Originally Posted by
the other bob wilson
Although I thought the England v Pakistan match at Trent Bridge was great, I'm no big fan on T20 cricket and so am quick to turn to the four day game where Glamorgan have, in my opinion, done well this season while largely playing teams who would be in Division One if the two division format was still in place.
However, I'm wrong to do this really, because T20 and the finance that comes with it is very important in the modern game and it cannot just be dismissed by cricket snobs like me.
The fact is that Glamorgan, after being a pretty competitive team for a good few years, have been awful at this format in recent years - our drop in standards coincides more or less exactly with the decline in Colin Ingram's power and this only goes to show how important he was for us in his pomp.
Much was made of how well Hampshire did to score those runs so quickly yesterday, but the game represented a new low for Glamorgan and offered proof that, although the game looked like a fix at times, no one really believes that, because, deep down, they know we really are as bad as we looked yesterday.
I'd say that we've now reached a stage where a great deal of time needs to be spent on trying to find ways of making us more competitive in this form of the game. With the two overseas players for 2022 already signed up and money tight, it seems to me that short of bringing in some specialist coaches, any improvement has to come from what we have already.
One encouraging thing is that we were the winners of the second eleven T20 tournament last year and so you'd like to think we have some young players who have the potential and ability to become good performers in this format at senior level.
On the batting side, only Labuschagne and, to a lesser degree, Selman showed any consistency. Much has been said about Ingram, but players like Cooke, Root and Carlson (who is a quick scoring player in the four day game) offered little, while Lloyd sometimes did the hard work and then gave his wicket away.
Bowling was something of a disaster, but it shows how bad the batting was that it could be argued that it was our stronger suit. Walker's success when given a chance should have embarrassed some of his seniors, Smith is, potentially a good one day bowler, but is injured so much of the time and Van Der Gugten offered a degree of control much of the time. As for the others, with Sisodiya struggling to match his 2021 performance, spin was very weak, while I'm afraid the likes of Douthwaite (who could be a really important player for us if his bowling could improve, say, fifty per cent) and Weighell were just cannon fodder.
There is no easy way back it seems for Glamorgan, but Neser has to be picked ahead of Ingram next season surely - there was no logic in sticking with Ingram for the last few matches, just what seemed a stubborn insistence that his place in the team was justified on the basis of what he once was. Those days are gone now though, just like Glamorgan's time as a decent T20 side has unless there is a fundamental rethink at Sophia Gardens.
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