There is no point speculating as to the reasons for the decision Tom Abell has taken. I am sure they are for the right reasons for him. I hope it turns out to be for the good of Somerset Cricket as a whole.
Anthony Gibson’s tweet says it all, “sensible and selfless”, “energy and enthusiasm unbounded” Abell’s leadership for the last seven years has almost matched Gibbo’s erudition.
Sensible and Selfless might just as well describe Captain Tom’s tenure at the helm of his beloved county. Something has tipped the balance between the pride and the pain of leadership.
Those of us, the vast majority I hope, will hope that it is a desire to concentrate on his own game and to score enough runs to figure in the England conversation more prominently, the irony it could be argued is that Tom’s best chance to achieve that recognition was because of his captaincy credentials. But then it would be par for the course for England to choose as their next captain someone who has recently stepped down from captaincy.
But that’s enough about England. My main worry is that Tom Abell stays at Somerset. While it is inconceivable to me that he would want to play for anyone other than his beloved home county my mindset is based on the landscape that existed for most of my cricket-loving life, the pre 16.4 era.
Wouldn’t it be ironic if, having obsessed about Lewis Gregory moving to Trent Bridge until he signed a new contract a week ago if Abell was lured elsewhere by the big buck connections he has made in the last couple of years?
I’m hoping that is just my natural negativity, I blame Dad for that mindset but until we hear more from Tom I won’t be able to shake that worry.
You have to wonder how hard it has been for him to be able to keep it all together day after day through the season. To have to get his scrambled head into batting mode so often after a poor day in the field. To have to go out and motivate the bowlers to defend a paltry first innings. To face the media when his Somerset heart was clearly broken by another poor performance another shocking defeat.
Credit to Abell, he never shirked from that responsibility once in his 7 years as the focal point. Perhaps those on the non-playing side of the leadership testament might want to reflect that they could have taken some of that strain?
The question of who will lead the side next year is an interesting one. Will Lewis Gregory want to take the whole thing? I would be surprised if he did, not least because his body, even if he has a really good year of health, will probably not allow him to take the field for every game in 2024.
I’ve got a sneaking feeling that someone is heading to Taunton from overseas, I’ve not looked at next year’s international calendar so I’m not going to speculate but it’s a concept I’m prepared to embrace.
One thing is I believe as certain as certain can be 123 days from the start of the season that Abell will, assuming he stays at Taunton, be opening the innings in four day cricket in 2024.
In one sense it is too early to think about Abell’s legacy but such has been his contribution to the club already that it would do TA an injustice not to try to place him in the pantheon of Somerset leaders.
For me it is that last word that is the key. Somerset have had many excellent captains, in my lifetime three (all left handers) stand out; the bullish defiant Brian Close, the man who turned a bucolic club of loveable talented cricketers towards the winners they became a few years later. The, I believe, hugely under-rated Brian Rose who melded the chaotic egos into a formidable winning team and of course Sir Marcus, the man who’s mental strength forged a run-laden second-coming at the top of the Somerset order.
I love all three unconditionally.
But Tom Abell stands above all three for me. In every sense he made me feel like he was my captain, my leader. Tom Abell is, and will continue to be the man I think of whenever Somerset Cricket comes into my brain.
If there was any justice in the world he would have been the first Somerset captain to lift The Championship. Maybe he still will be. I have rarely seen someone who showed, in his passion on the field and emotion off it how much our beloved cricket club means to him. How much it hurt when things didn’t go our way, how personally he took it. Perhaps that, his greatest strength, was also his greatest weakness.
A place on the new legends wall awaits. Perhaps a new stand or pavilion or, given his love of practice and training a new indoor centre sometime in the future will bear his name. Whatever way the club chose to acknowledge his contribution there must be a mode of immortality for this great man of Somerset.
But that is all in the future, and for now and the near future there are runs to be scored, catches to be taken and many many more of those stentorian exhortations to reverberate around the Cooper Associates County Ground. The career of Tom Abell is still very much in progress.
But for now. From one Tauntonian to another. Thank you Tom. You know how much every true Somerset supporter loves you, how much we appreciate you and how proud we are of you.
