Were Brendan Taylor and Kyle Jarvis worth it?

[TapsC]

I’m fairly sure he’s on about 10k a month and Jarvis will be on a bit less. What I’m curious about is how tax works and whether it’s legal to receive forex. Those Tax vultures will be all over them. Their take home in real terms will be a lot less than that. The brown envelope players won’t be far off them I can tell you that for sure.

25k a month for BT. 20K Jarvis. Streak was on 20k. This is actually true. 1 of them was paid a full year's salary to show how serious ZC was.

[TapsC]

To be honest I would rather that kind of money go to actual cricket players than admin so I am not mad about it.

I think the question should be are we better off attracting 5 quality youngsters than those 2? 25k a month would convince any of those kids we are always talking about. Even Byrom or Tom Curran would pack their bags for that kind of money where you only have to play an average of 1 game a month. Easy money. In fact I believe Muzarabani is probably targeting Jarvis' contract in the next couple of years.

[Googly]

There’s no way he’s getting 20k a month, Taps.
Good for him if he is though, he’d be the first player that actually benefitted. That’s a lot of money for 5 games a year.

[jaybro]

Even if that’s true it’s better spent in their hands rather than Makoni who’s on over 20K a month, which is proven.

How’d do you even know this TapsC? Word of mouth or you’ve seen something similar to what I put in the other thread ?

[sloandog]

25K a month...Jesus.
To be honest the whole ‘salary upfront’ scenario doesn’t sound a million miles off. I know KJ bought a house outright in Borrowdale pretty snappy when he got back to Zimbabwe a couples of years ago. 25K a month, though, is astronomical and excessive if you ask me. Money like that could 100% entice a player like Nick Welch back after University, or perhaps an Eddie Byrom or Brad Evans.

[robbocricket]

You would thought BT & Jarvis could have gotten Division 2 County deals if they really were about to be punted from Notts & Lancs, the quality of Div 2 is much lower & those guys would definitely still be good enough to play there. Both guys have Zim partners in BT's case a family who are based in Zimbabwe, so I think that had more to do with them coming back.

As I member of Lancashire for over 35 years (and having seen a few hundred first-class county championship matches from the 1970s to date) I can assure you that there is absolutely no way Jarvis would get into the current Lancashire team. He is simply not good enough. I saw him make his debut at Alderley Edge for Lancs 2nd v Scotland in a three-day game. From memory he was signed to take over from Glen Chappell. He had two very good seasons but in conditions which helped bowlers of his type not least when we play in April/May and September. He also picked up wickets because of the quality of bowler at the other end. In his final season he got an injury about half-way through and wondered if he would play for Lancs again.

Most members (including me) were surprised when he said he was off back to Zim well before the season had ended but when we saw what (allegedly) he was being paid you could see why a few games for Zim made more sense than playing six months of county cricket

I don't think many people overseas realise just how good the standard of our 4-day cricket is. The 2nd Division as you say is not as good as the 1st division (mainly due to the depth in bowlers) but this season the 2nd Division standard has definitely improved on the last couple of seasons. Look at the Middlesex team and you wonder how they have failed to get promotion with the players in their side. In the 50 over and T20 games you can't tell any difference bewteen the two divisions

As for Taylor all I can say is that having seen him in his final season at Notts and more recently on the videos in recent Zim 50 over and T20 internationals he might get a contract as a Professional in our league cricket - but if any county was to offer him a contract I would be absolutely astonished

Sadly his batting is no longer what it was - he may look a world beater on occasions in recent games for Zim but lets be honest the standard of bowling he has been facing recently is miles away from the top Test teams and hardly county level. As for his wicketkeeping (i.e. his technique) it's an embarrassment to watch to be honest but it's not his fault that he is being asked to keep wicket

[jaybro]

You would thought BT & Jarvis could have gotten Division 2 County deals if they really were about to be punted from Notts & Lancs, the quality of Div 2 is much lower & those guys would definitely still be good enough to play there. Both guys have Zim partners in BT's case a family who are based in Zimbabwe, so I think that had more to do with them coming back.

As I member of Lancashire for over 35 years (and having seen a few hundred first-class county championship matches from the 1970s to date) I can assure you that there is absolutely no way Jarvis would get into the current Lancashire team. He is simply not good enough. I saw him make his debut at Alderley Edge for Lancs 2nd v Scotland in a three-day game. From memory he was signed to take over from Glen Chappell. He had two very good seasons but in conditions which helped bowlers of his type not least when we play in April/May and September. He also picked up wickets because of the quality of bowler at the other end. In his final season he got an injury about half-way through and wondered if he would play for Lancs again.

Most members (including me) were surprised when he said he was off back to Zim well before the season had ended but when we saw what (allegedly) he was being paid you could see why a few games for Zim made more sense than playing six months of county cricket

I don't think many people overseas realise just how good the standard of our 4-day cricket is. The 2nd Division as you say is not as good as the 1st division (mainly due to the depth in bowlers) but this season the 2nd Division standard has definitely improved on the last couple of seasons. Look at the Middlesex team and you wonder how they have failed to get promotion with the players in their side. In the 50 over and T20 games you can't tell any difference bewteen the two divisions

As for Taylor all I can say is that having seen him in his final season at Notts and more recently on the videos in recent Zim 50 over and T20 internationals he might get a contract as a Professional in our league cricket - but if any county was to offer him a contract I would be absolutely astonished

Sadly his batting is no longer what it was - he may look a world beater on occasions in recent games for Zim but lets be honest the standard of bowling he has been facing recently is miles away from the top Test teams and hardly county level. As for his wicketkeeping (i.e. his technique) it's an embarrassment to watch to be honest but it's not his fault that he is being asked to keep wicket

Better have a read again Robbo I didn’t say anything about Jarvis making the Lancs side now, I said that Div 2 quality is much lower. Now of course I don’t watch much if any county cricket but I’m going off the opinion of former county players who have said as much.

I think you’re being harsh on both players, Jarvis had a really good stint IIRC he may have even topped the wicket takers chart one year? In the limited Tests he’s played since his returned he’s taking wickets at under 20 a piece.

I also find it rich that you dismiss his skills by saying the conditions suit his style of bowling as if he’s the only bowler in the world to have such an advantage, isn’t this the story for every 2nd medium pacer in England bowling at 130km with an average below 30?

Also 3 of his 4 tests have been in conditions not suited to seam bowling and he’s still going for under 20 runs per wicket. Also the argument that he got wickets because of the quality bowlers up the other end is laughable tell Shane Warne he wouldn’t have got as wickets if he didn’t have Glenn McGrath up the other end, I’m sure he’d argue that McGrath took plenty off him. It’s a two way street mate, having good bowlers up the other end helps you build pressure but you got to fight them for the wickets.

As for BT his form in Ireland & so far in Bangladesh hasn’t been great but in the two years he’s been back he’s scored two Test hundreds away from home and two one day hundreds against bowlers such as Jason Holder, Kemar Roach, Rashid Khan, Mujeeb & Nabi.

To say he’s not the batsman he used to be is probably wrong as well, his numbers are very similar if not better since his return compared to his career numbers. His fitness isn’t great and he’s definitely overweight which is probably why his keeping has been poor during the Euro tour, granted he probably shouldn’t keep anymore.

Also regarding the standard of Div 2 or even Div 1 for that matter couldn’t be that great, I’ve never seen England so low on quality Test bats, they can’t find a No.3 or a second opener, they’re using Joe Denly at this point who’s 33. The middle order is just as bad, only a couple of Ben Stokes masterclasses saves their blushes.

[Googly]

%
If only these guys knew how tough and competitive English cricket is. To crack a contract is unbelievably difficult. Lancs have a serious bowling attack, Anderson and Onions amongst a handful of other great bowlers.
I also believe BT and KJ were a bit lucky and their counties assumed them to be a bit better than they were.
There’s always room for a seamer because these counties will happily bowl you into the ground, but to make it as a specialist batsman you have to be proper. BT is definitely past his prime. Nothing we do here comes close to the intensity of those English summer months.
The county twos games are just as tough when they field strong sides as well. In many respects it’s mentslly tougher, the sides are full of wannabes and guys coming back from injury or who have been dropped and fighting for form. It’s ugly cricket.
I watched Morkel bowl against two uncontracted unknown Middlesex openers in a twos game and they fixed him, they were 120 for no loss against one of the world’s best bowlers. Lots of damned good cricketers there without a contract!

[Googly]

Jaybro- England have a few damned good openers, there are a lot of politics in england.
How they didn’t give Sibley a shot comes down only to politics.
Opening in England is a thankless task. Eddie Byrom is going to become a test opener for England within the next 5 years, mark my words.

[Googly]

I also don’t think there’s a big gap between Div 1 and 2, there’s certainly the perception that there is though.
I’m goin to look now and see if I can find how many internationals come from Div 2.