New Player Announcements:
24th April 2012: New to the club; Matt Noodles (498) who we've classified, for this season at least, as a bowler valued at £4Bn, although he's already shown he' s a fearless close fielder & can wield a useful bat.
22nd May 2012: New to the club; Alfie Baker (260) who we've classified, again for this season at least, as an all rounder valued at £4Bn; powerful lad; strikes a long way & bowls fairly tidy quick medium.
29th May 2012: Back from the caribbean; Bernet Cochrane (261), an all rounder valued at £6Bn, available Sundays only until further notice; swashbuckling veteran batsman, with 7 league 50s, including a single innings of 55 last season, & occasional medium pace seamer with 27 wickets, his availability may be a bit of a gamble.
June 2012: New to the club; Ray O'Reilly (264), an all rounder by default; stood in at short notice for one Saturday game & earned himself the name Golden Ray for the outcome. Obviously has potential & fields well, but we suspect the game was most likely a one off, so this year's evaluation is £3Bn.
New to the club; Amir Shah (262), although a new cowboy, is another veteran of many years experience with bat & ball, so we expect he'll know how to play a good game, even if his body may have had to adapt over the years & it may take a while to remember. Could be a bargain all rounder at £6Bn, who can say? This year he has had a decent knock & a tight little bowling spell in the one game he's played.
New to the club; Zabeullah Orikhil (263) is an Afghan mate of Omar's who Omar rates highly with the ball, & particularly with the bat. Again, we've had no chance to see him perform before the window opened, so he's a basic £6Bn all rounder too. To update; looks a good bat, but got a duck in his one appearance so far, bowled quick but got no reward.
New to the club;2 more Afghan mates of Omar; Abdulmalek Khughiano (265) & Sayed Sadiqi (266) also appear to be all rounders & we're valuing them at £5Bn each this season. Apparently, Sayed bowls quickish roundarm style accurate stuff & is a swashbuckling batsman in the traditional Afghan mould, whereas Malik can bat, bowl spin, bowl medium pace seamers or keep wicket; no task is too great, except playing for the 2s.
New to the club: Sadiq (126), currently a batsman as he has tendonitis in both elbows, but can also apparently bowl when he doesn't. He's a mate of Dave Toole's from Hope CC & may be available for some Sunday games if we need him, but as he doesn't expect to feature much at weekends we're valuing him at £4Bn this season.
New to the club: Dylan Otterbeck (499), son-of-Jeff & budding bowler; has now been valued at £3Bn as he is starting pretty much at square 1.
New to the club: Neil Richards (127), has been classified a batsman; valued at £4Bn; could be a bargain.
Returning for an odd game: Pete Davies (500), has been classified a bowler; valued at £5Bn; could be a bargain, but only ever plays rarely.
Returning from faraway lands: Barnaby King (501), has been classified a bowler; & can hold his own with the bat. Scored 217 points for 2011 according to performance estimates so is valued at £6Bn.
New to the club: Shaz (502), which probably stands for Shazad, but hopefully more information will be forthcoming in the near future. He stepped in at very short notice & turns out to be a useful, controlled & accurate type of Afghan bowler, a good, safe pair of hands in the field & atypical tail end batsman, therefore a bowler; valued for this season at £6Bn; seems available until further notice.
There are 2 new keepers who have recently become available for selection; one fresh faced, calm yet alert & technically gifted, Tom Taylor (377) costs £8Bn, while Ian Page (378) costs £5Bn & has already notched up his first no-show.
Current Injury Concerns:
Sayed Miakhil (488, shoulder, from mid May)
Neil Boulton (105, knee, from early Aug)
Dean Carter (490, thyroid, from late winter)
Almost certainly will not play any cricket this season: Dave Bryant (106), Alan Cuthill (108), George Beckley (109), Martin Blackmore (119), Simon Wilson (121), Gary Phillips (244), Dave Flinton (345)
Highly unlikely to play any cricket this season: Chris Arrigoni (122), Aaron Rogers (496)
Has played, but is now almost certainly finished with cricket for the summer: James Mackie (491), Mark Treacher (492)
Currently mysterious, but we now suspect unlikely to feature much if at all: Hidayat Sayed (247), George Russell (111), Paul Moylan (118), Gabby Amiel (257), Trevor Forrest (495)
Unavailable just now, may be playing within the next month: Sean Parkin (124), Bill Cullum (125), Harry Gowling (251), Aran Gharyal (255), Sayed Miakhil (488),
May be available now, but likely to miss several to many games by end of season: Several: Dave Cullum (110), Dave Hewish (123), Eddie Bridges (256)
Many: Ray O'Reilly (264), Roger Ball (489),
Available now, but might miss some games: Simon Strange (122), Jonse Leach (250), Bernet Cochrane (261), Zabeullah Orikhil (263), Abdulmalek Khughiano (265), Sayed Sadiqi (266), Omar Miakhail (485)
We can't comment on likelihoods of selection, but as far as we can gather, all other players are likely to be available to play from the start of the season, for the majority of games, fitness permitting
General News:
Ramadan in 2012 will start on Friday, the 20th of July & will continue for 30 days until Saturday, the 18th of August.
AUGUST 2012
1st August 2012
Neil Boulton (105) has dislocated his knee & sustained some cartilage damage whilst building sandcastles & could be out for a number of weeks.
Reg Shaw (374) has made himself available for selection again on Sunday & is now off the injury concerns list.
Omar Miakhail (485) is no longer listed as injured as his knee has now healed, but he will be celebrating Eid on the weekend of 19th August & will not be available to play effectively until after the tournament. The same essentially would seem to apply to all our current Afghans.
9th August 2012
Two New Keepers Available for Selection: Quite a contrast in the stages of their cowboys careers; Tom Taylor (377) is now available for selection at £8Bn, whilst Ian Page (378) will cost you £5Bn