Lara to make a comeback with Surrey?

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mas cambios

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Lara to make a comeback with Surrey?

It seems that Brian Lara may be tempted to come out of retirement and play for Surrey.

Surrey are lining up a bid to tempt West Indies batting great Brian Lara out of retirement with the offer of a contract to play Twenty20 cricket.

Lara, 40, has been in the nets at The Oval this week and has begun talks with Surrey's cricket manager Chris Adams and chief executive Paul Sheldon.

"We have been in discussion with Brian regarding his possible involvement with the club," said Surrey in a statement.

"However we have no further comment to make at this stage."
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He hasn't played for two years, which when coupled with his age (40) would mean this is a bit of a gamble.

What are your thoughts? Gamble? Wise move? Crowd pleaser or a gimmick?
 
Re: Lara to make a comeback with Surrey?

It sure would be a money-spinner for the mighty 'Rey. I'd love for him to come to us - it would more than vindicate the £20 Junior Members fee I paid :D
 
Re: Lara to make a comeback with Surrey?

A whole £20? Not bad!

I think he'd be a reasonable signing, not least as their batting is weak. Not sure if it sends out the right message though - maybe a slightly backwards step?
 
Re: Lara to make a comeback with Surrey?

mas cambios;397045 said:
A whole £20? Not bad!

I think he'd be a reasonable signing, not least as their batting is weak. Not sure if it sends out the right message though - maybe a slightly backwards step?
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£20 covers the whole season!! (with a small extra fee for reserved seating for T20s)

To be honest, I haven't a clue what Surrey are trying to do right now. Chris Adams has come in and is trying to "build Surrey up to the top of English cricket" once again but his methods are all rather contradictory to one another. He says he wants to build from the bottom, and then goes and splashes out on such big names as Piyush Chawla and Andrew Symonds. Now, he might even get one of the greatest of all-time, Brian Lara. Money is seemingly no object to our team right now. We have bought Rory Hamilton-Brown, who is still wet behind the ears with regards to first-class cricket, to be our captain this year but I don't think he will be able to manage the egos in the dressing room. Our form seems to have picked up from where we left off last season (though only being 5 played days into the new season, this may be a slightly premature comment). I think Hamilton-Brown will be just a poster boy captain and Adams will call the shots like a soccer manager from the sidelines.
 
Re: Lara to make a comeback with Surrey?

You seem to lack depth in batting. If Ramps fails then it seems that Surry fails. Hamilton-Brown is a reasonable cricketer but no more than that. He's at best an average bat and a below average bowler - his biggest asset is he's mates with Stuart Broad (I think or at least one of the England team).

Not sure on the bowling to be honest as I've not looked at it much - batting is biggest worry IMO.
 
Re: Lara to make a comeback with Surrey?

mas cambios;397049 said:
You seem to lack depth in batting. If Ramps fails then it seems that Surrey fails. Hamilton-Brown is a reasonable cricketer but no more than that. He's at best an average bat and a below average bowler - his biggest asset is he's mates with Stuart Broad (I think or at least one of the England team).

Not sure on the bowling to be honest as I've not looked at it much - batting is biggest worry IMO.
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His best mate is Luke Wright :p

I'll agree with you on the batting front - today at Hove, we were 15-3 in the morning (Ramps gone for 5) but Harinath batted through 298 balls to make 67 and we ended the day about 200-7. Batty batted well too and so did Schofield. I can't see Spriegel keeping his place once Michael Brown is fully fit though.

As for the bowling, our strike bowlers are Andre Nel and Stuart Meaker, both of whom are liabilities. Jade Dernbach is improving each year but he isn't brilliant and Chris Jordan can bowl upwards of 90 mph but every ball is a full toss with him. Chris Schofield and Gareth Batty provide two excellent spin options. Afzaal can bowl a little too.
 
Re: Lara to make a comeback with Surrey?

Wright - that's the one!

Batty and Schofield will both get you runs but they need more from the top 5 - no good them coming in at 150-5 or so.
 
Re: Lara to make a comeback with Surrey?

LIONS then DAYLIGHT;397148 said:
What about Roebuck coming back?

Beefy V roebuck would be great.
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Thank you for disrupting what was a nice debate. I was hoping your maturity would stretch beyond disrupting the first non-Australian thread you could see but I guess you can't win them all.

--

mas cambios;397055 said:
Wright - that's the one!

Batty and Schofield will both get you runs but they need more from the top 5 - no good them coming in at 150-5 or so.
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Arun Harinath's marathon 67 showed he can dig his heels in and carve an innings out. Once Brown is back for Spriegel, we have potentially a decent batting line-up down to Schofield - BROWN, HARINATH, RAMPRAKASH, AFZAAL, HAMILTON-BROWN, DAVIES, BATTY, SCHOFIELD. Should be a very interesting season!
 
Re: Lara to make a comeback with Surrey?

This smells awefully like a marketing event rather than him benefit Surrey CCC. Lara it seems is looking to maybe join the retired folk at the IPL and this might just be a platform for him to make some money and fill seats at the Oval.

He is 40 years old, reflexes have slowed down so he will not be the player he was unfortunately. However Surrey seem to be doing things backwards or are they between the lines stating that they are looking to the 20/20 competition to make mega bucks with their world class facility. Chris Adams seems to be chief string puller at Surrey as their director of cricket. Surrey need to turn around from their slump and overseas stars wont help if the locals feel out of place. Are they trying to impress an IPL side with this move? Ramprakash, Butcher, Nel are all old and in the final stages of their careers instead of paying these players and look for decent young England players that can gain experience at the club and be there for many seasons to come...

I am afraid I cannot see anything positive about this idea, except maybe tickets being sold at the Brit Oval.
 
Re: Lara to make a comeback with Surrey?

A.B De Villiers;397147 said:
Beefy would have to be thinking about this. Could you imagine?
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I've always thought that cricket could do with a masters tour, like they have in tennis or golf. Twenty20 would be the prefect format!

lewissaffin;397155 said:
Arun Harinath's marathon 67 showed he can dig his heels in and carve an innings out. Once Brown is back for Spriegel, we have potentially a decent batting line-up down to Schofield - BROWN, HARINATH, RAMPRAKASH, AFZAAL, HAMILTON-BROWN, DAVIES, BATTY, SCHOFIELD. Should be a very interesting season!
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On paper it's not bad, at least by division two standards. Time will tell but as I said, they seem weak to me and prone to collapses.

hattrick;397157 said:
This smells awefully like a marketing event rather than him benefit Surrey CCC. Lara it seems is looking to maybe join the retired folk at the IPL and this might just be a platform for him to make some money and fill seats at the Oval.

He is 40 years old, reflexes have slowed down so he will not be the player he was unfortunately. However Surrey seem to be doing things backwards or are they between the lines stating that they are looking to the 20/20 competition to make mega bucks with their world class facility. Chris Adams seems to be chief string puller at Surrey as their director of cricket. Surrey need to turn around from their slump and overseas stars wont help if the locals feel out of place. Are they trying to impress an IPL side with this move? Ramprakash, Butcher, Nel are all old and in the final stages of their careers instead of paying these players and look for decent young England players that can gain experience at the club and be there for many seasons to come...

I am afraid I cannot see anything positive about this idea, except maybe tickets being sold at the Brit Oval.
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I share this view to be honest. Marketing gimmick and not a lot more. Saying that, I think Lara will still score runs but it'll be painful to watch.
 
Re: Lara to make a comeback with Surrey?

It's true, it's a marketing gimmick.

But it's darn well worked for me. I would go out to a game simply to see him play.

Good move by Surrey I think. Get some more people down to the ground in this comercialist day and age.
 
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