Glamorgan Cricket: Promotion 'not far away' says Matthew Maynard
- Published
Matthew Maynard has been in charge of Glamorgan for seven seasons over two spells.
Glamorgan coach Matthew Maynard says his team were "not far away" from achieving their goal of Championship promotion to Division One.
The county enjoyed their best Championship season since 2010 but missed out on promotion on the final day of the season.
They improved marginally in a disappointing T20 campaign, winning five and losing seven.
But Glamorgan only won four from eight in their defence of the One Day Cup.
The county's hopes of reaching the first division of the Championship were finally ended on the last day by events in another match at Worcester, as they had been in 2010 during Maynard's first spell in charge.
But Maynard, at the end of his three-year contract and four years altogether in his second spell, says he has the hunger to continue.
"Even more so, because you see the players galvanising as a team, it takes time to get the right work ethic but to have fun and enjoy each others' success, whilst keeping the values we look for." Maynard said.
"We wanted to challenge to the end of the season and that's what we've done, I'm delighted with some individual performances across the board, and collectively as a unit in the field, it's been a delight in how we've kept going," said Maynard.
"We've had some great results, some freak results, and we weren't that far away."
Those individual performances included the club's record individual score (410 not out by Sam Northeast at Leicester) and team score (795 in the same innings).
Northeast followed that up by hitting a club record limited-overs score of 177 at Worcester.
Captain's view
Captain David Lloyd followed up those feats by making the all-time record score by a Welshman, 313 not out against Derbyshire, as he finished the season strongly after a difficult period.
"Captaining, opening the batting, and bowling I've found it hard to switch off at times but I've learned to adapt and deal with things. We've got some real competition in the group which we've lacked in the last couple of years. I've enjoyed doing it and we'll see what happens next year," he said.
David Lloyd hit the second highest score in the county's history against Derbyshire
"We recruited well last summer, the way Sam's come in and been tremendous with what he's done on the pitch but off the pitch at the same time, he brings a lot to the changing-room."
Lloyd highlights an unexpected collapse against Middlesex at Lord's in early September, losing seven wickets in a session when the team looked to be fighting their way to a draw, as the principal reason for missing promotion.
"We played some really good cricket, it's disappointing we finished third but it's a big improvement. That game at Middlesex has cost us but the lads have been a credit and the way we reacted [against Derbyshire] was spot-on.
"Sessions where the game's changed, it's cost us. It's making sure that when there is a collapse, it's not a major one which costs us the game."
Limited overs headaches
Although Glamorgan lost more T20 games than they won, Maynard is putting a positive spin on their white-ball performances.
"We've missed out by narrow margins, I thought there was some good improvement [in T20], and the 50 overs came down to a dropped catch in the Kent-Lancashire match, we would have been in the quarter-finals had that been taken.
"We've seen some promising young talent, it's fantastic that Prem [Sisodiya, spinner] made his List A debut and hopefully he'll continue his progression to try to force his way back into the red-ball side," he told BBC Sport Wales.
"[Batter] Tom Bevan has come in after a fantastic season in the second eleven. We haven't seen as much of guys like Callum Taylor and Dan Douthwaite in the first eleven as we would like, we know they are very promising cricketers and we'd like to see a bit more from them to force us to pick them."
New bowlers needed
Glamorgan have enjoyed stellar performances from their overseas players, with plenty of runs from Marnus Labuschagne, the rejuvenated Colin Ingram, and Shubman Gill in the number three spot, while Michael Neser performed heroically with the new ball.
Neser, James Harris, Timm van der Gugten and spinner Andrew Salter provide an experienced nucleus to the bowling attack for 2023, if Neser is not required by Australia in the Ashes series.
But after Michael Hogan's remarkable ten year county career ended, and the county released four other seam bowlers, they will need to recruit bowling replacements, with Kent's Harry Podmore a possible target.
"That's up to Mark Wallace [director of cricket] and the board to try to get funds to replace these guys. 'Hoges' is irreplaceable, others are going to have to step up. Andrew Gorvin could be a potent threat if he can add a bit more swing," said Maynard.
But with a side heavily dependent on overseas-born talent and signings from other counties, is there enough home-grown talent in the pipeline overall?
"Alex Horton is the next one along, he's been at school but he's got a winter as a professional. There are a couple just come out of the academy, Ben Kelloway and Ben Morris are promising but they're at university so it's a little bit more difficult to see as much of them.
"It's hugely important [to develop local talent], but with Glamorgan having taken over the [age group] pathway [from Cricket Wales], hopefully we'll see those youngsters coming through."