The Cricket Thread

England lost by 5 wickets.

 

I wonder if that was this week's 'big club news', that Brad Wheal has signed a new 2 year deal?!

I hope not as that would be a bit of a letdown if so. He's someone who has done well in the white ball stuff in previous years but now seems to have lost his edge in that and has become very hittable and, in the Championship, is one of those players who does OK but that's all. It's all very well us having a soft spot for certain players and wishing the best for them but, if we are serious about winning Div 1, in my opinion he's simply not quite good enough to be in our bowling attack.

 

I want Neser confirmed as 2nd overseas for a good chunk of the season, Renshaw signed for the season (assuming that he can count as non-overseas with a British passport?) plus another domestic middle order batter. Easier said than done, though!

Orr, Renshaw, Gubbins, new signing, Albert, Dawson, Brown, Neser, Fuller, Abbott, Turner/Baker.

How could that fail to win the title?!

 

I doubt it TBH as he hasn't posted anything about it.

 

I expect it's us competing in some pointless overseas franchise slog-a-thon again... Please be a domestic new signing.

 

I did see something about Vince pulling out of the Big Bash and a cryptic post after that. Now, I may be way off the mark here, but I wouldn't be entirely surprised if Vince changed his mind about not playing red ball cricket. It would certainly be big (and welcome) news.

 

Yes, that is a possibility. However, one sticking point would be about his visa conditions - I think I read somewhere that he's now only allowed to 'work' a certain number of days overseas. So he'd obviously have to get his residency and formal paperwork sorted if that were to be the case.

He'd have to start off in the 2nds and prove himself worthy of a place, of course

 

Renshaw is back in the Australian team, so there's little chance in him turning his back on them anytime soon (which he would to do to play as local player in the UK).

 

The Hundred to hold auction and increase salaries in 2026 - BBC Sport

Good, Hundred needs shaking up and an auction does that and is always fun to watch.

 

I'm fine with the move to an auction, but a maximum of four retentions per team I'm less keen on. (And I'm sure a lot of sides will retain less than four, if they instead use some of those four slots to pre-sign new players, or simply don't use those four slots.)

I appreciate going with less than the usual 10 or 11 retentions, to shake things up, but I'd have preferred around 6 or 7 retentions for continuity.

 

I like the maximum of 4 as long as that's not every year. It's not really an issue for us as the only absolutely nailed on keeper is Archer. There are likely keepers (Vince in particular) but I certainly don't want us retaining more than 4!

 

Yeah, purely from a selfish point of view it isn't a problem for our men's team (but it's a huge problem for our women's team). I'd be looking to retain Archer, Vince and Overton, and then using the fourth spot on a top new signing.

Allowing sides to have a second "England" player in the squads (plus a fourth overseas player) could be very good for us. It will mean the ECB having to increase the number of players who are classed as "England" players; I'm pretty sure that there were only 10 last year, and there will need to be a minimum of 16 next year. There's no-one obvious from our 2025 squad who is likely to join Archer in being categorised as one, so we might be able to grab ourselves a quality player from a different team (eg the likes of Oval or Phoenix could easily find themselves with more than the allowed two). There are some seriously good names who weren't classed as "England" players last season, but might be next time. Hopefully they announce the list soon.