Zaidi

Zaidi has signed a one year contract with Essex. Delighted for him and I think a shrewd signing by new coach Silverwood.

Agreed. Robinson takes one of his biggest and most endearing poker gambles and then folds with 2 aces when no-one else
in the game has more than 2 jacks.

Delighted for Zaidi and I'm sure when borderman re-appears on the Forum, he'll be eulogising too. And when Sussex play Essex
and Zaidi takes a fifer and scores a fifty, Robinson's decision will be questioned further by supporters.

I'm glad that Zaidi has got a contract, and think that a one-year deal is probably about right. I can't subscribe to the view that he was "finally coming good" , and any player who takes two years to make his mark at the age of 34 really has to consider himself lucky to have any further chances in county cricket. T20 in the BPLis one thing and I'm sure his darts were great at hustling out impetuous batsmen but in the more testing area of 4 day cricket he was hopelessly inadequate even when the pitches were wearing, never quite giving the ball enough air to get bounce or turn. His batting promised a lot, but never quite convinced that the next ball was going to be the one he would fail to read . I would very much have liked him to succeed but I think the truth is that it was about 5 years too late for him to adapt to English pitches in first class games, and his fielding was of a piece with the rest of his cricket: spirited but not quite up to the demands placed on it. A great character, a chap who tried very hard, but not a serious loss to a side that was falling over with the results of poor gambles and needed to rebuild.

I'm completely perplexed by jonboy's remark: We ourselves are now looking pretty threadbare, especially in the seam bowling department

As far as I know our resources look like this:

Possible Openers -  Joyce, Wells, Nash, Salt

Middle-order batsmen - Taylor, Machan, Cachopa, Finch, Wright, Hudson-Prentice

Wicket-keeping - Brown [Agreed that we need a deputy there and I don't count Cachopa]

Pace- bowling - Shahzad, Jordan, Magoffin,Robinson, Whittingham, Anyon, Mills, Hatchett, Garton

Spin-bowling - Briggs, Beer

That doesn't seem threadbare at all, but there are some patches, notably wicket-keeper, but also an opportunity for a genuine opener, if Joyce or Nash are required to bat lower down.

I agree with the sentiment that Sussex should thunder all and asunder in Division 2 but the one major vulnerability is the wicket-
keeping slot. There will be too much emphasis placed on Cachopa, whose form has fallen off a cliff, if Brown gets injured.

Re: Zaidi, delighted for his return to form but was it Robinson's coaching that hindered him? Some players don't do well
under certain coaches.

Zaidi has been mentioned or spoken of in every single post on this page Moddy, including your post and this one. How far's a drift for you?

Yeah, no, cos you said, no, listen. Right outside.

I won't apologise though. I'm sorry, that's just not me.

Zaidi though eh? Zaidi Zaidi Zaidi.

Briggs is filling Yardy's shoes, I spose. Zaidi the bat, on current form, is what we're lacking though. Did Robinson let Zaidi go? And Jackson? Did he sign Briggs? And the three grads? Should he have done any of these things before he inevitably left? Zaidi was a poor signing for me but the fact that he played plenty of games while he was poor and hardly any when he was better says all you need to know about our former coach.