Here We Go!!!!

Its arrived!! Twenty20 season is here!! Its a game most love and gives every County club a financial lifeline. At Worcestershire we are hoping for full houses for our 5 home games. I’m looking forward to experiencing the atmosphere and to seeing what kind of impact the Twenty20 has on the club. There is a lot of talk over here about Twenty20 and how to get the most benefit out of it especially with the IPL being so successful. There is a place for it but it can’t take over from the Championship or One day leagues as they are a direct feeder to the national team. Interesting times are ahead.

All we need is a bit of decent weather, which is forecast for the next week at least, and hopefully the crowds will come through the gates.

Its a busy couple of weeks ahead. We host New Zealand this Wednesday in their first one-day warm up game then the Twenty20 starts on Thursday against Gloucestershire. With two Twenty20 games being on tv the Sky Sports crowd have moved in and are building the gantry’s for the commentary boxes and and laying the cables for the cameras. So its all action!!

As I’ve mentioned we play Gloucestershire, and we also play Northants so there’s a chance to catch up with some of the Irish players over here, William Porterfield and Niall O’Brien. It’ll be good to hear an Irish accent again!!!

Our last 4 Day Championship match was an interesting affair. It was another first for me over here. We had a visit from the pitch liaison officer (P.L.O.). Every ground gets a visit now and again. Generally they are ex-players who go around making sure all is good on the pitch front. They normally watch the first days play, have a look at the pitch and have a chat with the groundsman. Then if they have no problems they head off and report to the ECB that all is good. We played Essex and the coach wanted quite a bit of grass left on the pitch as he was backing our strong pace attack to come out on top. So it was to my surprise that when we won the toss we batted!! To me an unbelievable decision.

 As the pitch hadn’t been cut for the couple of days before there was plenty of live, green grass on the wicket. Obviously the ball seamed around considerably and we were soon in trouble and bowled out cheaply for 176 in 70 overs. We then had Essex 80 for 7 at the close of play. As a result of this the pitch gets ‘reported’ to the ECB because more than 15 wickets fell in the days play. As we had a P.L.O. here there was no need for the ECB to send someone.

What happens next is the P.L.O. assesses the pitch, has a chat with the Head Groundsman and stays for the second days play to see how the pitch plays. At the beginning of the game we took a core from the pitch to see the level of moisture was in the wicket. There was a bit of moisture on the top of the core but the rest was dry to the recommended level of 2 inches. The reason we are leaving a bit of moisture near the top is because so far this season we are suffering from the wickets cracking quite quickly. Its not anything we worry about but we certainly don’t want any major cracks in the pitch on the first day of the 4 day match. When the suns out the cracks appear reasonably quickly. One explanation for this is that the root of the grass isn’t as strong because of the top of the square being taken off after the floods last summer. With time and the correct treatment the root will work to a good depth and hopefully the cracking will get better.

 End result of the ‘reported pitch’ was there was nothing to report! The P.L.O. was very happy with the was the pitch played, especially on the second day. Once that first day ‘moisture’ had gone and the grass was cut on the second morning it settled down. The umpires didn’t have any issues at the end of the game either. But there is a lesson to be learnt. Worse case scenario for us would have been docked points for an unsuitable wicket. This is certainly not what we want. Eventhough we were under instructions from the coach it reflects badly on the groundstaff. And that is not a position we want to be in!!