The latest snippets from around the English game including wicketkeeping horror shows, a news blackout for Somerset in Fiji, and a Sussex player looking to repair a smashed windscreen
Paul Bolton13-Jun-2018Calum MacLeod’s success as Scotland’s match-winning batsman against England has delighted the man who first spotted his potential.Bob Cottam, the former England seamer and bowling coach, was working as Scotland’s bowling coach in 2005 when it was suggested that he take a look at a raw 16-year-old all-rounder from the Drumpellier club.Cottam invited MacLeod to bowl at Andy Moles, the former Warwickshire opener who was then Scotland’s coach, in the nets and was so impressed by what he saw that he immediately recommended the youngster to Warwickshire.MacLeod’s first foray into county cricket was cut short after doubts were raised about the legality of his action during the ICC World T20 in 2009.MacLeod was released by Warwickshire the following year and gave up bowling but successfully reinvented himself as a batsman, a move that culminated in an unbeaten 140 from 94 balls against the world’s number one ranked one day side.”When I first met Calum he was a naïve Scottish lad who was looking to find his way into the game. I’m pleased for him that he has found his way even if it isn’t as a bowler,” Cottam said.”When I was with Scotland Calum was a bowler with genuine pace who could bat a bit. There were a few people raising doubts about his action but I filmed him and it was fine.”I’m not sure what happened with his bowling at Warwickshire but you have got to give him credit for the way he has developed as a batsman and made a career for himself.”He always had talent as a batsman. He would get flashy thirties and forties but you were never sure whether he could play long innings. So to see him play like he did on Sunday was a surprise, but what a knock it was.”The one thing I never doubted was that Calum had the temperament to make it. Character is one of the things I look for in young players and he was a real nugget.”
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Wicketkeepers should look away now. Derbyshire set an unwanted county record in their defeat by Durham at Chester-le-Street when they conceded a whopping 81 extras in Durham’s second innings.It is a match that wicketkeeper Daryn Smit will want to forget in a hurry as he let through 34 byes and 23 leg byes, the most in the championship since 1990. Then Leicestershire’s opening batsman Tim Boon was pressed into service as a wicketkeeper against Nottinghamshire at Grace Road after Phil Whitticase broke a finger batting, and conceded 33 byes and 26 leg byes. Boon went on to become the head of England Performance Development and is now a regular fixture at county matches as a cricket liaison officerThe championship record for byes and leg byes is 71 by Kent’s Tony Catt against Northamptonshire at Northampton in 1955. Wantage Road was also the venue for the record number of extras in a championship innings – 98 (17 byes, 17 leg byes, 16 wides and 48 no balls) by Essex against Northamptonshire in 1999. The total was inflated by a curious ruling awarding two runs for no balls and wides.
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Somerset’s victory against Notts at Taunton attracted an unprecedented amount of traffic to the county’s website, and came close to crashing the server, despite an issue with the YouTube live streaming which left the commentary link with BBC radio somewhat muted. Somerset might have to pay for extras server capacity for the second time in a year as county cricket’s In-House coverage goes from strength to strength and helps make up for the inadequacies of traditional media coverage.That was not the only problem. The commentary feed was automatically blocked by the YouTube algorithm in various far-flung corners of the world, presumably because it picked up music in the background while a BBC commentator was awaiting his radio cue. Somerset supporters in Fiji had to find their pleasures elsewhere.
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Glamorgan off-spinner Andrew Salter won praise from an unlikely source for his career-best bowling – four for 80 – in the second innings of the defeat by Warwickshire at Edgbaston.Salter and Hampshire’s Brad Taylor spent the winter in Wellington working closely with Warwickshire captain Jeetan Patel, the former New Zealand off-spinner, on an ECB-funded initiative.Patel, who is looking to move into coaching when he stops playing, was happy to impart his knowledge to the two rookies who also trained with the Wellington squad and played club cricket in the city.”He was threatening the whole time here and that’s what I want to see from spinners worldwide, not just in my own club,” Patel said.”That’s why I take pride in what he has done. Even if he had bowled us out, it would have been an advancement from where he had been. To get messages from Robert Croft and Matt Maynard about how Salts developed over the winter and had come back a better cricketer is huge for me.”
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A lifeless pitch at Bristol finally spiked the guns of Kent’s New Zealand pace bowler Matt Henry who went wicketless in an innings for the first time this season in the draw with Gloucestershire.Until then Henry had been operating at rate of around 50 per cent of Kent’s wickets this season. He will head into next week’s Division Two top-of-the-table clash with Warwickshire at Tunbridge Wells with an exceptional haul of 43 of his side’s 92 wickets – one of them a run out – in five matches with 23 of his victims either bowled or lbw. Unsurprisingly, he is streets ahead in the Championship table in the Professional Cricketers’ Association MVP award.
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It is not just players who are adapting to the sedate pace of county cricket after the hurly burly of the IPL. Umpire Yeshwant Barde, who stood in five matches in this year’s IPL, is spending a month in England as part of the ECB’s ongoing umpire exchange programme with India.Barde, who played first-class cricket for Goa as a seamer, made his umpiring debut in England in Warwickshire’s County Championship match against Glamorgan at Edgbaston where he stood alongside Martin Saggers who officiated in three Ranji Trophy matches last winter on the exchange scheme.Barde, the eighth Indian umpire to stand in county cricket, will also umpire in Sussex’s championship match against Durham at Arundel and Kent’s day/night fixture against Middlesex at Canterbury.
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Sussex’s New Zealand recruit Tom Bruce will be looking for a safer parking space at Hove after his car windscreen was smashed during his debut against the Australian Aboriginal XI.A six from Dan Christian, the captain of the tourists, cleared the pavilion and went through the windscreen of Bruce’s new car which was parked behind it.
