MCCA Trophy defeat was a bitter blow

12:20pm Friday 6th June 2008

WILTSHIRE'S MCCA Trophy defeat against Herefordshire was really painful.

We had a mix of senior and young players and we didn't perform on the day with the bat. One of their bowlers bowled particularly well but it's alarming at the moment that we're not posting higher scores in the one-day games.

We normally pride ourselves on our form in the one-dayers but this year we've struggled and I don't really know the reasons for that. Players are off form and there are a number that weren't available. Others were playing in their first game and found it pretty difficult. I think we're at a time where we've got to rebuild.

We're still trying to get a team together for this weekend's game against Cheshire in the Minor Counties Championship and it's an absolute nightmare at the moment. It's more difficult to get people available especially around this time of year.

Cheshire is going to be a tough one with the side they have got. We played them last year and they won that one, but it was a bit of a farce because of the weather. The match was reduced to two days and the boundaries were brought in because one area of the ground was so wet. We've got to try and pull out all the stops to get a result this weekend.

Youngsters show the way forward

I WAS at Corsham on Tuesday when the seven young Wiltshire cricketers who have been selected for the south west of England sides were having their photos taken.

It's great news they have all progressed. It remains to be seen if Wiltshire's performance programme is working but it appears that that is the case and it bodes well for the future of Wiltshire cricket.

This year we've got a number of younger lads in the senior side and we would like to be producing players to play at an even higher level than Wiltshire.

I had a chat with Wiltshire's head of performance, Alan Crouch, on Tuesday night about the development team. He's the link between the development side and the senior side and we hope those players will be playing minor counties cricket in the future. Alan is a very good coach and the young players are in good hands.

He was coach of Wiltshire when I was playing and I had the benefit of coming through the youth section of Wiltshire when he was doing most of the coaching and he helped me then.

Why I've been back behind the stumps

I KEPT wicket for Corsham on Saturday because Steve Bullen is suffered from a lack of confidence because of the chances he has put down.

Steve is only 16-years-old and we're trying to bring him on keeping wicket because we want him to be there for years to come. As he gets older he will become better and hold onto those catches. He was doing well at the start of the season and we will work with him to get back there, because at my age I should not be keeping wicket at that standard of cricket. We have a programme in place and we will be working with him on things like concentration.