Story Mickey 'Flawless' Diamond: A Coach's Story

[Griddle Cakes]

Backstory
For those of you who were following my brief run with my story last time, you'll have read that the new patch for Cricket Coach wasn't compatible with old saves, thus my story had to be restarted. I quite enjoyed coaching Surrey, and I have been playing another game coaching Western Australia, so it is a bit hard for me to let go of coaching just one team, and giving their story, but I thought this might be more of an interesting take on the story idea. This time, Michael Diamond will be starting unemployed as a reputation-less hopeful who'll take the first job offer given to him.

Format
I won't be presenting this story as a "dear diary" kind of journal, nor will it be told in first-person perspective. It will focus on the team's performance, Diamond's performance as a coach and, unfortunately, captain. The latter is not my intention, but due to the nature of cricket games, is an unavoidable circumstance. Any sort of in-game drama/backstory will be posted on a webpage-style format, including match reports and general articles by cricketing "journalists" and "experts". Interviews with Diamond will be regular, as well as major updates on how the cricketing world is going.

Prediction/Tipping Contest
I will be holding a bit of a tipping contest in this topic, giving my readers the chance to tip on Diamond's fortune as a coach, as well as his team's. I'd like to give everyone the chance to tip on every game, but I fear this would drag my story along too slowly, so I'll mostly be saving it for season predictions (team and player) as well as career predictions (and advice; I'll take it) for Michael Diamond himself.​

Michael "Flawless" Diamond

Current Club: Gloucestershire
Days at Club: 10

Record with Gloucestershire
First-Class: 1-0-0
Limited Overs: 0-0-0
T20: 2-0-0
​

 

[harrisb]

This should be good, you made a good start to your last one however you might find it hard starting unemployed.

 

[Griddle Cakes]

January 01, 2011
It is the start of a new year and the cricketing world is moving along strong. The Ashes are tied at 1-apiece, meaning an Australian victory in Sydney is imperative if they are to regain the tiny trophy. Andrew Strauss stunned the cricketing world with a massive 340 in the second test in Adelaide, leading his team to a nine-wicket victory, giving the Poms a 1-0 lead.

On the international coaching scene, rumour surrounds the Zimbabwean and Bangladeshi teams, with dismal recent performances putting their coaches under the hammer. Johanne Pillay, the coach of South African domestic side WP Boland, is also under pressure, with his team seeing just two victories thus far in the Currie Cup, and just one victory from eight matches in the RSA Bank Cup.



January 07, 2011
Australia have won back the Ashes! Since losing them for the first time in 18 years in 2004-05 (2-1 to England), the Australians won them back in 2006 (5-0) to lose them again in their return trip to England (2-1 again). This time, in the midst of a steady decline in dominance (slumping as low as number five in the Test rankings), the Aussies managed to pull of a home series victory, 2-1, meaning the Ashes has changed hands every time for the past four series, and boosting their rating to become the number two test side in the world.

England captain Andrew Strauss gave one of the most memorable performances of the series, with a stunning knock of 340 from just 412 deliveries, setting his side up to take out the second test by nine wickets. Five batsmen scored 500 or more runs for the series, including newcomer David Hussey who, like his older brother Michael, has made a strong impact early in his Test career, averaging 71.78 with the bat so far.



March 28, 2011
The cricketing world stopped to see Australia take out their fourth consecutive World Cup, defeating India by six wickets in Kolkata. The Australians were the only side to finish the group stage undefeated, with an astonishing net run rate of +1.860. The convincing victors were held to less than 300 runs on only two occasions throughout the event, including scores of 5/426, 4/394, 5/360, which also happened to be the three highest-scoring innings of the entire event. They also managed to keep three teams to totals below 200, including keeping India, their opponents in the final match of the tournament to just 179. The team calmly chased the total down within 40 overs.

Pakistan wicket-keeper Shahzib Hasan was the leading run-scorer of the tournament with 552 runs, including a high score of 108*, finishing the tournament with 3 centuries and 3 fifties. Shane Watson and David Warner were dominant for Australia, finishing with 545 and 514 runs respectively, including high scores of 169 and 140. Stuart Broad was the pick of the bowlers, with 24 at an average of 15.75, including best-innings figures of 7/48.

In other news that no one cares about, Darren Lehmann was appointed coach of Pakistani first-class team the Karachi Blues, edging out another keen applicant in Michael Diamond.



July 04, 2011
Gloucestershire have announced the signing of Michael Diamond as their new coach. After suddenly parting company with former coach John Bracewell, within days the club announced rookie coach Michael Diamond as, “the face of their new dynasty.” The club have won just two games for the entire county season, sitting dead last in the LV Championship with zero wins, four draws and six losses, last in the Clydesdale Bank 40 Group B standings with one win from their six matches, and also last in the Friends Provident t20 Southern league, with just one win from their eleven games.

Diamond has been meeting with club officials, discussing the club's plans for the future. He will face the press in a couple days.

 

[Griddle Cakes]

This post will change as the team's roster is changed over time.

Coach: Michael Diamond
Captain: Alex Gidman

-----

Batsmen
Chris Dent
Alex Gidman
Hamish Marshall
Paul Morton
Chris Taylor

All-Rounders
Michael Deakin
Robert Ferley
Will Gidman
Jack Taylor
Robert Woodman

Wicket-keepers
Chris Anwar
Jonathon Batty
Ben Cox

Bowlers
Richard Dawson
James Franklin
Jon Lewis
David Payne
Oliver Rennison
Tim Rous
David Stiff

-----

Delistings:
Ian Saxelby
Vikram Banerjee
Neil Kelly
Steve Snell

Signings:
Ben Cox
​

 

[treva]

Nice start, I look forward to following this. Looks like a very difficult job on your hands at Gloucestershire.

 

[harrisb]

Very nice writing GC. (are you called Michael or is that just a name you are using?)

Looking at the Gloucestershire squad, you could do with some decent English signings, have you looked at Dawid Malan (Middx), Sam Northeast (Kent) or Nick Compton (Somerset I think). They are all established players, Northeast is quite a good player for his age and Compton has got a few years experience opening for Somerset now.

Best of luck.

 

[Griddle Cakes]

Very nice writing GC. (are you called Michael or is that just a name you are using?)

Looking at the Gloucestershire squad, you could do with some decent English signings, have you looked at Dawid Malan (Middx), Sam Northeast (Kent) or Nick Compton (Somerset I think). They are all established players, Northeast is quite a good player for his age and Compton has got a few years experience opening for Somerset now.

Best of luck.

My real name is Brent, I'm just using the name Michael Diamond for the purposes of this story. I think it helps build a character around the coach without thinking I'm basing it off myself. Thanks for the recs, I'm actually in the market for younger players, and Malan and Northeast fit the bill quite well, although Northeast is contracted until the end of 2014. Two of my opening batsmen, Paul Morton and Chris Dent, are actually not far off Nick Compton's standard and are just 19 and 20, respectively, but signing him would be a pretty big boost and give us a fair bit of depth I feel, although he as well is contracted to the end of 2014, so picking him up then (he'll be 30), there might be a few younger players more worth having a look at.

 

[Griddle Cakes]

Diamond faces the press
An amiable Michael Diamond faced the press today, not hesitating to answer questions about his approach to the team, highlighting players he will be targeting in the short- and long-term.

"Coming to the club I noticed we had depth in all-rounders, but not enough specialists, especially batsmen. Aside from our openers and Hamish Marshall, most of our middle order consists of all-rounders, I feel we need a few more specialist batsmen, especially in this department."

Gloucestershire had been playing both wicket-keepers in the side, playing Chris Anwar as a specialist batsman, in attempt to find more depth through the middle order. Diamond was not afraid to outline his overall plan for the team, including who was needed and who wasn't.

"I want to breed some youth into the side, without sacrificing too much experience, but I believe the players entering their mid-30s will not have a place in my first XI. (Captain) Alex Gidman and Hamish Marshall don't need to worry, they may be passing thirty soon, but they are required players in my team."

Diamond outlined not only who was needed in his team, but also who he'd be targeting during the season, and off-season.

"Well, I'll be trying to bring a slew of young, talented batsmen into our side as well as trying to fill up the bowling stocks. Players like (Dawid) Malan from Middlesex and (Sam) Northeast from Kent, as well as someone like (Moeen) Ali from Worcestershire are people we will be targeting. I am already in talks with a young, thus far unsigned wicket keeper named Ben Cox, who will be taking the place of one of our already established keepers. Whether or not he is good enough to break right into the side, or whether we have the ability to play him straight away, is a story for another day.

In terms of bowlers, Chris Woakes from Warwickshire is a good young player, as well as maybe Ajmal Shahzad, so players like that will definitely be replacing some of our current list."​

 

[Griddle Cakes]

LV= County Championship Division Two
Derbyshire (4-2-4) v Gloucestershire (0-4-6)

With no wins so far in the County Championship, Gloucestershire parted ways with former coach John Bracewell and hired rookie Michael Diamond, who takes charge of a team in horrible shape. With four delistings and a signing during the week, it will be interesting to see how Diamond's team line up, and what shape the match will take.

Derbyshire
WL Madsen
CF Hughes
A Dennington
PM Borrington
WJ Durston
MS Lineker
LD Sutton*?
TD Groenewald
J Needham
JL Clare
ML Turner

Gloucestershire
CDJ Dent
JN Batty?
HJH Marshall
APR Gidman*
CG Taylor
WRS Gidman
M Deakin
JEC Franklin
RKJ Dawson
DA Stiff
DA Payne​

 

[harrisb]

Very nice, simple, presentation. It's not too crowded and makes for easy reading.

Don't know much about the players in your team apart from Marshall, Franklin and Gidman though, so I can't see how it's going to go.

Will you be giving us brief updates from the other scores and international round-ups?

 

[Griddle Cakes]

Yeah, I will be doing what I did in the previous story, with the results of each round going up with the write-up of the match I played.

I'm not so sure about International round-ups, maybe just the major things like the World Cup and the Ashes, like I did before... it just seems I'd be bogging the story down too much with international news rather than focusing on Michael Diamond, the true centre of the story.

 

[harrisb]

ok, that's fine.

 

[Griddle Cakes]

Diamond's career off to sizzling start
Just one day after signing on as Gloucestershire's new head coach, Michael Diamond has led them to their first County Championship victory for the season, and quite a convincing one at that. The match was over within three days, and while neither team was sensational with the bat, James Franklin starred with figures of 3/66 and 6/52, marking a huge return to form for him. Five players finished with half centuries, three from Gloucestershire (Chris Taylor 55, Michael Deakin 54 and Chris Dent 55) and two from Derbyshire (Wes Durston 55 and Luke Sutton 54) but no player on either team could pass the 60 mark, let alone score a ton.

Ex-New Zealander James Franklin, playing primarily as a bowler, with just six wickets from his last six innings, picked up a match total of 9/118, cementing his place in the side, at least for the short term, after the new coach announced, in such a disappointing season, that no player's spot in the team would be safe.

Gloucestershire rose to eighth on the County Championship standings, two points clear of now-bottom-placed Leicestershire, and three points away from Northamptonshire. Gloucestershire will face Kent in Game 12 of the Friends Provident Twenty20 tournament, in which they've managed just one win for the season.

[FONT="Tahoma"][SIZE="1"]County Championship Division Two                                                               First-class match | 2011 season
[SIZE="2"][B]Derbyshire vs Gloucestershire[/B][/SIZE]							Played at County Ground, Derby
[SIZE="1"]Gloucestershire won by 7 wickets[/SIZE]									5,6,7, July 2011 (4-day match)[/SIZE]
 
[B]Derbyshire 1st innings							R	B	4s	6s	S/R[/B]
[b]WL Madsen[/b]		b Gidman					29	59	3	0	49.15
[b]CF Hughes[/b]		lbw Gidman				25	43	2	0	58.14
[b]A Dennington[/b]		c Batty b Franklin			16	44	2	0	36.36
[b]PM Borrington[/b]		lbw Payne					5	13	0	0	38.46
[b]WJ Durston[/b]		c Dawson b Payne			55	117	6	0	32.35
[b]MS Lineker[/b]		b Stiff					11	34	0	0	32.35
[b]LD Sutton[/b]*†		c Batty b Stiff				54	89	6	0	60.67
[b]TD Groenewald[/b]	lbw Dawson				5	15	0	0	33.33
[b]J Needham[/b]		b Franklin					14	53	0	0	26.42
[b]JL Clare[/b]			b Franklin					7	30	0	0	23.33
[b]ML Turner[/b]		not out					4	8	0	0	50.00
Extras			(b 0, lb 0, w 1, nb 22)			[U]23[/U]
[b]Total[/b]			(all out; 84.1 overs)			[b]248[/b]	(2.95 runs per over)
[b]Fall of wickets[/b] 1-57 (Hughes, 15.3 ov), 2-66 (Madsen, 19.1 ov), 3-73 (Borrington, 22.1 ov),
4-86 (Dennington, 29.0 ov), 5-110 (Lineker, 39.5 ov), 6-187 (Durston, 60.3 ov),
7-205 (Groenewald, 65.4 ov), 8-218 (Sutton, 73.5 ov), 9-240 (Needham, 80.4 ov),
10-248 (Clare, 84.1 ov)
  
[b]Bowling			   O	  M	   R	   W	   Econ[/b]
[b]JEC Franklin[/b]		21.1	 2	66      3	3.05	(7nb)
[b]DA Stiff[/b]			20	 2	69      2	3.45	(8nb)
[b]DA Payne[/b]			17	 3	29      2	1.71	(4nb) 
[b]WRS Gidman[/b]		12	2	36       2	3.00	(2nb) 
[b]RKJ Dawson[/b]		11	1	40       1	3.64	 (1w) 
[b]M Deakin[/b]			3	 0	8	0	2.67	(1nb)

[B]Gloucestershire 1st innings						R	B	4s	6s	S/R[/B]
[b]CDJ Dent[/b]			c Clare b Groenwald			29	59	3	0	49.15
[b]JN Batty†[/b]			b Clare					25	43	2	0	58.14
[b]HJH Marshall[/b]		c Sutton b Needham			16	44	2	0	36.36
[b]APR Gidman*[/b]		st Sutton b Durston			5	13	0	0	38.46
[b]CG Taylor[/b]			b Durston					55	117	6	0	32.35
[b]WRS Gidman[/b]		b Durston					11	34	0	0	32.35
[b]M Deakin[/b]			lbw Turner					54	89	6	0	60.67
[b]JEC Franklin[/b]		c Sutton b Hughes			5	15	0	0	33.33
[b]RKJ Dawson[/b]		lbw Turner					14	53	0	0	26.42
[b]DA Stiff[/b]			b Durston					7	30	0	0	23.33
[b]DA Payne[/b]			not out					4	8	0	0	50.00
Extras			(b 0, lb 0, w 4, nb 11)			[U]15[/U]
[b]Total[/b]			(all out; 103.3 overs)			[b]290[/b]	(2.80 runs per over)
[b]Fall of wickets[/b] 1-25 (Dent, 6.5 ov), 2-35 (Batty, 12.0 ov), 3-90 (Marshall, 28.1 ov),
4-162 (Gidman, 53.4 ov), 5-168 (Gidman, 55.2 ov), 6-179 (Taylor, 59.1 ov), 7-227 (Deakin, 80.4 ov),
8-252 (Dawson, 88.2 ov), 9-282 (Stiff, 98.4 ov), 10-290 (Franklin, 103.3 ov)
  
[b]Bowling			   O	  M	   R	   W	   Econ[/b]
[b]JL Clare[/b]			24	 3	66      1	2.75	(2nb)
[b]ML Turner[/b]		20	 3	69      2	3.45	(3nb, 3w)
[b]TD Groenewald[/b]	10	 1	37      1	3.70	(1nb, 1w) 
[b]WJ Durston[/b]		23	6	43       4	1.87	(2nb) 
[b]J Needham[/b]		19	2	64       1	3.37	 (1w) 
[b]CF Hughes[/b]		7.3	 2	11	1	1.47	(1nb)
 
[B]Derbyshire 2nd innings							R	B	4s	6s	S/R[/B]
[b]WL Madsen[/b]		b Franklin					31	73	1	0	42.47
[b]CF Hughes[/b]		b Stiff					16	42	1	0	38.10
[b]A Dennington[/b]		lbw Franklin				13	40	0	0	32.50
[b]PM Borrington[/b]		c Taylor b Franklin			4	2	1	0	200.00
[b]WJ Durston[/b]		c Batty b Franklin			23	41	3	0	56.10
[b]MS Lineker[/b]		b Dawson					5	20	0	0	25.00
[b]LD Sutton[/b]*†		b Franklin					29	59	3	0	49.15
[b]TD Groenewald[/b]	b Dawson					7	30	0	0	23.33
[b]J Needham[/b]		lbw Stiff					4	11	0	0	36.36
[b]JL Clare[/b]			not out					2	19	0	0	10.53
[b]ML Turner[/b]		lbw Franklin				2	7	0	0	28.57
Extras			(b 0, lb 0, w 2, nb 18)			[U]20[/U]
[b]Total[/b]			(all out; 57.2 overs)			[b]156[/b]	(2.72 runs per over)
[b]Fall of wickets[/b] 1-39 (Hughes, 13.1 ov), 2-69 (Madsen, 24.4 ov), 3-73 (Borrington, 25.0 ov),
4-81 (Dennington, 26.2 ov), 5-100 (Lineker, 33.2 ov), 6-116 (Durston, 39.0 ov),
7-140 (Groenewald, 49.3 ov), 8-150 (Needham, 52.4 ov), 9-153 (Sutton, 55.1 ov)
10-156 (Turner, 57.2 ov)
  
[b]Bowling			   O	  M	   R	   W	   Econ[/b]
[b]JEC Franklin[/b]		18.2	 3	52      6	2.84	(4nb)
[b]DA Stiff[/b]			15	 1	39      2	2.60	(8nb)
[b]DA Payne[/b]			8	 4	13      0	1.63	(4nb) 
[b]WRS Gidman[/b]		5	 0	21       0	4.20	(2nb) 
[b]RKJ Dawson[/b]		11	 2	31       2	2.82	 (1w) 

[B]Gloucestershire 2nd innings						R	B	4s	6s	S/R[/B]
[b]CDJ Dent[/b]			not out					53	120	4	0	49.15
[b]JN Batty†[/b]			c Needham b Clare			23	44	2	0	58.14
[b]JEC Franklin[/b]		c Sutton b Needham			14	34	1	0	33.33
[b]HJH Marshall[/b]		b Durston					9	24	0	0	36.36
[b]APR Gidman*[/b]		not out					11	22	0	0	38.46
Extras			(b 0, lb 0, w 4, nb 7)			[U]7[/U]
[b]Total[/b]			(for 3 wickets; 40.4 overs)		[b]117[/b]	(2.88 runs per over)

[b]Did not bat[/b] CG Taylor, WRS Gidman, M Deakin, RKJ Dawson, DA Stiff, DA Payne

[b]Fall of wickets[/b] 1-48 (Batty, 16.4 ov), 2-72 (Franklin, 24.5 ov), 3-96 (Marshall, 32.1 ov)
  
[b]Bowling			   O	  M	   R	   W	   Econ[/b]
[b]JL Clare[/b]			13	 2	29      1	2.75	(3nb)
[b]ML Turner[/b]		9	 1	31      0	3.45	(3nb)
[b]TD Groenewald[/b]	1	 0	6      1	3.70	(1nb, 1w) 
[b]WJ Durston[/b]		12.4	1	33       1	1.87
[b]J Needham[/b]		5	 1	18	1	1.47	(1nb)

[b]Match details[/b]
[b]Toss[/b] Derbyshire, who chose to bat
[b]Points[/b] Gloucestershire 21, Derbyshire 4

[b]Close of play[/b]
[b]13 Sep[/b] day 1 - Gloucestershire 1st innings 0/20 (CDJ Dent 12*, JN Batty 5*, 5.4 ov)
[b]14 Sep[/b] day 2 - Derbyshire 2nd innings 0/16 (WL Madsen 4*, CF Hughes 10*, 4.0 ov)
[b]15 Sep[/b] day 3 - Gloucestershire 2nd innings 3/117 (40.4 ov) – end of match

[/FONT]

 

[6ry4nj]

Wes Durston a bowler? That's the first time he's taken a 4fer, he bowls an average of 10 overs per first-class game IRL. But I suppose you can't fix database errors once you've started a save. Oh dear.

Also, I know I said Franklin could bat, but maybe he's not quite number 3 material .

 

[Griddle Cakes]

Wes Durston a bowler? That's the first time he's taken a 4fer, he bowls an average of 10 overs per first-class game IRL. But I suppose you can't fix database errors once you've started a save. Oh dear.

Also, I know I said Franklin could bat, but maybe he's not quite number 3 material .

Yeah, it's quite strange, Hamish Marshall was the default captain of Gloucestershire; I had to sack him and then name Alex Gidman as skipper. Hamish Marshall also magically became captain for the second innings . I think there's just a major flaw in the leadership section.

And Franklin came in as a night watchmen, but then got out. Just in case you didn't notice he was number eight in the first innings