No foot movement; gone! 6 cricketers to watch in 2013

We all know that even without our 'Jack' tinted glasses on that Alec Stewart was a complete tool as a player. It wasn't his fault that he got handed England's wicketkeeping gloves during the 1990's, but it was his fault that he ran between the wickets like a girl, twirled his bat like a tosser and had an infuriating tendency to flash pathetically outside off stump with no foot movement, nick the ball, and in the same continuous motion tuck his bat under his arm and trot off to the pavilion. We didn't like him one bit.

However, as a media man he has kind of grown on us. Stewart seems to have developed some bollocks  and a sense of humour and thus his recent pick of 6 kids to watch out for in 2013 sparked the Jessop Tavern View out of its debate over whether Gloucestershire were better than New Zealand's current test side. (Answer: quite possibly, yes)

Stewart's article can be read here.

The selection of Joe Root and Australia's James Pattinson are hardly a surprise, nor was that of Surrey's Stuart Meaker, even if he did look rubbish for England in his limited one day appearances.

The interesting three selections are the ones that round out Stewart's choices, all of whom come from that bubbling cauldron of future excellence, division 2 of the county championship. Stewart has selected Shiv Thakor of Leicestershire, Ben Foakes of Essex, and Daniel Bell-Drummond of Kent. All three of these guys are 19, which means very little has been seen of them and represents Stewart taking a total punt on them, which in fairness is the whole point of naming youngsters to watch. We have vague memories of Shiv Thakor scoring runs against us in the last game of the season, and certainly his average of 51 is by far the most impressive of the three.

What we are interested in is how close do any of the Gloucester youngsters get. Would Stewart's ghost written finely considered piece even have dwelt on people like Chris Dent, or Liam Norwell and Jack Taylor. We presume that the Will Gidmans, Ian Cockbains and Dan Housegos are a little bit too old to be fairly considered. The Jessop Tavern View doubts that dear old Alec did dwell on any of these names, and not only because he probably doesn't know that Gloucestershire still exist as a cricket club (somebody send him a brochure for a flat!) but because quite possibly these kids are really at the standard to be considered genuinely exciting prospects.

This is a thought that has lingered over the Jessop Tavern View for the past two seasons. Lets hope 2013 sees us put firmly in our place by the names aforementioned.