Home comforts right for Rhodes and for England
STEVE Rhodes is refusing to take short-cuts with Worcestershire – and has warned that the county are ready to dish out some bloody noses to those who do this season.
Speaking to The Cricket Paper on the eve of the county’s preseason training camp to Abu Dhabi, Rhodes is intent on building a side full of academy-produced talent, an approach that he believes is best not only for Worcestershire but for English cricket at large.
The likes of Brett D’Oliveira, the precocious Joe Clarke and Rhodes’ son, George, have all graduated from the academy and there are plenty more waiting in the wings as the former England wicketkeeper looks to nurture a local feel at New Road.
After a winter dominated by controversial Kolpak signings, though, he admits that it’s far from the easy option. “Our task as far as winning games of cricket is getting more difficult each year, simply because we’re going to be playing against far more overseas players,” he says.
“You have a limit to how many overseas you can have, but that obviously doesn’t take into account other players who can come over here and play as locals.The bottom line is they are overseas players in the sense of they are of a quality of an overseas player.
“Worcester might find this year that we’ll be playing against three, four, five, even six overseas players at some of the counties. It makes the task far more difficult but it will make it far more enjoyable if we can do what we’ve done for a period of time and surprise these teams.
“It’s not easy.The easy thing is to sign a Kolpak player. The hardest thing is to build, develop and spend hours and hours in the winter with the academy juniors, putting the hard yards in to develop English players. That’s not a shortcut, that’s the long way around. For me, though, as a proud Englishman, it’s the right way to go and it’s the right thing to do for the good of English cricket.
“We want Andrew Strauss to have as many English qualified and selectable players as possible. Worcestershire are trying our damndest to do that. County cricket is for overseas players, of course it is, but there should be limits. The rest should be English selectable players.”
Hampshire’s capturing of current South African internationals, Kyle Abbott and Rilee Rossouw, under Kolpak agreements, drew particular criticism this winter and again shone the spotlight on one of English cricket’s thorniest issues.
Counties can hardly be blamed for exploiting the system, though, when players of Abbott’s quality are available without impinging on a county’s ability to sign an official overseas player.
Abbott, ironically, spent the final part of last season at New Road and agreed to his Hampshire switch while still at the county.
Under Rhodes, Worcestershire are taking a very different path and, after finishing third in Division Two last season, he’s confident his side can challenge for promotion this time around.
“We have got a predominantly English side and we’re proud of the number of players that have come through our academy system and are now playing with the first team,” says Rhodes.
“My optimism is based around the fact that these guys will be a year older this season, a year more experienced and I think they’re ready for some of the challenges ahead of them.
“I think they’re now ready to start paying that faith back now.”