We Have To Overcome Inconsistency - Bracewell
1 October 2012
John Bracewell has admitted his frustration at Gloucestershire finishing bottom of the LV=County Championship this season.
But the club’s Director of Cricket believes the team have made progress in one-day cricket and are becoming a more entertaining side to watch.
Summing up the 2012 season, John made it clear he had not anticipated such a poor finish in the Championship.
“I was pretty angry about the whole thing because we showed so many times during the year what a good team we can be and how much talent we have,” he said.
“Our inconsistency was very disappointing. We shouldn’t have come last and our last two matches, a convincing win over Northants followed by defeat at Grace Road, really summed up our season.
“Resilience is lacking within our younger players. We certainly had the ability to do a lot better, but what we lacked was being able to put our game together on a day-in, day-out basis.
“Experience will solve that weakness and we just have to keep throwing our youngsters in until they develop the necessary strength of mind.”
On a more positive note, Gloucestershire reached the T20 quarter-finals and performed well in their Clydesdale Bank 40 group.
John added: “When I am less melancholic about the season and can reflect on it objectively, I know I will find that we played some very good cricket at times.
“We are a far more entertaining side than we were a few years ago when we were relying on the Tiflex ball to keep us in matches and we are playing a better brand of cricket in all forms of the game.
“That is promising for me as a coach, but we have to overcome the frailty that is making inconsistency the only consistent thing about us.”
The season ended with Alex Gidman announcing his resignation as captain and John says he fully understands the decision.
“Alex is basically worn out by the whole gig,” he said. “We have been through some financially tough times and it has been hard on him as captain.
“Trying to deliver success with such a young squad and almost having to teach them from scratch how to play county cricket is an exciting challenge for a coach, but a captain signs up immediately to win.
“Alex is tired and hasn’t been able to spend the amount of time he wanted on his own game. That will now happen and he still has a lot of runs left in him.”
Gloucestershire have already made it clear that Alex’s replacement as skipper is likely to come from outside the club and will pursue the option of signing an overseas player to lead the side.
John said: “We can look at signing a player who can lead inspirationally from another county and the other option is an overseas player, which is probably more attractive.
“Australia, for example, have a real void in leaders at the moment so there could be a good opportunity to talk to them about developing one.
“Ed Cowan ticks a lot of boxes. He may well be involved in an Ashes series over here, which would take up eight weeks of his summer, but he is unlikely to be involved in one-day internationals and we might be able to get someone else in for the period he is away.
“Kane Williamson will one day become New Zealand captain and we could offer him invaluable experience of leadership. They tour earlier in the summer so there might be a decent fit there, which would enable us to continue our relationship with New Zealand Cricket.
“I liked the way Ed went about his business with us this season and it would be an easy solution to get him back. He captains Australia A, but not his state side, so it might be a good answer for him, ourselves and Australia if we appointed him.
“A combination of Ed and Kane next summer sounds so simple, but is anything but that. It would be a nice solution though because both would strengthen the top of our batting order, which hasn’t produced enough runs this summer.”
