McGrath signing highlight of forum

The panel comprised of chairman Phil Edmonds, coach John Embury, new vice captain Ed Joyce and Chief Exec Vinny Codrington.

The evening began with John Embury giving a summary of how things have gone this year. He began by mentioning the few contentious issues that have arisen from the last few weeks. He did state the season had started well but the supporters reaction over the last week particularly had caused some upset. The pointed out that the players were tired mentally as well as physically mainly as a result of the time they have spent in the field.

With regards to the bowling he said that Keegan and Hayward had been carrying ankle injuries (Hayward had earlier pulled out of the game due to his injury (Nash withdrew due to a thumb injury)) but pointed out that Lancashire were doing worse then us! He believes the first class game is in a better state then it’s been for the past 25-30 years and hinted this could be due to the introduction of EU/Kolpak players and did state that several agents had offered players to the club but they weren’t interested.

There were many questions regarding the change of vice captains. The decision was made on Thursday evening at a management meeting. The board felt a change was needed right away. Both Owais and Ed were spoken to by Embury and they were both fine with it. Embury admitted that having Owais as captain hadn't worked (This was partly attributed to decisions involving not bowling Jamie Dalrymple).

Ed said that he was rather surprised as he hadn't captained any side since he was 15 but had always wanted to do the job. He said he had spoken to Owais after the decision was made and Owais had told him to feel free to ask.

Embury's earlier comments about a lack of support had caused some anger amongst some members. In reply John made three points.

1. A few bad matches don't mean a crisis. It's nothing they can't sort out
2. Criticism is good IF its constructive.
3. The fans views had added to the reasoning behind the switch of captain.

Lance Klusener will be here till July 18th (up to away match at Durham).

After that, as rumoured on the message board, Glenn McGrath will replace Zulu for 4 County Championship matches (Worcestershire away, Kent at Southgate, Gloucestershire at Lord's and Sussex at Lord's) and 4 one day matches (Worcestershire away, Yorkshire at Southgate, Leicestershire at Lord's and Worcestershire at Lord's) as well as possibly depending on our progress, the quarters, semi and final of the Twenty20 cup.

After that the club would wait and see what happens with Zulu but hinted they were chasing a spin bowler for the last month of the season.

There was also a discussion about the current match which started when someone commented, much to everyone else’s annoyance that given how Warwickshire had scored 495 runs on the same day we had under performed. This view was dismissed by Ed Joyce who stated that the wicket was slower then it looked and that seam attack they faced was a quality attack. . They hope to put the knowledge of the pitch to good use when they take the field.

The question of was it wise for John to go to Southgate for the Second XI match against Essex instead of Gloucester was the right call. John said that the decision was made at the start of the year with the aim of seeing the players coming through the ranks. This decision was made as his job is to see all players coming through the ranks, not just the first team.

The news that we rank bottom of the Spirit of Cricket league was also mentioned. Embury stressed his disappointment at this for the following reasons:

1. The first anyone at the club knew about this League was when a member pointed it out to him last Sunday.
2. There are no reasons given for the points umpire’s give.
3. They have always played the same way and so do other teams

This also lead to discussions about two incidents involving matches with Surrey. The first was the ball tampering by Surrey. The club caught the incident on video and passed it, along with the balls in question to the ECB board but they deemed there was “inconclusive evidence” to take action.

The second was the incidents involving David Nash and Jonathan Batty. Embury stated they were good friends and Batty had over reacted to a comment Nashy had made and they felt the umpires played the incident up.

Paul Hutchinson has a suspected stress fracture in the foot and will be out for 6-8 weeks. Mel Betts is rated as two and a half weeks short of being match fit. They also said they have brought in a new system of making injury news available to members.

Whilst this worked well last season, the general feeling was that it hasn’t this year as Paul Weekes, has been left feeling unable to do the role he has been sent in to. They gave the indication that who goes in third will depend in future on who was the man out

The evening was finished with a summation by Phil Edmunds. He began by praising the work John Embury and Jason Pooley have done on the playing side of things, and the work Vinny, Josh & co have done in the office. He said that everything was going to plan despite the odd hick-up along the way and there was nothing to worry about in his opinion.