The Press and Journal (Inverness, Highlands, and Islands)
Reasons to be cheerful as Sidebottom lifts the gloom
Tough times but Grange’ s star signing could be start of something
Mannofield was a picture on Saturday.
The sun shone, the cricket season commenced with a friendly tussle between Aberdeenshire and neighbours Stoneywood-Dyce and it felt more like July than April.
Yet, for those who love the summer game in Scotland, there was an appreciation
“Hopefully, other clubs in Scotland will go down this route”
that 2018 will be a tough year. The national team’s heartbreaking – and controversial – failure to qualify for next year’s World Cup has created a myriad of problems, despite the evidence the Scots are on an upward curve.
However, there are plenty of reasons to be cheerful and Shire’s tough-as-teak groundsman, Kenny McCurdie, was accentuating the positive when talking about the news that Grange have just signed the former England Test player Ryan Sidebottom.
He said: “Hopefully, other clubs in Scotland will go down this route. There must be plenty of good former county players in England who would still be competitive if they played in the Scottish championship.”
He is correct. Sidebottom, who appeared in 22 Tests for England, might be 40 but he has lashings of nous, variations of pace and a wonderfully combative attitude to his job.
He also has a Cv which is the envy of most other performers in the game. A member of England’s Twenty20 World Cupwinning squad, he was also a pivotal part of multiple county championship vic- tors during his career at Yorkshire and Notts. From Aberdeenshire’s perspective, it might be a blessing that Sidebottom is unlikely to start bowling for Grange until May, given that Chris venske’s side travels to the Edinburgh club on Saturday for the start of its domestic league campaign.
But, in the bigger picture, this could potentially be the start of a new trend on the Caledonian circuit. After all, someone with Sidebottom’s pedigree is likely to boost the profile and attract a few extra supporters. Surely that is preferable to cash-strapped teams spending a fortune to recruit little-known South Africans, Australians and Asian-based players?
In the past, there were benefits from professionals of the calibre of Gordon Greenidge, Rohan Kanhai and Kim Hughes, who turned out for Greenock, Aberdeenshire and Watsonians respectively.
Times, though, have changed. Scotland need to keep building bridges with their English counterparts – and aim for Twenty20 recognition against the counties if at all possible – and the more players there are of Sidebottom’s calibre who are plying their trade north of the border, the better.