During the lunch interval on day one of Glamorgan v Essex Specsavers County Championship clash in Cardiff, Head Coach Robert Croft joined supporters in the Legends Lounge for a Q&A on a range of subjects, starting with a question about the current pitch for the latest game of the season:
1. Glamorgan have dominated the morning session today, what’s your message to the ground staff in preparing the pitch?
Our brief to Robin the head groundsman is to produce the best pitch possible. Everyone is aware of the new rules where the opposition captain has the option to bowl first with the overall aim to try and bring spinners back into the game.
I don’t think the new ruling has succeeded at the moment, as when you look around the county circuit, there aren’t a lot of spin bowlers playing let alone bowling so maybe that will need a re-think as time goes on.
If we want more pace and bounce into the pitches and to produce Test cricketers then we have to do produce bowlers that can play on pitches with pace and bounce and that’s what we want to do, as well as produce successful Glamorgan teams
It’s looking a good cricket wicket at the moment, as we’ve seen some good shots out there, but it’s been shown if you bowl accurately at the stumps there’s some assistance for bowlers.
2. How far off is Colin Ingram from playing?
Colin took full part in practice at the end of last week. He’s like a kid at Christmas morning again, which is good for him and the group because he’s such an infectious character
He’s bubbly, like a fourteen year old with lots of experience
3. How impressed are you with the performances of David Lloyd so far this season?
If you recall he had a tough start a season or two ago when he came in he had three noughts in four knocks and that was a real test of character. I think what sets the good players from the very good players is character and if you have 11 of those in any team you play then you know the opposition are going to be in for a scrap. David’s the same when he plays football in the mornings, no one wants to go in for a fifty fifty challenge with him.
Will Bragg has shown he can play good pace and spin, but Will will say himself he’s looking for that added consistency to his game.
Graham Wagg has batted well too and I’ve been pleased with some of the stuff I’ve seen from Aneurin Donald. He’s a young Welsh talent and got his first first-class hundred this season, so there are some highlights.
4. 9 times out of 10 we would have gone on to win that Gloucestershire game but we didn’t, what reasons have you found for why?
I’m really pleased to see so many of you here today because it shows how much the team and the club means to you. It goes beyond that game. Confidence has been low and by our own admission there’s too many of us not performing, junior and senior players, and it’s the role of every player and every coach to try and turn that around.
Losing the first game here affected confidence and we’ve missed Colin Ingram, but I’m not in the business of excuses and our performances from every player and coach is not good enough at the moment and we have to dig deep.
I played in some very bad Glamorgan sides as well that had Glamorgan greats in it, and it just didn’t happen at the time. We had some slumps believe you me. I believe in the players we do have and we have to turn it round.
5. There’s no easy games in Division 2 are you surprised by the improvements some teams have made?
Leicestershire have bought experience, that’s their approach in signing Horton from Lancashire, Dexter from Middleseex, Pettini from Essex, all guys who are 30 something with a lot of experience. The aim is to get out of this division for all sides, but only one side can this year, so we’ll have to see if that is the right way. What we want to try and do is to try and get a good blend between youth and experience. There are good sides around look how many overseas players are in the game, and kolpak players too, so every county wants to make sure they have a good competitive side on the field. Does that surprise? No, because I know every county is trying to do.
6. Can you explain some selection changes at certain times so far this season?
We went with an opening partnership of Jacques Rudolph and James Kettleborough for four games. James sadly didn’t get the runs required to keep that spot, so we changed it up and we felt that after one game we needed to add an extra spinner, which dropped Wallace a spot in the line-up and we also have a very good wicket keeper in Chris Cooke so we take that in to consideration.
When you look at the runs scored by 6,7,8 – David Lloyd, Graham Wagg and Craig Meschede last season – Mark by his own admission would say his batting hadn’t scored the runs it was capable of since the middle of last summer.
Nick’s selection was a one off situation and he played here on the basis of the pitch conditions and weather forecast for the match which looked like two days of play, two days of rain, so we didn’t play the extra spin option.
We give players a run of matches at the top of the order, so Mark will get a similar run. If the situation arises when we need to change things, and Nick continues to score runs then after a run the guy in form will come in.
There is method to it.
7. Are you confident wickets will come for Timm, so he gets the rewards he deserves?
If you can remember back to Michael Kasprowicz was here, he was a wonderful Glamorgan cricketer. The first year he was hopeless, because he tried to pitch it up and swing it away and he beat the bat a lot but didn’t get the rewards despite looking good. What Kasper and Steve Watkin did was bowl a straight line and try and run the ball back into the stumps more often than not. Michael Kasprowicz did that after a year, Timm van der Gugten is doing that after two games so he’s learning quickly and he has to adapt his style, but he’s learning.
8. What was the reason for going for a bowler over batsman in T20?
Reflecting on last season, we felt given the likes of what Ingram, Cooke, Wagg Meschede and you throw in the Jacques Rudolph who can be the glue of the team, we felt most found wanting without that extra strike force with the ball at the top. We didn’t have the pace to frighten the likes of some players, and I don’t think they’ll be coming down the wicket to Shaun Tait or Dale Steyn.
We want Dale here as quick as possible and we hope he rubs off his experience on our young Glamorgan stars, but most of all we want him doing a good job with the new ball and if he can put us in a good position after those first 6 overs as well with Michael Hogan then we can do well. I’ve been impressed with Timm van der Gugten. I didn’t expect him to be as good as he is. He’s here for 3 years, bowls good pace so when you throw those in to the mix with Wagg, Meschede, Cosker and Salter we hope we’ll be able to defend totals we score and when we bowl first, be able to restrict the opposition totals that we can get.
9. T20 gives us a chance to start from scratch, and it’s a format we were very close to the quarter-finals last year, how are the boys approaching it?
We had T20 practice last Friday, and the batsmen open their shoulders and the bowlers got stuck into bowling some different deliveries. It’s quite difficult to prepare a side for different formats, because we go from finishing this Championship game and we’ve had six of them on the bounce straight into a T20 game on Thursday night, so actually trying to combine them is a challenge. Having said that the enthusiasm and bubbliness is good and the razzmatazz that comes with T20 cricket. The boys are bang up for it and we’re pretty sure of what our side will be, if all are fit, even though Dale is missing for the first game so we’re we know what our team is and hopefully we can start this comp well.
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