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Mike Burns Online

jf2001

Cricket Web Staff Member
It appears that I was only one of two whose questions appear on the official site under the online Q&A session hosted by Mike Burns yesterday. The Somerset' skipper's replies are below:

Every county goes through it's fair share of injuries such as Worcestershire recently, do you think that it is these injuries or poor form that is the main reason behind Somerset's slump?
Answer: You can't really separate the two from each other.When we didn't have the injuries and we had a full quota of players at the start of the season we were winning matches. Losing the likes of Richard Johnson and having Matt Bulbeck missing from early season was a huge setback from which we haven't really recovered. We are hoping that Gary Gilder will help to bolster the situation,plus we may have 'Johnno' with us for a couple of games. All of the players in the sqaud have got the quality to win games for us.

Question From: Tim Lambach
Question: Does the sort of vocal support,that Tractor and friends offer, encourage the team or hinder them?
Answer: The vociferous support that Tractor and his friends offer gives us a great deal of encouragement and is much appreciated by the players. Sometimes out in the field his comments bring a smile to the players faces which is a good thing especially when things are not going so well for us.

Question From: John Fuller
Question: What would you say are the reasons behind Somerset's poor one day form?
Answer: We have struggled to take wickets early on because we haven't had a genuine swing bowler with the white ball. Obviously the number of injuries that we have hasn't helped the situation. Our batting has been careless at times under pressure, possibly having to chase too many runs because of our bowling problems. At Southgate we did manage to get 300 plus runs and gave a spirited batting performance. If we can string together a couple of good results and we are looking to go into our day/nighter against Lancashire with both Nixon McLean and Richard Johnson to strengthen our bowling attack we can get away from the bottom of the table.

Question From: John Fuller
Question: Do you honestly think that with the injuries Somerset have, they are capable of promotion this season?
Answer: Obviously the large number of injuries that we have at the moment has made the job harder, but the players who are left have the qualities required to help us to get back to division one of the championship next year.

Question From: Tim Lambach
Question: I was at Southgate last Sunday and folk there were horrified by Peter Anderson's article in the programme, apparently criticising the team and the club.Does this sort of article affect the team and does it make your job more difficult?
Answer: All of the lads at the club have a good rapport with the chief and his comments that appeared in last Sunday's programme at Southgate were written very much with tongue in cheek. We all know that he backs us to the hilt if we are doing our job and all of the players took his comments in the spirit in which they were intended.

Question From: John Fuller
Question: How much of the criticism by disgruntled fans do you think is fair? What would your message be to them?
Answer: If people want to criticise us because of our poor results on the field then they have every right to. However to question the team's professionalism and attitude is not acceptable because people don't see what goes on behind the scenes and how much the run of disappointing results hurts the players. We are all Somerset supporters ourselves and nobody wants the team to well more than us and we are our own biggest critics. Cricket is a huge confidence game and the more people get on your back the harder it becomes to perform.

Question From: Tim Lambach
Question: Please can you tell me why Banger wasn't playing last Sunday? I cannot believe that the ECB would have prevented him from playing if he wanted to play. Will he play for us again this season? Further to this it doesn't seem fair on our supporters that Johnno was rested against Middx when he was able to play the day before, he has now got 11 days rest!
Answer: The England management would not allow Marcus to play for us on Sunday, and he may well be prevented from playing for us any more this season. With regard to Richard Johnson, he was carrying an injury in the final at Lord's and didn't complete his full quota of overs. 'Johnno' will not be fit to play for us tomorrow at Northants but we are hoping he will be ready to play for us against Lancashire on Monday and Durham in the county championship match.

Question From: John Fuller
Question: Have you stopped enjoying the captaincyof Somerset with the results going against the team?
Answer: It's an honour and a privilege to be the captain of Somerset and when I was offered the opportunity I was delighted to accept. Obviously it's more enjoyable when results are going for you, but you still have to get on and do the job even when they are not and I have to say that I am still enjoying being the captain. I always look on the bright side and I expect things to improve in the near future
 

marc71178

Eyes not spreadsheets
jf2001 said:
Sometimes out in the field his comments bring a smile to the players faces which is a good thing especially when things are not going so well for us.
Surely they should be serious and concentrating on taking wickets, rather than laughing at the crowd?

jf2001 said:
If people want to criticise us because of our poor results on the field then they have every right to. However to question the team's professionalism and attitude is not acceptable
In the light of the previous comment that I quote, surely you have every right to criticise their attitude?
 

Langeveldt

Soutie
Re: Re: Mike Burns Online

Rich2001 said:
Not having the best of matches today his 4 overs go for 32 :O

Yeah, hes gunna be in for a shock when he realizes what hes let himself in for!
 

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