Gloucestershire unveil new t20 strip

Gloucestershire preseason training got off to an unusually early start this week as building work began on the much loved ground redevelopment. Speculation had been circulating on the official club website, with stories emerging about David Payne wanting to bulk up and of Ian Saxelby putting off knee surgery. Now the Jessop Tavern View can exclusively reveal that the boys can be seen getting in their strengthening and conditioning work on a building site near you. Ian Saxelby sounded enthusiastic with the innovative training program when he told the club website,

“I will also be doing extra strength sessions to the other players this winter in a bid to get more strength into my quads and the knee. In the meantime I’ll take part in everything and, while I am not going to be running in and bowling ten overs in the nets, I’ll do at least part of the training everyone else is doing."

As many of you will already know, Gloucestershire were 'saved' this year by planning permission being granted for the building of a block of flats next to the ground that will provide the revenue needed to improve the ground facilities. We are going to suggest that Linden Homes, the company charged with building the unwanted additions to neighbourhood beautiful new homes, may want to rethink their marketing strategy for selling the flats,

"The apartments will offer a truly unique living environment with views that will be the envy of cricket lovers around the world and also for those simply seeking a stylish home in the city.”

Clearly the people at Linden Homes haven't seen much of the boys playing cricket in recent seasons.

We'd also like to offer this opportunity for anyone who works at Gloucestershire to prove us wrong. The club website states,

"Regular updates will be posted on this website as the redevelopment programme gets underway." 

The Jessop Tavern View will have a wager with anyone who thinks that the club will stick to this statement. But wouldn't it be nice to think that someone at the club cared enough to go out and take a few pictures and then write a few words to describe to long suffering supporters exactly how things are getting on.

Bring out the cheque book....

This is the moment we have all been waiting for. Having secured planning permission for the ground redevelopment Kaiser Tom is now sat in his office with the cheque book open desperately trying to find a biro that works and some top international stars who won't laugh at him when he invites them to play some cricket at Nevil road. Gloucestershire are poised to be the Man City of the county championship. This is it. Hold on tight.

With Rob Nicol not arriving for a few weeks, Gloucestershire have decided not to trust in the youngsters we have talked up, and have instead decided to go down the mercenary route and sign Aussie test grinder Ed Cowan. At the start of the season we looked as if we might go down the route of signing no overseas players. Now, with the signing of Ed Cowan for a 6 game stint, Glos have signed their third overseas superstar.

We don't have any real problem with Cowan himself. He's an Aussie, so he'll be professional and will love the opportunity to pick up some experience of sitting in the pavilion watching the rain fall on the covers. We just don't really see the point. Cowan will play in the 3 crucial t20 matches this week (despite a career average of 12 in this format of the game and a top score of 25) He will then play a championship game and a couple of 40 over games, during which we expect Cowan to stand around looking confused as to why anyone plays a 40 over competition. What are we hoping to achieve from signing him? All he will do is take the place of a youngster who could have been given the opportunity to put in some performances and create some pressure for places before Rob Nicol arrives. Presumably Cowan, O'Mish and Gidders are all guaranteed their spots in the top order. This leaves a maximum of 3 places for the likes of Benny, Cockbain, Dent, and The House. Hell, lets hope that we haven't completely given up on Richard Coughtrie. Whilst we're at it, couldn't someone like Ed Young or Jack Taylor have been given a go batting at 6 or 7. Why couldn't Jon Batty have done a job?!!!!!!! Whether Dent is fit at the moment we can't remember.

Put basically, Ed Cowan will take the place of one of these youngsters. A mercenary overseas player keeping out a young aspiring English player. One of the youngsters who is a full time squad member. One of the youngsters who presumably are desperate to have a chance to get in the first team and prove their worth. We've been full of praise for Gloucestershire's decision to trust in youth. Opportunity missed.

Chris Taylor takes Glos to tribunal... County reply by signing Dan Housego

What is going on over at Nevil Road this off season? From the blunt rejection by Bristol Council of the Shire's ground redevelopment plans, to the news that Chris Taylor is taking the county to an employment tribunal after failing to agree a new contract, it seems that the lunatics have taken over the asylum.

We think it's bloody sad to see Taylor go after 12 years of service, particularly following his return to form with the bat last season. Surely Hamish Marshall is kissing his lucky four leaf clover after it turned out that his renegotiated deal wasn't dependant on the outcome of the planning application. You have to wonder why the club showed more loyalty to the Kiwi Irishman, whose form has dipped every season since his debut in 2006 over a loyal servant, coming off a good season and who has managed to land himself a coaching role in the England Lions setup. We're sure Tom Richardson has his reasons. It would be good to hear whether he thinks he made the right decision if Taylor wins at the tribunal.

The one potential bright spot is the signing of Dan Housego from Middlesex. Now, I've just read that sentence again and I realised it sounds insane. On the face of it, he's not great, averaging 31 in 8 appearances in 2011 (some may say this is the perfect average for a Gloucestershire number three). However, he was the top run-scorer in 2nd XI cricket last year (we know) and at 23, he has time on his side. He also began his career with the Glos academy, so the signing is a homecoming of sorts. He's pencilled in to bat at number three and it will be interesting to see how he fills the role occupied by much-hyped gym instructor, Kane Williamson last year. Williamson was a disappointing acquisition in our eyes and his form with the bat flattered to deceive. Sure, he scored a couple of hundreds and looked great in doing so, but he also had numerous failures, which isn't good enough for a batsman of his calibre playing in Division 2, a place where Geoffrey Boycott's grandma and her stick of rhubarb would cash in every time.

In other news, readers of the official site (all three of you) will have enjoyed Ed Young's posts from the Darren Lehmann Cricket Academy in Perth. Let's hope that the experiences gained while sunning himself in Oz while the rest of us freeze our arses off in the UK will stand him in good stead when the new season begins in April. I'm sure most of you are aware that we've re-signed Murali for T20 matches in 2012. For all the impact he had last year, The Jessop Tavern View wonders if Glos might have been better off saving their pennies. They may well need them now the ground redevelopments aren't going ahead.

New ground redevelopment plans...what is going on?

We'll be straight with you, the Jessop Tavern View does not know how to run a county cricket club. We don't really understand how the counties are funded by the ECB, or how they raise money themselves. We do know that Gloucestershire are convinced that the only chance for their long term survival is to redevelop the county ground down at Bristol and to continue to bring in international matches.

Yesterday the club submitted its proposed plans for one part of the ground redevelopment, new flats! Actually, this is the only part of the ground redevelopment that will be going ahead.

"GCCC has now decided to implement only one part of their planning application - for the foreseeable future they will not be building the stands adjacent to Kennington Avenue.  This will result in a capacity of circa 17,500, rather than the 20,000 originally envisaged, of which circa 7,500 will be permanent. This compares to the previous scheme which proposed 18,500 permanent seats."

When Gloucestershire were initially granted planning permission to redevelop the ground these were the stated aims

• Increase in seating capacity of 4,000 to 20,000
• Provision of world class media centre
• Improved conferencing and hospitality facilities
• Upgrades to the BS7 fitness club, including a swimming pool
• Enabling development in the form of 350 student accommodation units (reduced from initial proposal of 500 in response to local feedback) 

 Now we are being told that we are implementing only one part of the planning permission for the foreseeable future.

Does that mean no world class media centre? No conference of hospitality? No swimming pool!!??

From this press release we are trying to piece together exactly what is going to happen. We think that some new seating is going to be built as the permanent seating seems to be increasing from 4000 to 7500. But is that really it?

Unsurprisingly we have also had to ditch the student accommodation in favour of 1 and 2 bedroom apartments due to complaints from the neighbours about the proposal of dumping 350 students on their doorsteps. It seems remarkable that only now have we realised that the neighbours aren't too happy, and that we are having to resubmit new plans. Surely this was the first step when we were looking at redeveloping the ground? Did we not consult the locals then about the plans for student accommodation?

Whilst we understand the need for the club to obtain income from housing development in order to fund ground developments, we just question the decision making that is taking place and the impact that this will have on the speed with which these developments will happen. If we are to believe the threats, then Gloucestershire will start to lose international cricket if developments are not made to our facilities soon. Therefore we can only presume that having to resubmit new plans, due to an error in judgement over the student accommodation, is going to move back any development to the ground. With an increasing number of grounds now able to accommodate international cricket we must really be holding on to international fixtures with our fingertips at the moment. Kaiser Tom Richardson stated after the weekend's 20-20 international that

“We are pleased with how everything went. What was emphasised was how important it is to press ahead with our ground development plans because we want to offer better facilities including better spectator and member facilities, bigger corporate hospitality rooms and a better positioned press box.
“If we don’t develop the ground we will lose this sort of fixture. It’s as simple as that.”

So what are the implications of only pursuing one part of our planning application and presumably neglecting the other parts for the foreseeable future. This doesn't seem to make sense.

The final question is regarding exactly what these changes to our plans say about our vision. What exactly are we trying to achieve for the ground? Do we really see all these incredibly expensive redevelopments as worth the cost for one international match a summer? Realistically we are never going to become a test match venue like the Rose Bowl has become, or the Swalec Stadium. Would we not be better off shifting our intentions?

By all means build these flats, improve conference facilities and dig a swimming pool. Bringing in money from outside of cricket is important. But shouldn't we be reevaluating where we invest this money? Couldn't we invest this money into the cricket? We have been extremely fortunate this season to have the youngsters from the academy really step up to the plate. But it could have been very different. In an excellent article on cricinfo a few months back Glamorgan chairman Paul Russell had this to say:

"Glamorgan cricket has been a shambles on the field for five years," Russell explains. "If we'd been successful on the pitch, everything else that people complain about would have disappeared. But our spectacular lack of success has magnified any problems off the field.

"People have to remember how bad our results were! We were losing time after time after time. We were beaten at Taunton by the biggest margin in the history of the universe in limited-overs cricket. We lost by 285 runs! 285! [It was actually 249 runs and was the biggest margin in the history of 40-over cricket]. No county has won fewer one-day matches than Glamorgan during the past three seasons. We finished below the Unicorns in the CB40 last year. That's embarrassing. And it damages the business.

"The thing you have to understand is that one-day cricket is the vital thing from a commercial angle. Before we started our T20 season, we spent a fortune marketing it, and we employed Shaun Tait as an overseas player. That worked, too, as we got over 9000 spectators for the first game. But that number fell away steadily because of our awful results. People want to watch successful sides."

Just imagine how Russell would have felt if Glamorgan had conceded 496 runs in a 40 over match!

As we said at the start, we don't understand how to run a county cricket club. We just know that it would feel a lot better if we invested in the actual cricket and got fans in on a consistent basis to watch a successful Gloucestershire rather than relying on selling out one international match every summer.