The CRICKETher Weekly – Episode 221: Dani Hazell; Tier 1 Team Names; England Squad; Kirstie Gordon

This week:

* Dani Hazell to coach Durham – what a coup!
* Should counties retain regional names?
* What will Tier 2 look like?
* A very dull England squad announcement
* Kirstie Gordon’s England v Scotland dilemma

[Music] hello welcome to episode 221 of the cricket her weekly we are here in beautiful wora for spark the Vipers in the latter stages of the Charlotte Edwards cup now Sid we know who the four finalists are now um who are going to be appearing uh at finals day next weekend um and obviously two of them are the Sparks and the Vipers who we’re about to see today who are the other two yeah so the Blaze and the stars are the other two that have already qualified so that’s all all tied up now in terms of who’s actually going to be there at finals day in Derby next weekend what we don’t know is who’s going to be playing who in the semi-finals yet so it’s still pretty much up up for grabs as we stand um so um it’ll be first place against fourth place um so Blaze could come first they and they’re in pole position but Stars could pit them to that uh and any of the two other teams um could also end up coming forth and playing whoever wins so still lots to play for in terms of those positions in the actual table fantastic um now over to women’s cricket news this week um there’s been some more developments in terms of signings um both from a playing perspective also intriguingly this week from a coaching perspective um let’s start with with um s um who have announced a whole uh raft more signings um so six more signings um since we were last on air Kia chapley Tilly courtine Coleman Danny Gregory Alish cron Phoebe Franklin and Ranna McDonald gay have all signed for S playing for s next year so they’re up to a total of 10 signings they’ve almost got their full component of players um what do all of those players have in common well they’re all existing Stars players so it really is as we were saying last week a case of um the Stars seemingly seamlessly rather uh morphing into sorry um but there is an interesting question isn’t there said about whether they’re going to sign anyone who isn’t a current Stars player yeah I mean they’ve got the core of a side here so it’s interesting you know what other roles you know they’re going to be able to persuade people to come in on obviously if you’re you know from one of the the less successful side Stars definitely a team you’d want to join but you obviously also you know you want to join to ensure that you’re going to play so they’ve got the core of their team and they’ve signed up the big names ADR and Bry Smith and Alexa Stonehouse and Rihanna McDonald gam and the younger players um they’ve they’ve got a decent core now of older players the one thing they’re still missing um potentially are they going to sign a wicket keeper so intriguingly we saw Rihanna southby who’s currently the Viper Wicket keeper we saw her turn up to play for sur in the London Cup this week which we’ll come back to later uh you know is she going to be going back to Sir she’s someone that grew up in the Sur system um she obviously you know feels proud of that Association of being a Sur player is she going to be coming back and playing for Sur next year that’s going to be one that we will be interested to find out yeah absolutely they have signed Kira chatley um so they do have a wicket keeper um but yeah they’re seeing R South B playing in that random midweek London Cup game for sorry um obviously she would have had to negotiate that with the Vipers but we did just think it might have given us a little bit of a hint maybe about her intentions um for the coming uh the coming season um next year um and I I guess at the moment as far as we’re aware we think that the teams are still in a period whereby um they get first divs on their existing players um it will then move to a much more open market a little bit later in the season we don’t know exactly when but that’s why all the signings that we’re hearing at the moment are of people signing for their existing size eventually or what their existing side will become um however we have news of a coaching signing the first official um head coach signing um this week was announced and Durham have announced that Danny Hazel is going to coach them next year uh intriguing piece of news isn’t it suis well yeah I mean you know we know that that when you spoke to the Durham CEO right after the the Durham were announced is being one of the tier one hosts he said oh yeah and we we’ve got Danny Hazel’s going to come on board um Danny Hazel apparently um was unhappy about that because she was like well I said no such thing I haven’t made them any promises um so you know now she has signed on the line I wonder what could have persuaded her rap well we obviously don’t know we don’t know what’s happened behind the scenes um my assumption would be um that the the package that daram was offering her would have had to be quite good because um you would think that there would be serious competition from Yorkshire um and actually um when we spoke to her a few weeks ago um during the Rachel heo Flint trophy um she actually said that or she strongly implied that she felt quite torn um between those two setups and and it is a tricky one because she’s now got to go through the rest of this season coaching the diamonds um while knowing that she signed for another team and and it’s not quite the same even as as signing for any team it’s actually their their strong rival and the team that sort of picked them to the post for a tier one team so that does make things interesting shall we say in terms of that that player coach Dynamic for the rest of the season um I will say that I think that actually um Danny Hazel signing for Durham is a real coup the Durham actually um and that I think that because if you are a a current diamond player and you’re wavering and you’re not quite sure about which of those teams you want to play for then your current coach who’s been very successful who’s clearly built really strong relationships with those players moving to Durham is probably going to do more than anything else to convince you that you also want to make that move yeah absolutely I mean you know that it’s going to be a very interesting last part of the season for for the Yorkshire people as well because you know often you know companies and a wider perspective um we’ll put people gardening leave or something like this if someone leaves and says well I’ve signed to our big rival they’ll go okay well you know then you know you need to just disappear and go and you know we’ll get someone else in on a temporary basis and you know we’ll look to the Future so you know what what are diamonds going to do to respond to this because I mean if you’re the diamonds you know the the president of Yorkshire or whatever you’re going to be very disappointed with this because Yorkshire were absolutely 100% definitely hoping that they would be able to keep Danny Haz through and that she’d be able to she’d be their te two cut next year and that she roll through into next year when they go back into tier one so there’s going to be some disappointed people at Yorkshire about this definitely yeah um absolutely absolutely fascinating and fascinating to see who then Yorkshire now get to to sign as as their coach of of their team next year um another player signing Sid um so Nottingham sh um if I can call them that we’ll talk about that in a minute um have signed their first player um for next season Kirsty Gordon has signed for them um is this something we were expecting I mean I think yeah I mean ultimately we probably are expecting this because she’s obviously happy there and she’s been with that franchise for quite a while now um she did play for some uh some of her Cricket for knots when she first came down from Scotland when she came down she originally came down from Scotland to go to leury university that’s how ultimately she ended up in the England team she played a few matches for England a few years ago um but you know she what a fantastic player she’s been over the last couple of years and she she’s someone that’s really you know she’s really in control of her game she’s a very important player um and you know she’s become their captain and um she’s also Captain to England a in their T20 matches over over the winter uh interestingly they they they they sort of didn’t quite promise her the captaincy going forwards did they no absolutely not um yeah there was a there was definitely hints in the press release um and we did actually interview her or I interviewed her on Thursday um after the blaze sunrises game at La um and that she specifically asked her and she said well I hope so but she’s not 100% I think that’s really interesting because she as you say she is obviously a really important player for them um has now led them to two successive um Lotte Cup Final Days um but hasn’t been named as the captain I wonder if knots are slightly leaving their options open there because as we’ve just said um we’re currently in the situation where teams are can only really sign their own existing players um at some point it’s going to open up and there’s going to be uh well-known names who haven’t signed who are looking around for a new team and if you can say to somebody actually come and play for us and you’ll be the captain that could potentially be a very attractive offer and a more attractive one than just saying come come and play for us and we’ll be able to pay you X because often people are after those leadership opportunities especially if they’re at a particular point in their career so yes I do wonder whether not are potentially leaving their options open a little bit um now speaking of Kirsty Gordon um we did want to talk a little bit about um something that she actually said in the exclusive interview that we did with her um at Lords um about basically saying that knots are going to be known as The Blaze uh yeah that’s an interesting one I mean whether they’ll be known as The Blaze no we that’s not quite what we think we think they’re going to be known as the Nottingham Shear Blaze um so there’s been a little bit of talk about this um and um Polly starky had some kind of quite forthright views in the nor child podcast always worth listening to uh what did she have to say Raph yeah so I think that um Polly and and some other people on on social media as well um are suggesting that they they feel a little bit concerned about this because of they they feel that the the point of project Darwin is to move the women’s team’s identities into uh being kind of folded back in with the men and in order to achieve that natural alignment you have to have the same name um my response to that is is fairly straightforward actually that if they the not blazs um which is what we are pretty sure they’re going to be um then it’s just the same as the men um being the knots Outlaws in the blast for example um so as long as they’ve got that kind of shared not Nottingham share identity um then their sort of nickname doesn’t really matter um the other thing that I would say on this actually is that um well first of all um I did actually ask Beth Barrett wild this um ages ago when project Darwin was kind of first revealed at the ECB offices uh whenever that was several months ago um and she said well it’s going to be done on a team by team basis and it’s up to the teams so um it’s it’s being done kind of individually um and each County will kind of take a view um but from my perspective if the players are happy with that kind of tag as being the blaze um and indeed you know in terms of the current uh kind of core of players who make up that Blaze team they are from disper backgrounds desperate kind of counties um and therefore it’s the blaze label that they feel unites them um so if the players are kind of feeling comfortable and unified under that label and they’re experiencing success as they have done the last couple of Seasons then from a county perspective you’d be a bit mad to change that and kind of force them to go under a different name that they didn’t feel any attachment to I mean do you would you agree with that Sid yeah Ian I think that you have to be slightly careful about taking the players you know views completely into account you shouldn’t just do it just because the players want it because at the end of the day the players aren’t marketing people they’re not they’re not sales people they’re you know they’re players that’s what they’re played to paid to do um but you know if it’s working for them and as I say if it’s attached to the Nots name then you’ve already got knots fans Nots members are already used to having Nottingham share and the Outlaws because you know and they know that they’re the same team so there’s no reason why knots Outlaws and then knots Blaze can’t be kind of folded into that mix and still become what part of that one Club mentality and really that one Club mentality is about what happens inside the club as much as what what happens outside the club um and as long as they continue to pursue that Vision within the club and that the men within the club see the women as being included whether they’re called Nots Blaze or nots Outlaws or kns in-laws or the knots made marians I think somebody suggested um you know it it doesn’t matter so I think it’s it’s fine going forwards I’m okay with it okay all right um well we’ll we’ll see um what happens with the other teams I suppose what happens with the other counties and we know that for example uh that s have said that they’re dropping the Stars Monica um they’re just going to be sorry men and sorry women going forwards um I have to say I think that is important that if you’re going to have sorry women you have to then starts referring to the men as sorry men um because otherwise what you’re doing is very much othering women aren’t you um so that that’s going to be a very important thing that the counties hopefully get on board with um and that the players uh the the male players hopefully get on board with as well um Sid in other news this week um we were actually at the oval um just speaking of sorry um to watch the London cup weren’t we um which is this uh kind of historic sort of friendly I say friendly in inverted commer match um that’s taken place every year since 2015 between s and middle sex um a different kind of type of cricket a different standard of cricket because um largely speaking although we did see a couple of Stars players turning out for sorry um it well I’m one Viper players indeed player indeed because Rihanna southby was there um it’s it’s largely um between two amateur teams and and I must say uh kind of turning up to watch it and cover it it did feel very much like a bit of a throwback had a bit of nostalgia actually because we the first ever Lon cup was played at the oval in 2015 and we were there and I was looking up the report that we did um it was you know a brunt turning out to play for her County which was then s on a you know a sort of a random weekday evening um in in May I think it would have been um and just that the fact that she did that and that that was a thing and that it wasn’t really remarkable and um you know very much you know we turned up to the oval and the Press Box was closed everything like that just had that sort of feel of um very much kind of back in the day when um everything went under the radar a bit and it was quite difficult but there was also something kind of quite nice and and friendly about it um so sorry did Triumph in the end um by six wickets I think it was um so a relatively um straightforward win for them um what did you make of it all Sid well you know it was fun to turn up and see that um I think the big thing for me that what was really instructive was that um you know as you mentioned these are amateur teams this is the S amateur team um so you know you’d expect that none of the players apart from possibly R South B would make up um s’s First Choice 11 next season um probably you know maybe Kate copac um played for Middle sex so she’ll probably be playing for S6 next season you’d think um but the other 10 players very likely not again so what we’re seeing is we’re seeing the next level down what we’re seeing is a glimpse of tier 2 and I thought it was actually really interesting because I haven’t watched a lot of cricket of that standard in the last couple of years the only games I’ve watched have been barire games which as a as a fan I’ve been quite invested in so I haven’t seen them in quite the same light so being able to watch a tier 2 game in quite a detached way was really interesting and what we need to kind of realize is that the standard after 5 years of professionalism here the standard in tier 2 next year is not going to be anything like what we’re likely to see out on the pitch here today um so you know the power of the batting is way down that the bowling is way down we saw a bowler uh Bowl several no balls that bounce twice for example um you know we saw a lot of catches that we’d consider straightforward in uh the professional game we saw them go down we saw Fielding errors um you know everything about it was was very much what very much to be totally fair what you’d expect given that these players have been amateurs well these players out here have been Professionals for you know this is they’re into their fifth season of full-time professionalism now many of these but it is going to be a much lower standard and what that’s really instructive about I think is what’s the situation is going to be when Yorkshire play in tier 2 next year because if Yorkshire hold on to several of their kind of professional players then it’s going to be murder um they’re GNA absolutely we’re going to see some extraordinary results um and that’s kind of an interesting challenge for the Yorkshire players um and it says something to to the way that you know you as a player how do you approach next year if if you’re going to be thinking well I’ve got a choice of staying at Yorkshire and going into tier two and it’ll do your numbers good if you’re going to if you’re thinking of doing that you know you you’re a fast bowler could end up with 40 wickets you know a batter could end up with a th000 runs you know those numbers are going to be unprecedent they’ll be unprecedented because you know it’ll be like me having a boxing match with the 5-year-old that lives next door you know yeah no I totally agree with you I think that is a real risk for um diamonds players if they opt to stay at Yorkshire next year and they’re going to be playing all of their Cricket for one season in tier two um and I think that you know if they’re if they’re wondering about it then they should look at the uh the live stream of the London cup because it will be instructive to them that’s the standard that you’re going to be playing saying at um and yeah as you say you’ll have great numbers but it may well hold back your development um everybody else will have will be effectively a year ahead of you in terms of development by the time Yorkshire become a tier one side A year later a year after everybody else in 2026 so yeah I think that um yeah they have got a real Dilemma on their hands and that’s what watching the London cup sort of Illustrated for us really okay um and finally this week s um we’ve had um a an England Squad announc sorry are you are we are we boring you boring yes this is in relation to England’s Squad announcement for their ODI team um to play New Zealand um starting in a couple of weeks time um essentially and the reason that Sid is yawning is because this is exactly the same Squad that we had um for the matches against Pakistan now they have um formerly add did safia Dunley um but she effectively was already with the squad for the last couple of games so essentially it is exactly the same Squad um on the sfia Dunley Point um John Lewis did actually say um she’s earned the right to be back in the squad due to weight of runs and consistent performances um I guess that we would agree with that Sid having seen a couple of her batting performances over the last few weeks yeah full credit to dunks I mean John Lewis told her to go back to Regional cricket score some runs she’s went back to Regional quicket she’s scored some runs she’s she’s done the job that was asked of her and you know she deserves to be back in the mix on that basis John Lewis has kept his word to Great Stuff absolutely um so that’s kind of on the on the squad front um but John Lewis did obviously do a press conference um uh yesterday um on or on uh Friday sorry when he talked about um the the squad but I was also able to ask him a couple of other questions um that I thought were kind of interesting one is pertinent to the Charlotte Edwards cup um which is obviously um final St is taking place next Saturday um and he actually confirmed that he wants as many England players to play in that as possible um which is interesting because there have been um there has been some criticism of late of the England players not playing enough Regional Cricket so very interesting and probably good news for the viers SS um yeah well I mean you know we were here last year when the the Vipers um you know their big Internationals came back and they they smashed it so that was fantastic uh and yeah good news for them and one other thing that I was able to ask him about um and this actually relates to the interview that I did with cury Gordon at Lords on Thursday was um kind of the the situation for Kirsty Gordon at the moment because um I actually said to her Scotland have qualified for the World Cup in Bangladesh um in October are you at all tempted to go back and play for Scotland um you know it’s a huge opportunity and we know that she’s a very patriotic proud Scott um and she said you know what I’m really I’m really happy for the girls I think it’s a brilliant achievement for them um but where I see my career right now um I’m not going to be going back and playing for Scotland um so she didn’t quite say um you know I think I could potentially get selected for England again but reading between the lines that’s what this is all about right because if she does go back and play for Scotland then she completely closes the door on Ever playing prli again pretty much because she would then have to go through a re-qualification period that’s quite lengthy um so I wanted to I wanted to see what John Lewis thought about where she is in the pecking order in terms of That World Cup and he was actually very honest and he said you know we’re keeping an eye on her it’s great that she’s bowling so well and having such a great season domestically but ahead of her in the pecking order is Lindsay Smith we’ve obviously got those three fantastic Spinners Springland at the moment echon Dean and Glenn it’s difficult to see anybody dislodging them but he did say if anyone is going to at the moment is going to be lindsy Smith so fair enough he was honest um but you know she’s there all thereabouts yeah it was it was an interesting kind of talk talk to Cy about this because as you say you know she’s definitely remains very Scottish at heart um but you know what she was saying I felt kind of reading between the lines was look you know I’ve made my decisions I came down to England what was it seven eight years ago now I opted for England I got a few caps for England there’s still the possibility I might play again in the future um you know and this is my bed you know and I’m going to make the most of it and I’m not going to just kind of walk back into Scotland reading between the lines she’s saying you know it’s not really my place to just walk back in at this point you know the girls there have achieved what they’ve achieved I’ve made my choices and I’m comfortable with them I’m comfortable with where with where I am in my career and so that I’m going to stay here and you know I’m going to presumably she’s going to be watching on telly and if england plays Scotland in that World Cup as and when then you can I it’s going to be interesting what’s going on inside her head at that point because I think that possibly secretly she’ll won Scotland win that one interesting uh or maybe not even so secretly um we’ll be we’ll be keeping an eye on social media for that should she not end up in the England World Cup squad um yeah anyway um fantastic for her that she’s having a great season and best of luck to blaze of course and next weekend at finals day um thanks everybody for tuning in I think the next time that we recording we will know the 2024 Charlotte Edwards Cup winners so that’s going to be very exciting we see you in a week’s time bye for now [Music]