Nottinghamshire Members Q&A 26 March

For those of you not present at Trent Bridge on Monday evening, for the Q & A Session I thought you might like an update on some of the things that were talked about.

Question & Answer Session – Derek Randall Suite Monday 26 March 2018

Steven Mullaney, Chris Nash & Peter Moores were interviewed by Michael Temple.

SM started by saying that his strength was that he was very approachable and that he expected a tough year and that it was impossible to replace Chris Read.

He personally had started November in the gym, followed by a trip to Australia Pre Christmas. He was training in the UK in January before practising in Oman in February, a pre season trip to Potchefstroom in South Africa before spending two weeks in Barbados captaining the North is the North v South three match challenge, in front of the selectors and Andrew Strauss. He still harboured hopes of playing for England and quoted that three players, namely Dawid Malan, James Vince and Mason Crane did well in the corresponding tournament and went on to play for their country.

SM welcomed Chris Nash and was pleased to have a player elder than himself in the squad.

CN stated that he has always enjoyed his time at Trent Bridge having scored three centuries at the venue and he also scored one at Lady Bay. He stated that he has integrated really well into the dressing room, but he did know some of the players previously and that it was great to meet up more with Fletch. He finds Trent Bridge up there with Lords as a great venue to play at. Of the current squad he thinks that Jack Blatherwick has great potential.

He then gave a brief insight into his previous career working with Peter Moores where he first met him as a 14 year old, and his first match for Sussex was as an off spinner who batted at number 10. He expected to bat higher than that in his first match for Nottinghamshire.

PM stated that he required quality within the squad, and although he would like to see youngsters in the team he required calm heads around them. He also stated that he cannot guarantee winning matches, but he did expect the whole team to put a shift in. Youngsters can add enthusiasm and occasionally be brilliant, but generally they will also be inconsistent. 

PM was asked about SM, to which he stated that it would be a big mistake to change a winning team. SM will have to have his own methods.

PM was then asked how his relationship worked with Mick Newell, and he stated that he runs the pro staff and all the coaching team. The admin side of things is what MN supports, which includes finding players, negotiating contracts, and MN will also be in charge of developing players.

PM stated that there was a requirement to get more home grown players involved. It was generally good for bowlers, but there was a void with the batters, where it is slightly better in the 16-18 age group, but not so good in the 18-21 age group.

PM was asked about new signings, where he admitted that they bid to sign both Keaton Jennings and Sam Northeast, where we got close. He admitted that the staff was very small compared to some counties, and that we could do with one or two signings, to keep us within the wage-cap. We might sign a Kolpak player if a suitable one became available.

On the prospects for the 2018 season, PM said that there might be up to nine regular players in the championship side, injuries permitting. The bowling was very competitive and there were seven batters to get into six spots, and that the first five championship games were big in influencing the season.

Pre arranged questions revolved around the threat of cricketers leaving the red ball game, and PM admitted that this is a big threat to four day cricket, and that only certain people could do it. He also stated that four day and test match cricket required work on them. Specifically on Alex Hales, PM stated that AH sees the future World Cup as his best format of the game, and he needs to ensure that he is part of it. PM also stated that he expected the counties to need to carry more players on their staff especially when the EPL starts in 2020, and that will clash with some white ball 50 over cricket.

SM was asked with the signing of Chris Nash would he continue to open in the Championship. He stated that at this stage the answer was yes, and that he did not plan to use his position as captain to move himself down the order.

There was a discussion on the recent cheating by certain Australian Test cricketers.

Harry Gurney had been quoted as stating that he believed that test cricket may not survive this generation; did the panel agree? CN said that the four day game needed tweaking, this could revolve around changing the penalties for slow over rates, and also the quality of pitches. PM stated that some four day games can meander but a quality player, like James Pattinson did last year, can accelerate the game.

20/20 – SM stated that Notts only used 14 players last year and two of those
only played the first two matches. They used just 12 players for most games with Luke Wood and Will Root sharing the games.

Are there any targets for 2018. SM said not really yet, the team must enjoy their cricket and all give 100 percent. The players and coaching staff must all pull together.

An update was requested on the fitness of Paul Coughlin. PM stated that he had had his operation on his dislocated shoulder and would be missing for at least four months.

A question was asked whether we would be consistently able to bowl teams out twice. PM stated that Footitt will offer pace, and that we will have Jake Ball for the start of the season. He expected Fletcher to be effective at the start of the season, but the first division will be a lot harder to win games.

PM was asked why Notts allow their players to play abroad in the off season? He said that the financial incentive were big for the players and we cannot stop them playing abroad. For example Samit Patel has recently won the PSL with Islamabad, and that he had been bowling well opening the bowling, and that he hoped to use these skills in the domestic 20/20. CN had been working with Gary Kirsten in Cape Town, South Africa during the winter.

PM stated that the salary cap in the county game makes things a more level playing field and that the big plus for 2017 was the improvement in the fielding.

JAG

A bronzed Steve Mullaney was a third of the panel that spoke to a gathering of members in the Randall Suite this evening.

The others were, new boy Chris Nash and first team coach Peter Moores.

All three spoke well about their hopes for the coming season etc,taking turns to address the audience,with the players sharing their winter travel itineries which explained their healthy glows.

Nash and Moores spoke about their long professional relationship from "way back in the late nineties" when CN was just "a crappy off-spinner" through to CM's first professional contract at Hove and onwards.

All took great delight in Australia's current self-inflicted, premeditated fiasco.

At some point written questions were submitted but the floor was asked if there any other queries prior to the submitted ones.

Several asked about red/white balance and players specialising in either and any inpact the looming EPL might have on the near future prospects for current players' contract options; but PM ceded that nothing was finalised, not even team names let alone the draft process(Lisa and Mick don't know yet) but both he and SM let it slip that they would prefer to have Notts players representing the Trent Bridge based franchise. Sadly all spoke as though the "EPL" was a done deal but PM felt the only competition that it was likely to impact on was the ODC (no sh*t Sherlock!) but playing staff numbers might have to increase.

PM agrees we're light of a batter.

PM said Notts have an option of taking the Kolpak route but will only take it if the right player becomes available.

Paul Coffin Coughlin will be out for at least 4 months.

CN was impressed with the developing Jack Blatherwick.

I'm sure there's a load more stuff worth a mention (but I didn't make notes - did you JAG?).