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.

Preview: Gloucestershire v Yorkshire

Jason Gillespie's Yorkshire gypsies bring their caravans to Nevil Road for an intriguing division two match-up that will teach us much about exactly what sort of season Gloucestershire fans can expect. Perhaps Kaiser Tom, and the rest of the Gloucestershire board will encourage Dizzy to leave his caravan after the match in order to piss off the locals into granting us our block of flats.

A few weeks ago Gloucestershire's squad looked threadbare, after a couple of early season injuries to David Payne and Dan 'The House'. However, the arrival of Benny and the Pilates instructor means there is suddenly some competition for places in the batting order. The bowling unit is still struggling to find a consistent attack. Whilst the better Gidders and Ian Saxelby (with 17 and 13 wickets respectively) have been excellent, the rest of the attack has struggled to keep things tight. Fourballs Fuller misses today's match, as does David Payne. Young Irishman Graeme McCarter is brought into the squad after taking wickets on debut at Lords on Monday. The Jessop Tavern View hopes he is now thrown into the 4 day team straight away, ahead of the Corporal and Paul Muchall.

Last week against Derby, Glos went into the game with four full time bowlers, and Will Gidman batting at 6. This weakened batting yielded one poor innings, and one excellent one. With the skipper sure to come back into the side it will be interesting to see how King John chooses to approach the match. Yorkshire's strength would appear to be in their international bowling attack, thus retaining all the batsmen and adding the skipper at the expense of a bowler would seem to make sense. Yet again, Glos can thank their lucky stars for the emergence of Will Gidman, and the balance that his genuine allrounder status brings to the squad. Kane Williamson came in last week and looked like the class act he is. Any man who makes proper runs against the Saffers in the test arena should be helping himself in division 2. Can O'Mish continue to claw his way back into form? Can Benny continue his fine start to his Gloucestershire career? Can Dent and Cockbain build on encouraging starts to their seasons and go on to threaten the 1000 run mark? It's still too early in the year for the skipper to be scoring runs.

Yorkshire will be without the services of Aussie quick Mitchell Starc, after he buggered up his visa. Clearly he should have said he was coming to teach Pilates. He now has to fly back to Oz to fill in the necessary forms (check out cricinfo's amusing step into the world of comedy picture captions). Yorkshire will still field an experienced international attack, with the likes of Sidebottom, Bresnan and Rashid all due to play. Yorkshires batting will also be depleted, with England Lions youngsters Joe Root and Jonny Bairstow both away to warm up the Windies. Whilst Yorkshire might not be at full strength, they still represent a considerable challenge. Glos have some how managed to play a game more than everyone else in division 2, and due to the rain, the table is currently very bunched. Thus, despite it being only early May, this is already a big game for Glos.