Who are the players to watch? Who’s in the squad? What are their strengths? What are their weaknesses? What is the fixture list? Your questions answered
Captain: Steven Mullaney
Coach: Peter Moores
Overseas: Dane Paterson (South Africa)
Ins: Brett Hutton (Northamptonshire), Toby Pettman, Dane Schandendorf
Outs: Jack Blatherwick (Lancashire), Chris Nash
Fixture list: April 8 - Durham (h), April 15 - Warwickshire (h), April 22 - Worcestershire (a), April 29 - Derbyshire (a), May 6 - Essex (h), May 20 - Worcestershire (h), May 27 - Warwickshire (a), June 3 - Essex (a), July 4 - Derbyshire (h), July 11 - Durham (a)
Remind me what happened last year?
If you were a Sky subscriber and watched the Outlaws lift the Vitality Blast trophy on October 4 last ‘summer’, you might be forgiven for thinking these are the salad days at what is, after all, the East Midlands county powerhouse.
But there is a little disquiet among the membership, and the main reason is clear: Nottinghamshire are without a win in first-class cricket for 27 matches. It is an astonishing statistic for a squad packed with such ability.
The Trent Bridge brains trust must have feared losing becoming endemic when Derbyshire chased down 365 to beat them in their opening Bob Willis Trophy match, before Notts imploded for 97 in a chase of 188 against Yorkshire in the second. Notts were out of the race for the final with indecent haste.
But to their credit Notts had much the better of their last three rain-affected games – keeping morale intact into what proved a triumphant Blast campaign. It helped them to play four of their five BWT matches at Trent Bridge, with their only away game just down the A6 at Leicester, meaning players and staff could travel home overnight.
On good batting pitches Notts began to shed the propensity for middling totals which has so often proved their undoing, and banked a country-best 20 batting points.
The young signings in the top four – Ben Slater, Haseeb Hameed, Ben Duckett and Joe Clarke – all scored heavily, though the fact Slater was sent out on loan to Leicestershire at the start was a reminder that Notts have accumulated almost too many players when everyone is fit.
Matt Carter was encouraged by pitches offering more bounce than usual, and cemented himself as the frontline four-day spinner.
Jake Ball, right, and Zak Chappell
What’s happened over the winter?
Notts players were everywhere – just not clad in Outlaw green or gold, but the uniforms of various franchise teams in T20 (and T10) competitions. Including last year’s overseas players there were no less than eight involved across five tournaments (some of those tournaments a better standard than others, it has to be said).
And with Alex Hales, Joe Clarke, Jake Ball, Samit Patel and Dan Christian all appearing in both the Big Bash and the Pakistan Super League, it’s no wonder that Notts are such a formidable white-ball side.
Harry Gurney wasn’t among them: he hasn’t played a cricket match since December 29 2019 due to a combination of injuries and the disruption of Covid-19, and estimates to have missed out on a quarter of a million quid in franchise earnings. And that’s before you factor in the two pubs in the East Midlands (closed for much of that time) he part-owns with Stuart Broad.
But the membership will be expecting those young thrusters who still play red-ball cricket to have moved on from their franchise fun, and back to the nitty-gritty of winning four-day cricket matches again. Notts invested in a heated marquee for their Lady Bay Sports Complex just down the road from Trent Bridge, and the bulk of the squad were training in there from late February.
May 21 cannot come soon enough for the commercial arm of the club. That’s the day when Notts are hoping to re-open Six, their fine-dining restaurant at the top of the expensively revamped Radcliffe Road End. For obvious reasons it has been closed for massive chunks of the last 12 months. Commercial income at the club was down £3.6m last year, at what is a superb events venue.
But the club were able to offset those losses by implementing several financial measures – including, sadly, some staff redundancies. In the end, a pre-tax surplus of £167,000 for 2020 was just £550,000 short of internal forecasts pre-Covid.
Who’s arrived and who’s left?
For such a financial heavyweight, Notts’ additions have been relatively low-key. They have been able to nail down one overseas signing for the Championship: the stocky South African seamer Dane Paterson.
There’s a return for Brett Hutton, whose command of the red Dukes ball should boost the Championship attack, on a three-year deal after the same spell away at Northampton.
Dane Schadendorf, a Zimbabwean on a UK passport, will provide keeping back-up for Tom Moores.
Toby Pettman, who has just graduated from Jesus College, Oxford in Classics, is added to the seam stocks. Aside from his bowling, he should make for invigorating discussions…
After helping Notts win the Blast, Chris Nash, moved on aged 37. At the other end of the age spectrum, lack of opportunities led to Jack Blatherwick moving to Lancashire.
Who will be the key men in 2020?
After difficult first seasons, last year Ben Duckett and Joe Clarke looked possibly the two outstanding batsmen currently not in the England picture, each showing superb touch in commanding hundreds against Durham. Assuming there are no lingering off‑field factors, they should surely be on the England selectors’ radar.
Samit Patel might have been shown up by Rob Key on Sky recently, but even at 36 he is still first pick for many who play fantasy county cricket leagues – his batting is powerful and he is the go-to spinner early in the season.
What can we expect from this team this season?
Notts have such a strong collection of players that they should all be capable of pulling their weight at different times. The problem in recent years is they have tended to all go missing at the same time, too…
The challenge will be channelling all that ability and white-ball success into a concerted push in the Championship.
There certainly isn’t much sympathy for Notts out in the shires. In the third season since they signed the best young player from four different neighbouring midlands counties, plus Haseeb Hameed from Lancashire, the feeling is they really ought to be challenging for the business end of conference season.
With Hutton back, Luke Fletcher returning from injury and Paterson on call, Notts have a plethora of pace options, and the seamers really ought to be able to capitalise on the heavy runs their impressive batting line-up should score. If the pitch is a turner, Carter can assist Patel.
But, as Columbo would say, just one more thing… the T20 title wasn’t won without a few on-field contretemps, and so Notts (and Blast captain Dan Christian) have suspended sentences hanging over them after five disciplinary breaches incurred over their 13 Vitality Blast games. Two more breaches and they would be hammered with a potentially damaging two-point penalty in the white-ball competitions or 16 points in the Championship.
One to watch
The excitement which gathers around any genuinely quick left-armer has probably not helped Tom Barber up to now, but with fewer professional games (23) than years (25) under his belt at three counties (Hampshire, Middlesex and now Notts) he will be keen to really get cracking in 2021.
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