The Canterbury Tales - A DaveK93 Story

[DaveK93]

Even before I started supporting Nottinghamshire, my first county love was Kent. Miles away from me perhaps, but my uncle was, and still is, a photographer for the club, so I was always interested in what they were doing.

These days, Kent are perhaps experiencing somewhat of a revival. Having enticed former players in Denly and Coles back to the club, and with promising players such as Northeast, Dickson and Bell-Drummond in the squad, they look an exciting prospect. Of course, every revival needs a catalyst, which is where I come in.

I’ve succeeded with Nottinghamshire, and with Leicestershire. Can I do it again with my 3^rd English county?

[Sureshot]

Kent is a great choice for a save, Dave.

Rabada in the team should make them very strong when he's available, I reckon Bell-Drummond is in for an exciting year too.

Let me know if there are any issues with the new forum layout and stories.

[MarksNotts]

Well they are doing well IRL, Leics have made some decent signings this season too, making them a bit less a daunting proposition for a save.

[Sureshot]

They are indeed, Mark.

Can't believe how many draws there are in Div 2...

Looks out window, oh yes, rain. It is July, right?

[MarksNotts]

Went to Trent Bridge yesterday, got a full days play in ( with the exception of some poor light late on), hopefully the same today

[Sureshot]

Nice, I see everyone got a start for Notts!

[MarksNotts]

yep, Samit on 51 not out, in with wessels, hopefully press on today and Imran Tahir will roll them over on the last day.

[DaveK93]

Thanks guys, it does seem as if the quality gap has been bridged somewhat in division 2 now, so it is starting to look more competitive. The change in structure will make a lot of difference as well.

[DaveK93]

Apologies about the delays with starting this, work is rather getting in the way. Day off soon though, so that should help.

[DaveK93]

The Story So Far

With one season down already, I can feel distinctly unsatisfied with events so far. We failed to perform in any of the three formats, with early exits from the short formats. We did improve on the previous seasons performance in the County Championship, but there was plenty of missed opportunities.

We started the season by signing Moin Ashraf to support our already plentiful bowling attack, and youth keeper Philip Adams to back up when Billings was unavailable.

Once the season started, a trend emerged. More than one in fact.

Trend number one –- with Rabada in the team, we perform way better.

Trend number two - I don’t yet understand the shorter formats well enough yet. I’m as guilty as poor player form for our disappointing performance, as my tactics were often fruitless. As such, it is back to the drawing board, and it could take a couple of seasons to get it right.

Trend number three –- our bigger names didn’'t perform. Sam Northeast is a prime example of this, failing to impress in any format this season. He might be the captain which kept him his spot, but ideally I need more from him next year.

Our fifth place finish in CCD2, and our group exits in the RLODC and T20Blast were terrible. As such, the contracts phase needs to be spot on. For now though, here is the top 5 runs/wickets for each division from our players.

CCD2 – Runs
Joe Denly - 1366
Daniel Bell-Drummond - 1199
Darren Stevens – 916
Alex Blake – 808
Sam Northeast – 595

CCD2 – Wickets
Kagiso Rabada – 74
Matt Coles – 39
Matt Hunn – 29
Imran Qayuum – 29
Alex Riley – 23

RLODC – Runs
Daniel Bell-Drummond – 254
Alex Blake – 194
Will Court – 184
Sam Northeast – 173
Sam Billings – 157

RLODC – Wickets
David Griffiths – 17
Matt Hunn – 12
Darren Stevens – 8
Kagiso Rabada – 7
Moin Ashraf – 5

T20 Blast – Runs
Sam Northeast – 328
Joe Denly – 276
Darren Stevens - 245
Daniel Bell-Drummond – 211
Alex Blake – 174

T20 Blast – Wickets
Matt Coles – 17
Darren Stevens – 14
David Griffiths – 14
Matt Hunn – 11
Moin Ashraf – 9

[DaveK93]

So, after what was realistically a dire season, we move on to the contract window. Being fully aware that I needed to thin the squad whilst keeping the core talent, I set to work.

I started by dealing with the batsmen. Bell-Drummond, Denly and Northeast were all guaranteed contracts if they wanted them. Crawley was a touch unlucky to not get one, but a lack of opportunities meant I never got a proper look at him. Blake was retained though; a good end to the season forcing me to keep hold of the 27 year old. Finally, we kept hold of Wayne Court and released Skillbeck. Court had been very solid at the top of the order since joining, and with the right tutelage he should become a very handy FC player.

Bowling-wise, I was more brutal. With the department as a whole disappointing me, only Qayuum stayed out of our domestic players. The spinner had impressed after stepping in for Riley, who found himself released. Kagiso Rabada chose to stay on as our overseas player, but with South Africa touring next summer, we would need a replacement for him. Ball, Cowdrey, Clayton and Griffiths all depart, joining Haggett. The all-rounder didn’t play a game for us, and we terminated his contract. Stevens chose to retire, and Rouse is let go from the keeping department.

Renewed Players:
D Bell Drummond
S Northeast
A Blake
J Denly
I Qayuum
K Rabada
W Court

Released:
Z Crawley
A Rouse
A Ball
F Cowdrey
M Claydon
D Griffiths
A Riley
C Haggett (Terminated)
R Skillbeck (Youth)
D Stevens (Retired)

Bidding Phase

Once we had finished that stage, we had around 200k to play with on new players. The first player to catch my eye was Samit Patel. With Nottinghamshire relegated last season, he had chosen to depart, and I was keen to acquire him. I was also keen to get teammate Jake Ball as well, with the seamer hopefully forming a huge part of my new seam attack. Samit said yes immediately, but with Ball I was forced to negotiate first.

The second round saw the player pool swell somewhat, and introduced an England wicketkeeper into the mix. Jos Buttler had failed to renegotiate with Lancashire and was available for hire. Needless to say, I jumped at the chance. With both him and Jake Ball saying yes to joining, the main XI was starting to look very healthy indeed.

At this point, it was all largely about securing squad players. We brought in Cachopa as a fairly cheap alternative in the middle order, whilst we also secured Martin Guptill to come in whilst Kagiso Rabada was unavailable. Lastly, Noema-Barnett comes in to fulfil the Darren Stevens role in the team, and should see plenty of game time.

[Dan87]

Interesting read so far, thanks. I enjoy seeing how people fare with different Counties and players. It's always interesting to see whether players live up to their real life potential in the game, e.g Northeast and DBD are impressing for Kent this season.

I've recently started an English Career mode myself, was debating between Worcestershire and Leicestershire, wanted a Division 2 challenge. Went for Leics in the end and am about 5 games in to the new season. Aiming to get promotion and blood plenty of youngsters, one or two seem very promising. May start a similar story to this one if I find time.

[LastWicket]

Who is the backup to the backup keeper? I would think both Buttler and Billings will be unavailable for the start due to playing in the IPL or was one of them not picked?

I had this problem in the first season playing Kent as Billings was playing T20, Latham was unavailable due to being overseas backup and Rouse got injured in the University game. I gave it to Blake as he was numbered 1 as fielder in the previous match, which I think means is the sides best fielder. Though he does give away so many 4 byes and also drops a fair number of catches which is very frustrating. Maybe this is where catching training might help, but would think this is a long term solution and not a short-term quick fix.

[Sureshot]

Interesting to have a batsman as back up for Rabada. I tend to try and keep player type the same.

What is your bowling depth looking like now?

[DaveK93]

Apologies for the delay, I was away for the weekend.

The backup keeper is a youth player from the start of season 1 auction called Phil Adams. Pretty solid 2nd XI averages, and has been fairly solid when he played at the start of last season. Should be able to cover me when I need to.

Bowling wise, I have Ball, Coles, Ashraf, Weller, Thomas, Hunn, Hartley and Bernard as seamers. I have Tredwell and Qayuum for spin, with Noema-Barnett and Patel acting as all rounders. I decided on the basis that I had plenty of players in that department; I should back Court and DBD up with another opener when I had chance to. Guptill was cheap and is pretty handy when needed.