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*Official* England\UK off-season 2008/09 \ build-up to 2009 season thread

Richard

Richard

Cricket Web Staff Member
Manee said:
He is a tank of a quick bowler whose bowling has come on leaps and bounds in the past year. When progress is visible, there is no need for it to be written off as an anomaly.
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I've heard too much talk about his bowling coming-on before now to be terribly sure about anything. And it's not like he played a full season, achieving constant excellence.
My gut instinct is that it'll be a lot of hype for nothing, surely he'd have played more for Surrey and taken more U19 wickets if he was that quick.
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Yep, I'm not anywhere near as keen on him as I am on, for instance, Daniel Redfern.
TT Boy said:
:laugh:
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Not entirely sure why that's so uproarious. No-one can delve into what is not available. UIMM, there's no "Learn Everything There Is To Know About Stuart Meaker" book\website out there. Until more comes out, you can only go on limited info.
 
TT Boy

TT Boy

Hall of Fame Member
Richard said:
I don't see any evidence to suggest Caddick is no use any more. He bowled better in 2007 than he had for some time. There was no evidence until fairly recently that he might be on the way out - and even if he were, Somerset still seem to think he's worth yet another year.
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Aside from his average this season of course.
 
Richard

Richard

Cricket Web Staff Member
TT Boy said:
You do of course but there is a difference from following games via a scorecard and actually watching a game. I find it pretty hard to discuss a cricketer or classify him into a category when I haven't seen him play.
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Well given that only 2 games per season are transmitted on TV and only a tiny number of people watch any significant amount of county cricket that'd mean virtually no-one could form an opinion on any player. Which, well, frankly I don't agree with.

You can read-up the odd few bits and pieces on players from various websites and books, and you can realise that someone is good or not very good by looking at scorecards.
 
TT Boy

TT Boy

Hall of Fame Member
Manee said:
My gut instinct is that it'll be a lot of hype for nothing, surely he'd have played more for Surrey and taken more U19 wickets if he was that quick.
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Pretty simple logic here but if Meaker was capable of bowling 95mph spells don’t you think Surrey would have signed him up instead of loaning in the likes of Alex Tudor?

Also I saw him in action for the England U19 and he wasn't the quickest bowler on show...
 
TT Boy

TT Boy

Hall of Fame Member
Richard said:
Well given that only 2 games per season are transmitted on TV and only a tiny number of people watch any significant amount of county cricket that'd mean virtually no-one could form an opinion on any player. Which, well, frankly I don't agree with.

You can read-up the odd few bits and pieces on players from various websites and books, and you can realise that someone is good or not very good by looking at scorecards.
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One day cricket?
 
TT Boy

TT Boy

Hall of Fame Member
Richard said:
You write someone off based on half a season (which is pretty well what Caddick played) and you're playing a very dangerous game IMO.
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If a nigh on 40 year old who can’t play back-to-back games takes a hatful next year then I will duly pay homage.
 
Richard

Richard

Cricket Web Staff Member
TT Boy said:
One day cricket?
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Virtually all these assessments are based on players' four-day outputs (about the only two who would be Ds and instead become As due to one-day considerations are Benning and Chris Taylor of Yorkshire). And as you know, I don't like to let one-day cricket impact on assessment of a player's four-day skill.
 
Richard

Richard

Cricket Web Staff Member
TT Boy said:
Pretty simple logic here but if Meaker was capable of bowling 95mph spells don’t you think Surrey would have signed him up instead of loaning in the likes of Alex Tudor?

Also I saw him in action for the England U19 and he wasn't the quickest bowler on show...
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Maybe then he won't turn-out to be any good. The 95mph stuff did seem to be a bit odd but there's never been any firm refutation of it.

I was also a bit surprised he didn't play more last season if the thing was true, but for all I know he could've been injured or Surrey could have been "handling him carefully" - cricket websites don't carry exact details so unless you were a Surrey insider I hardly see that not knowing details of his non-selection is a particularly heinous crime.
 
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Richard

Richard

Cricket Web Staff Member
TT Boy said:
If a nigh on 40 year old who can’t play back-to-back games takes a hatful next year then I will duly pay homage.
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Good, because you should. However, until he actually does conclusively poorly (ie, for more than half a season) I'm not willing to write him off as past-retire-by-date.
 
Richard

Richard

Cricket Web Staff Member
Chilton is a bit of a stretch, really - included in that category purely based on his 2003-2006. He's been poor again the last 2 seasons and was no good up to 2002 either.
 
Richard

Richard

Cricket Web Staff Member
That zaremba-distaste will be the death of you, y'know.

As for Chilton, I acknowledged that maybe I was a bit generous (though Chilton is somone I had high hopes for after 2004 and he's so disappointed me really). But Harmison, well, there's no disputing his county calibre these days - from 2003 to this just-concluded season, he's taken 145 wickets for Durham at 19.71. Even his economy-rate (at "only" 3.05-an-over) has been non-disastrous. A far cry from his early days (between 1998 and 2002 he took 204 wickets at 30.80 and never deserved to come close to England selection).

That is, I presume you weren't accusing me of being generous on Ben Harmison.
 
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