st_brendy wrote:Making_Splinters wrote:It speaks volumes about the state of the modern game when one of the best glovemen England has produced in the last decade can't even get a bearth in a County side.
But is also says a lot about Bates' batting. Unless he has had offers but turned them down (eg personal reasons, not wanting to move up north etc), then that's 18 counties who have looked at his batting and said no.
That's the point I am making. These days all teams would rather have a decent batsman whoc can roughly keep than a quality gloveman who can roughly bat. I've wanted for a while to keep a record of how many runs dropped catches by keepers cost the side as I'd wager that it's more than the keepers score with the bat.