Andy Hurry: Somerset 'penalised' for supplying players to The Hundred
- Published
Andy Hurry was appointed Somerset's director of cricket in 2017
Somerset director of cricket Andy Hurry believes the club is being "penalised" for producing quality players who are then called up to other competitions.
Eight Somerset players were drafted into The Hundred this summer and have been unavailable to play for the county during August.
Somerset won just one of their eight matches in the One-Day Cup, which runs concurrently.
Victory in their final match against Warwickshire followed seven defeats.
"I sense that we're being penalised as a club who are producing players who are being drafted into another competition," Hurry told BBC Radio Bristol.
"It makes it tougher for us to compete against teams that may not have lost as many players. That's quite hard to swallow at the moment."
Somerset captain Tom Abell, plus Tom Banton, Will Smeed, Craig Overton, Jack Leach, Tom Lammonby, Lewis Gregory and Marchant de Lange, have all been drafted into teams in The Hundred.
The franchise competition, which took place for the first time last year, began on 3 August and runs until 3 September.
It meant counties were without players for the One-Day Cup, which also began at the start of August.
Somerset - who won the tournament in 2019 - finished eighth out of nine clubs in their group, meaning they failed to progress to the knock-out stage of the competition.
Somerset all-rounder Lewis Gregory was made captain of the Trent Rockets team in The Hundred
"We certainly feel our supporters, our members, the players, support staff, myself, all had high expectations coming into this competition and the reality is we've won the last game of the competition and that's really, really disappointing," Hurry said.
"The way it's set out at the moment, it makes it very challenging for teams who do produce players to compete and it'll be interesting to see which teams do qualify now moving forward."
Hurry suggested in future, players drafted into The Hundred who are not playing for their franchise could be released back to their clubs.
Lammonby, De Lange and Abell - who is injured - have all yet to play in the tournament. Neither has Leach, who has been playing for England.
"It's been well documented by other people involved in cricket the impact that The Hundred's had on this competition," Hurry continued.
"One thing we can consider looking at moving forward - if things do remain the same - is that players that aren't having opportunities in The Hundred can be released back to the counties. I think that's really, really important.
"We would have benefitted from that, I think the players would have benefitted from that as well. I don't think I stand alone in that view."
'We have to win all four games'
Despite results in the One-Day Cup, Hurry believes there were positives to be taken from the campaign.
"I've seen some progress with the batting, I've seen some progress with the ball as well. I've seen some progress in the field with how the team can move to a position where they're never giving up.
"There's been some bright spots as well with some individual performances," he said.
"And it's been good to have the opportunity to have a look at some of the younger players who aren't on the professional staff, who in time we'll be looking to make decisions on."
Somerset have endured a testing 2022 season in all competitions. While they reached the semi-final of the T20 Blast, they face a battle to avoid relegation in the County Championship, with four matches left.
They have won just two of their 10 fixtures so far and next face West Country rivals Gloucestershire - who are one place below them at the bottom of Division One - on 5 September.
"Our mindset has got to be that we have got to win all four games," Hurry added. "We want to finish as high up the table as we possibly can.
"There is an opportunity with the teams we are playing in September, who are all around us. With a game in hand, there's a real opportunity to start moving up that table one game at a time and getting ourselves in a really strong position at the end of the season."