Club Update from Chair David Jones and Captain Graeme van Buuren
18 July 2023
An open letter from David Jones
We sit here on the eve of the Cheltenham Cricket Festival hoping a change of scenery will bring a change of fortune on the pitch after what, so far, has been a disappointing season for all concerned at Gloucestershire. It is with regret that this week we go our separate ways with the Club’s Performance Director, Steve Snell. I’d like to thank Steve for his hard work over the last 18 months and wish him all the best in the future.
We understand and acknowledge that on-field performances have not been to the desired standard of late, but we would like to take this as an opportunity to reset, regroup and look ahead to what promises to be another terrific festival of cricket at the stunning Cheltenham College.
There is much excitement within the Club about the wealth of potential within the current crop of Gloucestershire players; exciting talent that shone brightly in flashes during the recent Vitality Blast competition. The T20 season may not have yielded as many wins as we’d have liked, but there was a lot of excellent cricket played and important lessons learned throughout the tournament. We will be looking to take these learnings forward into the rest of the season and in particular the upcoming Metro Bank One Day Cup. The squad has an exciting blend of youth and experience and we’re optimistic about being able compete with the best sides in the 50-over competition.
There’s no doubt the immense efforts of the squad so far this season have once again been hampered by numerous injuries to key players. Losing the likes of David Payne, Marchant de Lange, Graeme van Buuren and Chris Dent for long period of time left sizeable gaps in our matchday squads. But every cloud has a silver lining and these notable absences created opportunities for others to step up to the first team. To name a few examples, it was amazing to see Ben Charlesworth’s exploits in the Vitality Blast, Tom Price make history with a century and a hat-trick on the same day at Worcestershire and Zaman Akhter make his professional debut for the Club.
The group will no doubt be buoyed by today’s news of James Bracey committing his future to the Club for a further two years. Aside from his clear cricketing talents, James has flourished into a leader within the dressing room and stands out as a clear role model for younger members of the squad, and everyone at Gloucestershire is delighted to see him extend his time with his hometown club.
One of the highlights of the year so far came on Wednesday as England Women defeated Australia Women in a thrilling Ashes ODI at a sold-out Seat Unique Stadium. It was an occasion that will live long in the memory and it was particularly pleasing to see a high proportion of people attending their first ever match at Gloucestershire. Anyone who was at the match will have seen and acknowledged the fabulous crowd we had in attendance, many of whom were children who hopefully went home inspired by what they had witnessed.
We pride ourselves in our ability to deliver international matches and in June, we were thrilled to receive confirmation of our status as an international venue for several years to come. Starting with England Women vs New Zealand and England Men vs Australia ODI in 2024, Gloucestershire will host 11 more England Men and Women internationals between 2025 and 2031.
While in the current difficult financial climate it is pleasing to have certain assurances over our future international cricket allocation, there is still need for us to be agile in our approach to diversifying income. 2023 saw 5,000 more spectators attending our T20 matches compared to the previous year as well as a record year for BS7 Gym and our ever-growing sponsorship portfolio, but we still know we have some financial challenges ahead. We are very excited to be hosting a Ministry of Sound Classical concert next Friday evening and hope it paves the way for more big events to be held at the Seat Unique Stadium in years to come.
I’d like to end by thanking everyone for their support so far this season; everyone within the Club appreciates the support of a loyal fan and membership base. Now is a time for us to get behind Dale, his coaching team and players, as we look forward with anticipation to the 151st installment of the Cheltenham Cricket Festival.
The Captain’s view
Everybody looks forward to Cheltenham, we play some very good cricket there and we get some awesome support there. With the 50-over competition coming up and with the young and exciting team we have, our chances of doing well in that are high.
Obviously it hasn’t been an ideal season for us but we still have almost half a season of cricket left and the boys are in a good space. We feel as though we’re close to turning over a new leaf as a unit, supported by Dale, his coaching team and the young group of players we have. A lot of players have made their debuts this season, it’s really exciting to be a part of.
We’re going to make sure we get together as a team, look forward to what’s coming and not dwell too much on what’s already happened so far this season. We all know we can make massive strides in the four-day competition, we only need a couple of wins to shoot up the table, and the 50-over tournament really excites me. It’s a great opportunity for us to go out there and play the cricket we know we can play. We want to play a positive brand of cricket and you saw some of that in the T20 competition, but we know we have to learn from our mistakes there. We know we have the players to succeed in the One Day Cup and as a collective we’re aligned in wanting to give it our all.
As players we’re fully focused on putting all of our energy into cricket for the remainder of the season and control what we can control. It’s important for us to have this time to reset before Cheltenham; I’m excited by not only the rest of this season but also for next season too.
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