APPRENTICESHIP LEVY LAUNCHED INTO CHAOS

32 SPORT THURSDAY 6 APRIL 2017
CITYAM.COM
CRICKET
Somerset to soar, Hampshire
to fall: My 2017 season tips
Davies will be a
quality addition
for Somerset
CRICKET
COMMENT
Chris
Tremlett
They've been tagged as
bridesmaids after missing
out on silverware so
often but I believe this
will be the season
that Somerset seal their maiden
County Championship title.
Somerset have found a formula
that works at Taunton. They’ve
played on some seriously flat wickets
over the years and have turned
their home ground into a bit of a
dust bowl, while they possess some
threatening spinners.
The West Country side also have
seamers who know how to bowl on
greener pitches away from home.
My former Surrey team-mate
Steven Davies is an exciting addition
and will really boost their batting.
They’ll be a force to be
reckoned with.
Yorkshire, county champions in
2014 and 2015, are a strong, quality
unit and will be there or thereabouts.
I expect them and Somerset
to break clear from the pack
towards the end of the campaign.
My old team Surrey look really
strong on paper and have made
some impressive signings in
Durham pair Mark Stoneman and
Scott Borthwick. They have so
much depth to their squad.
Defending champions Middlesex
are another side with a strong
bowling pack and will be in contention
again, while Warwickshire
have the capacity to surprise.
A quarter of teams will be relegated
from the top-flight this season.
There have been suggestions
that this ratio is too high but I believe
it’s fair and adds to the competition
in Division Two.
In terms of the two relegation
slots, I hate to say it but I can see
my other former club Hampshire
struggling. They don’t have a great
record of keeping their seamers fit
and Fidel Edwards looks to have
suffered a hamstring injury this
week. A lot will depend on South
African Kolpak signing Kyle Abbott.
They are likely to be dependent
on him to get through a vast
number of overs and if he gets
crocked it could be curtains.
Lancashire have some exciting
players but are still quite a young
outfit and I reckon they’ll find it
hard work to stay up. So, Lancashire
and Hampshire for the
drop.
I cannot look beyond Nottinghamshire
for an immediate return
to Division One having suffered
relegation last season. I might
have tipped Durham to join them
but their 48-point deduction following
financial problems will be
too much to make up.
Finally, if I was to pick five players
to keep an eye on this summer,
they would be Northamptonshire’s
Ben Duckett, Stoneman at Surrey,
his new team-mate Sam Curran,
Sam Hain of Warwickshire and
Lancashire’s Liam Livingstone.
FOOTBALL
Ceferin in blackmail
barb at top leagues
FRANK DALLERES
@frankdalleres
EUROPE’S most powerful clubs have been warned
that they will not be allowed to use the threat of a
breakaway competition to “blackmail” their way to
greater influence.
Aleksander Ceferin, president of European
governing body Uefa, insisted he would thwart any
attempts to form a “super league” ring-fenced for
the continent’s best-known teams.
“There will be no closed league. It’s as simple as
that,” he said. Ceferin also took aim at the biggest
leagues, adding: “We will never give in to the
blackmail of those who think they can manipulate
small leagues because they are all-powerful because
of the astronomical values they generate.”