Certainly a fine short -term aquisition,but what happens if Rana does not regain full fitness,and Morne is selected for The South African tour,which must all be a possibility.
Perhaps yet another part-timer waiting in the wings.

Decent replacement, our batting should be pretty solid for the first part of the season.

loverboy you are stating the obvious. If Rana doesn't regain fitness by the time Morkel departs we either use our youngsters or sign another os player for the second half of the season.

Other counties do it regularly and there are plenty of non international os players e.g. Nicholson at Surrey. By mid season there are also international players who have either been cut from squads or whose country have no fixtures.

Once we went down the "Rana is fit" route of last week this was going to happen. I'm happy with Morkel, particular because he's a multi dimensional player.

I like the batting lineup of

Sayers
Vaughan
Mags
Rudolph
Gale
Rashid
Brophy
Morkel
Bresnan
Gough
Hoggard

We shouldn't lose too many games with that batting depth.

Quote:

Pinch-hitter

I like the batting lineup of

Sayers
Vaughan
Mags
Rudolph
Gale
Rashid
Brophy
Morkel
Bresnan
Gough
Hoggard

I'm not sure Bresnan would like it, given his three first-class tons last year leave him batting below someone with a high score of 57!

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Yes, after doing some more reading I'm aware I may be inflating Morkel's batting prowess.

Obviously Bresnan will bat above Morkel who will be 9 or 10.

Just thought the obvious needed stating PH,not a satisfactory state of affairs by any means.
Mat Nicholson has played Test cricket by the way.

"Most Definatly"...there is a interview with Jacques Rudolph about the Merkel signing on the offical site now:

[www.yorkshireccc.com]

Sounds like he (Rudolph) is now over his injury.

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Quote:

loverboy
Just thought the obvious needed stating PH,not a satisfactory state of affairs by any means.
Mat Nicholson has played Test cricket by the way.

Once, as an injury replacement, near enough a decade ago. I think its reasonable to say that he is not an international anymore.

Dont think we need to worry to much about Bresnan, his bowling has really gone backward these last two or three seasons, a bit of competition might get him out of his comfort zone.

Here is a player given every chance by Yorkshire and England, should have been up there with players like Broad now, the talent he has.

Saw Bres open the bowling at Old Trafford with Hoggard in a famous semi - final we won some three or four years ago, the Lanc's batsmen could hardly lay a bat on either of them, he never bowls like that now.

Seems an awful waste of talent to me, what has gone wrong?.

Regarding Bres:

I think they key might be found in what UK said:

Quote:

Ulsterkorean
Saw Bres open the bowling...<snip>...he never bowls like that now.

Well, he never gets the new ball now either. I think Bres has ended up in a bit of a chicken-and-egg situation. He bowls like a stock bowler, because he's used as a stock bowler. He's used as a stock bowler, because he bowls like one.

As I've said before, at the Oval last year he put in one spell that was as quick and aggressive as I've seen for a while. But in the first innings he didn't come on till 30+overs had gone by and Younus Khan had already been given a bowl! If we want his bowling to improve we may need to look at giving him the new cherry more often.

His batting of course, is now starting to look much more like it.

He's still a player I've got a lot of time for.

K_S

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Agree with Kenny's point that Bresnan would be much better given the new ball - especially if he were told in advance that he would get it if, for example, he dropped a stone in weight! Motivation is what the lad needs...

On the other hand, if Bresnan did get the new ball, Gough would be rendered pretty much irrelevant for much of the year as Hoggard/Bresnan would be doing the only job he really does...

Yes, Bres does need to 'ave a salad mate'.

It may not be as simple as giving him the new ball, just not making it seem like he's always the last resort...

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Turning back to Morkel, it was interesting to note that the South African selectors have refused to approve the squad to tour Bangladesh because it did not meet their racial quotas. If they were to apply that rule to the squad to tour England, Morne would have even less chance of making the cut!

I get the feeling that signing Morkel has the potential to be more controversial than first seems.

We could have a situation where he doesn't tour, where he reproduces the form he showed for Kent and where Rana when 'fit' isn't anywhere near as sucessful. And even if he does tour, he could do well enough to be picked up by someone else next season, then come back and haunt us.

That'll give us something to talk over...

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It would indeed - though an even more nightmarish scenario is that he ends up somewhere else for the second half of next season and does for us from there.

The more I think about it, the less I like the continued faith we seem to be placing in Rana - first the position was that he'd either be fit or he wouldn't, then it became that he'd be fit at some point... which leads me to question whether it is really wise to place so much faith in a guy who will not have bowled for ten months by the time he takes the field for us!

Exactly the point I was making weeks ago.
Does anyone seriously believe that Rana will be making a significant contribution to Yorkshire's cause next season?

To sum up what appears to be the general consensus, we are putting too much faith in Rana considering (as TM says) he will likely not reach full fitness and won't have bowled for ten months.

In contrast to this, we have a very promising young paceman who may as well stay with us for the whole season rather than go elsewhere (possibly to be replaced by a donkey) and inflict damage on us in the second half of the season.

BB: That's assuming he isn't picked for SA.

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http://feedingthepigeons.wordpress.com

That is, of course, a possibility KS and is perhaps the reason why he is over here in the first place; to get noticed. However, with the politics of SA cricket as they are, I would suggest that his selection looks unlikely at this time.

For the record, these are the relevant dates for the SA tour this summer:

npower Test series

July 10-14: 1st Test (Lord's)

July 18-22: 2nd Test (Headingley Carnegie)

July 30-Aug 3: 3rd Test (Edgbaston)

Aug 7-11: 4th Test (Brit Oval)

NatWest Series

Aug 20: International Twenty20 (Riverside)

Aug 22: 1st ODI (Headingley Carnegie) floodlit

Aug 26: 2nd ODI (Trent Bridge) floodlit

Aug 29: 3rd ODI (Brit Oval)

Aug 31: 4th ODI (Lord's)

Sept 3: 5th ODI (Cardiff) floodlit

Are we contractually obliged to play Rana once he is fit?

Morkel is on a week-by-week deal. So could we keep him all season if his form and availability allow?

Rana is on a reduced non playing contract while he recovers. Can he be kept on this for the season if we so desire?

It would seem worth taking the financial hit if we're challenging for the title on the back of Morkel's bowling prowess.

If Morkel does well, perhaps Scott McAllister can be persuaded to go all car mechanic on Rana. *sharp intake of breath* Oooo nasty, who’d you have working on this last? Right cowboy by the looks of it. This is gunna take some fixing…

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"However, with the politics of SA cricket as they are, I would suggest that his selection looks unlikely at this time."

Why? His name hasn't come up at all regarding the current issues, and he's been named in the current squad for Bangladesh.

You are correct of course Rey and I have to say that I was surprised to see him there. This voids that argument completely.

If Morkel is fit and taking wickets and helping us win games then I am pretty sure rana will stay on the treatment table til Morkel then gets called up to tour by SA - they would be stupid not to pick him if he has just shown he can take wirckets in England for us already.

So th perfect scenario is that Morkel plays for April/May/June and then rana comes back in July when Morkel goes off to play for SA and rana must be full yfit and can have had some gentle run outs in the leagues and friendly fixtures.

Downside is if Morkel bowls like Imran tahir and we rush Rana back too quickly