westoelad wrote:Durhamfootman wrote: I hope you're right but watching these last 3 insipid T20 games tending to the view that North and Franklin are a pair of charlatans.
Early days yet. They are, at least, clearing out the dead wood that JJB was routinely playing. That might be because the purse strings have been loosened a bit, of course, and these players might have gone anyway. The signings of Bangers, Eckersley and Dame D'Arcy were pretty astute, and an absolutely dreadful start to the CC campaign things has been turned around markedly. I was watching to see if the absence of Bancroft would see us going straight back into keystone kops batting mode for the Leicester game (particularly given the alarming way it does in T20), and we gained 5 batting points, which is unheard of.
I understand your concerns, and I would much rather have seen Colly or Benks at the helm rather than Franklin, but we are where we are and up to now I'm seeing signs of progress.... green shoots as it were, where before everything looked hopeless. The real test will come when they have to follow up the signings they made for this season (Short will be snapped up by a good team next year, so he'll need a quality replacement not called Handscomb) with some equally astute signings for next season. If they can, then I see no reason why we couldn't be vying for promotion next year and for T20 finals day too.
Hey.... once the other counties have been stripped of players for the Hundred, we might end up being one of the stronger sides for the 50 over cup too.