Clark signing shows county self-interest
Mike Selvey in the Guardian discusses why Gloucestershire’s signing of Stuart Clark in the lead-up to the Ashes is more selfish than Middlesex’s recruitment of Phillip Hughes.
Brydon Coverdale
25-Feb-2013
Mike Selvey in the Guardian discusses why Gloucestershire’s signing of Stuart Clark in the lead-up to the Ashes is more selfish than Middlesex’s recruitment of Phillip Hughes.
Hughes was approached at the back-end of last year as a promising domestic player who had yet to play international cricket. Actually it was Middlesex's bad luck that his profile went through the roof in South Africa and with it his share value. Hughes was a brilliant signing who would have played a full season but became too successful at the wrong time.
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The Gloucestershire agreement, though, is just a cynical demonstration that while sentiments are expressed about understanding the pre-eminence of the England team and acknowledgements given that their survival is financially linked to the success or otherwise of the national team, self-interest still overrules such considerations.
Brydon Coverdale is an assistant editor at ESPNcricinfo. He tweets here