Sussex Sharks - NatWest T20 Blast programme - June/July

e t i b k r sha

sussex sharks one day programme june 1 – july 1 2016

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contents 05: Welcome

Zac Toumazi, Chief Executive

06:

Luke Wright

The Sharks’ captain looks ahead to the one-day season

10:

Ross Taylor

22: Somerset

36: Middlesex

24: Sussex

40: T20

2016 T20 team picture

Down Under

26: Surrey

How the Big Bash has become a cricket sensation

30: Essex

44: Winners!

32: Kent

Former captain Mike Yardy recalls Sussex’s T20 triumph in 2009

Kiwi brings a wealth of experience to the Sharks

12:

Mustafizur Rahman Bangladesh bowler could be Sussex’s X-factor

14:

Tymal Mills

Print: L&S Print Editorial: Bruce Talbot, MBP Sports Media Design: Alison Cooper 07762357670 Photography: Getty Images + SNAP

The Sussex pace ace who’s built for speed

12 Mustafizur Rahman

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Welcome Welcome to the first of our matchday programmes in 2016 and I’m delighted as always to be asked to update you on all things Sussex Cricket.

It’s amazing to think how far we are through the new season already and it’s great to see the white-ball action back at Hove.

The hard-hitting matches, the big crowds and the entertainment really makes for a great spectacle and I, for one, can’t wait for it to get underway.

We have a new cricket management team in place with Mark Davis our new Head Coach, Luke Wright our new skipper and Keith Greenfield our first ever Director of Cricket. We’re really excited about the new era and believe we have all the plans in place to move forward efficiently.

Hopefully we can build on the progress we made last year in reaching the Quarter-Finals of the NatWest T20 Blast, and be in with a real shout of going all the way.

With our overseas players, Mustafizur Rahman and Ross Taylor along with David Weise, and our new additions to the squad like Danny Briggs, I am sure that we will once again be strong in this format.

Away from our own big players, the calibre of the international stars

that make their way to England for this tournament seems to improve year upon year. Chris Gayle is set to play for Somerset at Hove and whilst we hope he has an off day against us I’m sure he will be clearing the ropes in his appearances at Taunton!

It was really encouraging that we sold out four matches at Hove last year. The NatWest T20 Blast is a key revenue stream for the club and aside from the joy of seeing so many people having a great time inside the ground, it really does benefit many different facets of Sussex Cricket.

The Royal London One-Day Cup is almost nearly here too, a change to last season’s schedule sees it arriving much earlier in the summer. It’s fair to say we didn’t quite perform how we would have liked in 50-over cricket last year, but I am convinced we’ll put it right this time and we’ll see an improvement in this format.

Of course, our ground has a new name this season: The 1st Central County Ground. We’re delighted to welcome 1st Central into the Sussex Family and we’ve been really excited about the partnership so far. They are a national company based here in Sussex and have already engaged strongly with us, and we look forward to working with them for many seasons to come. I’d also like to thank our major sponsors Jointing Technologies and Palmer & Harvey for their amazing support.

We do have one NatWest T20 Blast match away from The 1st Central County Ground this season as we return to exquisite setting of Arundel Castle in late June to take on Gloucestershire. The Arundel Festival of Cricket, presented by Irwin Mitchell, also includes the Specsavers County Championship match with Northamptonshire and this quintessentially English tradition really is something to look forward to.

We are sure that the festival will be a great occasion and although it is of course disappointing not to be visiting Horsham this year, we certainly haven’t closed the door on Cricket Field Road and, with the right support, there is no reason why we can’t return in the future.

Sit back, relax and enjoy the action this season and get behind the Sharks!

GOOD OLD SUSSEX BY THE SEA!

Zac Toumazi, Chief Executive www.sussexcricket.co.uk/tickets 5

Let us

entertain you Find Sid!

Find the picture of Sid the Shark in this issue of Sharkbite and you could win a signed photo of Luke Wright.

Email your answer to: info@sussexcricket. co.uk

6 www.sussexcricket.co.uk/tickets

Captain Luke Wright shares his thoughts ahead of a great summer of one-day cricket

The start of our oneday season is here and I can’t wait to lead out the Sharks this summer.

It’s been a frustrating few weeks on a personal level. I had to have minor surgery on my wrist in April and then suffered a back problem which means I’ve had to wait longer than I’d hoped to lead the team out for the first time as captain. But the recovery has gone well – if a little slower than I’d liked of course! – and I’m looking forward to what the first month of our one-day season brings.

It’s no secret that we have underachieved in limited overs cricket in the last few years and that has to be put right. The good news is that I believe we have a squad in place to compete with the other 17 counties and establish Sussex Sharks as a force in both the NatWest Blast and Royal London One-Day Cup. The players we have added bring a lot of white-ball experience to the squad. Ross Taylor has won many ODIs and T20 internationals for New Zealand and he gave us an early taste of his match-winning prowess down at Bristol in our opening match of the NatWest T20 Blast with a fantastic 93 off 48 balls. He’s a bit like Murray Goodwin in that he can adapt his game to different match situations and I’ll no doubt be leaning on his captaincy experience during the heat of battle.

Left-arm spinner Danny Briggs has played T20 for England and when he was with Hampshire I

always found him a pain in the backside to be honest! He’s like a 30-year-old bowler in a young man’s body because he just knows what to do and makes batsmen have to take tough options. He’s played in six successive finals days for his old county Hampshire and I’m hoping he can be our good luck charm as well his undoubted match-winning potential with the ball.

A player I am really looking forward to seeing is our Bangladeshi left-arm seamer Mustafizur Rahman, a bowler who has taken the game by storm in the last 12 months. His performances in the T20 World Cup and IPL made some of the world’s best batsmen look ordinary and I can’t wait to unleash ‘Fizz’, who I really think has the potential to be a star of our white-ball cricket this summer.

So we have experience – don’t forget the likes of Chris Nash, Matt Machan and Ben Brown too – and in Fizz a player who gives us something different, the X factor if you like, but there are a few good youngsters desperate to make their mark for us as well.

Last season we gave opportunities to Harry Finch and Phil Salt and a few others – George Garton, Stuart Whittingham and Fynn HudsonPrentice – will be looking for their chance to impress this summer.

It’s an exciting mix of youth and experience and if we get the balance right we can be a force, I’ve no doubt about that.

We reached the quarter-finals of the Blast last year before running into an inspired David Willey and that has to be the minimum aim for 2016. Our form in the 50 overs competition was poor. Let’s hope

Ross Taylor on his way to 93 off 48 balls in our Blast opener against Gloucestershire. He is one of our potential match-winners

the winning start we made against Gloucestershire can give us the platform for a successful campaign.

I’m fortunate to have played T20 cricket all over the world and played under some great captains both for my country and domestically. With so many other solid, experienced pros in our dressing room to lean on I won’t be short of good advice which can hopefully give us the edge in tight games.

As I said, these are exciting times for Sussex and our supporters.

We have a really dynamic one-day team which I believe is capable of winning lots of games. There is no better atmosphere in the country than a T20 night at a packed 1st Central County Ground and we really appreciate your support.

Now it’s time for us to entertain you.

Bring it on!

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TOM JONES LIVE

sharks by numbers

138 399 68 36 49 4 9 2746 159 163

Number of T20 games played by Sussex since 2003

Sussex’s highest score in a one-day match v Worcestershire, 2011

Number of T20 wins by Sussex

Total Sussex bowled out Leicestershire for in 1973

Sussex’s win percentage in T20

Hundreds in T20 for Sussex by Luke Wright

Number of one-day titles won

Sunday17th July 2016

The 1st Central County Ground, Hove TICKETS FROM TICKETMASTER.CO.UK

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Subject to licence

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Number of T20 runs for Sussex by Luke Wright

Highest partnership for Sussex in T20 by Luke Wright and Matt Machan

Highest one-day score by a Sussex batsman – Chris Adams v Middlesex in 1999

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e d a m R O L Y TA

r to business fo It will be down he as ly ed ne and Ju at’s why I join Ross during Ju Nate th th appeal and th bo key role in a d on a s h ke on ta r ” o x. nd l Susse k off d Royal Lo If Ross Tay also able to tic t T20 Blast an es as rew W y a or b in yl x d Ta e se at when With Sus been motiv r ne-Day Cup. reer milestone O ge ca l e un al v yo a sm e h a m e d coul ase, and so debut in th e e ph h m g , in y ho e s ild in hi n bu e ty o ni m he mad get an opportu ship match next few faces likely to his nty Champion ou C to spent the e m ca this summer, “I e es in th g ex in April. e-day gam ss in on E t will y t a ke ns l ic ai p cr l ag ks al ic week young cr of white-b C e C nc M rie an r pe ie as ex m Pre England e to 18 and was du Caribbean be crucial. er when I was e et re th l decade since al ed in . ra e it u t g bu is more than a a e It ov Le H s deat tay or pl his limited over ve been no sh revealed.

Taylor made he West ,” t ys ns There would ha e ai da d op ol ag sl rd a ew Zealan there was r the 32-yea N e fo r m fo rs t ld ito bu to ed su y ay of he r pl “T age ed fo ea how he has r, who has play but I had no id es. Since then nd di 0 In ou gr T2 e 73 th as d w New Zealande at L e CP 0 ODIs an I got here. Hov St Lucia in the and in a further 17 0 .9 43 g nd Trinidad and big it was until in la ag ng ionals, aver ground in E at ty rn un te co ed in or . ly re sc on befo the difHe has nice to er, sees things 5 respectively. ed at so it was .0 ay 24 pl ss ’t ro dn ac t Taylor, howev d ha es I eW ndreds an s swapped th f.”

15 one-day hu e of ferently. He ha tick that one of in er and ed m in m s an aggregat jo su ha en s is at th be x e rm se fo nc si us th s S r bo ha fo s Ros Indies d s first ns. be enjoying hi wife Victoria an nearly 8,000 ru is delighted to Sussex by his t ke ic ac cr M ty n, re un t of co g child 0 prolonged stin their two youn tween ving played T2 ha nty, and in be s, rk Jo d ha S an e e zi en with th K out. d en out an ab 2010. atches he’s be ar for Durham on m ye re te th in of of t e is tim ay a lo “Normally at th “When you pl IPL and Carib g you do a lot of in t ay ke pl ic cr be l ish I would nationa cricket 0 T2 ue been nice to fin ag s Le it’ velling. So ve bean Premier tra p ha ee u sl yo d s an er nal play go home with internatio a day’s play, lso, against a lot,” ed ay d,” he said. “A pl be or n ow ith been w in your de si lish country he said.

I enjoy the Eng w e to Hove, m co to en exploring ne ce be an “So the ch and we have by t g n’ in ve liv ha y I jo ys en of gu mily meet a bunch places. The fa and ell so re and come Brighton as w fo in be e ith id w as ed se e ty play th un co ” e e. th much of a great tim experience as we’re having ld a lot of he le ib ss po circuit as

10 www.sussexcricket.co.uk/tickets

ys Mark Davis sa Sussex Coach dual nt rta po im an Taylor will play mmer. cricket this su y da eon in role such s ha ho e Ross, w “Someone lik est gh hi e th at e rienc e,” massive expe nc re e all the diffe h level, can mak uc m ty et think it’s pr ns said Davis. “I ru e or sc ill w at he a guarantee th peratch-winning m e uc od pr and player a e’s too good formances. H . happen for that not to is , our captain, ht rig W e “Luk s of rm te rienced in also very expe in ly al ci pe t but es one-day cricke s so en pp ha ng hi eryt T20, when ev have ways good to al s it’ y, kl ic qu ce from. vi ad to take another person d I’m have Ross an We’re lucky to g in ok orters are lo sure our supp the r fo ay pl ng him forward to seei Sharks.”

Kiwi Ross’s experience is going to be crucial for the Sharks “The family enjoy living by the seaside in Brighton as well so we’re having a great time.”

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rising star Arguably no one in world cricket has made as big an impact during the past 12 months than 20-yearold Mustafizur Rahman – and the good news for Sussex supporters is that the loose-limbed left-armer is a Shark!

The county has signed Mustafizur for their T20 campaign and he will also play in four Royal London Cup matches when Ross Taylor returns to New Zealand.

It’s quite a prospect when you consider the impact Rahman has had since making his international debut 13 months ago in a T20 international against Pakistan.

Over the next 11 months he took four wickets in two Tests at 14.50, 26 at 12.34 from nine ODIs and six at 18.66 in five T20 internationals.

But it wasn’t until Mustafizur started making established international batsmen look like novices in the recent T20 World Cup that people 12 www.sussexcricket.co.uk/tickets

really started to take notice.

In three matches he took nine wickets, including 5 for 22 against New Zealand – a performance that had his new captain Luke Wright in raptures on Twitter: “Fizz is a serious talent – it’s hard enough picking his slower ball on TV!” Wright was referring to Rahman’s freakish ability to disguise not only his slower ball but also his stockdelivery too.

His technique, which he first developed as a youngster in his home village of Tetulia, about 150 miles south of the Bangladesh capital Dhaka, enables him to bowl a mixture of slower balls from the back and front of the hand together with off-cutters and quicker deliveries, which have regularly topped 90mph on the speed gun.

At 20, Mustafizur is still relatively inexperienced but during the World Cup he demonstrated his growing confidence, using the full width of the crease to change his angle of attack, particularly to left-armers.

He continued to impress during the Indian Premier League, taking 13 wickets for Sunrisers Hyderabad and alerting several Big Bash franchises in Australia. Sunrisers’

coach Tom Moody also works with Melbourne Renegades and he could end up there – facing Wright who plays for the Stars – in a derby match.

“He is one of the rising stars of world cricket,” said Sussex Coach Mark Davis.

“What he can do with the ball, the way he can disguise what he’s going to bowl just with his wrist action, is incredible.

It looks like he enjoys his cricket too, which is important. Cricketers like him, who are a bit unorthodox, are incredibly valuable and I can’t wait to see him bowl for Sussex.”

Mustafizur has no experience of English conditions. Since capping his rapid rise from village cricket in Bangladesh to the national team he has been playing almost exclusively in the sub-continent but there is no doubt he is a star in the making.

Sussex fans are in for a treat as Mustafizur Rahman gets set for for his first stint in English cricket with the Sharks

By Bruce Talbot

Mustafizur Rahman’s rapid rise continued during the T20 World Cup when he took nine wickets – including 5 for 22 against New Zealand

Sussex fans will love watching him bowl.

Sussex batsmen will probably be relieved that they won’t have to face him!

Loose-limbed, left-arm.

Mustafizur is looking forward to his first spell in English cricket with the Sharks

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On behalf of the all the players, we welcome you to this season’s NatWest T20 Blast and Royal London One-Day Cup campaigns here at The 1st Central County Ground, Hove.

Last season was my first experience of playing at Hove following my move from Essex and I must say that the crowd was great at every match and I’m sure this season will be no different.

Even though we don’t possess one of the swanky 30,000-seat Test grounds, I’d rather play in front of a packed house at Hove ahead of a half empty, larger stadium any day! That being said, we as a squad have identified that we must perform better in front of our home fans this year after only winning twice at Hove last campaign.

I sit here writing this piece on the back of a great (if not closer than we would have liked) victory in our first T20 away against Gloucestershire. Duckworth-Lewis tried its hardest to take it away from us, but after a batting performance like that we didn’t deserve to leave Bristol with anything less than two points.

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Down on the batting order at No.11, I had the best seat in the house to watch our boys go to work, hitting the ball to all parts. It was nice to see Phil Salt get a go at the top of the order in absence of Wrighty; he’s been giving it a whack in the second team for a while now and takes playing without fear to the next level!

We went into the match with only one overseas player as we wait for the glitz and glamour of the IPL to conclude, but he didn’t do too badly did he? We saw Wrighty play some brilliant innings in last season’s competition and the knock from Ross Taylor was right up there with the best. He never looked like getting out and hit some of the biggest sixes you are likely to see! He’s been a great addition to the changing room so far this season so all the boys were delighted to see him score a big one in his first T20 with us, one which will hopefully set him up for a good competition.

From a personal point of view it was great to get back out on the park with the boys for the first time this year after what has been an extended pre-season. It has been frustrating at times whilst the boys have been out working hard playing in the Championship whilst I have just been training, but I know that it’s a necessary evil that will

hopefully hold me in good stead for the rest of the season.

I was lucky to spend a good chunk of the winter abroad in South Africa and Dubai at different stages either with the England Lions or on training camps so it was nice to miss the English winter for the most part. It’s safe to say the quality of training that can be done abroad as opposed to at home is much higher also. I was really happy with how I performed in this competition last year and will be putting myself under pressure to do the same and then some this year.

Thank you for reading and I hope that you have a great time with us at today’s game and enjoy many more here throughout the summer! Please feel free to come and see us all after the game for any autographs and photos that you may like. tymal

TYMAL TIME

Sharks’ fast bowler Tymal Mills will be contributing throughout the summer in Sharkbite Here’s his first column

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autographs

25 CELEBRATING

YEARS

Jointing Technologies are the proud sponsor of

Sussex County Cricket Club

We look forward to sharing another electrifying season in 2016 as part of the Sussex County Cricket Club family.

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THANKS TO OUR SPONSORS AND PARTNERS HOVE MATCH SPONSORS JUNE 2016 Somerset (NatWest T20 Blast)

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and Jimmy Lloyd flagbearers: Laughton CC junior section Surrey (NatWest T20 Blast)

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Essex (Royal London One-Day Cup)

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Here’s to record breaking runs, fast deliveries and first class performance.

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DIARY DATES But can Gayle and another of the greats of the world game – Mahela Jayawardene – help turn Somerset into winners again?

Ü wednesday June 1 NatWest T20 Blast 1st central county ground

Ü saturday July 30 Royal London One-Day Cup, taunton

All gold: Gayle shows off his World Cup winners medal

The biggest attraction in world T20 cricket Jamaican master blaster Chris Gayle will be at Hove on June 1 to give this season’s NatWest T20 Blast a suitably high-profile start.

Chris Gayle hit 29 sixes in just three Blast games for Somerset last season

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The 2005 champions were runnersup for three successive years after losing to Sussex in the 2009 final.

They were finalists in 2012 and got to the knockout stages in 2013 but since then have failed to get out of the South Group, and despite the presence of Gayle for three matches last season they only won four of their 14 fixtures with just Middlesex finishing below them.

Gayle, though, did his bit. In the three games he played he scored 328 runs at a strike rate of 192 and hit an astonishing 29 sixes, equalling the most by any batsman in the entire competition. More than 85% of his runs came in boundaries but Gayle cannot win games on his own. Against Kent last year he smashed an unbeaten 151 from 62 balls at Taunton – and still ended up on the losing side.

The good news for Somerset fans is that the 36-year-old, fresh from helping West Indies win the T20 World Cup earlier this year, is available for six matches while Jayawardene, who made such a favourable impression in the dressing room and around the club during his stint at Hove last year, will play in all but two of Somer-

set’s 14 group games. “He’s a true professional and we think he will have a major influence on and off the field,” said Somerset’s Director of Cricket Matt Maynard.

Other familiar faces to Sharks’ fans in the Somerset ranks include Yasir Arafat, who had two spells with the county and has joined them on loan from Hampshire, while the likes of Peter Trego, James Hildreth and James Allenby are match-winners in their own right.

But although Somerset have lots of T20 knowhow in their squad it can also be argued that they are an ageing side. Hildreth apart, that experienced core are all aged over 30. Jayawardene is 38 and Arafat, who now holds a UK passport, 34.

And while there should be no shortage of runs, wicket-taking might be more of a problem for Somerset, although left-arm spinner Roloef van der Merwe, who switched allegiance to the Netherlands after winning 13 ODI caps for South Africa, could be crucial to their hopes of defending totals – or giving Gayle & Co. manageable targets to chase.

The presence of Gayle for opening night will make the 1st Central County Ground the hottest ticket in town. Sharks’ fans probably won’t mind if he starts clearing the stands either – as long as Sussex come out on top.

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Back row left to right:

Craig Cachopa, Phil Salt, Tymal Mills, Will Beer, Harry Finch, Matt Machan, Graham Irwin (2nd XI Scorer)

Middle row left to right:

Jon Marrale (Physio), Paul Khoury (Head of Science and Medicine), Mike Charman (1st XI Scorer), Ajmal Shahzad, Danny Briggs, Luke Wells, Ollie Robinson, Lewis Hatchett, Stuart Whittingham, George Garton, Fynn Hudson-Prentice, Nick Lee (Strength & Conditioning Coach), Robert Chave (Assistant Strength & Conditioning Coach).

Missing from the picture: Chris Jordan, Ross Taylor, Mustafizur Rahman

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Front row left to right:

Jason Swift (Team Analyst and Coach), Ed Joyce, Chris Nash, Zac Toumazi (Chief Executive), Mark Davis (Head Coach), Luke Wright (Captain), Ben Brown (Vice-Captain), Steve Magoffin, Jon Lewis (Assistant Head Coach), Murray Goodwin (Batting Coach).

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DIARY DATES

Despite using 21 players, including four overseas signings, last year they finished third from bottom of the South Group.

Ü Friday June 3 NatWest T20 Blast 1st central county ground

Ü Tuesday June 14 Royal London One-Day Cup guildford

Ü Friday July 22 Nat West T20 Blast, kia oval

Dwayne Bravo will lead Surrey’s charge for their first T20 title since 2003 this summer

Surrey won the inaugural T20 tournament back in 2003 but have struggled to attain those giddy heights in recent editions of the tournament.

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Jason Roy was in explosive form during the T20 World Cup and is key to Surrey’s hopes of justifying their 7-1 jointfavourites tag for the Blast

They are likely to go down a similar mix-and-match route this year, but the quality of their overseas recruits and the talent they have already suggests that making the knockout stages in this year’s tournament should be their minimum aim.

Dwayne Bravo, who led West Indies to their World Cup triumph over England a few weeks ago, and the South African Chris Morris are both players who would command top dollar wherever they played and the two all-rounders are going to be crucial to Surrey’s hopes of justifying their pre-tournament status as favourites.

Bravo, 32, has scored more than 4,500 runs and taken more than 300 wickets in the shortest format and he will be with Surrey throughout June, including the M23 derby at the 1st Central County Ground on June 3. He is the second highest wicket-taker in T20 internationals and arrives at the Kia Oval from a stint in the Indian Premier League with Rajkot.

Morris will take over from Bravo in July when he heads back to the West Indies to play in the Caribbean Premier League and will line up against the Sharks on July 22 at the Kia Oval. The 28-year-old came to prominence earlier this year when he smashed 68 off 34 balls to help South Africa beat England in an ODI and has recently been playing in the IPL for Delhi Daredevils.

With Kumar Sangakkara and Australian Aaron Finch also sharing overseas duties – the Sri Lankan will be available in July – and two veteran internationals in Azhar Mahmood and Ravi Rampaul, also in their ranks, Surrey won’t be short of experience but their English players are capable of making just as big an impact.

The dynamic Curran brothers Tom and Sam are potential England players of the future while Zafar Ansari might well have represented his country by now had it not been for a broken finger.

Ansari is a dependable middleorder batsman while both he and captain Gareth Batty can be relied on to bowl tight, aggressive spin during the crucial middle overs.

Then there’s England opener Jason Roy, a player capable of taking the game away from the opposition straight away. The 25-year-old, who scored 122 against Somerset in last year’s tournament, may miss some of the tournament because of international commitments, but with Sangakkara, Morris and Bravo – as well as the likes of Steven Davies and Ben Foakes – Surrey should not be short of runs.

They are 7-1 joint favourites with Yorkshire to win the competition – skinny odds perhaps for a team who struggled last season but with the depth in their squad and an enviable mix of youth and experience they might well justify the bookies’ optimisim this season.

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DIARY DATES They are setting the pace after the first five rounds of the County Championship but Essex are keen to replicate that form in white-ball cricket too.

Ü monday June 6 Royal London One-Day Cup, 1st central county ground

Ü THURSDAY 21 JULY NatWest T20 Blast essex county ground.

MR CONSISTENT: Tom Westley star is rising – and he could be key to Essex’s hopes of one-day success in 2016

Tom Westley scored nearly 700 one-day runs last season – form which earned him his first England Lions call-up during the winter

Westley is still in the selectors’ thoughts after an excellent start to the 2016 season

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Once the dominant one-day team – between 1979 and 1985 they won five one-day trophies – it is a decade since they last lifted some silverware while in three appearances at T20 Finals Day – the last in 2010 – Essex have never progressed beyond the semi-finals.

But they went into the one-day block of fixtures towards the end of May with a healthy 18-point lead in Division Two of the Specsavers County Championship and they wouldn’t be the first team to feel a bounce from good performances when they swap whites for coloured kit.

Their consistent early-season form has been built around some solid individual performances, none more so than batsman Tom Westley who has emerged as a contender to fill the troublesome opener’s berth in the England team alongside Alastair Cook.

The 27-year-old hit 650 first-class runs including four centuries prior to Essex’s first one-day game in the NatWest T20 Blast on May 20 and Sussex supporters won’t need reminding that the former Durham University student is more than capable of adapting his game to the shorter formats.

Two years ago in the Blast at Chelmsford, Sussex looked like being swept away by Westley’s 109 off 58 balls after the Sharks had been held up for three hours by horrendous M25 traffic and had to forego their pre-match warm-up just to get onto the field on time.

Luckily for Sussex, Luke Wright was in even better form and hit a spectacular 153 off 66 balls to see his side to an unlikely victory.

True, the Chelmsford boundaries on T20 nights are invitingly short even for touch players such as Westley who don’t necessarily muscle ever ball to the rope, far less over it.

That year he averaged 55 in the Royal London One-Day Cup and 44 in T20, form that earned him a place on the England Performance Programme in Sri Lanka that winter. Westley maintained his consistency with 699 one-day runs in 2015, form that got him on the England Lions tour of the UAE over Christmas, although that was where his upward trajectory stalled somewhat. He made just two notable contributions: 34 in the third ODI against Pakistan and an unbeaten 57 in a warm-up game against an Emirates XI. “The Lions tour was a great learning curve,” he said. “I just didn’t play well and my bowling was probably keeping me in the side because I didn’t make the runs I believe I’m good enough to score.

I got some good balls but I played some bad shots too and before I knew it the series was over. That was an insight into playing international cricket.”

But having made such a solid start to 2016 Westley is still in the selectors’ thoughts and it obviously helped that when he went out to open for his county in the early

weeks of the season the England captain had the best view in the house at the opposite end of the pitch. They shared in a couple of 200-plus stands and chew the cud next to each other in Essex’s slip cordon. Westley jokingly (you’d hope!) described Cook as ‘the most boring man ever.’ “We get on very well,” he added, “but we don’t talk cricket much which makes him a very relaxing guy to bat with.”

In one-day cricket he has another string to his bow with more than respectable off-spin. On slow used wickets which tend to prevail in the second half of the summer his accuracy and changes of pace make him difficult to score off.

Westley is one of several potential game-changers in the Essex team. Like so many counties they have invested in New Zealanders when recruiting overseas with Adam Milne joining Jesse Ryder.

Pakistan left-armer Wahab Riaz will bring plenty of experience to the mix along with tried and trusted players such as James Foster, Graham Napier and Ryan ten Doeschate.

All under a new one-day captain in Ravi Bopara. Essex look in a position to end a decade of underachievement in one-day cricket.

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Daniel Bell Drummond has benefitted from a winter working with former England left-hander Graham Thorpe

DIARY DATES Ü friday June 10 NatWest T20 Blast 1st central county ground

Ü thursday June 30 NatWest T20 Blast spitfire ground, canterbury

Ü Tuesday August 2 Royal London One-Day Cup 1st central county ground

Kent Spitfires’ opener Daniel Bell-Drummond is in the form of his life – thanks to some help from an England legend, writes Mark Pennell Kent Spitfires opening batsman Daniel Bell-Drummond is a stickler for technique, so a winter spent honing his skills overseas with three world-class coaches was, in his opinion, time brilliantly spent.

Having previously visited Abu Dhabi with the MCC in 2014, the 22-year-old right-hander spent his latest close season back in the United Arab Emirates on the England Lions tour of Dubai.

“It was a brilliant opportunity and one I greatly enjoyed,” said the Millfield School prodigy. “If I’m brutally honest, I’d have liked a little more playing time, but I had to be realistic and, with the experienced Dawid Malan and James Vince both in the squad and playing fantastically well, my opportunities were always likely to be limited.”

“Even so, I thoroughly enjoyed training every day with the likes of Sam Billings and Reece Topley and working with coaches like Andy Flower [ECB technical director of elite cricket], Gary Kirsten [ECB batting consultant], and Graham Thorpe [ECB lead batting 32 www.sussexcricket.co.uk/tickets

coach], who are guys I’ve learned a hell of a lot from.

“I pretty much worked with ‘Thorpey’ on a daily basis and you have to have respect for someone who has 100 Test caps to their name.

He was a brilliant batsman and he’s now become a brilliant coach.

He was world-class at his peak, could play the short, fast stuff and quality spin in turning conditions on the sub-continent, so anything he could pass on I’d be happy to listen to.”

Following the retirement of James Taylor on medical grounds, Bell-Drummond is acutely aware that his name is in the minds of the selectors and that a good summer in limited overs cricket with the Spitfires will help keep it there.

He added: “Kirsten could see that my shots square of the wicket on both sides were pretty decent, but he wanted to add to my armoury by improving my strokes straight down the ground.

“Overall, my technique is tighter now, and since coming back from the UAE I’m try and play to my

strengths. I have a clearer mindset, but you’ve still got to go out and get the runs.”

Refreshed and revitalised by the winter sojourn, Bell-Drummond hit an unbeaten 206 against Loughborough MCCU in Canterbury, but the young right-hander was quick to understand which of the two knocks was most important in terms of his development.

“A first-class double hundred is always to be savoured,” he said.

“But, in terms of preparing me for the championship season, I’m thinking that the 70-odd against Durham I got in a pre-season friendly may well work out to be the most important knock of the summer.

“I was delighted to battle through a really testing spell by Chris Rushworth. I had some luck, but you need that in tough conditions against one of the best seamers operating in the county game. That innings helped me to feel confident, back my defences and not get too fidgety if there’s a period when the runs dry up a bit.”

Bell-Drummond concedes that the help he received from former England opener Rob Key helped lay the foundations of his batting style, but that his maturity and greater understanding of his own game and technique is the real key to his recent run of good form.

“I was blessed to have ‘Keysy’ down the other end when I first came into the Kent side and now I’ve got Tom Latham, the New Zealand Test opener, so you could say I’ve been very lucky,” he added.

After his fine start to the summer Bell-Drummond had 500 hundred first-class runs in his locker for 2016 by the first week in May, so will now look to take that form into the short-form game.

He said: “As long as I’m in the middle, runs will come. One thing’s for certain, you don’t score many back in the pavilion! This is the best form I’ve been in during my time in professional cricket, so I’m just trying to keep it going. I’m just staying focussed and keeping to my plans.”

As long as I’m in the middle, runs will come.

One thing’s for certain, you don’t score many in the pavilion!

www.sussexcricket.co.uk/tickets 33

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DIARY DATES Ü Sunday June 12 Royal London One-Day Cup 1st central county ground

Ü Thursday June 16 NatWest T20 Blast lord’s

Ü Friday July 1 Royal London One-Day Cup 1st central county ground

Brendon McCullum retired from international cricket earlier this year after scoring more than 14,000 runs for New Zealand

THE BIG MAC: Brendon McCullum is ready to help Middlesex improve on a disappointing one-day campaign in 2015

36 www.sussexcricket.co.uk/tickets

ink.

In the p x se le d id M are the nty ou third c n o d n Bre um McCull d ye la p s a h ket T20 cric for

Middlesex won just seven games of oneday cricket in 2015 and finished bottom of the NatWest T20 Blast South Group, but they are determined that this year will be different.

And there will be a couple of faces familiar to Sussex Sharks fans when they visit Hove in the Royal London One-Day Cup on June 12 and the Blast on July 1.

Brendon McCullum and George Bailey have both played one-day cricket for Sussex in the past.

Bailey, Australia’s one-day captain, was with the Sharks last year and McCullum had a stint with us in T20 in 2010.

Both are back this summer, but this time they are in the pink of Middlesex and can call Lord’s their home ground, for a few weeks at least.

The signing of McCullum, in particular, is evidence of Middlesex’s desire to improve on their decidedly average one-day performances since Ed Joyce led them to an unexpected T20 triumph in 2008.

The former New Zealand captain retired from the international game earlier this year after playing in 99 Tests, 254 ODIs and 71 T20 games, scoring more than 14,000 runs in the process.

He remains one of the most popular players in world cricket and even at 34 there is little evidence that his destructive powers as a batsman are on the wane.

This is a batsman, remember, who hit 281 sixes and 1,503 fours

during his international career.

Who knows? McCullum could well emulate Albert Trott’s achievement back in 1889 and clear the pavilion at Lord’s.

Last year he made the highest score in the history of the Blast when he scored 158 off 64 balls against Derbyshire. With another Kiwi, the highly-regarded seamer Mitchell McClenaghan, in their ranks as well Middlesex clearly have the experience and star quality to make a big impression in both one-day competitions this summer.

“Signing a player of Brendon’s undoubted quality is a huge coup for the club,” said Middlesex managing director of cricket Angus Fraser. “He is one of the most respected, capable and dangerous cricketers in world cricket and will create a great deal of excitement around the club.”

Middlesex should also be able to call on England’s one-day captain Eoin Morgan for at least part of the summer too and when McCullum departs at the end of June the equally experienced Bailey should slot seamlessly into his place.

The 32-year-old was one of the stars of Sussex’s disappointing Royal London One-Day Cup campaign in 2015, top scoring with 264 runs and scoring the Sharks only century of the competition against Nottinghamshire. He will take McCullum’s place when Middlesex visit Hove in the Blast on July 1.

www.sussexcricket.co.uk/tickets 37

WHAT A START!

T E K C I R C X E SUSS N TIO FOU2NOCDR A CAMBRIDGE

The Sharks made a winning start to their 2016 NatWest T20 Blast campaign with victory over Gloucestershire – by just one run under Duckworth/Lewis!

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Ross Taylor goes on the attack

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Ben Brown helped Taylor put on 88 in eight overs BELOW Phil Salt hits out on his T20 debut ABOVE

Sussex’s total of 242 for 5 was their highest in the competition and was built around a brilliant 93 not out from just 48 balls by Ross Taylor, batting at No.4 and captaining the team in Luke Wright’s absence. Ben Brown (43 off 25), Matt Machan (31 off 12) and Chris Nash (30 off 17) all made good contributions while the six-run penalty for their slow over rate proved decisive when the rain came and Gloucestershire were 83 for 1 from 7.3 overs.

Phil Salt, Ajmal Shahzad and Danny Briggs all made their first natwest t20 blast appearances for the sharks. www.sussexcricket.co.uk/tickets 39

aussie rules

: Star billing Luke Wright bat comes out to ne for Melbour r Stars in thei city derby against the Renegades ted which attrac ore m of d ow cr a 00 ,0 than 80

40 www.sussexcricket.co.uk/tickets

Australia’s Big Bash earlier this year was a resounding success but what can England learn from its success? Will MacPherson REPORTS Sussex skipper Luke Wright happened to be at the crease when Australia’s Big Bash League truly boomed, on the second day of this year. The scene, of course, was the MCG, and Wright scored a magnificent century for Melbourne Stars against their crosstown rivals the Renegades, with 80,883 people in the stands.

This year’s edition, the competition’s fifth, was a resounding success by just about every measure.

The target audience - children, families, and anyone who has never watched cricket before - has been tapped. BBL jumped into the top ten best-attended sports leagues in the world - ahead of football’s La Liga and Serie A - with an average crowd of 29,443, up

almost 6,000 on BBL04. The final, in which Sydney Thunder beat Wright’s Stars, saw the millionth fan of the season through the gates. Tellingly, 17% of those fans - who pay about a tenner ($20) for a ticket (with kids in for $5 and families for $42 (£21)) - were at their first cricket match. Those new fans were drawn in by the freeto-air broadcast on Channel Ten, which attracts over a million fans per night. People are voting with their feet, and their wallets too: at that game on January 2nd, around £80,000 worth of merchandise was sold. That’s a lot of lurid green shirts.

The theory is that the BBL are Cricket Australia’s gateway drug, luring in and softening up the next

generation of fans of the game’s longer forms. 2015-16 also saw the first Women’s BBL, with games live on TV and crowds of the size that women’s cricket has not seen before, anywhere. The aim is to tap into the vast number of girls who had been brought to the sport by the first four editions of the men’s competition.

All this was meticulously masterminded and everything from the colour of the shirts - children were invited to pick their favourite colours - to the many gimmicks and forms of in-stadium entertainment to the dates of specific matches, have been carefully optimised.

Cricket Australia worked on creating traditions through “icon fixtures” - Adelaide Strikers play on New

The BBL’s millionth fan came through the gates to watch Sydney Thunder win the final against Melbourne Stars

www.sussexcricket.co.uk/tickets 41

Year’s Eve and Perth Scorchers on Boxing Day, for instance, while the Melbourne derbies are the first two Saturdays of the year. With unprecedented media coverage - it was, at times, front page news as well as back (in part due to the crowds and the cricket, in part due to Chris Gayle’s loose tongue) and a stellar season on the field (coupled with a poor series against West Indies for the national team) made this the year it all clicked, and the only

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in total; the authorities promise the competition will not expand until every seat is filled.

The BBL has drawn green-eyed glances from many - not all, of course - in the UK. There have been calls to implement a similar “franchise” competition here.

Sanjay Patel, the ECB’s marketing chief, travelled to Australia in January to glean tips, and Andrew Strauss encouraged Adil Rashid and David Willey to head down

and less spread, meaning the eight teams cover the majority of Australian.

Perhaps what the ECB need to learn from their Australian is to tailor their competition to their audience. There are ways to do it in a sensitive fashion that does not alienate followers (teams having a second home, for instance, where they play one or two of their home games).

under, in the belief that the experience offered something the Blast simply could not, and would better prepare them for the rigours of international white-ball cricket.

Australia, however, possessed some vital and obvious advantages. The weather is better, providing more consistent playing conditions, few washouts, and fine pitches; the Australian summer coincides with the Christmas holidays, meaning people have time off to go to games; every stadium is vast, and the populace is more urbanised

While THE DEBATE ABOUT THE FUTURE OF T20 CRICKET IN THIS COUNTRY CONTINUES, the BBL juggernaut is just going to keep rolling on.

Cheap tickets, ‘iconic’ fixture days and free-to-air TV coverage all helped ensure stadiums were regularly packed for Big Bash games

thing CA hadn’t scripted was what took place on the field.

It was an intoxicating, enjoyable and always surprising tournament to cover, with every game feeling of tantamount importance and as if the whole nation was tuning in. It’s also worth noting that the players, to a man, espouse its excellence.

Its beauty lies in its brevity and ease with which fans can follow one game a day makes life simple, and the whole thing is over in five weeks. Each team has just four home games and there are only 35

Will MacPherson is a freelance cricket writer

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CHAMPIONS! Mike Yardy was the last Sussex captain to win a one-day trophy when he led the Sharks to a domestic double in 2009. In his new autobiography, The Hard Yards, he looks back on T20 glory 2009 was my most enjoyable season as a professional cricketer.

Career highlight: Mike Yardy lifts the T20 trophy in 2009.

Can Luke Wright emulate his former team-mate this summer at Edgbaston?

44 www.sussexcricket.co.uk/tickets

We won two trophies and should have completed a domestic oneday clean sweep. We also got to play some of the best T20 players in the world in the Champions League in India, which was an unforgettable experience. Physically it was the hardest season I’ve ever experienced and by the time we got back from the Champions League in October I was so knackered I didn’t train or pick up a bat for eight weeks, which was unheard of for me. At times I seemed to be surviving on adrenalin but the job consumed me 24/7, as I knew it would.

The squad we had and the template we used in T20 was near perfect but we also got lucky with our overseas signings. Yasir Arafat was developing into one of the best death bowlers in world cricket and Dwayne Smith gave us that X factor. When he arrived he’d just helped Delhi Daredevils win the Indian Premier League and it was an ambition of his to win two T20

tournaments in the same year.

Dwayne was a typically laid-back West Indian but he was as passionate about doing well for Sussex as Mushtaq Ahmed.

He was a dream to captain because he raised everyone else’s standards in the field. It used to amuse me when he would amble in from the covers inviting batsmen to take his arm on. He would literally jog towards the ball but in a split second he picked it up and had it in the wicketkeeper’s gloves. I don’t remember him throwing it even half a yard out of the keeper’s reach, it was over the stumps time after time. Some of the distances batsmen would be run out taking on his arm were frankly embarrassing.

Somerset were our big rivals that season. We put down a marker in late May when we chased 285 at Taunton to win in the Friends Provident Trophy with five balls to spare. I still regard it as one of my best wins as Sussex captain. It gave us massive self-belief for the rest of our one-day campaign and by the end of the season Somerset must have been sick of the sight of us. That win was huge in terms of getting to the Lord’s final instead of them. We also beat them in the

final of the T20 and pipped them to the Pro40 title as well, after both teams lost their last games of the season.

I had loads of bowling options. In some games I could have thrown the ball to all ten of the outfield players and be confident they could do a job for me. In T20 in particular this was very important. James Kirtley, Yasir and I were nailed on for four overs each, which meant finding eight overs from guys like Smith, Will Beer, Robin MartinJenkins, Chris Nash and HamiltonBrown, the latter two more than capable of bowling decent spin on slow pitches like the ones we usually played on at Hove.

Murray Goodwin struggled for runs in the County Championship that year but he was so consistent in one-day cricket, particularly T20 when his role was the hardest in the team. Batting at No.5, he might come in with two or three overs to go and be charged with helping us get 30 or 40 runs on the board or occasionally he’d be in early with us 15 for 3 and he had to lead a rebuilding job. Invariably, he would score runs when the team needed it most. The margins are paper-thin in T20, but we gave ourselves a chance of success in T20 because we had a really strong team ethic and a good mix of youth and experience.

When we arrived at Edgbaston for T20 Finals Day we weren’t favourites. The winners of the other semi between Kent and Somerset were but I felt there was more riding on the result of our semi-final with Northamptonshire. The winners were guaranteed a place in the inaugural Champions League and it stopped us looking too far ahead. Murray Goodwin produced another gem of a knock, guiding

Dwayne Smith was a typically laid-back West Indian, but he was as passionate about doing well for Sussex as Mushtaq Ahmed

us past their score of 136 with two balls to spare with an unbeaten 80 on a slow wicket. Having qualified for the Champions League visibly relaxed everyone and I wasn’t too bothered who we would play in the final.

Somerset’s Justin Langer tried it on at the toss before the final, telling Sky’s interviewer Nasser Hussain that we were favourites because we’d lost when we were expected to win in 2007. I only found this out when I watched the TV highlights later. When we’d gone out to toss I couldn’t hear a word because of the crowd noise – not that it would have bothered me much, it was water off a duck’s back really. The ECB gave finals day a Wild West theme that year and when we came out the Somerset lads looked so focussed, particularly Langer. In contrast we couldn’t stop ourselves laughing whilst Muz twirled his bat like some old gunslinger about to face down his enemy at the OK Corral while the PA system blared out the theme tune from The High Chaparral.

For the first half of our innings we scored at eight an over before Dwayne came in and played the

match-winning hand with 59 off 26 balls including three sixes and seven fours which got us to 172 for 7. On a pitch being used for the third time that day I felt it would be enough if we didn’t do anything daft and when Hamilton-Brown took a superbly-judged catch off a big top edge to get rid of Marcus Trescothick for 33 we had them. They imploded at the end to hand us victory by 63 runs. Lifting the trophy and celebrating at Edgbaston with our supporters was right up there as a career highlight with England’s World T20 success in 2010.

The Hard Yards is published

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www.sussexcricket.co.uk/tickets 45

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