Why sacking Mick Newell is the worse thing Notts can do

"Newell,Patel,Reid, (sic) Adams and Fletcher to go. I would sign Compton as an opener out if (sic) contract now and Fleming good shout"

Just one tweet of the many terrible tweets of a select few Nottinghamshire fans on the 'Twittersphere'. A cross section of the general feeling of far too many supporters on blogs, forums, Facebook and at Trent Bridge (overheard). All of them, without exception, are hideously wrong. This is not football - cricket is an entirely different ball game - in more ways than the obvious.

Let me deal with everything that is wrong with this tweet, and in particular, with the idea that the management, Newell in particular, are at fault.

Patel - last played for England in February. On the basis of runs this season/average then Hales should also be on the list to go also - clearly the management would have to be idiotic to remove either. In Championship matches Patel averages 34. In 40 overs he averages 45, and has the second best average in the team. I can send a personal note to the tweeter in question if he wants more reasons (only joking, I'll ignore you for needing more).

Reid - being a fat midfielder (Andy) who plays for Forest (sorry), I can only agree. If you meant the best wicketkeeper, (second or third at a push) in the country, I can't disagree more.  That's the same Read who, whilst his batting is under-par at the moment, has taken the third most catches in Division One, and in a side that has been bowling poorly, according to you. In the YB40 he averages 31 - still not bad as a supporting batsman. Apart from that, he is the captain, and he's also won the Championship as, erm, captain - only one other captain in Division One can make that claim.

Adams - may well retire anyway, but on the assumption he doesn't, is still very useful when he plays. Disregarding bowlers in the England setup, and considering he hasn't really had time to pick up momentum, he has still got the 20th best average in Division One. With more luck injury-wise next season, that could well go up again. Just last year, lest we forget, he took 54 wickets and had the best average in the league. Read that line again if you struggle with it.

Not worth letting go...

Fletcher - one of the best bowlers at the club, still at the ripe age of 24, that's two years younger than Harry Gurney, who you say is good to stay, he has taken 30 wickets this season, at an average of 31 - that includes a 5-fer against a side who are top of the league. Another two years and he'll be the same age as Gurney, who has the same average, and I have no doubt will be one of the best in the league.



Compton has signed a new contract with Somerset, and I really don't see the point anyway of signing a player who no doubt if he bats well, will be playing for England anyway most of the time, rather than for Notts. As for Fleming, I'm sure he'd be an excellent coach, but he has never coached anything longer than T20 format, and as I will now point out, Newell has no need to be replaced anyhow.

I should say first, of the general consensus in the "Newell Out" camp, disregarding the tweet above, regard a lack of wins with a good budget (and good players), a lack of homegrown youth in the team and a lack of 'bottle' as the main problems.

Newell: will not lose his eye for the game

I am not in denial, this season has not been great. But, even if we assume that we do get relegated (I don't think we will), we have still got to the T20 quarter final and Newell has got us into our first one-day trophy semi-final since 2001, which we haven't even lost yet, so, for a bad season, it's hardly disastrous. That's assuming a worst case scenario.Looking at the history of sacked coaches, it's not great either - if they've had success previously, it's best to keep them in place. I saw Chris Adams name bandied around as a replacement for Newell - his sacking has brought about no joy for Surrey thus far - they won no Championship games under Adams and have won no Championship games without Adams. So, evidence from reactionary sacking (Adams also won trophies at Surrey) - similar indifference and not too much improvement.


Newell's personal history as a coach with Notts also suggests that ups and downs are elementary, and that they make little or no difference to the actual eventual performance of the side - won the Championship in 2005, relegated in 2006, won in 2010. It's not like Newell doesn't have previous with success. In terms of a lack of homegrown players, slowly, slowly, Newell is integrating and beginning to bring in youth - rather than rush them in, and by the time they are ready, they will be highly competent - see Jake Ball as an example of this type of youth integration and the positive effects it has.

If we had not kept faith in Mick Newell, a Nottinghamshire-bred (born in Lancashire) man in 2006, we would never have won a second championship. Nor would we have a coach who knows the club inside out, knows his players, having worked with them for years - a man, the only current coach, who can claim to have won a trophy with a Nottinghamshire side. He is the third most decorated coach in all of the 18 counties. To lose his leadership would be disastrous, his experience goes before him, and I have no doubt that he will win a trophy - if not this year (and we are still in the YB40 semi-final) then next. Newell does not let sleeping teams lie.