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“The fans deserve some good cricket, just coming off the World Cup. No matter what the result, hopefully the fans will get two good days of cricket. Cup Match is about more than just the cricket.”
Somerset skipper Hasan Durham is looking to match Cann by getting a victory in his first year as captain. Cann achieved that last year with a seven-wicket triumph at Somerset. The man who has replaced Janeiro Tucker — who lost the captaincy after defeats in 2005 and ‘06 — recognises the task for the west enders is tough enough without the weather putting a damper on things. “We need as much time as we can get to try to bowl them out twice,” said Durham who has the bowlers capable of exploiting the conditions, led by himself and Dwayne Leverock, two of the most experienced members of this Somerset team.
“Plus, nobody wants to play cricket in the rain and for the fans you don’t want to have too many stoppages.”
Durham added: “It is a balanced team, but first and foremost we have to bowl them out twice. Having said that a lot of our bowling allrounders are in pretty good form with the bat and I feel very confident about our chances of going down there and winning the game.
“You have to take bowlers you feel can penetrate and get wickets.”
Durham won’t single out any players in his team having to play significant roles. He says it will have to be a team effort if the challengers are to be successful.
“Everybody’s got to play a part,” he stressed.
“There are only three guys in the team who have played in double figures in Cup Match — myself, Sluggo and Janeiro (Tucker) so that means that he (Tucker) is the most experienced batsman in the team.”
Durham has played every year since 1994 when he made his debut and has been vice captain on a couple of occasions. “People might say we don’t have a strong team, but that’s because they don’t know the players. However, in cricketing circles the players who are playing are well known and in good form. I think there are going to be some surprises come Thursday and Friday.
“I’m confident in the players we picked and at the end of the day we have to be able to bowl them out twice. Somebody is going to step up and get the job done — if not one individual then everybody picking up two wickets each.”
While Somerset had their team selected and rubber-stamped in the space of an hour, the champions took about three hours before finalising their team after midnight on Saturday. It may not have been a straight-forward selection for the champions who made two changes, but captain Cann insists it is a team that will represent the club.
“It’s a very aggressive team, experience mixed with some of the best youth coming along,” said the Bermuda international who has five of his own St. David’s teammates in the team. Those players are fresh off an impressive victory over Bailey’s Bay in the first round of the Eastern Counties 10 days ago.
“It’s a team that can obviously win and we will be going in with a plan,” Cann vowed. He promised last year he would be going for victory and was true to his word. He plays his cricket in an aggressive manner and enjoys the pre-match banter.
“If things go according to plan and everyone does their job I don’t see why we can’t get a three-peat,” said Cann who isn’t fazed by what went on on Saturday night with the team selection.
“The (five) selectors go in and vote on it and sometimes it’s three-to-two and sometimes it’s four-to-one. At the end of the day it is still our team and we will stand behind whatever team we pick.
“Obviously it was a headache this year — you look at the calibre of players and the six or seven players vying for spots who didn’t make it, if they were playing at Somerset they would have been automatic choices. If you look at the strength and depth obviously you are going to have problems picking a Cup Match team when you want different players for different reasons.”
Cann admits being asked to captain the team is a big honour and it has given him a new lease on his career. “That is what has revitalised my whole career,” he says. “Three years ago I was talking about retirement, then I got called up to the national squad and then qualifying for the World Cup gave me a new lease on life. Playing in the World Cup and St. George’s making me captain, along with the new challenges of coaching and captaining St. David’s has really been exciting for me. It comes with a lot of stress, not so much me performing but just making sure everyone else is doing their job and that their cricket is going forward.”
Sandwiched in between the Eastern Counties, Cann has four big matches to look forward to and with the pressure of holding onto two cricket cups that are each over 100 years old. “It is very stressful at this time of the year, attending functions and training, you have very limited time with your family,” he says of the Cup Match build-up. “It is all stress-related but I thrive off it.”
Now 33, Cann expects to go on for a few years yet. “I take inspiration from guys like Charlie Marshall who is 44, 45 and still dominating local cricket,” he stated. “I’m not looking to retire any time soon unless it’s time for me to stop for family reasons.”As for his opponents, Cann is respectful without being fearful. He thinks experience could be the difference between the teams. “I’m never fearful of any opponents, they’ve got a lot of bits and pieces players which could be good or also bad,’ said the confident captain.
“As long as we don’t become complacent and take them for granted, I don’t see any major problems. Over two days the experience shows. In a 20 or 50 over match it is different, but in two days if you get in trouble in the first innings we have the experience to get ourselves out of trouble in the second. Or if we get them down and up against the way we have the experience to take them right out.
“I like to play aggressive and attack but if it comes down to where they are on top and we are in deep trouble I’m not stupid to go ahead and give it to them.”
Charlie Marshall and Clay Smith as key for the champions — Marshall now the leading run-getter in Cup Match and possibly playing in his final game and Smith aiming to score the 14 runs that will make him only the third player behind Marshall and brother Wendell Smith to reach the four-figure mark. It is very likely to be Smith’s final Cup Match, too.
There are other players to watch too, Cann warns. Players like vice captain OJ Pitcher who scored 98 last year in the first innings, Delyone Borden, Chris Foggo, George O’Brien, promising opener Oronde Bascome and colt James Celestine.
“In 2005 Chris Foggo was MVP, he is returning, and Oliver Pitcher Jr was MVP last year, so these guys are senior players also and are playing beyond their years,” said Cann. “Hopefully they can be an inspiration to Oronde to achieve something. Celestine is in some very dangerous form and hopefully he can carry that through. We have the youth and experience. Young Delyone is one of the best spinners in Bermuda and Rodney Trott is going to be a master.”
It could be an interesting bowling match up — George O’Brien and Arthur Pitcher versus Kevin Hurdle, Jacobi Robinson and Malachi Jones in the seam department and Delyone Borden and Rodney Trott, the under-19 captain, coming up against Somerset’s spin trio of Durham, Leverock and colt Derrick Brangman with left-arm medium-pacer Dean Stephens another key bowler.
“Hasan and Sluggo will be trying to get wickets because they have had lean Cup Matches over the years,” said Cann. “We have counteracted their plan with our left-handers and they don’t like to bowl to left-handers. Bermuda batsmen don’t play spin too well, no matter if the wicket is turning or is flat, especially a spinner who thinks and a captain who makes sure his bowlers bowl in the right areas.
“Then again young (George) O’Brien is bowling faster than ever. Kevin Hurdle has a lot to prove because he has never won Cup Match.”
Mark Trott, chairman of the Somerset selectors, insists the challengers are thinking long term as they rebuild a young, energetic team to threaten the champions. “Obviously people know we have been in a rebuilding mode last year and this year and we are continuing that process,” said Trott. “If you look at the vision of the president, Richard Scott — let’s not kid ourselves — to win the cup back the west end community would be absolutely delighted and head over heels. But the bottom line is the president spoke to myself and the coach Winston Reid and said ‘we want to go long term, we just don’t want instant gratification and two years down the road we are back to square one’.”
Trott added: “Yes, we picked an aggressive team and depending on how things go could walk out of Wellington Oval with a victory, but let’s face it isn’t going to be easy. Our emphasis really is on long term, getting a team that can be all-conquering for a number of years. If you look at the nature of our team the age of the team is being dramatically affected now. Just about half the team is in their early 20s. What’s happening now is both clubs are looking closely at young players, but one thing that is very good for both clubs, too, is that they are developing their own club talent. Look at Somerset where we have about five or six youngsters who in the next two to three years should be in Cup Match or knocking on the door.”
