The Home of Cricket, an ICC2011 story

[Jorg]

Lord's is commonly know as the 'Home of Cricket'. There is nothing quite like a Test Match at Lord's, you can almost feel the history as the players walk out on that first morning.

Lord's is also the home of Middlesex Cricket Club, founded in 1864. In recent years, Middlesex have underachieved. The last piece of silverware coming in 2008 when the club won the Twenty20 Cup and went on to play in the Twenty20 Champions League, the first English County to do so.

The last County Championship success came in 1993, they are currently languishing in the 2nd Division of the County Championship.

Middlesex have some very talented players with a good mix of youth and experience. This story will follow the ups and downs of Middlesex Cricket Club as they strive to be the number one County!

Note; I fell in love with ICC the moment it was released. It was something I had never seen before and purchased the majority of versions that followed. However, I haven't owned a copy of ICC since around 2005/2006 until now. I am just getting back into the game and I thought this would be the ideal story to help me along.

[stanley_1994]

Lord's is commonly know as the 'Home of Cricket'. There is nothing quite like a Test Match at Lord's, you can almost feel the history as the players walk out on that first morning.

Lord's is also the home of Middlesex Cricket Club, founded in 1864. In recent years, Middlesex have underachieved. The last piece of silverware coming in 2008 when the club won the Twenty20 Cup and went on to play in the Twenty20 Champions League, the first English County to do so.

The last County Championship success came in 1993, they are currently languishing in the 2nd Division of the County Championship.

Middlesex have some very talented players with a good mix of youth and experience. This story will follow the ups and downs of Middlesex Cricket Club as they strive to be the number one County!

Note; I fell in love with ICC the moment it was released. It was something I had never seen before and purchased the majority of versions that followed. However, I haven't owned a copy of ICC since around 2005/2006 until now. I am just getting back into the game and I thought this would be the ideal story to help me along.

Its brilliant to describe the clubs and grounds,everyone will come to know history behind them.

[Jorg]

Its brilliant to describe the clubs and grounds,everyone will come to know history behind them.

Thanks stanley.

I want to provide as much detail as I can and take my time. I want to get to know the players and eventually it should feel like my team.

Over the next few posts I will be running the rule over the squad and posting my initial thoughts for the season ahead.

[Dutz]

Good start dude!

[GrahamB]

Nice to see a county story.

[Jorg]

Middlesex Squad 2011

Batsmen

N. Dexter (26) RHB, 1yr contract 59,500
Club Captain. Solid middle-order batsman who bowls a bit.

D. Housego (22) RHB, 1yr contract 22,000
Looks to have a bit of potential. He will certainly get some opportunities.

A. London (22) LHB (o), 3yr contract 22,000
Left-handed opener. Might have to wait for his chance with plenty of competition at the top of the order.

D. Malan (23) LHB, 3yr contract 40,500
A very talented young batsman. Should be a fixture in my middle-order in all forms of the game.

E. Morgan (24) LHB, 3yr contract 55,000
Is not contracted to England but likely to be involved with them for the majority of the summer.

S. Newman (31) LHB (o), 3yr contract 43,000
An experienced opening batsman, should be able to help the younger players.

S. Robson (21) RHB (o), 2yr contract 32,000
Already has 2 FC 100s at the age of 21. He will definitely be given a chance to stake his claim.

C. Rogers (33) LHB, 1yr contract 65,000
Our overseas player. A large amount of experience and averages over 50 in FC cricket. My first move was to install him as the new vice-captain.

T. Scollay (23) RHB, 1yr contract 20,000
Not had much cricket in his career so far. That might not change much with a few of the younger players already ahead of him.

A. Strauss (34) LHB (o), England Contracted
The England captain. We might not see much of Andrew this summer.

[Dom]

I like the squad analysis, great idea.

Middlesex have too good a squad to be in Divison 2, so good luck.

[Jorg]

Wicket-Keepers

A. Rossington (17) RHB, 2yr contract 21,500
The youngest player in the squad. Will be given his debut at some point.

B. Scott (29) RHB, 1yr contract 23,000
An experienced wicket-keeper. He will probably have to act as back-up this season.

J. Simpson (22) RHB, 1yr contract 23,500
He will start as my first choice keeper. Has a FC 100 to his name and I am hoping he can build on that.


All-Rounders

G. Berg (30) RHB/RMF, 3yr contract 41,500
A very handy squad player who will certainly be involved.

S. Crook (27) RHB/RFM, 2yr contract 27,000
Has endured a horrendous time with injuries. He certainly has talent and might be a player to look after.

J. Dalrymple (30) RHB/OS, 1yr contract 29,000
Re-joined Middlesex after three years with Glamorgan. On paper he looks like my number one spinner.

J. Davey (20) RHB/RM, 1yr contract 21,000
A very exciting young Scot, has international honours already and a player I will be looking to develop.

R. Mclaren (28) LHB/RFM, 20/20 contract 36,500
Here for the 20/20 competition. Should give us some more options.

P. Stirling (20) RHB/OS, 1yr contract 22,000
Another celtic international, this time having represented Ireland. He much prefers the shorter forms of the game but another player I would like to develop.

[Jorg]

Bowlers

C. Collymore (33) RHB/RFM, 1yr contract 47,000
A very experienced West Indian seamer. Is with us on a kolpak contract, I have never been a big fan of these. He will certainly play his part.

S. Finn (22) RHB/RMF, England Contracted
A hugely talented bowler. If he isn't involved with England he will be our strike bowler.

A. Ireland (26) RHB/RFM, 1yr contract 54,000
A talented Zimbabwean who has a UK passport. On a big wage compared to some and hopefully he can live up to that.

T. Murtagh (29) LHB,RFM, 2yr contract 37,000
A great servant to Middlesex since 2007. A great role model for the younger bowlers and still only 29.

T. Roland-Jones (23) RHB/RFM, 1yr contract 25,000
Has come through the Middlesex youth system and looks to have bags of potential. I am hoping he can thrive this season.

T. Smith (23) RHB/SLA, 3yr contract 22,000
A left-arm spinner with a bit to find looking at the stats. He will get his chance to prove himself.

R. Williams (24) RHB/RFM, 3yr contract 24,000
A popstar name but we should find out a lot more about his cricket this season.

[Jorg]

So, that is my squad.

As has been mentioned, we are probably too good to be in the 2nd Division but I am sure there are plenty of teams saying that at this point in the season.

I am looking to give youth a chance and try to build a team that can compete on all fronts. There are plenty of players on one-year contracts, a few of them I don't expect to be here at the start of next season. However, there is plenty of cricket to played this year and I imagine most of the players will feature at some point.

It will be interesting to see what happens with our England players, my main concern is Middlesex so that could mean some interesting discussions with the selectors.

[Dobcheev]

This is a very interesting thread & I look forward to following your exploits with Middlesex.

[imcoolgerald]

I like the squad analysis, great idea.

Middlesex have too good a squad to be in Divison 2, so good luck.

Sorry to say but middlesex don't have strength to be back in division 1.

[ab5ides1]

Sorry to say but middlesex don't have strength to be back in division 1.

Possibly not in real life, but in-game they have a really, really good squad.

[Jorg]

I had managed to have a thorough look at my squad, I was pretty happy with it and was very keen to give the younger players a chance.

With that in mind, I decided to divide my budget up as follows:

Coaching - £40,000
Youth - £40,000
Physio - £20,000

I had a meeting with the coaches and we agreed on 4 batting sessions and 5 bowling sessions. We were all a bit unsure on the technical training so we wanted to keep it simple to start with. (any advice/help with this would be appreciated)

[Jorg]

News

Morgan heads to the IPL 1/4/2011

Malan suffers hamstring injury, four weeks on the sidelines 9/4/2011

I wasn't sure how long Morgan would be away for but as with all the England players I would just have to take it game by game.

It was a huge blow to lose Malan, he was going to be my number 5 and I was hoping for big things. However, it just means that someone else will get the chance to impress.