Zak Chappell's promise on show again amid Leicestershire revival
On the pitch Leicestershire are in rude health, threatening to beat Middlesex and lodge their third successive Championship win
Created - 6 years ago
Leicestershire 427 (Ackermann 196, Dexter 66, Murtagh 5-80) and 0 for 1 lead Middlesex 233 (Malan 78*, Stirling 52, Chappell 4-65) ScorecardLeicestershire are showing a new lease of life under their effervescent coach, Paul Nixon. He has not been afraid of tough decisions, removing his captain, Michael Carberry, on the grounds of tactical limitations with the Championship season not halfway through. And that after Carberry, a former England batsman, was lured to the club by the chief executive, Wasim Khan, with the promise of the job. Nixon, back at a county where he enjoyed success as a player, clearly is a man with the courage of his convictions.
With every day that Carberry remains on leave, "considering his future", the chance that he will return lessens. It would be no surprise to discover that lawyers are exchanging crisp exchanges about how long a promise of a captaincy applies. The salient fact is that sports teams should be free to change captains as they wish, or the whole game will be much the worse for it. Anyway, mid-season captaincy changes make good pub chat, even if they involve decent professionals.
On the pitch Leicestershire are in rude health, threatening to beat Middlesex and lodge their third successive Championship win: quite an upset even considering Middlesex's strange impotency since relegation.
As not so long ago Leicestershire went almost three years without a win, that would be remarkable. Middlesex's Twitter feed responded by spending more time recording their one-wicket victory in the 2nd XI Cup than it did registering the little matter of their 194-run deficit on first innings at Grace Road. They do have some good youngsters, proof of the excellent groundwork driven by their director of cricket, Angus Fraser.
That margin owed much to Colin Ackermann's career-best 196, Gavin Griffiths' career-best 40 (he was probably the most excited and said he had "been working on my batting") and six wickets between them for young pace bowlers Griffiths and Zak Chappell.
But even with life returning to county cricket's quietest ground - where even the Apple Turnovers in The Meet are probably just turning over to go to sleep - problems brew. The minute Leicestershire improve, the bigger clubs are circling.
Will Chappell, their little young quick, succumb to the charms of Notts' coach Peter Moores and tread a path once taken by Stuart Broad? How many counties are telling Ben Raine they will turn him into the next Ben Stokes, give or take a court case? Transfers happen, and Nixon would do well to fight even one of them off, but the county system is in urgent need of either a transfer system or beefed-up compensation. Smaller counties are raided for their best players, which happens, they are poorly rewarded and then people rail that they are "uncompetitive". Well, there's a reason for that.
Leicestershire's position could be even stronger: they spurned four catches as Dawid Malan and Paul Stirling shored up Middlesex after they had lost three for 60 in the face of 427. Leicestershire's new-ball bowling was insistent and the bounce was not always reliable, such as when Mohammad Abbas caught Max Holden lbw on the back foot. As for Sam Robson, his season remains bereft: a chary 15 before he edged Raine to Neil Dexter at third slip.
Chappell then jagged one back to splinter Stevie Eskinazi's middle stump. Kevin Shine, the ECB's lead bowling coach has warned: "We need to manage expectations around him, be patient and we will have a very exciting cricketer for the future." And Chappell had a first-class bowling average the wrong side of 50 not so long ago. That will fall, nobody quite knows how rapidly.
Stirling, typically bullish, added 80 for the fourth wicket but after reaching his half-century pulled Raine to midwicket. A Chappell bouncer did for Hilton Cartwright, an inswinger from Griffiths trapped John Simpson lbw and Chappell collected two more lbws with consecutive balls to James Harris and Steve Finn.
Malan finished unbeaten on 78. Stirling said he "looked brilliant" in making it then suggested that Middlesex, having made only 233 on first innings, had the capacity to overhaul that 194-run deficit. Mathematicians would scoff at the faulty logic, cricketers will warn from experience that anything is possible, but Middlesex - champions one year, relegated the next, and still in the bottom half of the Second Division - have yet to cover themselves in glory in a season that they could never have expected. Funny lot, Middlesex.
With every day that Carberry remains on leave, "considering his future", the chance that he will return lessens. It would be no surprise to discover that lawyers are exchanging crisp exchanges about how long a promise of a captaincy applies. The salient fact is that sports teams should be free to change captains as they wish, or the whole game will be much the worse for it. Anyway, mid-season captaincy changes make good pub chat, even if they involve decent professionals.
On the pitch Leicestershire are in rude health, threatening to beat Middlesex and lodge their third successive Championship win: quite an upset even considering Middlesex's strange impotency since relegation.
As not so long ago Leicestershire went almost three years without a win, that would be remarkable. Middlesex's Twitter feed responded by spending more time recording their one-wicket victory in the 2nd XI Cup than it did registering the little matter of their 194-run deficit on first innings at Grace Road. They do have some good youngsters, proof of the excellent groundwork driven by their director of cricket, Angus Fraser.
That margin owed much to Colin Ackermann's career-best 196, Gavin Griffiths' career-best 40 (he was probably the most excited and said he had "been working on my batting") and six wickets between them for young pace bowlers Griffiths and Zak Chappell.
But even with life returning to county cricket's quietest ground - where even the Apple Turnovers in The Meet are probably just turning over to go to sleep - problems brew. The minute Leicestershire improve, the bigger clubs are circling.
Will Chappell, their little young quick, succumb to the charms of Notts' coach Peter Moores and tread a path once taken by Stuart Broad? How many counties are telling Ben Raine they will turn him into the next Ben Stokes, give or take a court case? Transfers happen, and Nixon would do well to fight even one of them off, but the county system is in urgent need of either a transfer system or beefed-up compensation. Smaller counties are raided for their best players, which happens, they are poorly rewarded and then people rail that they are "uncompetitive". Well, there's a reason for that.
Leicestershire's position could be even stronger: they spurned four catches as Dawid Malan and Paul Stirling shored up Middlesex after they had lost three for 60 in the face of 427. Leicestershire's new-ball bowling was insistent and the bounce was not always reliable, such as when Mohammad Abbas caught Max Holden lbw on the back foot. As for Sam Robson, his season remains bereft: a chary 15 before he edged Raine to Neil Dexter at third slip.
Chappell then jagged one back to splinter Stevie Eskinazi's middle stump. Kevin Shine, the ECB's lead bowling coach has warned: "We need to manage expectations around him, be patient and we will have a very exciting cricketer for the future." And Chappell had a first-class bowling average the wrong side of 50 not so long ago. That will fall, nobody quite knows how rapidly.
Stirling, typically bullish, added 80 for the fourth wicket but after reaching his half-century pulled Raine to midwicket. A Chappell bouncer did for Hilton Cartwright, an inswinger from Griffiths trapped John Simpson lbw and Chappell collected two more lbws with consecutive balls to James Harris and Steve Finn.
Malan finished unbeaten on 78. Stirling said he "looked brilliant" in making it then suggested that Middlesex, having made only 233 on first innings, had the capacity to overhaul that 194-run deficit. Mathematicians would scoff at the faulty logic, cricketers will warn from experience that anything is possible, but Middlesex - champions one year, relegated the next, and still in the bottom half of the Second Division - have yet to cover themselves in glory in a season that they could never have expected. Funny lot, Middlesex.
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