Why every county could use a Ravi Bopara

Essex 225 for 2 (Bopara 120*) beat Gloucestershire 224 for 5 (Williamson 77) by eight wickets


The Jessop Tavern View is quite envious of Essex. Not the fake tans, white stilettos and souped up Escorts, but the presence in their side of one Ravi Bopara. Let's get one thing straight, Bopara is a good player. He may not be quite at international class, but at county level he's top drawer. He's particularly good at limited overs cricket, scoring an unbeaten 201 from 138 balls back in 2008 against Leicestershire. That's Ali Brown territory. When you couple this talent with the fact that he's constantly champing at the bit to prove to the England selectors that he's worth a recall, you're left with a man who can dismantle county attacks with ease. Essex on really lose him for occasional Lions games, ODIs  (if he's selected) and comedy injuries sustained while desperately trying to prove his worth to Andy Flower.


This is exactly what happened to Glos on Monday, as Bopara returned from 3 weeks out to strike an unbeaten 120 from 100 balls as Essex cruised to an 8 wicket victory with more than 3 overs to spare. Glos' total of 224 always looked a little light against a powerful Essex batting line-up, containing the likes of Bopara, Owais Shah, Ryan ten Doeschate and Graham Napier, and this proved the case as a partnership of 185 between Ravi and Tom Westley won the game comfortably. The bowling attack predictably went around the park, with only Jack Taylor going for under 5 an over.


The problem for Glos started with a below par effort with the bat. Will Gidman, not exactly known as a dasher, opened the innings and departed for a 5 ball duck, then we struggled, only reaching the 100 from 27 overs. Luckily Kane Williamson and Ian Cockbain managed to up the temp and put on 85 in 11 overs, before the gym instructor was out for 77. Jack Taylor threw the bat to good effect in scoring 22 from 12 deliveries and Cockbain ended on 52 from 44 balls. Cockbain looks handy in one day cricket and is actually an opening bat by trade. Perhaps we could look to make more of him as the season progresses? With only 4 points from 4 completed matches so far, we are going to need to score more runs to give the boys something to defend, if we are to progress to the semi finals.


On a separate note, whatever happened to Kevin O'Brien? Is he still on the books? Surely his buccaneering style is tailor-made for such matches? Any updates would be more than the official site provide!

The Butcher of Bangalore is back!

Gloucestershire 254 for 3 beat Middlesex 149 for 8 by 105 runs

Fans of Glos, rejoice! Kevin O'Brien, missing, presumed mediocre, since signing for the Shire is back with a vengeance! In a meaningless T20 match, played at Uxbridge, a slogger-friendly Middlesex outground, the big man struck a violent 119 off just 52 balls.

O'Brien and Hamish Marshall surpassed the record T20 opening stand by putting on a ludicrous 192 for the first wicket. Marshall was slow by comparison, with hia hundred coming up from 53 balls. Both men were dropped, O'Brien twice and Marshall once and they made an inexperienced Middlesex attack pay, striking 15 sixes between them. The other batsmen had little time to bat after this onslaught, but managed to take us to 254 for 3, a passable CB40 score, from the 20 overs.

Middlesex never looked likely to be in contention after being on the receiving end of such a shellacking and they promptly slumped to 15-3. Not ideal when you need over 250! They eventually managed 149 for 8, giving the shire the record margin of 105 runs. Insane. What a win. Or T20 season is back on track. Etc.

The Jessop Tavern View is know for our cynicism about all things Glos, however. In the grand scheme of things, this result means sweet FA. Glos were bottom of the South Group and we have now swapped places with the equally hapless Middlesex. This effort from O'Brien would appear to be exactly what we signed him for, i.e. the occasional cameo to catch the eye and make people think he is better than he is. A few more bums on seats for our next home T20 to help fund those essential (and expensive) ground redevelopments. Which in turn will help secure our future (read one England ODI/T20 international per year).

We don't want to knock Big Kev too much. After all, he's a big man with a bigger bat and he might find out where we live. It was a good knock and he's an entertainer when he gets going. We're glad Glos won and we're glad we're off the bottom of the table. What might be better would be if the big fella could contribute to our push for Championship promotion. Sadly, this doesn't seem to be part of King John's masterplan, as he again failed to appear in the squad for the CC match which began yesterday.

Anyway, some highlights below for those of you who want to enjoy the Butcher's savagery..

Twenty 20: Time for the butchers of Surrey v Murali

Friends Life Twenty20 preview: Surrey v Glos

The Jessop Tavern is conducting a social experiment this Thursday at the Oval. Thanks to a sweet ticket deal obtained from popular website Groupon, we will actually be present at the game to watch Murali, Kevin O'Brien and Kane Williamson take on the flat track bullies of Surrey. If you are also attending the game, perhaps you would like to come say hello to one half of the Jessop Tavern View? We know that there are a few of you who of you read the blog, so if you fancy a pint and a natter about the trials and tribulations of being a Glos/county cricket supporter, send me a tweet @tgwill.

Right, on to the match preview for what could be an interesting game. Gloucestershire have, frankly, been pretty awful in T20 in recent seasons. Last year was a particular nadir, as we lost 11 group games and finished bottom of the South Group with just 10 points. However, we are feeling a bit more optimistic about this year's competition, not least because of the high profile signing of legendary rubber-wristed Sri Lankan Muttiah Muralitharan. He may be 39 years old, he may be a bit of a mercenary these days, he may have been taken apart by the Spear in the 2007 T20 semis but we reckon he is still pretty handy when he only has to bowl 4 overs. Plus, just look at that grin in today's interview on the official site. If ever there was a man who can smell some cheap county wickets, Murali is that man.

Glos fans can also look forward to a sighting of the Butcher of Bangalore, Kevin O'Brien, in his natural T20 habitat. We are also interested to see how young Kane Williamson gets on in the shortest format. His highest score in 10 domestic T20s is just 30, but we would expect him to improve on that during this tournament. Where better to start than on the flat, hard Oval deck against a pacey attack?

Thanks to our new friends at the Surrey Cricket Blog, we know that Surrey have a batting line up to fear. However, with the absence of Tremlett and Jade Dernbach on England test duty, there's rather less fast bowling to be worried about. That said, Surrey have replaced one Aussie T20 signing with another (and arguably a superior one than the original at that.) Shaun Tait's patchwork quilt of a body decided that even 4 over spells were going to be too much for him, so they picked up former Dutchman and Cricketwithballs favourite Dirk Nannes. Like I said, a clear improvement and someone to be very wary of at the start of the innings.

Anyway, let's hope for a big Thursday night crowd and some entertainment to get the Twenty20 season off to a good start. Chief Executive Tom Richardson will certainly be hoping so, as rumour has it even the big money acquisition of Murali has failed to have much impact on ticket sales for the Shire's home games.

The Butcher of Bangalore to lend his savagery to Glos

You can't help but feel that this signing is as much a marketing ploy as a genuine attempt to boost Gloucestershires one day chances. In fact it's not an attempt to boost our young squad development at all. It is entirely a marketing ploy. Someone at Nevil road clearly decided that signing Murali had not sent our ticket sales through the roof and concluded that another marquee signing was needed. Someone to put on the posters. Having failed to land a county contract Kevin O'Brien, the destroy of England in this years world cup, has been signed.

We are sorry to be so negative, but we fail to see where this signing sits within our investment in youth. Clearly we view the championship as being where the youngsters can learn their trade where as the one day game must give the supporters something to cheer. The Jessop Tavern View disagrees with this. Strongly.

Ask yourselves this. Why, despite his world cup heroics, did O'Brien not have a county contract at the start of the season? He could hardly have put himself more in the shop window than to score a match winning, 50 ball century against England in a world cup. So why no contract? We suspect 2 reasons.

Firstly, O'Brien has limited first class experience. He played a bit for Nottinghamshire in 2009. Not county championship cricket, but pro 40 and T20 cricket. And not very well. His 8 Pro 40 games yielded 79 runs and 1 wicket. His 5 T20 appearances, 31 runs and 2 wickets. Admittedly this was in a fairly poor Notts one day team. But not exactly pant wetting.

Secondly, money. We are going to imagine that O'Brien has made sure he has cashed in on his 5 minutes of fame and made sure he held out for as long as possible before signing as lucrative a contract as he could land his hands just as the T20 competition starts to loom on the horizon.

The official Glos press release spells it out. “We are delighted to have signed Kevin O’Brien to our squad with particular reference to his one day skills.  Given his heroics in the World Cup the Gladiators have a genuine lion slayer in their midst", says Bracewell, through gritted teeth, as the marketing guy holds a gun to his bollocks.

O'Brien himself. ''I am very excited to have the opportunity to play for Gloucestershire, and work under one of the most successful coaches in domestic one day history. I am looking forward to getting over there and hopefully helping the team to achieve its goals in all forms of the game, but especially t20 and one day cricket."

We clearly won't be seeing much of Mr O'Brien in a white shirt.

I guess we shouldn't be so hard on Gloucestershire for this signing. We all know the financial situation. One day cricket, and in particular T20 represents the counties only real chance to make money from cricket. Thus we find ourselves forced to make these sort of signings in a vain attempt to drum up some interest in the notoriously uninterested Bristol public. It might work. It probably won't.

O'Brien's place on the teamsheet will come at the expense of a young cricketer. An Ed Young, Jack Taylor, James Fuller or David Payne. The young players we have been trying to develop. Young players who will learn very little from a guy such as O'Brien.

Then again, maybe we'll be treated to more of the carnage we witnessed in Bangalore....