Ones to watch

Adil Rashid, Yorkshire

Was it really as far back as August 2006 that we tipped Adil Rashid? Tipped him to be a great player, that is – we didn’t incline him away from the perpendicular or anything. He was one to watch last year as well and justified his inclusion.

There are so many reasons why Adil Rashid should play for England and we don’t really see the point in waiting much longer. Just think, England could realistically field five bowlers and still have a lower order that went Flintoff, Rashid, Broad, Sidebottom, Panesar. That’d make the five-down to all out procession a tad more laboured.

Two all-rounders. Two spinners. A leg-spinner!

We’re coming out in a sweat. And a rash, but that’s unrelated.

Some county players who aren’t quite so worth watching – but you still have to.

Steven Finn, Middlesex

James Harris is the cool England Under-19 opening bowler at the minute, on account of making a great start to his first-class career at the age of just 17. But here at King Cricket, we’re anything but cool, so we’re going for the other England Under-19 opening bowler, Steven Finn.

Steven Finn’s only played four first-class matches so far, but he’s taken 13 wickets at a currently meaningless 22.46. He’s also 6ft 8in, so he can play that unbeatable game where you hold something just out of a short person’s reach, watching them hop up and down until they get so exasperated they kick you in the nuts.

Watch these players in 2008.

Steven Davies, Worcestershire

Please let Steven Davies be the end to the to-ing and fro-ing of England wicketkeepers.

At 21, he’s got years on most of his rivals and he’s virtually matching all of them for runs and wickets. If he can improve and stand head and shoulders above everyone as the standout candidate, cricket writers the nation over would rejoice and put their poison pens back in their desk tidies.

Davies bats at five and has a top score of 192. Nobody’s said anything particularly bad about his wicketkeeping yet. We don’t own a poison pen, but our Quill Of Wicketkeeping Appreciation is drying up and needs dipping in The Ink Of Optimism.

Don’t make us use The Tipp-Ex Of Hindsight-led Revisionism, Steven. Don’t let it come to that.

County cricketers to watch in 2008.

Liam Plunkett, Durham

We think Liam Plunkett’s still worth watching. He’s 23 this week. It’s a little bit early to be discarding him.

Ordinarily a promising young English seam bowler could expect to spend the winter with what was the England A team and is now the England Lions. Plunkett did so, but before Christmas he did a little bit extra. He signed up to play for The Dolphins in South Africa. Assuming no bestial confusion arises in poor Plunkett’s mind, we think this was a great move.

Playing in South Africa was the making of Matthew Hoggard, who spent a couple of years with Free State in his youth. Hopefully it’ll have a similar effect on Plunkers. It’s not just the unfamiliar conditions, it’s the independence and the expectation that you have to prove your worth as an overseas signing. Plunkett took 12 wickets at 30.75, which is nowt special, but the experience might mean more than that.

Liam Plunkett’s had a bit of a go at international cricket and he appears to have liked it. He’s going out of his way to improve himself as a cricketer and that can never be bad, particularly when it’s allied to talent – which Plunkett does have. You don’t get picked for England at 20 without being half decent.

Other players to watch in 2008.

Joe Denly, Kent

Joe Denly or James Hildreth? Joe Denly or James Hildreth? Joe Denly’s nickname is ‘No Pants’. Decision made.

Plus Joe Denly gets to open the batting with Rob Key. Spend any amount of time in Rob’s vicinity and a little bit of genius is bound to rub off. We managed to do an entire wordsearch once while we were waiting in a car outside his house. Ordinarily we’d never have managed that, but Rob must have left just a faint whiff of genius in his bin and it must have attached itself to us during the rummaging.

Joe Denly’s so lucky. He gets to do ‘talking’ with Rob in between overs. We’ve got a whole shoebox full of questions for Rob for when we get to have a go at ‘talking’.

One time we were watching Rob on telly and we told him to leave the next delivery if he wanted us to buy him some ice cream. He played the next delivery and we could tell that he was telling us he didn’t want ice cream. If we can communicate that well with him USING ONLY OUR MIND, think how well we could communicate with him using ‘talking’.

Joe Denly’s 22 and a handy batsman. We’ll be watching him out of the corner of our eye while the main part of our eye is FIRMLY TRAINED on Rob Key.

More cricketers to watch in 2008.

Rikki Clarke, Derbyshire

Don’t laugh. We’ll admit it is a bit counter-intuitive, but we’re intrigued.

Rikki Clarke was picked for England at a young age and while he didn’t disgrace himself, his bowling clearly wasn’t international standard, so he’s something of a figure of fun. Last year, both his batting and bowling aspired to ‘not quite international standard’ as he wallowed in underachievement at Surrey.

So, the obvious solution was for Rikki Clarke to go and take the Derbyshire captaincy. Is it change just for the sake of it? Who knows? Let’s watch and find out.

And if nothing does happen, let’s quietly edit the website that there’s no mention of Rikki Clarke being One To Watch and pretend that none of this happened.

Other players to watch in 2008.

Cricketers to watch in 2008

It’s pretty much April and there aren’t many fixtures this week, so let’s get on with this season’s Ones To Watch.

As usual, names will appear below as more are added throughout the week. We’ll give a little away by telling you who’s not appearing though.

Mark Davies isn’t appearing, which pains us, as he’s been an ever-present One To Watch and has never really let us down. But with Steve Harmison seemingly out of the England reckoning, first-team opportunities might be limited for everyone’s favourite Viking, so we’ve been brutal.

Stuart Broad‘s out, because he’s ‘made it’. Matt Prior‘s out, because he too made it, before comprehensively dismantling ‘it’ with his buttery fingers.

Tom Smith‘s out, because we’ve done away with all young Lancastrians on the grounds that they never get to play, no matter how good they are and even if they do, they do nothing, which lets us down doubly, being as we’re a Lancashire supporter.

Bilal Shafayat‘s out, because the pressure of being One To Watch clearly gets to him and he forgets how to bat.

James Benning‘s out because he was crap last year. Usually you get a second season to prove yourself, but we’ve picked out too many players, so James misses the cut. We’re sure he’ll be gutted.

Latest news about these nine fine cricketers

Ones To Watch 2006
Ones To Watch 2007

Stuart Broad to join ‘ones to watch’ at Nottinghamshire

Here’s a short list of some of our ones to watch over the last couple of years:

• Stuart Broad
• Bilal Shafayat
• Will Jefferson
• Mark Davies

What do you notice? That’s right. All of them have moved to Nottinghamshire since we identified them, albeit only on loan in Mark Davies’ case.

What’s going on? Are the Nottinghamshire management using King Cricket in some form of unofficial consultancy capacity? Don’t do that. We don’t support you. We support Lancashire.

That does it. Next year we’re going to name Ajit Agarkar as an excellent potential overseas signing. How d’you like them apples, Nottinghamshire? Eh? Eh? How d’you like that, we said? Yeah, we’re talking to you.

Mark Davies takes seven wickets in an innings

Seriously, Mark Davies is doing something right. Our ones to watch are worth watching, make no mistake – hence the name.

Durham’s 20th choice seamer was given the new ball in the first match of his loan spell at Nottinghamshire. He’s normally more used to handling a malformed ball with the consistency of blancmange by the time he gets to bowl. He took 7-59.

There isn’t a better bowler in all of Valhalla, although Gullinkambi the rooster bowls some serviceable part-time leg-spin.

Mark Davies is a wow already.