v. Kent (A) Fri 11th to Mon 14th May 2018 CC

Nail-biting stuff. 90 runs to win, 5 wickets left BUT... Henry is warming up for another stint. Always seems unfair when a county has
an outstanding and dominant player. 

I really like Burgess. A great signing for Sussex. Can the two Bs carry us over the line... again?

Back to normality. This is Mark Davis' team right here, doing the same things, struggling in div 2. There is no point in keeping out Whittingham and Garton with 30+ year old Kolpaks. I can get my head around it if we're gonna push for promotion but we're not. These lads need to play, make mistakes, learn and improve with game time. We're gonna be languishing in this division with the teams that are always here, we have no need for Kolpaks. It's criminal. Build your own team Gillespie with the youth that was on the spec.

I'm not, I'm blaming the club for recruiting them and picking them. It doesn't matter how they're doing personally if you're just sitting about in div 2, there's no point having them.  Build your team with youth if you're going nowhere anyway and then maybe some day soon you will prosper.  

Van Zyl, an experienced overseas test player hasn't even got a fifty for us yet, unlike centurions Wells and Finch. Even Salt has a fifty.  Why do you so readily slate a young Sussex lad who's done more than the experienced test player you're protecting?  Salt is a middle order bat and he's filling in before we surely get an overseas opener when Jordan and Archer return.  You've got your expectations arse about face mate.  You should expect more of Van Zyl than Salt and Finch.

The point is, regardless of how well he does as an individual, what's the point in having him if you're going nowhere as a team?  We should be building in this situation and we should have been for the last three years.  This is Davis' team.  

“Youth is where we are going wrong” . Am I really reading that statement on a fan forum?? Perhaps you agreed with Alan Hansen back in 92. This nonsense around our “failing top 4 batsmen” has got my back up- here are the top 4 batsmens scores from our division this week- I’ll buy you a therapy session if you think the Sussex numbers are any different... 19,4,3 and 0. 14, 0, 61 and 17. 12, 38, 14, 21. 100,2,14,1. 1,7,0,14. 40,32,7,14. 66,28,0,6. 2,34,0,1. 13,10,60,26. 3,3,9,5. 2,8,47,26. 9,11,38,13. 35,16,6,5. 20,0,22,1. The only club that have had ONE decent opening session are the team we’ve just beaten - 36,99,31,76!!

Just a suggestion- why don’t we try to understand that it is early season in England.. the Ball beats the bat more than the bat beats the ball at this time of year and we are trying to BUILD a team!! I’ve been to every game this season and I for one wouldn’t change the team until we have players performing regularly challenging for spots. At the minute every single potential option is failing at a lower level- why would you change anything. The players in question by worthingsccc are the biggest contributors in terms of energy, enthusiasm, togetherness and all those key intangible factors that often differentiate between success and failure (and for the record young Salt has the same average as Joe Root and a higher average than Shiv Chanderpaul, Chris Nash, Pujara and Ben Duckett)- with your logic let’s get him in the test squad!!). You have to believe in the process otherwise you might as well select a team based on whoever has the best nets session the day before - maybe the Physio might get the nod to open the bowling. Think of JG as the Pep Guardiola of div 2- he’ll get the team right with or without negatives numpties asking for knee jerk reactions. Smithers has it right- well said that man. Let’s get behind the boys and believe in them!! GOSBTS

My understanding is that both Andrew and Gillespie are gambling on youth and the Academy and by hell or high water, that is what
is going to happen. Kent won because they had an outstanding O/S player who towered above the rest of the players on the Canterbury
pitch.

I agree with others that early in the Championship season, conditions favour the seamers, so to openly criticise the top order batsmen
is a little harsh. We knew that Salt would find it tough and Wells has reverted back to his old form of getting some superb scores and
then disappearing into the background.

If we are to support the club and their Academy/Youth policy, we must expect inconsistency, where one week we win a match and the
next we lose. The all important issue is that we see a squad that is improving, and on that score, I have no complaints this season.

Allow Jason Gillespie to have a final say. He tweets, "Not the result we were after today. We learn from this fixture and take it into our
next challenge. Well played to our opponents Kent CCC. I’m proud of our efforts this game and this season." 

PS: Here's a thought to hold on to. No further Championship cricket at Hove now until July 22nd. And even more exciting, it is played 
with a pink ball!

You have to decide whether you want to win games or develope the youngsters. If we are trying to win then we need a top order batter, if we are developing our youngsters then we don’t need Kolpaks blocking their development. Why bring in Sharma for Jordan and Archer but not bring anyone in for Joyce, Nash, Machen etc? Doesn’t make sense. We’re neither doing one thing nor the other and we’ll end up 4th again in the division with 3 very promising fast bowlers another year older with little or no experience in the 1st team.