Alleyne excited by his former team’s progress
MARK Alleyne believes it realistic for Gloucestershire to target winning the County Championship for the first time over the next three years.
The man who led the club as captain throughout its glory years of success in one-day cricket during the late 1990s and early 2000s views the match with Somerset at Taunton, starting today, as the ideal benchmark with which to assess the team’s ability.
Back at the Bristol County Ground as part of former team-mate Ian Harvey’s coaching team, Alleyne is already brimming with enthusiasm over a dressing-room spirit he likens to the days under John Bracewell when Gloucestershire ruled domestic one-day cricket.
In last week’s column I predicted Harvey’s men would surprise more fancied opponents in red-ball cricket this summer. They wasted no time proving me right with a hugely impressive eight-wicket home victory over Surrey in their opening championship group match.
Encouraged as he was with that victory, Alleyne insists facing Somerset on their own territory will offer a truer indication of how near Gloucestershire are to challenging for that first title.
“Surrey coming to Bristol has never worried me much over the years,” he told me. “They always have a really good team on paper, but often do not adapt to the conditions at the County Ground.
“That was true to an extent again last weekend. Somerset will have home advantage and are the form team in championship cricket, so we will learn a lot more about where we are as a team.
“Facing our neighbours always creates a special buzz. Our players genuinely feel this is their time and are ready for the challenge.
“We are in a tough group and finishing in the top two is going to be difficult. If we can’t do that, it is important we finish as high as possible to maintain the progress of recent years.
“I am not saying we are ready to win the title yet, but if we continue to build, I certainly see it as an achievable target over the next few seasons.”
Beating Surrey so convincingly made it the perfect start to Harvey’s time as interim head coach.
Alleyne, who will be splitting his time at the club this summer with his job as assistant director of sport at Marlborough College, saw it as more than just a victory.
“Winning like that against Surrey means so much going forward,” he said. “There is nothing like it for reassuring the players that we are moving in the right direction and that all their hard work during the winter will pay off.
“It was great to hear the ‘Glorious Glosters’ song ringing around the dressing room at the end of the game. There is a spirit and willingness to work among the players and I am sure many of them are capable of developing their game further.”
The feisty Harvey and laid-back Alleyne were very different temperamentally as players, but Mark says they are a lot more alike as coaches.
“Ian is much more measured in his approach to coaching than he was to playing,” he said. “As a player, he would have wanted to beat Surrey in two days, but as a coach he was delighted to win over four. We believe that in championship cricket, it is important not to snatch at victory. That is like committing too many players forward at football and leaving the defence wide open.”
The experience of new overseas signing Kraigg Brathwaite, available to face Somerset today, should reinforce a policy of patience.
“He is not a typical West Indian batsman,” said Alleyne. “He likes to bat for a long time and that is something we are looking to instil in all our batsmen.”
Gloucestershire’s other overseas player, Aussie seam bowler Dan Worrall, has arrived, but faces a period of quarantine and should be available for the next match against Hampshire at Southampton.
Talk cricket with Alleyne and you soon discover his depth of knowledge and wisdom about the game he loves. Combine that with Harvey’s fierce competitive nature and the future of Gloucestershire cricket appears to be in very safe hands.
GEORGE Bartlett may never play a more important County Championship innings for Somerset than his match-winning 79 not out against Middlesex at Lord’s.
Already faced with an eight-point penalty in a tough group, Somerset looked firmly on course for defeat in their opening game after conceding a first-innings lead of 141. Even after their bowlers struck back in the second innings, a victory target of 285 appeared unlikely when Somerset slipped to 187-6, despite a defiant 84 from skipper Tom Abell.
Lewis Gregory’s swashbuckling 62 not out helped transform fortunes, but it was 23-year-old Bartlett’s patient three-and-three-quarter hour innings, having come to the wicket with 184 runs still needed, that held things together and prevented a potentially damaging earlyseason setback.
Somerset have backed their young batsmen this summer by declining to sign an overseas player to boost the top order and Bartlett’s performance was an early vindication of that.
Director of cricket Andy Hurry told me: “While we wouldn’t rule out bringing in a really world-class batsman if one became available, we believe in our young players and it is important they know that.
“George showed at Lord’s that, in addition to an abundance of talent, he can make runs in tough situations. The scoreboard pressure on him at the start of his innings was immense.
“The importance of momentum in cricket cannot be over-stated. While we cannot win the championship in the first few games, it is vital to get ourselves into the mix for the top two places in the group.
George’s innings and the victory it brought means we can go into our second game against a very good Gloucestershire side with momentum and belief.
“There were lessons to learn from the first two days of the Middlesex game and we know that when you pick young players they are not going to deliver in every match. But the ultimate aim is to build a title-winning Somerset side from largely home-produced players.
We invest a lot in developing our youngsters and that makes no sense unless we show faith in them.”
Somerset are likely to be unchanged for the Gloucestershire match, with overseas bowler Marchant de Lange making his home debut.