By John Fuller
September 10 2004

We're pretty certain that Blackie is staying but what about the other rumours floating about? John Fuller, fellow website man has produced a personal view of the present situation which is wasted on our messageboard. So I've given it a pride of place for a couple of days. Read and have a comment.

Rumour Mill

There are still a few weeks of the season left but already the rumours are flying about the County Ground. Somerset supporters have been venting their anger over the net in cricket forums about the team’s poor showing this season. Theories have involved sacking the coach, captain, most of the team, Chief Executive, Chairman and in some case, the whole damn lot! True, Somerset has not met the expectations of the fans by flying effortlessly to promotion in both forms of cricket. The trouble, for all those out there with an axe to grind, is that the team is making a late surge up the table and has yet to be discounted in terms of promotion to Division One of the County Championship.

Jamie Cox has given the club he has served so loyally since 1999 one last innings to remember him by with 250 against league leaders Nottinghamshire. James Hildreth continues to show huge promise, while Ian Blackwell has fully blossomed into a vital player who guarantees runs and wickets for Somerset. His two seven-wicket hauls in the past month confirming that he is the one player Somerset cannot afford to lose.

However, rumours of departures abound. Keith Parsons is being released and will play for Leicestershire next season, James Hildreth and Ian Blackwell are considering moves to Northants for 2005, Rob Turner was released then re-hired, but might not stay. Matthew Wood is fed up with not getting a game, especially when every time he does play, he hits a decent score and is promptly dropped. Scandalous fabrications or home truths?

Most for now can be discounted on the grounds that the Somerset faithful are nothing is not rabidly speculative when the team is not performing and often even if they are. While the team were recently spanking Div 2 leaders Notts by ten wickets away from Taunton, some still disappointingly chose to focus their attention on negativity. This division promises to be a dog-fight for the last promotion place and Somerset are not out of it yet. Do other clubs get this level of fevered speculation day in day out? Maybe, but I’d be willing to bet a barrel of Scrumpy Jack that Somerset are one of the best supported clubs in the country. Nonetheless, people just can’t help themselves.

The fact that NZ are based at Taunton pre-ICC Champions Trophy led the sharp-nosed hacks in the press to speculate that Somerset were after Stephen Fleming on the basis that NZ and SA are only two countries whose players are not heavily committed internationally next summer. As Peter Anderson pointed out on the Somerset forum, Somerset ARE interested. But so are everyone else. Graeme Smith is another allegedly coming to Taunton so together with Ponting, who has actually expressed an interest in coming back in 2005, that’s three top international captains to juggle at Taunton.

But what about their massive wages I hear you cry? Never let such piffling details come between that and a good yarn. People want the very best, exciting cricketers at their clubs and that is no bad thing. I was one of the first to mischievously suggest in the Taunton Times that Shoiab Akhtar was coming to Somerset after he ‘guested’ in an international friendly. But after you’ve stripped away all the highly enjoyable guesswork that the Somerset hierarchy have tired of putting to bed, you are left with a few, cold facts. So here, people, is my take on things.

Somerset owe it to Ian Blackwell to offer him ownership of the whole of county to stop him from leaving. He is a vital cog in the future of the club not to mention a captain in the making. Somerset do have an exciting, talented clutch of young cricketers including Matt Wood, James Hildreth, Carl Gazzard, Neil Edwards and Michael Parsons that need to be retained. The ‘but’ is that even if Somerset get promoted, these players alone will not keep Somerset in the division.

As for overseas players, I’m all for trying to get Ricky Ponting even if we can only afford another short stint because the man single-handedly galvanised the entire team. With neither Cox nor McLean returning then that leaves plenty of chance for picking your favourite overseas players to pull on the Somerset colours in 2005. The winter promises to be one of the most fascinating in years.

Change is in the air and not just because the paying public demand it. Due to retirement/release of Bowler, Cox and possibly Turner and Parsons, younger players will have the opportunity more than ever in 2005 and while inexperienced, the Somerset line-up for next season could be a sprightly bunch. Everyone else within the county walls has picked their team for 2005 so why not me?

Wood, Fleming (c), Burns, Hildreth, Blackwell, Edwards, Gazzard (wk), Parsons/Andrew, Johnson, Caddick, Bond

Subs: Francis J & S, Ponting, Dutch, Munday


JOHN FULLER