I notice these two guys seem to have been ommitted from the squad on the official website. Is there a reason for this?

The new squad members have recently been asked to fill in a questionnaire and provide a head and shoulders photo - I presume Matt and Joe have not sent theirs back yet - they are currently playing in Oz and NZ respectively.

That makes perfect sense. At least you have updated your squad that's more than Sussex have!

Just checked out the squad page on the official site. It looks like a 6th Form group - no, bunch of scouts with a few leaders chucked in for good measure ! At least we've got rid of the want-aways.

Interesting you should say that Searcher. If you break the squad into three age groups (16-24, 25-29 and 30+) then the result is the following:

19-24: Manuel, Pinner, Pardoe, Leach, Wheeldon, Kervezee, M Ali, Kapil, Cox, Russell, Shantry, Whelan, Jones (13)

25-29: Mitchell, Andrew, Arif, K Ali (4)

30+ Solanki, Smith, Mason, Richardson (4)

Compare this to Sussex where:

19-24: Machan, Wells, Hamilton-Brown, Gatting, Thornely, Brown, Rayner, Beer, Wright (9)
25-29: Aga, Liddle, Hodd, Nash, Sandri, Arafat, Prior, Yardy (eight)
30+: Goodwin, Joyce, Kirtley, Martin-Jenkins, Collymore (5)

Even 26 is veteran in our side at the moment- thrilling or frightening?

Surely the next beneficiary now is Mitch- at what must be 5 years away. Maybe we will offer a testimonial to someone much loved in 2011- and give the buckets a rest for 2010?

Surely Matt Mason for next year WBB?
Or has he had a benefit already sometime?

Mason should be next for a benefit, unless Kabir has a change of heart.

as their salaries are so much higher these days I am not sure we should be having benefits any more.

What I'm interested in is this. Over the last year the club and Dolly have got stick for the lack of players coming through the Academy, and I was one of the biggest moaners. We now have a situation where there are several young guns on the books. So the question is, will they have progressed naturally anyway or are some of them there by default (sounds harsh) because of finances and other players leaving ?

Maybe the Academy is starting to produce a regular feed to the 1sts - we might struggle for a year or two but we could be looking pretty in the long term.

8 of 9 players signed this winter are 22 or under and 6 are teenagers!

If Moeen and Cox are going to be 1XI spinner and keeper who is going to be keeper and spinner for 2XI?

Serchers

The current crop of players moving from Academy to full squad represent four years of work (Manuel,Leach,Pinner,Pardoe) all 18 / 19 year olds have been in the Academy for four years, and were taken on at the time that the ECB increased its funding to 1st class counties for the development of youth from within.
Kapil and Cox 17 / 18 year olds still have another year in the academy, and then there ar more being added this year from the fringe academies that have been running at the same time.
It is impossible to answer how many of the above might or might not have been given the opportunity unless others hadn't left, the money situation wasn't better, etc.
What is irrefutable however is that there are others around the circuit of similar age who have also been the result of the investment in the Academies by the ECB . Vince, briggs and Riazzudin at Hampshire, Beer at Sussex, Borthwick at Durham, Buck and Taylor at Leicestershire to name a small few.
Given that this is the case, it would seem likely that they are actually at the right standard and that we need to give credit where it is due, and congraulate DD for his work in the Academy.
Don't forget Manuel Pinner Pardoe Kapil have all played at international level and therefore must be of the right standard surely?
Whatever happens isn't it exciting the prospect of a young side developing together, potentially being together for some years - dont you think?

In the last five years Rayner, Thornely, Smith (who has now left for Middlesex), Beer, Brown, Gatting, Machan and Wells have all been promoted from the Academy. I have noticed a general improvement in the quality of players coming out of our Academy.

4 batsmen, 3 spinners and a keeper. If only we could produce a seamer!

Looks like you confirm my thinking Martyn.

Alan Wells commented in the Argus that he felt his son was better player at 18 then he was when he joined the Sussex staff aged 19. It wasn't until his late twenties that Alan knew what batting was really about.