Coach’s Corner – Farby’s Blog

Writing this weeks blog was just a little tougher than last weeks, after a great win at Chelmsford we followed up with a disappointing result at Northampton. The pleasing thing about the Essex game was the team effort and everybody playing their part. The one thing we talked about after the game was winning and losing as a team, and that hasn’t changed one bit.

Everybody was very disappointed with the result and the performance, and it was frustrating in so many ways, and there are no excuses to be offered. The most important thing is that we look at the two games we have played, look at the things we have done well, and also look at the areas that need improving. These will be worked on before the Gloucester match next week.

It is certainly not a time to panic and start pointing fingers, the lads have worked very hard over the winter, this was taken into pre season. The feeling in the group during has been very positive and that must be maintained, you will have set backs during the year, and this is what the last game was.

There will be people looking at the scorecard and thinking it was an odd card, but the key partnerships they had down their order, having been 120 for 5, took the game away from us. The session just before lunch on the third day finished off any chance we had off taking something from the game.

The week between games might give us a chance to get one or two fit for the next game, and with a small squad injuries are going to hurt us at times this year. Darren had to stay off the field with an ankle injury and Matt was troubled by a knee injury. They will need treatment this week to see if they have any chance for next week.

With Nel and Shaw still not ready for the next few matches it does leave us short on the bowling front. The loan route may become an option, and we have had good discussions with other counties to see what we can do. The problem we might have is that other counties are keeping their bowlers fresh and not wanting them bowling too many overs at this time of the year.

Away from our team there has been some interesting movements in world cricket, none more so than Dilshan being appointed captain of Sri Lanka for the England tour coming up, that might surprise a few, although he will get stuck in and enjoy the role. It will be an interesting tour for the Lankans with no Murali and a new captain.

Lets hope the good weather continues and we can get some hard work done before next weeks first home game of the season. I think we are all looking forward to getting back to Canterbury, and with both a championship and a CB 40 match it will be good to play well.

Best wishes,

Farby.