Salisbury says youngsters can deliver success

By sosborn bymarcu hook

SURREY second XI manager Ian Salisbury is calling for patience from supporters as the club look to develop Stuart Meaker.

The 20-year-old fast bowler is being tipped for England honours in the future, but Salisbury is urging club members not to get carried away and expect too much from him.

He said: "Let's ease up a little bit with Stuart. I love Meaks to bits. He wants to get there quickly as well, which is half the problem. Yes, he's a good prospect, but let's build the foundations before we say he's going to do this or he's going to do that.

"He's raw and he bowls quick, but just because he can do all those things it doesn't mean to say all of a sudden that he can play for England one day.

"Let's have him at the end of his mark worrying about how he's going to get the batsman out, rather than him thinking about his action or anything like that."

With the retirement of Mark Butcher, Scott Newman set to be released from the final year of his current deal and Surrey's decision not to re-engage James Benning, Murtaza Hussain, Chris Murtagh and James Ormond, a number of the second-team players will have to make the step up next summer.

"If I think back to when all the guys on the management team were first starting out, they were playing first-class cricket at the age of nineteen," said Salisbury. "We had to learn as youngsters in first-class cricket. We all ended up playing for 20 years and having some success.

"Chris Adams was playing at eighteen, I was, Graham Thorpe was, Alec Stewart was and Martin Bicknell was playing at seventeen. Who's to say you can't do that? It might mean be a harsher environment to learn in. We're going to have the chance to work with players all winter.

"It'll be quite exciting to be able to spend some time with these players over a winter and see what we do.

"Who's to say that Arun Harinath can't step into Scott Newman's shoes or that Laurie Evans can't replace James Benning?"