Five Things We Learned In County Cricket This Week

1)      Marcus Trescothick is getting better

Only an idiot would doubt Marcus Trescothick. In an ideal world he’d still be in the England team, possibly as captain and be both their highest century maker and run scorer but he’s not and sadly the tendency is to treat every county achievement with a sense of “what if”. It is only natural, but does Trescothick, Somerset and the County Championship a disservice by almost diminishing his achievements. Because if anything ‘Banger’ is getting better; no mean feat at the age of 35 and without the motivation of a Test spot to aim for.

Marcus Trescothick: Better than the rest

His captaincy continues to develop; he is an astute and understated leader who has had to lead an often inexperienced batting and bowling line-up while keeping up his form with the bat. Indeed the remarkable thing is that his batting continues to astound. He stands head and shoulders above the rest of the county circuit there. He has notched up 978 runs before the end of May and is over 250 runs away from Varun Chopra, his closest rival. He also boasts the highest average-81.60 and has a strike rate at 71 which is matched only by fellow big hitters Ben Stokes and Ian Blackwell-neither of whom opens.

His latest effort for Somerset-189 in the first innings followed by a typically belligerent 151* off 131 balls was too much for Yorkshire, a county with an attack which contains Ryan Sidebottom and Adil Rashid. Somerset’s fluctuating form this season is often tied to their captain’s, when Trescothick fires, his county tends to as well-that is how crucial he has become and a sign of how good a player he really is.

2)      Ravi Bopara has got serious competition as England’s potential part-timer

Ravi Bopara has every reason to feel aggrieved. One imagines he will have watched this England match with a vested interest given how close he came to selection, and felt more than aggrieved at the sight of James Anderson going off and Jonathan Trott being forced to bowl some overs as a relief bowler. For that was Bopara’s role in this team before Eoin Morgan intervened.

Ben Stokes: The next Collingwood

Instead Bopara was at Chelmsford, getting out twice for single figures and taking three wickets for 130-odd runs, in terms of a riposte it was far from a telling one. Meanwhile elsewhere there were further ominous signs for Bopara in the form of another confident young star that is both scoring runs and taking wickets in Durham’s Ben Stokes.

Stokes, who has already scored two centuries this season, took 7-145 in Durham’s comprehensive victory over Warwickshire. His bowling has never been his strong suit but it has begun to develop with an extra yard of pace added over a winter spent training with the England Lions and the results have manifested themselves in 16 first class wickets at an average of 31. As Ian Botham would put it, his averages are the right way round, 42 with the bat, 31 with the ball this season and if he carries on like this then England honours will surely be just a matter of time. Having just lost one red-headed northerner who bats, bowls and fields well, it would be ironic if England replaced him with another one.

3)      Alviro Petersen really is Glamorgan captain

Of course we all knew that Alviro Petersen was Glamorgan captain, he arrived in such controversial circumstances that we could not have missed it. Yet after his first innings double hundred against Surrey now we can safely say, he REALLY is the Glamorgan captain. The innings itself was special-210 off 352 balls with 24 fours and 1 six-but ultimately in the context of the match it was meaningless as neither side appeared capable of dislodging the other on a relatively tame surface, but in the context of Glamorgan’s season and Petersen’s captaincy it could yet be crucial.

Alviro Petersen: The knock of a captain

This was the innings of a leader, opening the batting and taking responsibility to lead his side forward in a match which had potential significance against one of their promotion rivals. It was one which spoke of a leader, a real captain’s knock which perhaps for the first time we had really seen from Petersen in his tenure. His arrival may have been controversial, but he has been doing a good job in difficult circumstances this season and after an innings such as this, a real captain’s knock, he really has become Glamorgan’s leader.

4)      Lonwabo Tsotsobe has found the only way isn’t Essex

Lonwabo Tsotsobe’s brief stint in county cricket will probably go down as one of those mysterious ones-like the signings of Andy Blignaut by Durham in 2004 (4 wickets at a cost of 50) or Iftikhar Anjum by Surrey in 2009 (8 wickets at 40). Yet Tsotsobe unlike those two was a genuinely gifted international bowler who was seemingly at the top of his game having starred for South Africa in their series against India and performed well at the World Cup. So how he managed to end up with just five first class wickets at an average of 77 will surely remain the subject of much debate.

The mystery of Tsotsobe

It has already proved to be quite the storm with Paul Grayson publicly slating the player (a rare event for a County coach) after the player himself had used his Twitter feed to bemoan the environment at the club and his decision to move there instead of staying in South Africa. The exact reasons behind his failure will now be investigated thoroughly by both Essex and Cricket South Africa to determine both why it occurred and how it could have been avoided.

It is a great shame because county cricket can be a great learning environment for pace bowlers. Zaheer Khan said this week that all Indian pace bowlers should go there after his spell at Worcestershire in 2004. Thus it is a real shame that Tsotsobe has gone, a shame for Essex and South Africa but most of all for the player himself, because what has now gone down as one of the worst moments in his career should have been one of his finest.

5)      County cricket can learn a lesson from Adrian Shankar

If Tsotsobe’s story is a mystery then what can you make of the case of Adrian Shankar? The story is covered in far greater detail here, but needless to say the story of a cricketer who managed to bluff his way into first class cricket will go down in history. Though the story hardly reflects well on Shankar himself, what to make of the counties who signed him without proper investigation. Neither Lancashire or Worcestershire have exactly covered themselves in glory in this tale, and the apparent ease with which Shankar has managed to forge a career will serve as a warning to them in the future. As much blame as Shankar will ultimately take for his part it is worth remembering that with appropriate measures in place he would never have managed to get so far. Next time, if there is a next time, they will surely have learned their lesson.

Sensible cricket is at the heart of both Somerset and England’s recipes for success

Two games in 24 hours witnessed two thoroughly proficient performances of limited overs cricket as first England beat Pakistan and then Somerset defeated Essex in their Pro40 Semi-Final to set up a final against Warwickshire at Lords.

Both teams are enjoying a prolific time within limited overs cricket, England fresh from being crowned T20 World Champions have emerged victorious in series over Bangladesh and Australia, while Somerset reached the Twenty20 Finals Day only to be pipped by Hampshire and are now in the Pro40 final-not to mention being genuine contenders for the County Championship.

On paper there are plenty of similarities between the two teams, both are incredibly fit, well organised and drilled. Both are well led both in terms of captaincy and with the bat, England by Andrew Strauss, Somerset by Marcus Trescothick.

Both also contain versatile bowling attacks, with real quality spinners in Graham Swann and Murali Kartik, and explosive young talent in Eoin Morgan and Steven Davies, and for Somerset Jos Buttler and England’s very own Craig Kieswetter.

Yet the key for both teams, beyond the sheer depth of talent at their disposal, is that both harness it in the right way-using their talent to full, something which both team’s could have been accused of not doing in the past.

The buzz word around each team has been sensible cricket, not so much approaching matters in a cavalier matter but approaching it with a methodical, calculated approach while also performing their key skills under pressure.

Take England, who have yet to concede more than 150 runs in a T20 innings in almost 2 years, and Somerset, who lost only two of their 16 T20 matches and just two of their 11 Pro40 games. These are not statistics achieved through chance, but through rigorous effort and a methodical, common sense approach.

Certainly, the improvements in both lie in the powerful management both on, and off the field-both by their coaches Andy Flower and Andy Hurry, and on the field with Strauss and Trescothick.

The coaches are particularly key, Flower built on the base which was constructed by the well-meaning, but under-respected Peter Moores, who laid the foundations for this success. So too, as Hurry and Trescothick built on the base constructed by Justin Langer during his time as captain.

Langer, a keen workaholic whose career outlasted many more talented batsmen as a result, helped introduce the kind of work ethic and fitness work which were unpopular among certain maverick players like Ian Blackwell, but which has proved beneficial to the likes of James Hildreth and Peter Trego who are thriving, as are the team.

It is about managing resources, covering every base, rigorously planning ahead, and ensuring that skills are performed under even the most pressured of environments. These may sound purely like plain common sense, but that is the very notion which is at the heart of their success. Sensible cricket, which as both England and Somerset are proving, is also successful cricket.