Players priced out of game

[Scritty]

Kevin Pietersen, Alistair Cooke, Ravi Bopara.

In my latest game they all have something in common.
A couple of seasons into the game (especially if injured and not playing for England) they lose their central contracts.

The bidding for players at end of season occurs.. and these guys are too expensive and dissapear from cricket altogether (aged 30 or under, and at the peak of their powers)

It's a more pronounced problem for up and coming players that aren't yet England regulars. Woakes from Warwickshire needed £77,000 (there or there abouts) and no-one could pick him up, at about 25 years old, and with 100 FC wickets in his last season - he dropped out of the game as no side could afford him.Carberry also went the same season (though he wanted less money)

If you watch the bidding down to the last round you will see every year that great players leave the game early (not retired, we are talking about players in their mid twenties often).

Now this sort of thing does happen now and again, but in ICC it's a real issue.
Good up and coming players reach a value where they are not affordable and leave the game.

The year Cooke and Bopara left the same season was a real hear breaker though. My England side was already in turmoil. Then with Pietersen being unaffordable the following year I was in real trouble.

Could this be fixed for ICC2010?

Regards

Paul Clarke

[Imager36]

This has definitely been discussed before, and I think Sureshot said it was going to be fixed for 2010. Seeing as there will be a major transfer overhaul anyway, I doubt that this'll be a problem this season.

[Scritty]

That's good to hear.
An overhaul of transfers is well overdue.
Not so much the actual bidding mechanics, but the sort of contracts offered.
Many counties now have a plethora of overseas players coming and going.

Worcestershire for example have (after saying they could not afford any overseas players)
Phil Jaques for part of the season
Shakib El Hasan (The Bangladesh captain) for part of the season.

and an Ozzie legspinner called Cameron for the T20's only.

All of this is known before the season.

No more coming into a season and finding your massively expensive overseas spinner is touring with his national side for 3 months; and you are left with no overseas players and an understrength bowling attack please.

Good news though

Scritty

[the_trademarc]

Worcestershire for example have (after saying they could not afford any overseas players)
Phil Jaques for part of the season
Shakib El Hasan (The Bangladesh captain) for part of the season.

and an Ozzie legspinner called Cameron for the T20's only.

I think you'll find the Ozzie legspinner is Steve Smith. Who is more a batsman who can bowl leggies....at the moment.
It is a major issue so lets hope its all resolved for 2010

[Imager36]

I think he got him confused with this Cameron - http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/cric...re/8480109.stm

[dontask]

agree. see too many good players disappear because of this glitch. i have always thought that the easy way round this would be a player would drop his demand after so many rounds. so yes u can wait and pick them up cheaper but would face more competition for his signature.

[the_trademarc]

I think he got him confused with this Cameron - http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/cric...re/8480109.stm

James Cameron....thought he directed movies.
Thats news to me, didnt hear of this young lad being selected. But he has a British passport so he hasnt been selected as an overseas player, which is a bonus for Worcs I guess.

[Scritty]

Lol, you're right I meant Smith.

Our great chairman said he had no money and was unable to keep any star players from last year (Jones, Ali, Davies, Batty and Moore all left)

The pace attack is now Andrew and Arif with Mason (36 this week, and always very injury prone even when young) as the third seamer.

Never heard of them?

No neither has anyone else.

Batting has Vikram and Jaques (who are both excellent) but then rely on Smith (who is 38 NEXT week, and hasn't had a good season for several years)

Darryl Mitchell is the future of the club - local boy (played against him when he played for Badsey as a kid) and that's it.

I predict, with some confidence. That Worcestershire will finish bottom of the 2nd division this year, and wold bet a small amount that they will not win a single game, and have the balance of the decent players leaving at the end of the year.

I would go further and say we might well be the first club to go bankrupt and be forced out of first class cricket altogether. Maybe not this year, but I would put £50 on it happening in the next 5 years.

(We also have about the worst T20 record, having never reached a finals day and only twice reaching the last 8 in the 7 years it has run).

Worcestershire? Rubbishcestershire more like!

Scritty

[dontask]

as a leicestershire fan i can only sympatise as we know how bad it is to be awful in county cricket. you have lost 5 players that could walk basically into any county side. ben smith was a good batsman in his day with us and first couple of seasons with you but hes now too old. hick only played for so long as he was a special player in the county game. i might have to be worcestershire when icc10 comes out.
as for us i think we can only improve this season. hoggard is still a top act in county cricket. benning scores quickly and im sure jefferson can find his old form if he can build up his confidence. james taylor was also fantastic last year for a young lad, winner the young cricketer of the year award. sadly for us, you can only expect us to lose good young talent to bigger counties, so i wouldnt expect him to be with us by 2011. andrew mcdonald, i dont know much about but as he is australian i am hoping he is a good player.
our overall problem is tho we still dont have enough strength in the team to be able to win many games. the main problem is i cant see where 20 wickets a game are going to come from

[Sureshot]

Despite having cousins who lived right next to Grace Road, I never once went to a game there, I think that says everything about them I'm happy watching at my beloved Hove!

Yes, an overhaul of the transfer system is needed, I hate to type the reply you guys probably know I will type, but I can't really say much about it right now. I spent some time the other night looking at this seasons regulations for transfers, kolpaks, overseas, etc. It should make the season more interesting...

2010 should be interesting for Worcestershire. So much on their plate, from players leaving to financial issues, to the seemingly annual flooding of the ground. I don't like seeing counties struggling.

[Tom Guntrip]

Well 2010 for my glorious Surrey is morea rebuilding year. We seem to have a strong youth focus, but with only a couple of decent quickies. Dernbachs yet to eplode onto the FC scene, and with Andre Nel being the madman he is, he'll probably elbow another door. With all these spinners as well, Sprigel and Scholfield and RHB, but no chawla, it should be interesting.

By the way, anybody else affected by the BCCI's decision to stop Indian players playing in England next year?

[Imager36]

Somerset are (Karthik), but no other county had one Indian player signed. South Africans and Australians look to be the most popular. On the subject of Surrey, as a Sussex fan, I'll be watching with interest to see how RHB does on the captaincy front... Maybe a bit too much too young for him? (I'm sure Adams knows what he's doing though, to be honest)

[Scritty]

New Road is a fantastic looking ground. They have spent a large fortune developing it over the past few years. 2 new stands, and now a hotel complex.

But why?

Seriously, for all it's looks, why bother?
Casual cricket watchers (and god knows Worcestershire need any they can get) are not going to come and see a team full of nobodies play on a wet pitch.
They should have moved years ago. Instead they continue to develop a ground that environmentally has no future past the next three or four years.
Summers like 2007 and 2008 will be the norm soon, so no play at New Road will be par for the course.
There is no parking for a mile (it's in St John's - the "Welsh" side of the river, and the main town centre and it's parking is the other side).
When the opportunity was there to move to a larger ground with better parking and easier access - not to mention one that was higher above the water table, and had room for long term development - they turned it down.
You might be suprised to know that Worcestershire making a loss is a pretty recent event. Historically they have normally broke even or turned a small profit.

on Cricinfo Geoff Boycott said that the county game needed at least 6 FEWER counties, so the best players played against each other more often.

The day will come. It won't be planned for, it will occur through natural wastage. Worcestershire, Essex, Derbyshire and Leicestershire are prime candidates, though Somerset and Northampton could be not far behind.

Sussex, Durham and Glamorgan have gone down the development root voer the past 10 years, and it has really paid off for them (essp Durham and Glamorgan - "test status" no less!

Worcestershire had the chance, and were too scared to take it.

We almost deserve to fail

Scritty

[Sureshot]

Somerset are (Karthik), but no other county had one Indian player signed. South Africans and Australians look to be the most popular. On the subject of Surrey, as a Sussex fan, I'll be watching with interest to see how RHB does on the captaincy front... Maybe a bit too much too young for him? (I'm sure Adams knows what he's doing though, to be honest)

It's one of the most baffling cricketing decisions I've seen on the domestic circuit for a while. Problem is, I don't really think RHB is good enough to have a place in the side in all competitions, talented cricketer, but not so sure this decision will do anything for Surrey other than bite them in the backside.

[Imager36]

It's one of the most baffling cricketing decisions I've seen on the domestic circuit for a while. Problem is, I don't really think RHB is good enough to have a place in the side in all competitions, talented cricketer, but not so sure this decision will do anything for Surrey other than bite them in the backside.

Yeah, he's a 22 year old who has only played 9 first-class matches, albeit with a decent amount of success as a batsman at least. However, for a team on a slide for the past <I really have no idea, I probably haven't been alive long enough> years, I can see that taking a punt that has a slim chance of paying off could be worthwhile, and, seeing as Adams will probably give him most of his tactics anyway, it might have been worth offering the captaincy just to lure him away from us... Maybe it was that 171 against Yorkshire that prompted Adams to make the offer...

P.S. - The Surrey limited overs kit does clash nicely with the strawberry flavoured ball.