David Lloyd admits the Glamorgan squad needed a lift after their derby defeat by Gloucestershire in Bristol on Wednesday – so confirmation of the signing of South African superstar Dale Steyn to boost their NatWest T20 Blast squad could not have been better timed.
Rumours of Steyn coming to Cardiff have been swirling for a couple of weeks, but securing such a high-profile player is a complicated business – especially when he is currently involved in the Indian Premier League.
Now Lloyd and the rest of the Glamorgan players know that Steyn will be joining them at some point in the next two weeks – which should transform the mood around the club.
“I think the Blast is coming around at a good time for us,” said the allrounder from North Wales, whose batting form has been a rare highlight of Glamorgan’s start to the season as he followed a century against Kent with 99 in the first innings in Bristol.
“It’s been a good start for me personally, but for the team it’s been quite hard. The Blast gives us a chance to start from scratch in a totally different form of cricket.”
Glamorgan open their Blast campaign in a televised game against Surrey at the Kia Oval next Thursday, when an attendance of more than 15,000 is already guaranteed, before their first home fixture at the SSE SWALEC on Sunday June 1 against a star-studded Essex Eagles team including Wahab Riaz, Jesse Ryder and led by their newly-appointed one-day captain Ravi Bopara.
But first they welcome Essex to Cardiff for a Specsavers County Championship match that starts on Sunday – a meeting between bottom and top in the Division Two table.
“They’ve had a great start to the season and unfortunately we’ve been the opposite,” added Lloyd. “Maybe that’s what we need. We look at their team and although they’ve got some very good players, we reckon we have the talent in our side as well.
“The Gloucestershire game showed that because I’d say we were basically on top all the way through until that hour after lunch on the final day. It was just one of those where it seemed to be pure madness as wickets kept on falling. It was a hard one for us all to take.”
Even without his encouraging personal form to console him, Lloyd has had a reminder of the importance of keeping cricket in context this year.
As a fellow former pupil of Shrewsbury School, he was stunned by the news that James Taylor will not play again because of a serious heart condition.
“I was lucky enough to get a scholarship for the sixth form, and the year I arrived James had just left,” explained Lloyd, who was a contemporary of the Worcestershire and England Lions wicketkeeper batsman Joe Clarke at Shrewsbury.
“But he was still around quite a lot, especially working with our coach Paul Pridgeon. So we were in touch quite regularly and obviously I sent him a message when I heard the news – it was shocking really. Typical of James, when I got my hundred at Kent he sent me a message to congratulate me. I really appreciated that.”