Matthew Maynard was in charge of Glamorgan for seven seasons in two spells.
Glamorgan manager Matthew Maynard says his team are “not far” from achieving their goal of promotion to Division One.
The county enjoyed its 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 won just four out of eight in their One Day Cup defense.
County hopes of reaching the first division of the Championship were finally ended by events at another game in Worcester on the final day, as they had been in 2010 during Maynard’s first term.
But Maynard, at the end of his three-year contract and a total of four years into his second term, says he has the hunger to move on.
“Even more so because you see the players galloping as a team, it takes time to develop the right work ethic but to have fun and enjoy each other’s success while maintaining the values we’re looking for.” said Maynard.
“We wanted to challenge until the end of the season and we did. I’m happy about some individual performances across the board, and together as a unit on the field it’s been a pleasure to go the way we’ve held up,” Maynard said.
“We had some great results, some freak results and we weren’t that far off.”
These individual performances included the club’s individual record (410 not held by Sam Northeast at Leicester) and team value (795 in the same innings).
Northeast continued this by hitting a club record 177 in Worcester at Worcester.
Captain’s view
Captain David Lloyd continued those performances by scoring the all-time record by a Welshman, 313, not to fail against Derbyshire as he finished the season strong after a difficult spell.
“Captaining, opening the batting and bowling I found it hard to switch off at times, but I learned to adapt and deal with things. We have real competition in the group that we’ve been lacking lately, I’ve enjoyed doing it and we’ll see what happens next year,” he said.
David Lloyd recorded the second-highest score in county history against Derbyshire
“We recruited well last summer as Sam came in and was great with what he did on the pitch but at the same time he brings a lot off the pitch in the dressing room.”
Lloyd highlights an unexpected collapse against Middlesex at Lord’s in early September, losing seven wickets in one session as the team appeared to be fighting their way to a tie, as the main reason for missing promotion.
“We played really good cricket, it’s disappointing that we finished third but it’s a big improvement. That game in Middlesex cost us but the lads were a credit and the way we reacted [against Derbyshire] was spot on.
“Game-changing sessions have cost us. It makes sure that if there is a collapse, it doesn’t become a big one that costs us the game.”
Limited headache
Although Glamorgan have lost more T20 games than they have won, Maynard puts a positive spin on their white ball performances.
“We just missed, I thought there was a good improvement [in T20]and the 50 overs in the Kent-Lancashire match came down to a drop catch, if that had been won we would have been in the quarter-finals.
“We’ve seen some promising young talent, it’s fantastic that Prem [Sisodiya, spinner] has made his List A debut and hopefully he will continue his progress to try and force his way back into the red ball team,” he told ` Sport Wales.
“[Batter] Tom Bevan has moved into the second eleven after a fantastic season. We haven’t seen as many 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 little bit more of them to force us to do them to select. “
Looking for new bowlers
Glamorgan have seen excellent performances from their overseas players, with plenty of runs from Marnus Labuschagne, the rejuvenated Colin Ingram and Shubman Gill in third, while Michael Neser put on a heroic performance with the new ball.
Neser, James Harris, Timm van der Gugten and spinner Andrew Salter provide an experienced nucleus for bowling attack for 2023 if Neser is not needed by Australia in the Ashes series.
But after Michael Hogan’s remarkable decade-long career in the county ended and the county fired four more Seam bowlers, they need to recruit bowling substitutes, with Kent’s Harry Podmore a possible target.
“It’s up to Mark Wallace [director of cricket] and the board to try and get funds to replace these guys. “Hoges” is irreplaceable, others must step up. Andrew Gorvin could be a strong threat if he can add some momentum,” Maynard said.
But with a side heavily dependent on foreign-born talent and signings from other countries, is there even enough domestic talent in the pipeline?
“Alex Horton is next, he’s been in school but he’s having a winter as a pro. A few are just out of academy, Ben Kelloway and Ben Morris are promising but they’re in college so it’s a little bit harder to see that much of them.
“It’s hugely important [to develop local talent]but with Glamorgan taking over [age group] path [from Cricket Wales]hopefully we’ll see these young people pull through.”
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