Samed Fallah will not be returning to Colwyn Bay in 2016. Although the Indian seamer took 68 wickets at 10.63 runs apiece as Sion Morris’s team stormed to the First Division title last summer, the Welsh club have decided not to re-engage him and are instead looking for a new-ball bowler of equivalent quality from the subcontinent.
“Samed was a brilliant pro for us for two years but finance was an issue because it’s been a difficult two years for the club and we need to be seen to be cutting our cloth carefully,” explained first-team skipper Sion Morris.
“Cricket doesn’t want to cripple the club. We had to pay nigh on £50,000 for a new wall last year and it would be remiss of us to keep spending hugely on players. We have a budget and we couldn’t stretch to what Samed wanted, but he’s starting a family and we see his point of view, too.
“We’re looking at getting someone of equal standing in the game,” continued Morris. “It’s certainly not the case that we won’t be getting a first-class bowler. The people we are looking at have played Test cricket or are up at the top of the statistics. We’ve made an offer to another Indian bowler and we’re just waiting to hear back from him.
“We’ve had three very successful Indian bowlers and we’ve used the same agent for twenty years. It’s sometimes been late in the winter when we’ve signed a player. We engaged Samed after we’d originally agreed terms with another player who was then signed by an IPL franchise.”
The news that Fallah is not returning to Penrhyn Avenue may be both a big relief and a slight disappointment to batsmen in the Med Imaging Liverpool Competition’s Premier League, although Colwyn Bay’s success in signing high-quality professionals suggests that any lessening of concern is likely to be short-lived.
And in any case, while Fallah led Morris’s attack in admirable fashion last year, his presence does not explain why Colwyn Bay won the traditionally closely-fought First Division by the little matter of 101 points from second-placed Rainford.
The reasons for that success also lie with the new-ball skills of Ryan Holtby (30 wickets at 13.06), the all-round contribution of Adam Campion (624 runs and 22 wickets) and the batting of the skipper himself (734 runs). Not to mention the contributions of batsman Jordan Evans (262 runs in 13 games) or slow left-arm bowler of Paul Jenkins (38 wickets at 14.81).
The strength in depth of his side has made Morris quietly sanguine about his team’s prospects when their league season starts at home to Northern on April 23 and also full of praise for the quality of his players.
“I am completely happy to be going into the Premier League with the players who got us into the Premier League last season,” he said. “We were ready to go up. We were close in the 2014 and in 2015 we deserved to go up.
“Jordan Evans missed a lot of games through work but he is absolutely a super player. Adam Campion signed for us from Mochdre where he’d shined for them with bat and ball. He’s a really good bloke and he is a top, top player who should have had a go at Minor Counties cricket. He’s as good an amateur as we’ve had at Colwyn Bay in my time at the club. He scores runs quickly, he’s a gun fielder and he chips in with a lot of wickets with his off spin bowling as well. He’ll be in his third season with us and I’m hoping for big things from him.
“Ryan’s an excellent bowler and he’s been in the first team for a long time now. He’s got 250 league wickets at Colwyn Bay and he’s only in his early twenties. He absolutely loves the club and we’re so lucky to have him.”
