2024 ANNUAL REPORT

MINUTES OF THE 2024 ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING 57 to some of the best cricketers to play for this great club this century, as Stuart Broad, Jake Ball and Samit Patel departed with the warmest wishes for the future from all at the club. In Mr Newell’s view, Samit Patel was the best limited-overs cricketer to ever represent the club, and he joked that he was already dreading Samit turning up at Trent Bridge in the 2024 season wearing a Derbyshire shirt. Jake Ball, locally born, had gone on to represent England in all three formats, and Mr Newell wished him all the best at Somerset. The recent winter had seen Steven Mullaney make way for two new captains: Haseeb Hameed as club captain, and Joe Clarke as T20 skipper. Mr Newell wished to place on record his thanks to Steven for the selfless way he had led Nottingham- shire having taken on the role after Chris Read seven years ago. He had displayed unwavering commitment and dedication and had maintained a high level of per- formance since 2010. All connected with Notts wished Haseeb and Joe well as they took on their respective responsibilities. He saw their appointments as exciting, bringing youth and a fresh perspective to our leadership. They both led by example and performance, with Joe the club’s stand-out batter in two formats in 2023. His return of over 1,000 runs in the County Championship was his best in a Notts shirt to date, while he showed an ability to dig in and secure valuable points and bat with fluidity. That it was he and the Champion- ship’s top wicket-taker Brett Hutton who led that remarkable fightback against Kent was particularly appro- priate, given the impact both had on the club’s 2023 season. Brett himself deserved enormous credit for his consistency through- out the year in taking more than 60 County Championship wickets, while Dane Paterson claimed 50 wickets for the third season in a row. In the Vitality Blast, our at-times inconsistent performances saw us win eight of our 14 games, extend- ing our qualification record to 12 quarter-finals in 14 seasons. Joe and Shaheen Afridi deserved mention for their contributions as top run-scorer and wicket-taker respectively. The latter delivered great entertain- ment, with his four-wicket first over against Birmingham Bears one of the highlights of the season. Whilst it was frustrating not to reach Finals Day having got into a strong position against Somerset in the quarter-final, that result should fuel the Outlaws as they entered a new era for the club inT20 cricket. In the One Day Cup, we had seen individual contributions worthy of praise but had lacked a comprehen- sive, consistent run of performances. This competition acted as a means to blood our next generation, Mr Newell said, and for more senior players to take responsibility. How- ever, the ambition remained to win and get to a Trent Bridge final, and we could not lose sight of that goal. Many of those who would make their way in this competition had come from the Academy, where we had an exciting young crop at present. In 2023, Freddie McCann was joined by Travis Holland, Sam Seecharan,Tom Giles and Farhan Ahmed at the ECB Super 4s Festival, a tournament for the top U18 pros- pects around the country. Farhan also made a big impression for England U19s at theWorld Cup, despite being aged 15 at the time of the tournament, which was testa- ment to his potential. In addition,Toby Lambert, Josh Parsons and Josh Beer were among the promising U15 players from across the country who were invited to the Bunbury Festival last year. Mr Newell signposted members to page 21 of the annual report, where they could see the figures regarding the progression of Academy players to professional staff, which com- pared favourably to the First-Class Counties average. He was very grateful for the work done by MattWood, Richard Damms and Andy Pick in our path- way as they continued to nurture our talent as players and people. On the women and girls’ front, eight Notts players who had taken our U18s to a County Cup semi-final representedThe Blaze Academy last year, including MaddieWard who had been named in England’s U19 Women’sWorld Cup squad for Sri Lanka. Meanwhile four players inThe Blaze’s senior side had represented Nottinghamshire, including Sophie Munro who had been included in two England A tours this winter. With the women and girls’ game a key pillar of our growth, it was fan- tastic to seeThe Blaze reach the final of both competitions in 2023 having made the move toTrent Bridge in November 2022. Mr Newell said that Notts were a better club for having a full-time professional women’s team and he urged members to attend a Blaze game at Trent Bridge in 2024, of which there were to be four. James Cutt, the regional director of women’s cricket, was at the AGM and had already built a stronger squad of players and staff than the region could attract before the move to Nottingham. Mr Newell also wished to reference Tammy Beaumont’s brilliant double hundred at Trent Bridge during the Women’s Ashes Test which capped a week of several firsts in an historic fixture for this venue. She joined Ben Duckett as a star turn in the Ashes summer, with Ben’s own performances over an 18-month period rewarded with a two-year central contract. Mr Newell recorded the club’s congrat- ulations to Ben.