Bloody hell it's tough keeping up with Gloucestershire this off-season, with the clubs financial position seemingly more precarious than a pensioner under George Osborne's chancellorship. Last week the club announced that the city council have granted Glos a loan of £400,000 to cover running costs until the planning dispute is resolved (that will be the same city council that rejected our planning proposal). Everybody understand? No. Well, quite. We haven't got a bloody clue. Why do we need this loan? We presume that it's because all our money is tied up in the ground redevelopment, hence the mess made of poor Chris Taylor's contract. This really is a mess, and not exactly helped by the lack of information made available to us long distance fans. If we hadn't been granted this loan then what would have happened? Precarious indeed.
The clubs appeal against the original rejection of the ground redevelopment plan has seen the 7 storey block of flats reduced to a six storey block, but with the same number of properties. Since the original decision was a fairly close vote this small tweak might well do the trick. The club remain convinced that maintaining Nevil Road as an international ground provides the most viable means for the club to prosper, but we are not the only ones questioning this and wondering whether Nevil Road might become a white elephant. (We're not entirely sure about the white elephant analogy, but if you were a Cricinfo writer asked to pen something about Gloucestershire cricket you'd probably be pretty lazy too)
In more positive news, King John has signed a 3 year extension strapping him to the sinking ship until she goes completley under, or 2015. We're not sure which will come first. Whilst Bracewell might not have brought the success of his first spell with the club, he did a good job last year and in such turbulent times having an experienced man signed up for the long term can only bring some sort of stability.
In less positive news, Hamish O'Marshall has been appointed vice-captain. However, to put a positive spin on this, O'Mish is still taking in the last few rays of Kiwi sun before heading back to the Shire to mentor our young players about how all you have to do is have one good year and you'll pretty much have a contract for life.
With the new season now only a matter of weeks away, the Jessop Tavern View will head off to draw up some sort of season preview, but will leave the final positive words to King John,
“I hope everyone associated with Gloucestershire cricket will be prepared to show a degree of patience.
“We have lost a lot of experience from our playing ranks during the winter and must therefore reassess our goals.
“There has to be realism because the average age of the team had plummeted to around 22 and we have a comparatively small squad.
“It’s a time for getting behind these young guys and supporting them so that they have every chance to become the good cricketers they can be.”
We'll ignore the next part of the article that described Dan Housego as 'one of the best 4 batsmen in second XI cricket'. His 36 ball 4 against a bunch of Welsh students yesterday, in a game where even Jon Batty got to 50, probably proves King John's point.
A pair of long-suffering Gloucestershire County Cricket club fans attempt to put the world (and the Glos administration) to rights. Themes include: Is one England ODI a year a good model for financial success and ground redevelopments, whether a batting average of 35 in Division 2 of the County Championship is acceptable and why Glos continue to be rubbish.
