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[Seniorplayer]

Sounds a lot like what happens at my club, last season I played all but 3 games on the back of being phoned the night before and one game I was phoned up half an hour before the game started (I had to turn it down because it was an away game on the other side of manchester and I don't have a car). I actually got into the habit of leaving Saturday/the odd sunday completely free of plans just in case I got called up, sometimes it wasn't even "can you play tomorrow?", it was "you're playing tomorrow, be at mine for 11AM", no say in the matter. It always amuses me when the same people call up unable to play every other week and yet they're always on the team sheet week in week out.

Yes you are the same players always call in unable to play and then get selected for the next match in our clubs case it's because there's no one else who is readily available and they know it.

[Cin88]

It gets more annoying when the people dropping out are above you in the order when they do bother to turn up, even though they bat like they're holding their bat the wrong way up. Its especially annoying for me because I seem to be stuck in the fine leg to fine leg, bat at 10/11 spot, no doubt the situation won't change once I finally get a game this year.

[Seniorplayer]

Don't forget the skipper is always surprised when it happens too, that's the bit I always laugh at!
"So and so has dropped out, I wasn't expecting that" - no, they've only done the same thing every game for the last 6 weeks after all...

Our Captain is so used to certain players dropping out he now expects them to its not unusual to arrive at the ground an hour before play and find him on his mobile trying to get players only on one occasion last season did we start a match with 11 very often guys he has rang would turn up and play before the completion of the first 20 overs.

[Seniorplayer]

It gets more annoying when the people dropping out are above you in the order when they do bother to turn up, even though they bat like they're holding their bat the wrong way up. Its especially annoying for me because I seem to be stuck in the fine leg to fine leg, bat at 10/11 spot, no doubt the situation won't change once I finally get a game this year.

I would have a word in the Captains ear because the worse casesworn you do play is that you will  still be stuck at fine leg and batting at 10 or 11.

[ljriley90]

Hi Guys,

Urgent help required i.e team selection for tonight. Bit of background about my team / season so far.

Im the vice captain of my team. We've had 4 completed games this season, one which was rained off half way through.

First league game, we had team currently 2nd in table in 110-7 after 30 overs and would have backed ourselves to clear up and knock off in good time.

Second league game captain was away on hol so yours truly took the reins. We then bowled out the champs from 2014 for 112. We made a catastrophic effort in the run chase and knocked it off 9 down. But 5 points nonetheless, fielding bowling both brill.

3rd league game i was still in charge. playing against runners up in league 2014 we bowled them out for 115. Again bowlers superb. Batting again terrible. Again we knocked it off 9 down!

That brings us to this weekend just gone and captains return. Saturday we batted first against a mid table side and could only amass 160 on a 220 par, again 9 down. Chasing team knocked it off 6 down with about 3 overs to. An extra 40 would have won us the game.
Sunday was cup, bowling first the oppo put 240 on same deck as we played on day previous so slightly better than par. bowling was a bit average in places. We could only manage 170 all out in reply.

So as you can see our batting has let us down.

Now here comes the selection dilemma. When captain (keeper by trade but our o/a is scary good so is doing it now) was away we had 6 bowlers in team, 4 of whom are all rounders and two solely bowlers. now with batting being our weak suit we need to drop on of these bowlers.

one is a former league representative who offers us some control at top of innings and good presence in dressing room. although he cant play double weekends due to his knees and achillies not allowing. the other is a younger guy who knows he is 2nd change. but in the cup game he was our best bowler and got the two big wickets.

a bit of politics comes into our club no doubt and the 2nd change bowlers parents are on committee, as well as his mum being head tea lady and dad head groundsman. no doubt they do loads for club. it wouldnt go down well if their son was dropped and some comments are already getting made about selections.

this stems from who is the 1st team captain. hes only 22 and inherited the captaincy after being v.c 2 seasons back when our then captain jacked it cos he had 5 ducks in 5 innings and wanted to concetrate on his batting. now his place in team was warranted as he was captain and keeper but since the arrival of our overseas amateur, who we didnt realise was a keeper until he said in training took over the gloves, some people are saying his batting doesnt warrant a batting spot at 8. and this has made its way to committee and chairman who are coming out with comments.

so much so they are asking me to take the captaincy on and drop the captain. this way they believe the groundsmans son will still be in the team.

obviously the captain aint going to drop himself. so begs the question experienced opening seamer none batter or keep committee happy with 2nd change none batter.

heres a link to our stats so far this season -

http://www.lancscl.co.uk/l/playerStatsForTeam/772062463/95097072.html

bowler 2 & 4 are in question as is batter 8.

bat 7 looks the obvious chop but he is arguably best no.7 in league just been batting in wrong situations for him.

[TangoWhiskey]

Drop an all rounder for an out and out batsman. No need for 6 bowlers.

You can't drop the captain unless it's not a committee position or he does something wrong enough to warrant being removed. That isn't how my club works and it isn't how democracy operates, unless as you suggest he wasn't voted in.

It's a tough one really and selection is one of the reasons why I gave up league cricket after being on the receiving end of a couple of bias selectors.

My advice is to pick a team on merit that has the best chance to win the game and ignore who's related to who. Takes a strong bloke to stand up to a bunch of wailing busy bodies on the committee though I'll be the first to admit.

[Kulli]

surely whoever it is that averages 35 with the ball (at over 5's) and 1.5 with the bat is the obvious choice for the chop at the moment.

[TangoWhiskey]

Yeah it would be either Joel Morton or Tom Pugh for me.

[Kulli]

Or the lad that sends down a no ball an over, until he stops doing that!

[ljriley90]

If i was batting against our side bowler 4 would be the one i would want to face most. Bowlers 3, 5 & 6 all bat better than 4 (who as a package is probably weakest batting and bowling combined).

Bowler 5 is second spinner. he took 45 wickets last season but our pro is a first class spinner from nz so his role has changed slightly. but 8/10 of top wicket takers last season were spinners. 2 spinners is the general policy in our league.

the no ball king bowler 3 (bats 9 but can bat, lancs development squad) can only bowl 7 over spells as he is only 19. same as bowler 6 (who bats 5).

when i was captain bowling patters panned out as - bowler 3 opens up 7 over spell, with bowler 2 who stays on for as long as his body / opposition getting hold of him allows.

bowler 1 comes on as soon as bowler 3's 7 overs are bowled. then bowler 5 on to replace 2. bowler 6 would be next in line ability wise. leaving bowler 5 surplus?