alternate Bennett and Jones?
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Grant Stewart took Bennett apart in the penultimate over but overall he was more threatening than Jones.
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Grant Stewart took Bennett apart in the penultimate over but overall he was more threatening than Jones.
If you saw it I'll bow to your superior knowledge! Jones figures of 4-0-26-2 are pretty impressive on paper, that's what I was going on. I also noticed that Bennett bowled 2 no balls, which is not something you can afford in T20.
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No Cook, Elgar, Cox or Allison. Looks an awful team. Killeen missing aswell. Not playing for 2nds today.
Probably
Das
Walter
Pepper
Critchley
Mulder
Benkenstein
Harmer
Thain
Snater
Akhtar
Bennett
With Jones and Fernandes missing out? Although Jones has been playing some T20 with Scotland and doing ok at times and had much better figures than Bennett today for the 2s so he may play instead.
I think that's what they'll do. Snater isn't great in this format, but they'll probably want his experience with Cook missing. Plus he can give it a whack at the end of the innings. Maybe alternate Bennett and Jones?
It's a poor looking team but it does have depth in batting and 9 different bowling options. So maybe quantity can make up for a lack of quality.
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Yes, one was over waist high and the other was an overstep, one of the free hits ended up on the pier.
Bennett is also a far better bat, but he did beat the bat and had some unfortunate luck with the placement of Kents many shots that went in the air close to fielders.
Also Connell played, did he play for Sussex yesterday?
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Yes, one was over waist high and the other was an overstep, one of the free hits ended up on the pier.
Bennett is also a far better bat, but he did beat the bat and had some unfortunate luck with the placement of Kents many shots that went in the air close to fielders.
Also Connell played, did he play for Sussex yesterday?
Played for Berkshire and got a big ton in not many balls.
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Team looks dreadful. Paper thin.
Tail starts at 4.
Das was dreadful today at Baron Park. Looks completely out of sorts.
Fernandez looked the best of a bad bunch, so I'd play him ahead of Das.
Jones the other one to miss out for me.
I'm going tomorrow night, but ready to see us humiliated I'm sorry to say.
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I hope Cook is fit for the game at Leicester. Bennett looks a decent cricketer but just as Arnold gave us an outside chance earlier Bennett bowled a high full toss no ball, the free hit went for six and the match then finished in short order. I'd be surprised if we don't lose heavily tomorrow.
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I hope Cook is fit for the game at Leicester. Bennett looks a decent cricketer but just as Arnold gave us an outside chance earlier Bennett bowled a high full toss no ball, the free hit went for six and the match then finished in short order. I'd be surprised if we don't lose heavily tomorrow.
I think Cook will be out for a couple of months, depending on how bad the fracture is.
Someone with medical knowledge please correct me.
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Carse did his 2 months ago and still is not playing, which is a worry.
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I hope Cook is fit for the game at Leicester. Bennett looks a decent cricketer but just as Arnold gave us an outside chance earlier Bennett bowled a high full toss no ball, the free hit went for six and the match then finished in short order. I'd be surprised if we don't lose heavily tomorrow.
Sussex were the one team that made us look good when we played them last year and we have better record against them over the last few years than anyone else. They won?t have Robinson or McAndrew from last year although they have signed Briggs. I have very low expectations but if these hammer us then I?d hate to see what the likes of Surrey and Hampshire do to us.
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Carse did his 2 months ago and still is not playing, which is a worry.
It is. I think you can probably write off the next two CC matches but the others are three months away so hopefully he?ll be back for the last 6.
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Having a double header seems a bit pointless if you?re going to start the women?s match so early. The women?s match starts at 14.00 and is scheduled to finish at 16.45. That?s two and a quarter hours you?d have to wait to watch the men?s match and that?s if the match doesn?t finish early which matches often do.
Last year the women?s match started an hour later so the gap was scheduled to be one and a quarter hours. The matches on sky tomorrow at Taunton are an hour less apart than the ones at Chelmsford.
Last year I attended the women?s matches in the double header as I have unreserved seats and so get there early anyway but there?s no way I?d bother with atleast a two and a half hour wait in between.
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I hope that there is not a repeat of the game at Kent. When a number of their players set personal bests. In the Kent innings a fielder took three catches. Unfortunately, he was standing in his garden outside the ground.
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I agree, as an experiment on a sunday, put the men on first, and watch how many clear off before the women's match.
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As, I was told that under the lights. The shirts become see through. A later Women's match may have a greater attendance than that would be predicted.
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I am assuming Killeen is an ornament.
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I hope Cook is fit for the game at Leicester. Bennett looks a decent cricketer but just as Arnold gave us an outside chance earlier Bennett bowled a high full toss no ball, the free hit went for six and the match then finished in short order. I'd be surprised if we don't lose heavily tomorrow.
I think Cook will be out for a couple of months, depending on how bad the fracture is.
Someone with medical knowledge please correct me.
Win win for Cook then. Didn?t he want a reduction in red ball cricket to 12 games?
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Sussex won the toss and put Essex in. Fernandes plays, Das and Jones left out.
Walter, Pepper, Critchley, Benkenstein, Mulder, Thain, Harmer, Fernandes, Snater, Akhter, Bennett
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There is a comment on the chat, warning that anyone talking about betting will be banned. There will be no chat then.
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The dropped catch, got a bigger cheer than the trumpet.
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At the end, the boo boys made themselves known.
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Lordy, that was a grim watch. Not just a defeat, an absolute hammering. And given how weak our bowling looks, there might be a fair few more like that.
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Well that was depressingly familiar. A great start from Pepper and Walter, lost momentum mid innings and then an inexperienced seam attack couldn't stem the runs.
Oh well, there'll be another game along in a minute. I choose to believe it will get better.
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Sussex are one of the weakest teams in the competition as well. They were the only team that we looked good against last season.
Predictable rubbish. We were the weakest bowling attack by far statistically last season and we?ve got rid of Amir, who was the one even half decent bowler we had. I genuinely don?t know what total we can defend.
We must be the only county on the circuit that don?t care about T20. We have two overseas players that aren?t that suited to it. After bowling so badly last year in it we signed two bowlers that have played 4 T20 matches between them. Weve done absolutely nothing to improve our T20 team whatsoever.
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To think, considerable amounts of money have been paid, to watch that rubbish. A Sussex fan would be underwhelmed by the lack of uncertainty in the result.
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We may be thinking, when we play Middlesex. Is this the same Rossington?
He's obviously hungry.
For runs.
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Poor performance and why Snater or Akhter did not come in at 6 is beyond me, instead we had 4 overs and 19 runs and Noah looking like a fish out of water.
Sussex supporters around us seem to think that all of the players out of contract at the end of 2026 will be released as the receivers have stated that the debt is greater than was first declared.
Apparently Tom Haines has Essex or Hampshire to choose from at present and has had talks with both,with Elgars contract up, seems like a potential good move for us.
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Apparently Tom Haines has Essex or Hampshire to choose from at present and has had talks with both,with Elgars contract up, seems like a potential good move for us.
Very average player. We can do better.
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Poor performance and why Snater or Akhter did not come in at 6 is beyond me, instead we had 4 overs and 19 runs and Noah looking like a fish out of water.
Sussex supporters around us seem to think that all of the players out of contract at the end of 2026 will be released as the receivers have stated that the debt is greater than was first declared.
Apparently Tom Haines has Essex or Hampshire to choose from at present and has had talks with both,with Elgars contract up, seems like a potential good move for us.
I think he's be a decent signing if we could get him. Hampshire look a lot more likely to be in Division 2 next year than we do and the last opener they signed from Sussex, Ali Orr, has not had a great time of it there. He looked a good player at Sussex and yet Hampshire rarely pick him.
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Poor performance and why Snater or Akhter did not come in at 6 is beyond me, instead we had 4 overs and 19 runs and Noah looking like a fish out of water.
Sussex supporters around us seem to think that all of the players out of contract at the end of 2026 will be released as the receivers have stated that the debt is greater than was first declared.
Apparently Tom Haines has Essex or Hampshire to choose from at present and has had talks with both,with Elgars contract up, seems like a potential good move for us.
I think he's be a decent signing if we could get him. Hampshire look a lot more likely to be in Division 2 next year than we do and the last opener they signed from Sussex, Ali Orr, has not had a great time of it there. He looked a good player at Sussex and yet Hampshire rarely pick him.
Now you're talking. Orr is a much better bet.
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We may be thinking, when we play Middlesex. Is this the same Rossington?
He's obviously hungry.
For runs.
We'll see if he saves his best performances for Lord's- which obviously has the better catering.
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Apparently Tom Haines has Essex or Hampshire to choose from at present and has had talks with both,with Elgars contract up, seems like a potential good move for us.
I think he's be a decent signing if we could get him. Hampshire look a lot more likely to be in Division 2 next year than we do and the last opener they signed from Sussex, Ali Orr, has not had a great time of it there. He looked a good player at Sussex and yet Hampshire rarely pick him.
I think Haines would choose even a 2nd Division Hampshire over Essex given the respective resources, but it would be good if the club managed to get him. It's strange that Ali Orr is languishing in the Hampshire seconds and hasn't played a First Class or T20 game since last year. But then Hampshire have made some very odd selections this season. Either would be excellent signings, but I worry about the club's ability to attract new players and I hope I'm proved wrong on that score.
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There's an article in the Cricketer, behind a paywall so I can't link it but this gives a flavour of how bad we were last year.
Essex's men lost eight straight games in the 2025 Blast season, and by my maths, they were lucky that is all it was. Their bowling was a bullet for opposition batters; they went at 10 runs an over.
Those are IPL numbers, and that is a competition with an extra batter thanks to the Impact Player rule.
Yet, in their last five games, they won three (their only wins). So if the tournament was longer, like 82 or 162 matches, maybe they were about to go on a run.
Essex were the worst bowling team. Not just bad, but completely horrible. Like they were forced to play the entire year without a seam on the ball, or the umpires were secretly dipping it in Tabasco before each delivery.
They took 77 wickets for the year, six fewer than Derbyshire, who had the second lowest. And Surrey took 109, which is slightly inflated because of the extra game (their quarter-final defeat to Northamptonshire). But these two teams were playing a different sport, and Essex weren't good at theirs.
It doesn't look on paper like Essex should be a bad bowling attack, for they had Mohammad Amir and Simon Harmer, two heavyweights. Young Luc Benkenstein did well with his leggies, and Shane Snater's inswingers are annoying.
Every other bowler for Essex went at more than 10 an over to balance these guys out. Those players include Sam Cook, Matt Critchley and Paul Walter. These are not bad bowlers.
To get a more holistic look at the teams, we take the batting average and subtract the bowling record to give us a differential. Plus is good, minus is bad. We then do the same on runs per over.
To be fair to Gloucestershire, their bowlers did actually pull back some of the damage with the ball. But on this metric, Essex were by far the worst team in the Blast last year.
And we've lost Amir from last year and Cook, who's not that good at T20 but better than the others we have. So we're likely to do even worse this year!
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Go for it Essex. Try to beat the eight in a row record.
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Ali Orr's a good player, but hasn't been the same since a short ball broke his arm a while back. I'd be very cautious about signing him, I bet there's some psychological demons there which probably won't ever go away unfortunately.
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Going on Liam Dawson's comments about the facilities, when on loan. A player will choose, a division 2 bottom dwelling Hampshire over Essex.
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Going on Liam Dawson's comments about the facilities, when on loan. A player will choose, a division 2 bottom dwelling Hampshire over Essex.
Unless said player fancied winning the Championship. But I suspect not so many are bothered about thst these days. I don't attend T20 games and don't pretend to know much about it. However, I do recognise its financial importance to the club. For that reason they do need to win a few more home games.
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Going on Liam Dawson's comments about the facilities, when on loan. A player will choose, a division 2 bottom dwelling Hampshire over Essex.
Unless said player fancied winning the Championship. But I suspect not so many are bothered about thst these days. I don't attend T20 games and don't pretend to know much about it. However, I do recognise its financial importance to the club. For that reason they do need to win a few more home games.
They'd be a good chance he'd choose Hampshire. As has been said better facilities and closer to home. It also seems to be a path that is quite common both Orr and Brown have left to go there.
However, Haines was picked for the England Lions last winter and will be 28 next season. If he has serious ambitions about playing for England then you'd think he'd need a good couple of seasons preferably in Division 1.
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Going on Liam Dawson's comments about the facilities, when on loan. A player will choose, a division 2 bottom dwelling Hampshire over Essex.
Unless said player fancied winning the Championship. But I suspect not so many are bothered about thst these days. I don't attend T20 games and don't pretend to know much about it. However, I do recognise its financial importance to the club. For that reason they do need to win a few more home games.
They'd be a good chance he'd choose Hampshire. As has been said better facilities and closer to home. It also seems to be a path that is quite common both Orr and Brown have left to go there.
However, Haines was picked for the England Lions last winter and will be 28 next season. If he has serious ambitions about playing for England then you'd think he'd need a good couple of seasons preferably in Division 1.
Why would he come to us when Westley has stated that they are producing ?result? wickets?!
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Going on Liam Dawson's comments about the facilities, when on loan. A player will choose, a division 2 bottom dwelling Hampshire over Essex.
Unless said player fancied winning the Championship. But I suspect not so many are bothered about thst these days. I don't attend T20 games and don't pretend to know much about it. However, I do recognise its financial importance to the club. For that reason they do need to win a few more home games.
They'd be a good chance he'd choose Hampshire. As has been said better facilities and closer to home. It also seems to be a path that is quite common both Orr and Brown have left to go there.
However, Haines was picked for the England Lions last winter and will be 28 next season. If he has serious ambitions about playing for England then you'd think he'd need a good couple of seasons preferably in Division 1.
Why would he come to us when Westley has stated that they are producing ?result? wickets?!
Maybe he wouldn't. Unless we get relegated, and we're alot more likely to be in Div 1 next year than Hampshire then it's still runs in the top division. It's not as if the Hampshire openers ever get many runs either, they go through enough of them!
You'd think he'd have a few options if he did decide to leave so it's unlikely to be Essex, he'd go to.
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To be fair, we've been a good destination for domestic players looking to kick on as cricketers. Whilst he's never made an England squad, Critchley has kicked on as a player here, whilst Jordan Cox has notably given his international chances more of a boost since being with us and it's pure bad luck that he doesn't have a Test cap yet. I do think players like coming here knowing that with Porter, Cook and Harmer, you're never likely to spend too much time in the dirt. Plus whilst the facilities may be garbage, it's a nice area to live and close to London.
Having said that, if I were a Sussex player I'd choose Hampshire and eat a year of division two for obvious reasons, facilities, cash, location.