Gurney: Competition will be good

Date: Friday 12 March 2010

In the second-part of our interview with Harry Gurney, he speaks about the upcoming season.

After making his breakthrough in 2009, Gurney wants to continue his progress this campaign and push on.

He is excited about working with new Club Captain Matthew Hoggard and all of the bowlers, who he feels will have a healthy competition for places.

Gurney burst onto the scene last summer with a number of impressive t20 performances and that forced his inclusion into the four-day side, where he also bowled well.

Gurney bowled at a fair lick and swung the ball around to create plenty of problems, and took his maiden five-wicket haul in first-class cricket against Surrey at Grace Road.

The 23-year-old thinks Hoggard will be a massive influence on the Club and thinks that everybody at Grace Road will benefit from his presence.

He said: “It’s going to be good working with Hoggy. The bowlers will have a mentor and it’s going to be great to train with him and see what makes him tick. He’ll call a spade a spade and that no-nonsense attitude will rub off well on all of the lads.

“We are a down-to-earth bunch of lads who like things said as they are. I think he’ll have a massive effect on the dressing room, the way we socialise and the way we go about our performances.”

Gurney also hopes to continue his development this season and build on his experiences from last year. He feels that strength in depth will stand the Club in good stead.

He said: “This year there’s plenty of resources on the bowling front. I was lucky last year that injuries gave me a run in the side and I was able to bank a lot of first-class experience.

“That was great and this year, with signings like Hoggy, Dan Masters and Nadeem Malik back to full fitness, there are a lot of bowlers around. If we steer clear of major injuries, because of that competition, the strongest side will always be selected.

“That can only benefit Tim in selecting the side and hopefully will allow us to get twenty wickets a game we need to win Championship matches. If we do that, hopefully we can push up the table and challenge for promotion.

"Last season the fixtures were congested around August and it will be nice to be in a position this season to maybe have more of a rotation policy as there are lots of options in the squad. Last year at times we had a lot of injuries and it made life difficult for Tim.”

As a left-armer, Gurney will provide Boon with variation and as seen in international cricket in recent times, left-arm pacemen can have a massive impact on the game.

Zaheer Khan, Mitchell Johnson, Wayne Parnell and Ryan Sidebottom have all been influential in recent times and Chaminda Vaas and Wasim Akram provided Sri Lanka and Pakistan with good options over the years.

Those players provide great inspiration for left-armers and left-arm bowlers are certainly a rare commodity in the game.

Indeed, it is an variation that Gurney hopes to use to his advantage in what will be a competitive squad.

He said:He hopes that his “I see being a left-armer as an advantage. There is always space in the side for variation and us left-armers are a fairly rare breed so it’s a different option.

“That doesn’t make me a certainty for selection – far from it – I will need to bowl extremely well in pre-season but I hope it is an advantage if I am bowling well.

“Hopefully I can give Tim some selection problems. With Matthew signing, AJ having a great season last year and bowling brilliantly all winter and Nads (Nadeem Malik) – who took 40 wickets in 2008 – back to full fitness, we have three experienced seamers who have all been there and done it.

“Then there’s Bucky (Nathan Buck), who did really well for England under 19s and all of the rest of the lads, who have been bowling extremely well in Potchefstroom.

“Everyone has done well and there is certainly a lot of competition for places which can only be healthy. There are people with a lot more experience than me who I am competing with and I need to match those guys for a place which can only be good for me.”

As mentioned previously, Gurney excelled at t20 in 2009 and with an extended competition in 2010, hopes to go well again.

He has plenty of happy memories tucked away and hopes to reconnect with those in a summer that sees a new structure with three competitions.

Gurney thinks that will help the county game and is already looking forward to getting stuck in and building on his performances from last season.

“I thought I had a decent season last year,” he said. “I had a lot more appearances than I expected and I thought my performances were decent, so it was great.

“But now I have to go back to a clean sheet, look back at those experiences in the first team that I enjoyed so much last year and use that as a motivation to spur me on and get myself in the team this season.

“I enjoyed t20 last season and the game that stands out in my memory was Yorkshire at home. We looked out of it but we turned it around completely in the field and the atmosphere around Grace Road was amazing.

“There was a massive buzz in the dressing room after that game and it is those sort of feelings that motivate you to try to achieve those things again on a more consistent basis.

“The system now is a lot more streamlined. Three competitions to concentrate on is better, it is less bitty and more structure. I think it will benefit us and county cricket as a whole.

“The argument for keeping 50-over cricket is that it reflects international cricket, but some of the best one-day sides in the world internationally do not play domestic games of 50 overs.

“So if it’s not having a major impact on international sides, then the fact that 40-over games are driving the crowds in and making more revenue for county sides means that we should go with that. If we can get people down to the ground, then that’s great.”

The reduction in overs of the one-day game will cause extra headaches for the bowlers but Gurney is relishing the challenge.

In an era where fortune generally favours the batsmen as well as the brave, the left-armer is hopeful that his experiences gained in t20 last summer will stand him in good stead when the batters come after him again.

“It can work both ways for a bowler, particularly in t20,” he said. “As a bowler there’s arguably less pressure because you are not expected to do so well. In the 40-over game you don’t get that middle period where sides look to push through overs and the batting team is happy to tick along at fours and fives an over.

“Pro40 last year eradicated that middle period and with 16 overs of powerplay in total, it will be all action. That makes it more entertaining for crowds and overall leads to better quality cricket. I am looking forward to the summer and hope we produce good, competitive, entertaining cricket.”