Forum Review (Sep 02)

By David Slater
July 2 2003

The anual Middlesex forum was held at Lord's last night with Vinny Codrington, John Embury and Andy Strauss answering questions from the large group of fans who had braved the tube strike to make it. Several interesting points were raised and here is a review of last night.

Players:
The players for next year was a topic that was talked about. For the overseas contingent, Razzaq is deffinatly staying but his participation will be hampered by proposed tours. India are scheduled to tour Pakistan in April, Pakisrtan will then play a three match 1-day series in England before hosting Bangladesh in September. Ashley Noffke is in the final stages of of contract descussions.

Steve Nitkrakas DID play some Cricket last year. He played in a second XI game at Wimbledon against Surrey and took 3-27 but 16 of them were no balls! One batsmen even ended up in casulty. Unfortunatly is back injury is still a problem and he is unlikely to be fit for next season.

As far as new signings go, John Embury is speaking to two bowlers (no names given). They are both English. One of them, who John would really like to sign is speaking to four other counties. If he signs it should be announced in the next couple of weeks.

Finally in this topic, the subject of Wicket Keeping came up mainly when Barmy Kev asked Andy whether he would be keeping wicket again next season. John felt that David Alleyne was inproving with his batting as was a better 'keeper then David Nash. This had inturn motivated Nashy.

Targets:
The target for next year is a top four place. John also said that he believes we can win the county championship in the next three seasons, and this is a quote from the man himself "We're not going to faulter" in the last few months of the season. The next target to match is Surrey.

As far as the NUL goes (new sponsor for next year) The message was we will improve but it will take time.

20 over Cricket.
These matches will not be played at Lord's. There will also be fielding restrictions for the first 6 overs.

Last week we played two behind closed door matches against Hampshire at the Rose Bowl to test out the rules and regulations. We won both!

Points system:
Another intetesting comment that came up was the number of points avalible. John felt that there should be less points avalible for a win as it would lower the number of bad pitches. He also felt that bonus points should only be avalible for 110 overs and not the current amount of 130.

Marketing:
In response to Lordofthechairs question :
"Some people I speak to are interested in attending games, but aren't aware of when the fixtures are. Has the club considered limited advertising? Jubilee line trains/stations might be a starting point. For example, it is difficult to get a train out of Waterloo without noticing that Vauxhall station is close to the Oval, but I'm sure that 90% of jubilee line passengers don't even know that St John's Wood station is a few minutes walk away from Lord's. "
Vinny responded by saying that they are looking at this but the costs are very high and the budget is dictating the amount avalible.

Sponsorship:
The Royal Bank of Scotland are withdrawing as sponsors. There is "cautiously good news" regarding a new sponsor.

Floodlights:
Unless the MCC instal floodlights, the whole idea is a no go area. It costs £15,000 per match for floodlight and it would be hard to artact the crowd necessary to break even on the project.

This site:
After the forum Jeremy, Barmy Kev and Myself, spoke to Vinny about this site. He said that he has been very impressed with the work we do. He has promised to arange for Jeremy and myself to meet up with him in a few weeks to discuss developing the site and the official site and working together next season.

Tony Lewis:
As Lordofthechairs mentioned on the message board we had the chance to speak to Tony Lewis, of Dukworth/Lewis fame. He was a good laugh and explained the method to us. He also promised to send me a guide to the system which will be posted on this site.

I would like to thank everyone at Middlesex for a wonderful season and an excellent evening out.