By Jeremy Horne
July 2 2003

Last Monday, Middlesex members turned out in the Warner Restaurant at Lord’s for the pre-season members’ forum, where questions on many cricketing issues were asked. These questions drew some interesting responses and for those who didn’t make it, here is an overview of the evening. The night started with a review of the current situation. Andrew Strauss, Ben Hutton and Sven Koenig are all currently on tour in India and we have also signed Gloucestershire fast bowler Ben Gannon. There would also be no pre season tour this year in order to save money. It was then left to the members to question the panel on various subjects.

The opening questions revolved around the new 20 over competition that starts this year. John Emburey spoke of our trial matches at the Rose Bowl against Hampshire last year again. He commented that bowling the 20 overs in the given time limit shouldn’t pose too much of a threat and he also said that bowlers will be attempting to use a lot of variety- there would be more yorkers, bouncers and pace variation instead of length deliveries. He also suggested that teams required a good plan when batting, as they don’t want to lose early wickets- In our matches against Hampshire, both teams found themselves 4 down after a couple of overs. We posted winning scores of 160 in both games, but Emburey feels that scores of 200+ will not be uncommon. This discussion then became more general as questions on our lack of one-day success were asked. We were told that it will take a couple of years to improve our form and that we will be taking the 20 over game seriously. Vinny Codrington also added that there was a rumoured sponsor for this competition, but it has not yet been revealed.

The subject of our overseas stars was the next topic and when asked about their availability we were told that Razzaq would only be away for the one day games that Pakistan will be playing here, but Noffke could be on tour with Australia in the West Indies. If Noffke does not make this tour, then it is highly likely that he will play for the 'A' team against South Africa in Australia. Cover is being arranged, but as no official announcement has been made, I can not disclose any further information on this topic. A member also expressed his concern at the possibility of over rate penalties as Razzaq and Noffke tend to get through their overs very slowly. Emburey said this is something the players will be made aware of and that Andrew Strauss as Captain has to be the one to prevent these penalties occurring. However he did add that With Razzaq and Noffke together we do have more options in selecting our team as we could either go with four seamers and Tuffers or 3 seamers, Tuffers and an extra batsman.

The big question of the evening was that asked by Lord concerning Laraman. His reasons for leaving were that Somerset made him an offer that was too risky to meet given his inexperience and past injury problems. He also had relationship problems and found a new girlfriend near Somerset, making the idea of moving a better one. We were also notified that following abuse at Southgate, Mark R**prakash was sent a letter of apology from the team. On the subject of Surrey, the comment arose that they were slightly disorganised, as when we gave them a call asking for ticket prices, many of the office staff were unaware of them.

On the injury front, Cook and Keegan are fully fit at the moment, but Tim Bloomfield is still not carrying an injury and has been told to do very little work until March. Unfortunately, his career hangs in the balance a bit.

Cricket at Southgate was also mentioned and John Emburey feels that the pitches we play on for one day cricket there were of a poor standard last season and we need to play more one day games at Lord’s in order to play on better quality surfaces. The championship wickets at Southgate last year were also the flattest they have ever been and it was a shame that they couldn’t remain that way for one day cricket. Emburey also said that last years feastival was the most successful yet as we played local rivals and this year it would be harder to draw in crowds as we are playing teams that are based further away. It was also mentioned the chances of floodlit cricket at Lord’s were still rather slim as the cost would be too large, with lots of policing required to cope with larger crowds which we would need to spend time pulling in anyway. Vinny Codrington also added that our relationship with the MCC was the strongest it’s been for a while, but there are times when they forget about us.

The final issue of the evening concerned Zimbabwe and our chairman said that Tony Blair should have helped the ECB more. Tim Lamb was left to do much of the job on his own, but he did try his best. The downside for Middlesex is that if the ECB have to pay compensation then it could mean less money for the first class counties.

And that my friends was that. Roll on the cricket!