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MATTHEW REPORTS IN FOR DUTY
 All the best laid plans .... I had expected Matthew to return on Friday 8th December and thus when I arrived early at the County Ground it was a little disconcerting to find that he had reported in the day before. The opportunity for my first big scoop had been missed. My immediate reaction was to hope that the big boys " The Evening Argus" and " The Mid Sussex Times" - both newspapers who are surely passionately interested in our young cricketers - had also failed to send their reporters on Thursday.
Matthew's absence provided an ideal opportunity to discuss - in general terms - with Chris Waller, Director of Excellence, and Keith Greenfield, 2nd team coach, how they saw the coming months.
MATTHEW's AIM FOR THE SEASON IS TO PLAY IN THE SUSSEX C.C. CLUB 1ST TEAM

• CHRIS WALLER
  Chris, a playing member of the County Club for many years, has been a coach at both Sussex and Surrey CCC. His present position demands that he seeks out and nurtures young cricketers for the County Club. Hundreds of young players have passed through his hands with varying degrees of success. Publicly he can appear to have two sides to his character - at times full of praise and at other times over critical and very hard to his young players. In private he shows compassion and concern, and is fervent in his search for talent for the benfit of both the player and the Club.
• He recommended MATTHEW to the Club because he felt that the player had
  a.the ability with both the bat and the wicket keeping gloves, and
  b. the personal determination to succeed.
• He felt that MATTHEW should be challenging for a place in the One day side in the 2001 season.
  
• KEITH GREENFIELD
  Keith is not long retired from playing for Sussex County Cricket Career. He was a local player with St. Peter's Cricket Club, Brighton and as a Junior never played in a County squad. The records might show that he "never made the grade" but he served the Club well and made some valuable innings - which at the time did not appear to receive just praise.On his retirement from the First Class game he was given the responsibility of coach to the Club 2nd X1.
• He fully supports Matthew's aim to play First Team cricket in the 2001 season.
• He believes that Matthew will be challenging Nick Wilton for the wicket keeping place.
• He reflected on young batsmen in their first year of professional cricket making the grade.
• He pointed out that, in his opinion, the situation is difficult because the County Club had a poor run towards the end of last season and they had released some of their "potential" top order batsmen. Consequently if MATTHEW were to fight for a place solely as a batsman he would have to immediately establish himself in the top order. This was an exceptionally difficult thing to achieve.
• He cited Neil Lenham as a succesful young cricketer who had immediately made the grade as a batsman. But at the time Sussex C.C.C. had a solid top order and Neil could initially find his way batting at number 6.
  NOTE : NICKY PENG of DURHAM C.C.C. has recently moved from Junior cricket straight in to a top batting position in the First Class game. He was an outstanding talent at School boy level. It must be noted, however, that he also struggled to achieve success last season.
• The coming season is going to be hard for the young Sussex wicket keepers. It might be considered that both Nicholas and Matthew could benefit from playing under a seasoned pro. In contrast the Gloucestershire CCC second string keeper has had an exceptionally long apprenticeship watching Jack Russell perform and could leave the game without making a breakthrough to the " big time".
• Having known both Nicholas and Matthew for several years as promising youngsters at County, Regional and National level we wish them well in the forthcoming months. There is no doubt that all concerned thrive on competition and the will to win.
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