Coach’s Corner – Farby’s Blog 8 August

I was hoping this would be a return to my weekly blog with a finals day in the bag, sadly and amazingly it is a return after a tough few days still trying to get over that defeat at Grace Road on Saturday night. The journey down the M1 like a lot of Kent supporters was a tough one, and a quiet one as well!!

The reason for the no show on the blog for the last five weeks, was simply a slight disagreement on adding in some words that didn’t belong to me, and being the stubborn person I am, I decided to down tools for a while. We have moved on from that now and with a bit of luck I will be writing on a weekly basis as before.

Back to the loss at Leicester, having seen two superb innings from Jarre and Azhar, I have to say at the half way mark, only a victory seemed possible, with the experience of our bowling attack, Leicester couldn’t possible get 200, could they!? A lot has been said and written about Azhar and how well he played, and I thought he was outstanding, as he has been in this competition. I don’t think we can gloss over Martins fantastic innings either, he struck the ball so well right from the off and showed what great touch he is in. His innings at Worcester last Sunday was one of the best I have seen him play, he struck the ball so well there and looked magnificent.

The score of 203 was an excellent score, and one that we should have defended. It was very disappointing to lose the game and as much as I would have loved to say they batted brilliantly to win it, we know we just didn’t bowl well enough and allowed them to win the game. It doesn’t matter at the end how you lose, but the dressing room was very quiet after the game, and nobody needed telling that we hadn’t played well enough, and the pain was obvious to see. The sad thing is that whilst many will point fingers at the bowling, it was those same bowlers who have done so well for us and won vital games with their high levels of skill and experience that have got us over the line. This is not the time to blame anybody, we have won as a team and we have to lose as a team, and the team have played such excellent cricket to get through to the quarter final stage, and as much as we are pleased with that, we will know when we watch the finals day, we should have been there.

Cricket Week starts on Wednesday and Surrey coming to Canterbury is always a big game, and this one will be no exception. It is time for us to dig very deep and show some fight and courage, it is time to move on from Saturday and play with skill and no fear. We all know that we don’t want to be second from bottom in the championship, but we are and we have to do something about it, not mope around and feel sorry for ourselves and certainly not just look forward to the end of the season.

I would think that everybody has spent the last couple of days thinking about the position we are in, and how Saturdays game was the last chance to win some silverware for the club. I know that I have been thinking very hard about my role, about what I can do to help improve things, and I guess the players will have been doing exactly the same. I have said before that it is not a case of lack of effort, or lack of commitment, despite one or two national newspapers doubting us, and it is a time for sticking together and working hard together and showing we have a lot of pride in what we do.

There will no doubt be conversations about the team, the coaching of the team and who is responsible for the position we are in, and I know they will happen. It is up to others to decide on how we are to progress, but all the time I have a chance to do something about it I will, and i`m sure the players feel exactly the same.

Just another matter to clear up, David Balcombe has agreed another months loan, but will miss this week`s game due to a hamstring injury. He has done so well for us, and Simon Willis should take the credit for suggesting we sign him on loan.

I do hope Canterbury Week is a success on and off the field,

Best wishes,

Farby.