June is just a couple of weeks away so perhaps it's about time for a post from north of the river about us needing a batting coach?
Seriously though, not renewing my two membership tickets after 10+ years was a big deal for me this spring. However none of the club emails, flyers, invitations, renewal reminders, meeting agendas or even last years accounts seemed to address an underlying issue on the pitch. Basically, how/why did the club manage to conjure such a playing side malaise that we were relegated last season and how would this be addressed both in 2016 and going forward?
Even though I managed only six days of Sussex cricket in 2015, I really wanted to renew; I like watching cricket at Hove and bagging a deckchair on a sunny day is just brilliant, I miss grumbling about the crap view from the members area at Arundel and that Horsham CC could and should do a better job at Cricketfield Lane. Cost wasn't an issue but we're now four or five games in, looking generally uncompetitive (even woeful at times) in the second tier so just maybe the decision had some rationality after all.
I find myself in a similar situation. I decided not to renew my membership after attending a club meeting with members at Horsham last year. Admittedly the primary source of my frustration at that time was Mark Robinson but there seemed to be a genral sense that there was nothing really wrong, that we'd avoid relegation and that even if we were relegated the club were financially sound and could cope with what they anticipated would be a minimal drop in membership. I'm afraid my confidence deteriorated further with the appointment of Mark Davis to replace Robinson and the ongoing over reliance on Nash and Joyce to get runs and Magoffin to get wickets without addressing any of the underlying issues. Ok, I can accept that we are now clealy in a period of transition (not I suspect through choice, I dont think we have any alternative) and that there is an opportunity for some of our more promising youngsters to come through but its going to make for some pretty brutal viewing at times and I'm not prepared to sign up as a member for what I see as incompetent leadership from the top. That said, I'll still go to games, I just wont have access all areas, for what its worth.