2008 Season Review: Glamorgan

[b]Final placings:
Championship Division Two â€" 8th;
FP Trophy â€" 5th South West group;
Twenty20 Cup â€" Quarter finalists, 3rd Midlands Wales West group
Pro 40 Division Two â€" 3rd, lost promotion play off

A season of measured progress by Glamorgan on the field, especially in limited overs cricket, was soured by the loss of experienced back room staff, leading critics to suggest that the club was losing its identity as it chased Test Match riches.[/b]
In a sense the 2008 season couldn’t be any worse than the shambles of 2007, where the Welsh club were the bottom county in all four competitions. Twelve victories in all forty two games are the improved stats of this year, together with third place in both their 20/20 group and Pro 40 division. But there was, for the most part, a genuine competitive feel about the team in general, with some displays under floodlights bringing back memories of the happier, league winning days of the early noughties.

The Championship campaign was notable for three victories: Gloucestershire at Bristol, Essex at Southend and a home victory over Leicestershire, the first win in Cardiff for four years. Poor batting dogged the campaign however, only opener Gareth Rees enhancing his reputation with three centuries and five fifties. The club’s other three centurions were David Hemp, Jamie Dalrymple and Mike Powell with one apiece.

[b]Bat
[/b]
Club captain David Hemp’s story is perhaps saddest of all after being released at the end of his benefit season. After good early season scores, his form tailed away and, having rejected graceful retirement from the club he first played for in 1991, is now touting for a new county at nearly thirty eight years of age.

Jamie Dalrymple (below) was cricket manager Matthew Maynard’s highest profile pre-season recruit, but seemed to metamorphosise upon crossing the Severn Bridge from International off spinning all rounder into front line batsman who occasionally bowls. Batting and bowling averages of 29 and 61 respectively are a poor season’s return, except in the eyes of his team mates who voted him their ‘Player of the Year’ to the bemusement of Glamorgan members. Dalrymple is hot favourite to take over the captaincy.

Jamie Dalrymple during his century at Colwyn Bay. 2009 captain? Probably.

Mike Powell was welcomed back after serious illness in 2007, but he too was inconsistent. In his early thirties now, he needs to finally establish himself as senior batsman rather slipping towards being another journeyman county pro.

Elsewhere, the batting was just plain awful. Matthew Wood, signed from Yorkshire, spent most of the season in the seconds after low scores in early season. He needs a good 2009 to continue in the professional game. Richard Grant was given a final first team run before the club eventually decided that he just wasn’t good enough. Tom Maynard hits a long ball in short form cricket but lacks the technique at present for the first class game. Nepotism ruled as his father, Matthew, scandalously continued to select him over Ben Wright, who was more than useful in his white ball appearances but didn’t get one Championship outing.

[b]Ball
[/b] <p align="center">Jason Gillespie: Older and slightly greyer,
but the ultimate professional to the end
Veteran Australian seamer Jason Gillespie (above) was recruited to lead the bowling attack, but lacked the ‘nip’ of his glory years and took only twenty four wickets in the Championship. Nonetheless he was accuracy personified in forty and fifty over matches and his professionalism was evident right up until he called time on his first class career in September.

Glamorgan’s lowest profile signing of the previous winter turned out to be the best. Left arm swing bowler Adam Shantry (below), previously of Northamptonshire and Warwickshire, took thirty wickets in seven matches from July onwards and features right near the top of the first class averages for 2008 (ironically just behind Simon Jones). His ’10 for’ at Edgbaston must have been especially satisfying.. <p align="center">Adam Shantry: not seen until late July, a revelation thereafter.
England under 19 international James Harris experienced the difficult second season characterised by recurring injuries, worrying for such a young bowler. David Harrison and Alex Wharf were poor for the most part, but regained some form in late season. The latter is 2009’s beneficiary and, like Hemp this year, may be getting a ‘golden handshake’.

The leading wicket taker was, again, Robert Croft; what a hole he’ll leave when he retires. Matthew Maynard’s personal animosity towards Croft seems to have no limits. To the amazement of just about everyone in cricket, Maynard deemed Croft surplus to requirements in the Friends Provident Trophy, finally relenting to select him for Twenty 20 and Pro 40. When asked by Croft about a contract extension to 2010, Maynard allegedly responded, ‘no chance’. Don’t be surprised if Croft joins Gillespie in the ICL.

[b]Extras
[/b]
Herschelle Gibbs took Gillespie’s overseas berth for the mid summer twenty over jamboree and immediately lifted Glamorgan’s energy levels both with the bat and in the field. A bizarre turn of events and appeals, involving the non registration of a young Yorkshire spinner, meant that Glamorgan crept into the quarter finals via the back door only to flop, without Gibbs, at Durham.

Pro 40 saw the best of Glamorgan’s cricket, the star of which was wicket keeper Mark Wallace whose batting average was sixty six. He needs to score more runs in all forms of the game if his undoubted talent is to be recognised by a wider audience.

Of the rest, Dean Cosker again proved a solid performer with his left arm spin and super fielding. Seamer Huw Waters, batsman Mike O’Shea and all rounder Ryan Watkins got contract extensions, but none of the three have really established themselves at county level.

[b]Ashes to Ashes
[/b]
The national media, especially those with Lancashire connections, continue to snipe at Glamorgan’s new Swalec Stadium as the club gears up for the first Ashes Test of 2009. Criticism reached its peak at the fifth and final England ODI versus South Africa where heavy rain ensured that only a handful of overs were possible. Criticism of inadequate ground covering and other teething problems was widespread, some of it justified, the rest hysterical and over the top.

In the aftermath, both Chief Executive Mike Fatkin and Head Groundsman Len Smith left their posts, the real reasons for which remain a mystery. Chairman (and acting Chief Executive) Paul Russell’s popularity, never high, reached an all time low, as county members appeared to be viewed as irritants rather than valued stakeholders.

<p align="center">Herschelle Gibbs takes guard versus England in the few overs possible at the Cardiff ODI in September. He should be there more often in 2009.
[b]2009
[/b]
Matthew Maynard needs to continue to rebuild as the top order requires major surgery. Herschelle Gibbs seems nailed on to return as the official overseas player, but won’t be available until after the IPL. Suggestions are that he’ll bring a South African friend with him, with Glamorgan at last likely to break their ‘Kolpak’ taboo as they struggle to compete on an uneven playing field.

Seamer Garnett Kruger, now released from his Leicestershire contract, was grinning all over his face at the game with them when supporters (and players) suggested that he’d be spending more time in Cardiff next season. Lance Klusener too (2008 first class batting average of 73) is being mentioned as a possible addition, which may mean that Afrikaans is the third language spoken in Glamorgan’s dressing room.

Domestically, Maynard has recently emphasised his desire to recruit players of two or three ‘dimensions’. All rounder Mark Hardinges, strangely released by Gloucestershire and playing his club cricket in the Swansea area, would be a useful pick up. This is pure guesswork of course, as is the possibility of signing Luke Parker from Warwickshire. We can dream of higher profile, but less realistic, recruits â€" how well Mark Butcher would fit the bill in the upper order as his father did nearly twenty years ago. Perhaps Maynard has something of that ilk up his sleeve?

[b]Player of the season:[/b]

Gareth Rees â€" the first Glamorgan batsman for two years to pass 1,000 first class runs. The stocky left handed opener from West Wales defends solidly and hits the bad ball hard, as well as being a useful bat-pad fielder. He now needs to be included regularly in the one day side. A rounded individual and fine rugby player, he holds a double first from Bath University and spends the close season in industry, where he puts his mathematics and physics knowledge into practice.

[b]High[/b][b]
[/b]A stunning 202 run victory at Southend versus Essex in late July with a day to spare, all the more amazing after being dismissed for 139 on the first morning. Some resolute second innings batting on an ordinary wicket set Essex too many to chase as Gillespie, Harris and Shantry ripped out the home side’s top order before the masterful Croft mopped up with five wickets for six runs.

[b]Low[/b]
It has to be completely blowing the Pro 40 play off versus Worcestershire at Cardiff live on Sky in late September, an embarrassing display in front of our largest crowd, and in the best weather, of the summer. After winning five out of eight Division Two games with high quality ‘out’ cricket, the fragility of the batting was exposed again for all to see, leaving a slightly sour taste to linger throughout the winter months.