Surrey Cricket: What now?

A short two week break for me and seemingly nothing has changed whatsoever at Surrey. The signing of Will Porterfield didn't materialise with the Irishman opting for the lights of Birmingham over SE11. I'm absolutely certain this was down to a combination of money and cricket, we couldn't offer the kind of money Warwickshire could and they also have Division One cricket to dangle in front of him. I doubt a change of heart from Chris Adams had much to do with it at all. 

So that leaves us short of an opener (or two if Michael Brown doesn't recover from a second bout of surgery in time for next season), and unsurprisingly given the cash situation there have been no other signings. I would've thought that given the departures of Afzaal and Evans, and the likely departure of Andre Nel, that there might be some room in the budget, but apparently not. I presume Roy and Lancefield will be signed to full time contracts but there should still be space for a couple of signings before we tip over the edge of the £1.8m ECB salary cap. 

That is of course if the senior management are interested in Surrey ever becoming a front running County Cricket Club any time soon. There is talk of a cut of £500k to the cricketing budget over two years, Graham Thorpe has departed to work within the England setup and 20% of the staff at the Oval has been sacked - how can the club progress in a cricketing sense at the moment? 

I am all for blooding youth, but the squad for next season is looking a bit thin even if (and its a big if) Chris Jordan and Michael Brown are available. Seren Waters, Freddie van den Bergh, George Edwards and Zafar Ansari could become regulars at this rate but as promising as they undoubtedly are, there is no way we will be challenging for trophies and promotion without some experience in the side. 

It may be the case that in light of the recession and perhaps some not-so-wise spending over the last few years that the 3-5 year recovery Chris Adams spoke of is now a thing of the past, but so little information is forthcoming from the club that we really don't know. 

It is probably very naive of me to expect that the club keep the members and fans alike appraised of every minute decision, but at this stage we don't know if Adams intends, or will be allowed, to pursue any signings at all. It may be that in the coming weeks the intention to plug the gaps with signings will be made clear, but it might well not.  Where does Surrey Cricket Limited see Surrey County Cricket Club going next year? Anyone?

Another holiday blogging break...

I've been very lax of late, largely because there's been very little going on in the world of Surrey cricket, and there were many more able and effective writers offering an opinion on the Andre Nel (get better Andre) saga.  And now I'm off on holiday for a fortnight, here's some things I hope will have happened when I return at the end of October:

• Surrey finally tie up the signing of Will Porterfield, Anthony Ireland left Gloucester at the same time and Middlesex have nailed that one, so why haven't we tied down Porterfield?
• We need a middle order batsman, and that isn't Kevin Pietersen, so I hope that gap is plugged.
• Some sort of interesting rumour at least about our overseas signing, I can exclusively reveal that Gus Mackay revealed to me before he was unceremoniously dumped that it WON'T be Daniel Vettori, we've apparently tried and failed to sign him...damn it!

So that's not too much to ask is it?  I genuinely hope things do settle down at the club, the upheaval in the last few weeks, particularly the job losses, must have made for a very trying period.  If we are to succeed next year we need a harmonious atmosphere, and the preparation for that starts here (or at least when Rory gets back from captaining England...in the Hong Kong Sixes).

Bye for now!