By Grockle
December 6 2004

With the full AGM a week away the questions will remain. Will Taunton be a very different place next season? Will it be the start of a rennaisance of competitive, first class, cricket in the South West under new dynamic, leadership? Well we all hope so...but we've hoped in vain before!

I've kept my comments away from here for the past few weeks as the dust settles over the County Ground and people take stock of the new regime, or regimes. A week before the AGM is probably time to take a look at the big picture that SCCC has painted for itself and see whether it looks like it was worth the effort.

Giles Clark seems to have driven these new ideas, or he is at least allowing himself to bask in the reflection of them.  Peter Anderson will be there at the start but not at the end unless the change around is as dramatic as we would want it to be.  He will retire at the end of the 2005 season.  Is that because he planned to go?  Is it because the Taunton 'town' ain't big enough for the both of them or because the ground development, as part of the Taunton 'Vision' really will take all his spare time?  Watch this and other spaces.

It is an open secret that voices have suggested that Giles has plans for himself, and hopefully Somerset as a by-product of his success.  Will he become something big in the ECB?  Will SCCC be basking in his limelight in future years or are we a stepping stone to something better? 

But the field is where we start to be REALLY interested.  Mark Garaway is the man given the post of getting us into some kind of organised shape under this new regime.  Kevin Shine has been given something else to do - and when all the dust has settled a little I think Kevin will be the happier for dealing with the grass roots and youth sides - a coaching role only.

We now have a Cricket Panel to help oversee our re-emergence.  They seem to talk sense but what power will they have and/or wield if things start to get hairy again?  Mark is inexperienced at this level, irrespective of his coaching qualifications.  He will be doing his job in association with an ambitious Chairman, a Chief Executive in his last year, a panel of elder cricket statesmen with some kind of agenda and possibly three captains with different characters and opinions.  Now there's a job.

The Captains?  Well there's whoever is going to look after us at the start.  It seems that somene will have the title but surely Ricky Ponting will take the bull by the horns as soon as he sets foot in the county?  Graham Smith WILL be the boss when he arrives but we don't really know what that will mean.  He had a reputation as a 'no nonsense' leader, and we could do with one.  But we also need someone who will take the majority of the team with him and his methods have been questioned since the glory of the England tour.  Fleming got to him and he's lost it more than once.  He will call a spade a spade but has he the tools to get the best out of our lot?  Something else to watch with interest. 

Then there's the mystery captain...the one who may take us over the final hurdle when the Southern Hemisphere calls its boys back home (or whereever they are going).  Now there is a quandry...homegrown talent, nurtured as VC for most of the summer and then given its head when we may be in a position to win something.  Who will that be?  Well the poll is running, get your vote in.  There are few front runners at the moment although there are supporters in the Matt Wood and Ian Blackwell camp putting up their tents.

On the pitch there is an allrounder battle in the making with the arrival of Alby Morkel possibly putting the wind up the likes of Aaron Laraman, Simon Francis, Arul Suppiah, Gareth Andrew and Wes Durston as they all fight for that batting bowler spot in a team with few spaces.

James Hildreth gets the chance to show whether that precocious talent was actually something real in his second season.  God I hope so because to say it blew the fetid clouds of underachievement away would be a metaphor too far!!

The gloves are also off in the Gazzard/Turner corner.  Well, they're probably on actually! But who will be wearing them in the longer format of the game by the mid season?  Can the King be toppled by the pinch-hitting pretender or is his 'medicine' too strong.

Talking of hitting...will our big hitters with the ball come to the party?  Will they be Ali's or Tyson's?  World class or World weary?  Andy Caddick has something to prove to the fans this year.  He operated at below expectations last year and still knocked the wood over.  Was that the last gasp of a great bowling talent or is there more to come from him.  Will we ever see a full season from the 'Crockmeister' Richard Johnson?  Can he put himself through the personal agony he must feel as his body tries to give up but isn't allowed to for another season?  I want to see it but it makes me sad at the same time.  So much bowling might in a frame that can't stand the pressure.  But he has always had the heart for it and we'll allow him to punish himself again for the five-fers I am sure!

Add Blackwell and Ponting and Smith with the bat and we could hurt some sides very badly.  Or we could under-achieve again and rely on the ever ready Keith Parsons to get us out of injury hell week in and week out during the mid summer - what kind of role will he have in the new world order?

So many things to ponder and so many imponderables!  I suppose we'll have to wait and see what happens when the flowers start to open and the sun begins to shine.  It may not be pretty, it hasn't been in the past, but it will make for a very very very interesting first half of a season.

And it really does have to work doesn't it?

Have a Merry Christmas.  Buy a new prayer mat for yourself and look towards the new horizon of April with a little tingle....it may all come right!!!