The Wicked Cricket Column

The Cricketer Magazine interview with Rob Andrew has gone "LIVE" on their website (sounds so dramatic!)

Like Jim May, unless there are unforeseen curve balls ahead, Andrew agrees the City-Based Tournament is far more
likely to occur than not.

www.thecricketer.com/default.aspx?pageid=1223&catid=71&topicid=42872#Ibg64mEaRHZpMtoR.97


 

The grapevine is a wonderful thing. Apart from creating wonderful wines from around the world, in journalism, it can also produce
stories laced with rumour and tittle-tattle, mischief and innuendo.

While, browsing the Cricinfo county cricket website this morning, one story took my eye concerning Durham's Keaton Jennings. It
reminded me of a conversation I had with an eminent Sussex CCC hierarchy member last November.

Could have been a Sussex player?



I was told - how true I don't know - the young Jennings was not happy at Durham. The embarrassing off-field shenanigans and the
pauper perturbations - rumours got out that Keaton was open to other county offers.

Credit to Sussex, so the rumour goes, the club made an approach. They received a very polite handwritten letter back (not an email)
saying that while Sussex were an excellent club, Jennings was leaving his options open. To make this communication even more pleasant,
there was no greed-driven agent involved - just a one-on-one conversation between Sussex and player.

So, it is no surprise that in late January, Durham announced Keaton as their new 50 over captain which no doubt includes a higher annual
salary - perhaps, a three figure income paid for from the ECB bail-out money?

Of course, this story reminds one of Luke Wright where the rumour-mill stated, denied by some at Sussex, that he had been approached by
several counties, including Surrey, after the club were relegated in 2015. Therefore, Captaincy is a regular default position turned to by clubs
when top players are vulnerable to being pounced on by competitors.

While Keaton Jennings would have been a valuable asset to the South Coast, Laurie Evans is no second best, and perhaps of all the new signings
over the Winter, he is the one player I look forward the most to watching. 

www.espncricinfo.com/county-cricket-2017/content/story/1080283.html  

northfan,

Thank you - your response offers credence to the Sussex CCC grapevine.

THE FEBRUARY CRICKETING SILLY SEASON
_____________________________________

February is the silly season for English cricket - so close yet so far from a new county year - where supporters view the month as the last days of hibernation before March rings new shoots of chilly outdoor nets, friendly games and brushing off the dust from pads and bats.

So, no surprise the journo whose name we dare not breathe comes up with a classic silly season story about how Barmy Army’s legendary trumpeter Billy Cooper, in grand English eccentricity, left his famous instrument on a train. What makes this story even more silly is that the tale was initially angled as a plea for help but after an hour of publication, it then had to be rewritten as the said trumpet was discovered.



Under the rather salacious title THE BUZZ we learn that, “Cooper, a professional musician who has played with the London Philharmonic Orchestra and on the Divine Comedy's most recent single among many other credits, was traveling on the 22.30 Southeastern line train from Charing Cross to Tunbridge Wells on Thursday night having played in "Matilda" in the West End. Moments after leaving the train at Orpington, he realised he had left his silver Vincent Bach trumpet in a black protect gig bag on an overhead luggage rack.”

This reminds one of the story about the ‘Wallace & Gromit’ writer Nick Park, a Beano comic fanatic, who in 1996 left his one-off and extremely rare plasticine models of the two characters in the boot of a New York taxi.

Unlike Park who sounded the alarm immediately the taxi rushed off into the New York traffic jams, Billy had no idea he had left his trumpet on the train until thirty minutes later when he arrived home. Panic set in and one publication he contacted for publicity on his plight was Cricinfo and that journo.

Cooper is quoted as saying, “I usually leave it at the theatre, but I had a recording session in the morning, so I wanted to take it home with me. It wasn't until I reached home, about half an hour after getting off the train, that I realised what I had done. Someone, somewhere must know where it is and if they could return it I would be eternally grateful." Thanks to an off-duty police officer who, perhaps, suspecting the lonely bag on the train rack might be harbouring a bomb, then discovered the trumpet inside along with a contact address. By the evening Billy was a relieved man.



We also learn that this isn’t the only time Cooper has lost his trumpet. We read, “His relationship with the Barmy Army stems back to the 2004 Caribbean tour when he left it in a taxi in Barbados only to hear someone attempting to play it a couple of weeks later at the Test in Antigua. Proving it was his by playing The Great Escape on it, the Barmy Army sang along and subsequently asked him to attend more games with them.

“He was less fortunate in Sri Lanka 2012. Celebrating an England win, he was playing in the sea in the early hours of the morning when a large wave ripped a prototype trumpet he was trialling from his hands. It was not recovered.” Billy Cooper is a controversial musician. Banned from Lord’s and Trent Bridge, he is welcome elsewhere for his musical skills and good-natured wit.

Meanwhile, the value of the trumpet is understood to be around £3,000 and is marked with a serial number which makes selling it problematic.

www.espncricinfo.com/blogs/content/story/1081849.html

Not a particularly auspicious start for Michael Yardy as the new batting coach. Chris Nash tweets:

Lovely to have yards back on board, interesting to see if he's improved his football for warm ups
whilst he's been away #longball

I groan to think of the potential injuries that may wreak havoc on an already injury-prone Sussex
CCC side due to the dreaded football warm-up this season!

www.physioroom.com/news/english_premier_league/epl_injury_table.php

The latest March issue of 'The Cricketer Magazine' is out today which includes a major feature on the latest cricketing marmite man Eoin Morgan.

In a bid to stem the flow of falling monthly sales (from 32,000 in 2011 to around 20,000 today), Simon Hughes, the man chosen to be the magazine's saviour, has asked his media chums to help out and why some of the leading cricket journos from Lawrence Booth and Mike Selvey to Michael Henderson and Simon Mann are regular contributors. 

Meanwhile, Nasser Hussain makes an appearance in this issue alongside David Gower who writes about his favourite player Graeme 
Pollock.

There are several Sussex CCC related features including one from this blogger under the monthly 'Cricketer' column entitled 'Whatever Happened To...' I interview former Sussex player and hero of the Members Rebellion, Tony Pigott. A really enjoyable chat. I first met Tony when playing for an U16 Sussex Colts team at Arundel. He was in the opposing side. I'd never seen anyone from that age group bowl so fast. Thankfully, I never had to face him.

The interview led to a much longer one a while later for a different feature where I feel Tony is not only one of the great Sussex heroes never to be fully recognised but is also misunderstood as he received unfair and distorted local press after his falling out with Dave Gilbert. In fact, I recently spoke to a club Board Member of 25 years where I suggested Pigott should be enshrined within the ground via a named building or other and he agreed. For without Pigott not only would the Members Rebellion never have happened, but the following rebuilding from the bottom up which led to the 10 year halcyon period of success might also never occurred. Pigott's dazzle and razzle and thinking out of the box was essential for the radical changes required. He may not have been good with financial figures and lacked CEO experience but his 'Where Martlets Dare' passion made all the difference.

I learnt Sussex CCC details from Pigott about the period from April 1997 to when he left in 1999, few if any other people at the club are aware of including the gem I wrote some weeks ago of him approaching Shane Warne to be the new Sussex Captain in May 1997. I was also able to wade through all the early media nonsense surrounding Chris Adams; get to the truth about his initial salary structure; and learn where Pigott first met him and how he then persuaded Adams to come to Sussex given there were several other clubs interested including Kent.

Hopefully, that second feature will be published in late March to commemorate the 20th Anniversary of the Sussex CCC Members Revolt.