Nottinghamshire Members' Forum 2024.2

 

There was standing room only in the Derek Randall Suite for the second Nottinghamshire members' Forum of 2024.

Questions from the gathered members were sought from the off and the initial questions were as would be expected for a side that finished bottom in the Blast, finished no where in the Metro Bank and a club that look to be slipping through the trapdoor into the championship's second division again.

This came as no surprise to Moores and Newell who had obviously rehearsed their responses to obvious questions to be asked.

Peter Moores was in top form, talking at length defending his position; he said at the start of his defence that he wasn't going to make excuses, but then proceeded to make a number of excuses and making a number of contradictions too; anyone would think that someone else had been picking the team for all these years, which has left him now with a bunch of green rookies to mould into a team.

Would you credit it that when you attract players from other counties, with the promise of putting them on to a bigger stage, to raise their profile in order for them to gain higher recognition, that when they do get that international call, it's not the fault of his coaching team or the recruitment at the club that Notts are left short.

[From the floor] A lack of foresight was an accusation made, which evidenced by performances in all competitions over the last few years would seem to ring true. But you can't blame Newell and Moores for that, surely!

It is the fault of Samit Patel however, that Liam Patterson-White had never played a T20 Blast game until the fifth game of this year's competition, apparently. It certainly isn't the fault of the person that picks the team.

Mooores went on to praise Patterson-White's performances in the Blast as well as those by Freddie McCann and Sammy King; players he refused to pick whilst he had the unsuited Kiwi to select. Moores did highlight an irony (in his eyes) with his dilemma when playing the short format  in needing the "most experienced players for the shortest of formats" . I think the fearless approach by Freddie and Sammy at Headingley, might have unpicked that theory.

The poor form of a number of players was underlying a number of the initial questions and statements from the floor, before the issue of Alex Hales commitment to Notts was raised. Newell stated that Hales could and does get more money from playing elsewhere [around the globe] and that this year he was only contracted for eight games. Each season will be reviewed on a year by year basis with Alex, should he wish to continue at his age and with Notts.

Newell defended the state of the club [particularly in the CC], using statistics from previous seasons, however he never readdressed the accusation from the floor that he was cherry picking his seasons and ignoring the recurring relegation years that have plagued his [and Moores'] reign at Notts.

The approach to the One Day Cup was questioned by one member so Moores' repeated his claim that "we came close" this season but added that we could have had employed two overseas players but preferred to blood our homegrown youngsters. How many games did Moores pick Sammy King for?

Pressure to play more Cup games at Trent Bridge will be further hampered in the future by "the girls" playing more matches "here" - Pursehouse stated .

Apologies for the order and the lack of exactness of the specific questions (I have kind of lumped them together), but the defensive answers to those preceeding questions to this point of the forum led to a Ms Pursehouse impassioned [you could say], diatribe [you could also say], defence of the head coach and the Director of Cricket. [The nuclear response - see Kevin] There was so much passion in her words, it was clearly personal [to her], she didn't like the members not understanding what a "difficult job Pete and Mick have". The loss of Joey Evison [to Kent] was raked-up yet again during this diatribe, it "wasn't the fault of the club", "they did everything that they could" but "these young players" want to play in every format and they especially want to play in the Blast with the bigger crowds. Poor Mick and Peter have an impossible job to keep everyone happy. Members should not be calling for the head coach's head after every defeat either. There is a plan to have 40% of home produced players in the squad, a target that they "are hitting". The personal nature of her defence highlighted the elephant in the room; the conflict of interest on the top table.

There was a complimentary question about the Trent Bridge streaming service: in reply it was stated that the ECB were aiming to have a minimum standard, which TB believes has already exceded.

All went a bit tame after that, and time was running out.

There was a question about the poor allocation of Test matches - but we all can rest assured Notts won't lose out finacially with hosting a Zimbabwe Test, as the ECB will look after us for taking the hit, according LP.

Chair Hunt had nothing to say through-out, as Lisa hadn't given him a speaking role this time.

I have missed loads, so if you feel I have missed something important, please add it below.

Dave