Brian Halford reviews Warwickshire County Cricket Club's season for 2009

Oct 7 2009 by Brian Halford, Birmingham Mail

WARWICKSHIRE’S 2009 season was a qualified success: a solid enough year of gradual advance in some areas.

In the championship the Bears consolidated after promotion. Two late wins averted the threat of relegation and left them fifth in the final Division One table, 31 points clear of the drop.

In one-day cricket, there was progress. They took time to warm up in the Friends Provident Trophy and, never mind the narrow defeat in the last group game against Kent, failed to qualify because they had thrown away victory against Middlesex at Lord’s two days earlier.

The Twenty20 brought the customary qualification for the quarter-final then the customary exit.

Most encouragingly, they finished top of the Pro40 Division Two and were unbeaten, auguring well for next season when 40-over cricket again becomes county cricket’s principal one-day format.

On the whole, then, some progress. But much needs to be done for Warwickshire to make 2010 a third successive year of advance since the shambles of 2007.

A strong finish to 2009 notwithstanding, some important recruiting is required during the next six months.

Not in terms of numbers, the group is reasonably strong, but there are gaps to fill. Key gaps. And batsmen are top priority.

Before last season the perception round the counties was that Warwickshire would struggle because of their bowling.

For a long time in four-day cricket it was hard to properly evaluate the bowlers as match after match was ruined by a combination of rain and director of cricket Ashley Giles’ insistence on bland, batsman-friendly Edgbaston pitches.

But when, later on, the bowlers came across conditions giving them half a chance, they did okay.

They were outbowled by champions Durham but who wasn’t last season?

Crucially, they set up three victories – two against Worcestershire and one, during the best team performance of the year, against Sussex at Hove – that left the Bears safe. On docile pitches in other games they also bowled better than their figures suggest.

Chris Woakes, Naqaash Tahir and Boyd Rankin form the nucleus of a strong seam attack, though they need help.

Warwickshire are hunting a senior paceman to provide a spearhead round which those three can work as they did round Sreesanth in August and September.

The Indian took only 13 wickets in five matches but his aggression and extra pace applied pressure which benefited his team-mates.

A front-line spinner, a potent operator to complement Ant Botha’s ‘wear-em-down’ style, is also on the shopping list but the batting needs most reinforcement if Warwickshire are to take the next step forward and challenge for the championship title.

Ian Bell and Jonathan Trott scored 3,967 runs in all competitions for the Bears last season. With those two in the top order, the unit is strong.

But England will snaffle one or both for large parts of 2009 so back-up is required.

At times last season Warwickshire scraped by with the bat. Apart from Bell and Trott every other specialist batsman was patchy. Jim Troughton ended with a championship average of 39.19 but 300 of his 823 runs came in his first two innings. Mid-season brought him ten successive knocks below 20.

Ian Westwood and Tim Ambrose also endured long barren patches. Tony Frost struggled and then retired. Warwickshire were often grateful for lower-order runs which they needed more than they should.

Rikki Clarke batted well at six and seven, Botha did a plucky stand-in job as opener and, all being well, Darren Maddy will be back next year.

But Clarke is perfectly suited to the lower middle order, Botha is ill-equipped to open long term and Maddy will be 36 next May and returning after a year out of cricket. No 1,000-run bankers there.

Ateeq Javed showed technique and guts in his two high-profile first-class appearances last summer and has promise galore but must not be rushed.

So Warwickshire need to splash the cash if necessary and bring in a couple of proven run-scorers.

They are courting Stephen Moore. An opener of his calibre would enable Maddy to drop down to four or five.

There is also a strong case for signing a top-drawer overseas batsman if one can be found in this era of near-ceaseless international and jamboree cricket.

A few blanks to fill in this winter then. A few unknowns. But, reflecting upon 2009, perhaps one point should be clearer than anything else to the Bears’ hierachy. It is time, once and for all, to sort out the warm-ups.

To lose Maddy for the whole of last season to a snapped medial ligament sustained warming up was a colossal self-inflicted blow. All of Warwickshire’s most serious injuries in recent years have arrived in warm-ups.

Naqaash Tahir, prize bowler, damaged a finger keeping goal. How barmy is that? Remember Mark Wagh’s lost season-and-a-half? Are all those ridiculous ball-games really risk-effective?

As for the bonding element – well, you’d sort of hope the squad could manage to build up a bit of rapport without running about and turning and twisting on greasy outfields.

Perhaps it’s not quite a case of let’s go back to the days of a pre-play cuppa and fag – but surely there must be some point in between!