Cricket-News.Org

This season has been very disappointing in terms of results thus far. However, the Club, Chairman and Committee continue to fully support the Director of Cricket, Kepler Wessels, and all the playing squad in their efforts to turn the season round.

We could talk forever about limited resources but we all recognise that our supporter base and all those who follow Northants cricket want success which we have been able to deliver in the past. We may need to adjust our successful strategy from previous years but it will always be a challenge with a small squad and we remain committed to playing attractive and, hopefully, winning cricket.

Indeed, the best news this year has been the selection of Monty Panesar, whose development has been carefully nurtured for a number of years, for England. He is one of those players who can, single-handedly, turn a match. We have to accept that, at the request of the England camp, we have been restricted in the number of appearances he has made this season and we may well soon lose his wicket taking expertise for four Championship matches and four one dayers. Such is the cost of success for developing an exciting talent!

The squad has been further weakened by the long term injury to Steve Crook who has started only one match this season after a very promising first few matches at the end of last summer.

Added to this, Chris Rogers has been selected to join the Australia A squad for six weeks having made his mark in 2005 with a double century against the Australian Tourists at Leicester. We felt it was critical to arrange a quality short term replacement particularly when we established that Sourav Ganguly, a player with a worldwide reputation, was not only available but very keen to come to Northamptonshire CCC.

It is also encouraging that two more products of our Academy system have made first team debuts this season. Both Mark Nelson and Graeme White are talented youngsters who played a major part in the England Under 19 success in the winter. They are being given every encouragement to support the difficult transition from age group and Second XI cricket to the first class stage.

Two good recent wins, against Glamorgan and Derbyshire, and strong performances from both senior and junior members of the team, with Lance Klusener leading both batting and bowling averages in the Championship and David Sales scoring 900 runs in all cricket, give us confidence for the future once we can build more consistency.

The Committee have developed a realistic Business Plan which targets the continuing sustainability of cricket in the County and clearly we will be assessing our needs for 2007 in terms of quality and balance and looking to develop young, local talent wherever possible.

We may find that Monty Panesar captures the prize of a central contract. We will attempt to strengthen the squad, wherever necessary, within the constraints of our resources. In the meantime we continue to actively support all the playing staff who, as a team, are very focused on a successful Twenty/20 campaign and they will all be given every opportunity to contribute to the ongoing success of this Club in the future.