Hammer blow to suffer early cup KO

THERE is no hiding from it, it’s been a very tough start to the season for everyone at Warwickshire and that has continued over the last week.

Defeats to Notts Outlaws and Lancashire have ended our chances of qualifying for the quarter-finals in the Royal London One-Day Cup.

It’s hugely disappointing to be in that position after five of our eight group games, particularly as we are defending champions.

We genuinely thought we had a squad strong enough to challenge in the latter stages again but we simply haven’t performed to the levels required on a consistent basis.

In the games against Notts on Friday and Lancashire on Sunday there were spells where we played some very good cricket, but we just haven’t been able to put those periods together for long enough to get wins.

The margins are very fine and we have lost more of the crucial stages of games than we have won.

It’s disappointing that our last three games in the Royal London One-Day Cup will be “dead rubbers” in terms of us qualifying but they are still important games we want to do well in.

Due to the time constraints, this column has been written before the Derbyshire game yesterday but there was certainly strong consideration being given to freshening the team up and having a look at different options in that match and those at Worcestershire tomorrow and at home to Yorkshire on Sunday. We need to see what other people in the squad can do and these three games are an ideal chance to do that. On the whole, it has been a very tough start to the season but the challenge of turning things around is one that excites me a lot.

Even though we won the Royal London One-Day Cup last season, we haven’t played consistently good cricket for, probably, 18 months.

There isn’t a magic formula to getting things right – it’s a case of working extremely hard and looking to improve, both as individuals and as a team. There is a huge amount still to play for this season, the dressing room is very tight and we will be doing everything we can to turn results around.

While I didn’t get to see much of it as we were playing on both days, it was hugely encouraging to see England register two comfortable wins over Ireland in the One-Day Interna- tionals over last weekend. It’s always a “no-win” situation when you are such overwhelming favourites but both performances were clinical and it bodes well for the Champions Trophy this summer.

I’ve said from the outset, I think England are one of the huge favourites for glory and I’ve seen nothing to make me change my mind.

There isn’t a magic formula to getting things right – it’s a case of working extremely hard and looking to improve.