Target signings - Willey and Dickson?

Nine f/c matches in South Africa, with one century and two fifties.

The Kent chief executive said he has a "personal obsession" to put out an all-Kent side.

He went on: "The make-up of our team is the result of a deliberate policy to give opportunity to young players who have come up through our county’s representative age group and Academy systems...we have decided not to engage an overseas player simply because we want to give the best opportunity to our home-produced players.That, in my view, is what county cricket clubs should be doing." That's why Kent won't contract Dickson, although they are happy to give him a shop window in the second XI.

He also rails against 'overseas players' at other counties, even when they have a UK qualifcation like Cachopa,  and after a recent defeat at Old Trafford he complained: "Lancashire fielded four overseas players against us - Peter Siddle, their official overseas signing, plus Ashwell Prince, Alviro Petersen and Kyle Jarvis, who for various reasons are able to play as non-overseas registrations.The contrast between Lancashire’s team line-up to our approach was stark."

He's almost there; the only non Kent-raised player who has been a regular in the first XI this season is Stevens, who came from Leics - and you would guess he is due to retire at the end of the season and be replaced by a Kent product. Fit fast bowlers, as Sussex knows all too well, are harder to find and Claydon has also been a regular in the squad (although  he has only played about half of the CC matches). They also have Griffiths from Hants and Haggett from Somerset (neither of whom is ever fit).

It's an old-fashioned policy, admirable up to a point and no doubt has the approval of Nigel Farage. But it's also pretty blinkered and short-sighted : when Kent point to the stark contrast with the policy of Lancashire, there is also , of course, a stark contrast in performance - Lancs are top and Kent are bottom.

And I'm not sure how such an insular approach benefits young homegrown players : they can learn a huge amount from having world-class team mates in the dressing room (think what everyone says Mahela brought to Sussex, which went far beyond his runs). Rob Key said yesterday that Kent's young players were learning more from the four day fixture agaisnt the Australians than in a whole season of county cricket.

I think the 2-6-3 is probably what most of us would want. It would always be difficult for a county with a small catchment area, like Sussex, to compete with the larger counties like Yorkshire and Lancashire. Where I'd like to see us change things is, for example, if we're going to have a squad of 24, let's try not to carry too many journeymen, who have little chance of playing for the firsts, but should not be clogging up the seconds at the age of thirty. Hopefully, with a few contracts running out this winter, we can concentrate on bringing in two or three quality signings, and supplementing them with a few of our own youngsters.
Having said that, seriously, if we had the chance to sign a Kolpak now, someone who would help us in our quest to stay in the top division, sure I'd want us to take it.

I actually think we have the young talent to produce a team along those lines. They just seem to be stuck in a place where they are struggling to develop it into consistency, and again I think that's more important than any signings we may make. It would be great to get someone like Goodwin involved with the young batsmen.

2-6-3 JB? How dare you turn my formation on its arse.

I think there should be a rule where you should have a minimum of six homies starting at all times otherwise it will be ignored in the pursuit of instant success, regardless of whether or not the old 3-2-6 ratio is favoured by most or not. You could have five OS or five outsiders joining them, or whatever ratio you want as long as it's no more than five, effectively, as the point would be for all clubs to be building a nucleus of English lads for the national team to look at, so the other five could be anyone because you've got your six - six homies and Jayawardene, Bailey, Cachopa, Magoffin and either Zaidi or Saeed Ajmal. Not sure which. Not sure about that whole idea either but it's just an example of the scope you still have after you've picked your six homeboys. We've had between five and seven regularly this season and today we have five, as it happens.

Too late for Sussex to make a move on Sean Dickson. Despite the Kent chief exec insisting there would be no overseas signings, he signed a two year contrac with Kent on Wednesday:-



Woolpit Cricket Club
9 July at 11:45 ·

Congratulations to Sean Dickson who signed a 2 year professional contract with Kent yesterday. Best wishes from all at Woolpit will be following your career with interest.

Sean Dickson has won the annual Second XI Player of The Year award, presented by the Association of Cricket Statisticians.

He should force his way into the Kent first XI next season and if he gets a full run of CC games, I'd back him to make 1000 runs.

If he does, remember that you read about him here first - and that when he was still a free agent I suggested that Sussex offered him a contract!