County

There have been worse seasons

Glamorgan's chief executive Hugh Morris has spent too long staring mournfully at squares in 2015, but there have been worse seasons

Peter Miller
Peter Miller
17-Sep-2015
Hugh Morris (far left), Glamorgan's chief executive, has spent too long staring at squares  •  Getty Images

Hugh Morris (far left), Glamorgan's chief executive, has spent too long staring at squares  •  Getty Images

Glamorgan's season is still two matches from being over but there is nothing left in it for them. It has been this way more often than not over the last decade but 2015 actually has a few more positives than in previous years. Even after the defeat to Kent in their last home game of the season, their worst in terms of runs since the Second World War, Glamorgan are fourth in the championship table. If they remain there until the end of the competition that will represent their best finish since 2010.
There have been worse seasons. While never competing for a promotion spot they were undefeated in the Championship for the first half of the season. A win in a five over slog against Gloucestershire in the last T20 Blast group game would have seen them make the quarter finals but the decision to promote Graham Wagg to open didn't work out.
It was in the Royal London One Day Cup that things have been really ugly, but it hasn't been the players' fault. Glamorgan were already hamstrung before it got underway thanks to a two point deduction as a result of a sub-standard pitch for a match against Durham last season. Even before the first match was under way captain Jacques Rudolph was talking about giving the youngsters a go if they didn't have a great start.
By the time they were facing Hampshire at Cardiff they had little to play for in the competition. They batted first and crawled to 182 for 9 off their 50 overs. The pitch had uneven bounce but there was little to indicate what Michael Hogan would get out of it. With his extra height the Australian quick made the ball rear alarmingly at the Hampshire openers.
When a length ball struck Jimmy Adams the umpires made the entirely correct decision to call the game off. It emerged that this was the same pitch that had caused those problems last season during the Durham match. The immediate consequence was that Hampshire were awarded the points, Glamorgan were given a further two point deduction and given a £9000 fine. An "internal investigation" was launched and the outcome of that was head groundsman Keith Exton was shown the door.
This was embarrassing for the club, not least because this all took place in the full glare of Sky Sports' live coverage of the match. Having already come in for criticism for the uneven bounce on show during the first Test of the Ashes and with an international T20 around the corner the club had little choice but to do something drastic, but Exton is a good man and his departure is a sad one.
The T20 international produced close to 400 runs and a thrilling climax and while Cardiff has been given a bad press in the past Glamorgan were excellent hosts in both the Test and Twenty20.
On the field the size of Glamorgan's squad began to show at the end of the season. Hogan looks set to finish as the leading wicket taker for the county for the third successive season. Wagg has found consistency with the bat to go with precision with the ball, no one who watched double hundred at Guildford will forget it any time soon. But by the time the season was half way through they both looked tired and they had little support from the younger bowlers in the squad to make them hopeful of some rest.
There are only 15 full time cricketers on the payroll and when the first team started to look ragged there was little cover. The inclusion of 19-year-old Jeremy Lawlor for a Championship debut in an unaccustomed opening spot in that heavy defeat to Kent summed up the lack of back-up players.
Of the home grown players David Lloyd has been the most impressive, he has found a niche for himself as a lower middle order batsman and bustling medium paced bowler. He has rarely been a consistent wicket taking threat but he has been given a role and performed it well.
Will Bragg has had a poor season compared with the strides he made last year where he passed 1000 runs with an average of 36. This year he started well making two hundreds in a season for the first time but his form fell away. The signing of Colin Ingram has proved an astute one with him adding some much needed top order stability in support of Rudolph. He scored three centuries in the one day competition with enough class that it made you wonder why South Africa have dispensed with his services in ODIs. He has also chipped in with some handy wickets with his part time legspin.
The player of the season is Craig Meschede. On loan from Somerset he can now be considered an out and out all-rounder. He has taken 50 wickets and scored more than 800 runs across the three formats. On top of that he made two first class hundreds, a landmark he had never reached before this season. The first piece of business that the Glamorgan think tank need to pull off in the winter is keeping Meschede in Wales.
While there are no knockout matches or silverware to get excited about it is important to realise that this is a team in transition. They have done far better at covering the loss of Jim Allenby's runs and wickets than was expected, in no small part thanks to Meschede. What they have missed is Allenby's overs to take some of the strain from the front line seamers.
They have not ended up near the bottom of the Division Two table, something that many predicted. They were painfully close to making a T20 quarter final, once they had made it there who knows what could have happened. Things have often been worse in recent years, but it is still a season of taking part rather than competing for a sustained period.
At the end of almost every season Glamorgan's fans have called for the county's youngsters to give them more in the following one. 2016 will be no different. It is doubtful that the club will not have pots of cash to spend on big name signings, the time has come for those who have been on the staff for a number of years to repay the faith that has been shown in them. There are not enough cricketers on the books for them to be carrying underachievers.
Glamorgan require a step up in performance from the fringe players or an influx of cash to draft in new blood. Without that it will be another year in Division Two and without trophies.

Peter Miller is a cricket writer and podcaster