Trent Bridge Annual Report 2018

NOTTINGHAMSHIRE COUNTY CRICKET CLUB 2018 ANNUAL REPORT & ACCOUNTS 52 Some people may think all forms of cricket are solely about results. However, I am of the opinion that my job – and the job of Second XI cricket – is to see our players improve enough to play in the first team, or higher. My job is to identify players who have the potential to play international cricket (that’s the level of player we are looking for), and coach them. We have a few guys who have that potential.They are starting to tap into it, but they still have a lot of work to do. For the record, we finished fourth out of ten sides in the North Division of the Second XI Championship with three wins, three draws and three defeats. Our 15-run victory at Lan- cashire was memorable in that it was achieved by a young Nottinghamshire side against opponents featuring the likes of Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Haseeb Hameed and Joe Mennie. Our young wicketkeeper, Sol Budinger, scored a memorable hundred in that game, while Lyndon James scored a half-century in each innings at the top of the order – as well as taking five important wickets.There are still areas in which we can improve, but I believe we are getting to a position where we can start playing some really good red-ball cricket in 2019. Results were tough for us in the white-ball formats with the side finishing seventh out of ten teams in both the 50 and 20 over competitions. But I could definitely see growth in a number of our cricketers during the course of both tournaments. Having a small professional squad actually helped, in my opinion, when it came to the development of players. It allowed us to concentrate on helping a fairly consistent group of individuals – many of them young Academy prospects – to grow as cricketers. I was able to throw people into different situations to aid their development, whereas if you have a bigger squad you often don’t get those opportunities. It also allowed us to share leadership responsibilities throughout the squad, instilling those habits into a large number of players which will stand them in good stead moving forward. AN T B OT H A SECOND XI REPORT WON 3 POS 4 LOST 3 DRAWN 3 SECOND XI CHAMPIONSHIP NORTH DIVISION