Sussex return to business

For discussion of any non-Zimbabwean cricket.
Train Driver
Posts: 2024
Joined: Tue Jan 01, 2008 9:35 am
Supports: MidWest Rhinos
Location: Sussex

Sussex return to business

Post by Train Driver »

I can hardly believe it but cricket returns to England, although the sun has not yet been entirely convinced that the new season has arrived, Sussex are playing MCC at Lords in the Champion County match in front of about 50 freezing spectators.

After all the fuss and bother of the ICL, we have had the good news that Mushtaq Ahmed is available to lead the attack again as our overseas player, after 5 seasons and 457 championship wickets he would have been sorely missed. He has been the leading wicket taker in the country for each of his 5 seasons with us, including 103 wickets in 2003 and 102 in 2006, not bad for an 'over the hill' player and an inspired choice by the Sussex management who were laughed at when announcing that he was to join us.

Murray Goodwin is back again, his registration was never in doubt because of his status even though he too was an ICL player. He really is a class act and it's a joy to watch him batting, our reserve wicketkeeper, Andrew Hodd, has based his batting on Murray and scored 2 centuries in his first full season last year while Matt Prior was with England. It is going to be difficult this year with Prior back in the Sussex side and Hodd, who is a far more natural keeper, either going to have to change to a full time batsman to keep his place in the 1st XI or drop to the 2nd XI if he want's to keep on a regular basis. Just to add to the keeping battle, Ben Brown, who kept for England during the U19 World Cup, is reckoned to show even more promise than either Prior or Hodd at his age. It seems to be an ongoing problem for us as we lost Tim Ambrose to Warwickshire because he couldn't get the gloves away from Prior on a regular basis.

With the reduction to only 1 overseas player this season we were forced into releasing opening bowler Rana Naved-ul-Hasan, he has been replaced by Ryan Harris from Australia who has joint English/Australian nationality through his father. Harris will be in for a great season if he is able to match the influence that Rana had whenever he had the new ball in his hands.

It has all the ingredients of being another exciting summer for those of us who have been lucky enough to be Sussex supporters, over the last 10 years since Chris Adams arrived the entire Sussex set-up has been transformed into something which the bigger and richer counties have just not been able to match. They may be able to sign the 'higher profile' players because of their cheque books but none of them can buy the team spirit that is in the Sussex changing room. We are able to look into the changing room through SussexTV on the counties website, and this shows quite clearly that the most junior player is treated in the same way as either Adams or Mushtaq, something which a lot of sides would do well to replicate.

My fingers are all tightly crossed that the election results are dealt with soon and that a new Zimbabwe can begin to blossom, whatever the situation with Zim cricket Sussex have shown that a team can fight well above it's weight if it goes about it in the right way, I have no doubts that given the right directions Zimbabwean cricket can and will return to the highest stage and gain the respect of the other nations.

For my part, I will be chasing our Chief Executive Gus Mackay to try to arrange a Sussex v Zimbabwe match during the 2009 tour of England, all we need is for President Tsvangirai to take office .....

User avatar
maehara
Administrator
Posts: 3986
Joined: Wed Nov 28, 2007 3:27 pm
Supports: Mashonaland Eagles
Location: Ireland
Contact:

Re: Sussex return to business

Post by maehara »

Train Driver wrote:For my part, I will be chasing our Chief Executive Gus Mackay to try to arrange a Sussex v Zimbabwe match during the 2009 tour of England, all we need is for President Tsvangirai to take office .....
If you can arrange that match, I'll be there myself. :)

Train Driver
Posts: 2024
Joined: Tue Jan 01, 2008 9:35 am
Supports: MidWest Rhinos
Location: Sussex

Re: Sussex return to business

Post by Train Driver »

And i'll be very much looking forward to meeting you Maehara and, hopefully, anyone else that is able to make it.

Unfortunately it looks as though there is still some way to go before the fixture can be confirmed and the tickets bought.

The Champion County match didn't go too badly as a season warm-up, Mushtaq Ahmed and Murray Goodwin were both left out so that they could concentrate on getting fit, Murray prefers to get back into the swing in the nets and he needs to be seeing the ball after his pretty dreadful ICL performances, but that was only 20/20, not real cricket :roll:

Ryan Harris hit the ground running with 4-36 and in the 2nd innings Chris Nash hit a career best 90, Luke Wright a career best 155* and Robin Martin-Jenkins showed his use, in his benefit year, with a tight bowling spell and 73* in an unbroken 179 run 6th wicket stand with Wright. The game ended in a draw as the 4th day was completely lost to rain.

I doubt it, but hopefully the weather will begin to warm up a bit as Sussex begin their defence of the title against Hampshire on wednesday.

Train Driver
Posts: 2024
Joined: Tue Jan 01, 2008 9:35 am
Supports: MidWest Rhinos
Location: Sussex

Re: Sussex return to business

Post by Train Driver »

Not a lot of play for Sussex recently as both championship matches so far have ended in rain affected draws.

On the good news front Murray made 121 in the Hampshire game and Mushtaq took another 5 for in the game against Kent, some of the players are beginning to find their feet while others, such as Chris Adams, are still looking a bit rusty after the winter.

The season started very badly when Aussie Ryan Harris was withdrawn from the side 40 minutes before the beginning of the Hampshire game. He had been registered as a dual passport non overseas player after having announced that he would play as an overseas player in Australia. On the morning of the game it came out that he has signed a 3 year contract to play for Queensland and would, therefore, be ineligible to play in England. If the news had come out after the start of the game Sussex would probably have been in trouble, with at least a deduction of points.

Sussex have torn up his contract and said good riddance to him. I simply can't believe these players now, they sign contracts with no intention of keeping to them, where if the club had told him to get lost he would have been straight off to a lawyer trying to sue.

He's gone now anyway, but it leaves us with a big hole in the seam department, whether the club will try to sign a replacement is unsure but with the spirit in the changing room the players will fight on regardless.

Train Driver
Posts: 2024
Joined: Tue Jan 01, 2008 9:35 am
Supports: MidWest Rhinos
Location: Sussex

Re: Sussex return to business

Post by Train Driver »

Yet another rain affected game in the championship against Surrey.

The highlights were century number 99 for Mark Ramprakash, shame he plays for Surrey and not Sussex, another excellent innings from Murray who, unfortunately, had a litle fishing expedition and missed his hundred by just 2 runs, and 97 from Carl Hopkinson, who just doesn't seem to be able to go that little bit further and get his maiden 100.

Mushtaq missed this match, and will be unavailable for the next as well, due to an operation on his knee to remove loose cartilage. The wicket at Hove is still so dead at the moment that he probably wouldn't have been able to make any difference to the outcome.

It has been announced today that West Indian Corey Collymore will join the county as a kolpak for the rest of this season. His figures are far from startling but Sussex have a knack of getting the most out of their overseas players, something that is very much needed after losing the new ball skills of Rana Naved and having a group of seamers who are either approaching the latter years of their career or just starting out.

The weather has affected every team so far, so, with a bit of sun to come, it could be another season that goes to the wire.

Train Driver
Posts: 2024
Joined: Tue Jan 01, 2008 9:35 am
Supports: MidWest Rhinos
Location: Sussex

Re: Sussex return to business

Post by Train Driver »

A very sad day today as Mushtaq says his farewell to Sussex.

After an injury plagued 2008, and 2 knee operations, he has decided to call it a day before the injury becomes even worse, although we want to see him carry on forever, there is no point in him crippling himself.

Mushtaq cannot be praised too highly for his ability and his committment to Sussex, his team mates and to us who love to watch him bowl. In 5 full seasons he took 457 championship wickets and brought 3 titles to the county, not bad for a player that was considered by some to be over the hill when he signed for us in 2003.

No praise can be too high for Mushtaq the player and Mushtaq the man, always happy to walk round the ground and chat to all of us, never big headed or arrogant, always a smile on his face, wouldn't it be nice if more players behaved in that manner ?

He intends, at the moment, to carry out the rest of his ICL contract and there is the chance that he will be at Sussex next season in a coaching capacity.

A great man and a great player, he will be sadly missed.

We are lucky enough to still have Murray with us of course, another half century yesterday taking him to his 1000 championship runs yet again.

User avatar
brmtaylor.com admin
Administrator
Posts: 7924
Joined: Wed Nov 28, 2007 3:22 pm
Contact:

Re: Sussex return to business

Post by brmtaylor.com admin »

I don't know too much about Mushtaq, but it's a shame his career was affected by injury towards the end. It sounds like he was a great clubman, so I hope for Sussex he does return in some capacity.

Train Driver
Posts: 2024
Joined: Tue Jan 01, 2008 9:35 am
Supports: MidWest Rhinos
Location: Sussex

Re: Sussex return to business

Post by Train Driver »

The end of a very wet and pretty uninspiring season at Sussex.

The real downsides to the season were the forced retirement of Mushtaq and the decision to retire from the captaincy after 11 highly successful seasons by Chris Adams.

Rumours abound that Mushy will be back as a bowling coach next season, personally i will only believe that when he actually appears. Adams may stay on next season as a batsman, may become our new CEO or may leave to take up a coaching or managerial role with another county, only time will tell.

Star of the season, without a doubt, was Murray Goodwin. 1343 runs @ 58.39 in the Championship with 6 hundreds and 5 fifties, the highest run scorer in either division. 348 @ 58.00 with 3 fifties in List A including his amazing innings in the final Pro40 game and 345 @ 43.12 with 3 fifties in the 20/20. This seasons 6 first class hundreds have taken him up to 39 in his Sussex career and he is now the joint 10th highest century maker in the history of the county. Rather unsurprisingly he was awarded the Player of the Year trophy at the end of the Yorkshire match.

Big problems are ahead for all the counties, possibly starting next season, as the Home Office are supposed to be clamping down on the issue of work permits for overseas and kolpak players. It seems that a requirement for having played international cricket within the last 5 years may be introduced which would mean that top class players such as Murray would become ineligible to play in England. There are too many non English qualified players in English cricket at the moment, but not allowing players of the ability of Murray to play is sheer stupidity. He has given far more than he has ever taken and many of our young English players have tried to model themselves on him, and rightly so. I expect that there will be a lot of huffing and puffing over the winter, hopefully for the sake of all the counties, someone will decide what is going on before the season actually starts next year.

User avatar
brmtaylor.com admin
Administrator
Posts: 7924
Joined: Wed Nov 28, 2007 3:22 pm
Contact:

Re: Sussex return to business

Post by brmtaylor.com admin »

Couldn't players in the calibre of Goodwin be used as that teams overseas player? Or would county's prefer to use that position on young international (ie. currently Test/ODI playing) recruits?

Also, in Goodwin's case, if he was born in Zimbabwe and grew up in Western Australia, wouldn't there be a good chance that he has a parent or grandparent from England? (in which case he could get a British passport)

Either way, he is now 35 or 36 now, so unless he goes on like his fellow Zimbabwean Graeme Hick, he's probably only got another few more playing years left in him, so it will be interesting to see how Sussex handle it.

Train Driver
Posts: 2024
Joined: Tue Jan 01, 2008 9:35 am
Supports: MidWest Rhinos
Location: Sussex

Re: Sussex return to business

Post by Train Driver »

It would appear, BRM, that this Home Office thing will be relevant to overseas as well as kolpak players, if it is introduced.

Murray would not, therefore, qualify as either because he has not played international cricket in the last 5 years. This ruling would also have meant that the likes of Mushtaq would have been ineligible next season.

In general, you can have a poor player who has played one Test or ODI, been dropped because he is not up to standard, but would qualify to play in England. Without being too rude, Murray and Mushtaq, no thanks, Keith Dabengwa, ok because he has played international cricket, some sense don't you think ?

Murray is also an odd case which we have wondered about, he is Zimbabwean by birth but appears to be a naturalised Australian citizen. I assume he must still hold a Zim passport as Australians are not under the kolpak agreement. We normally keep quiet about it in case he is not actually eligible to play for us !!

Our chairman at Sussex told us earlier in the week that they can only make interim plans for next season until the ECB get some sort of decision from the Home Office, very helpful.

I wonder if English football and rugby clubs are going to be treated in the same manner ?

Post Reply