It was tough to drop RMJ (From The Argus)

It was tough to drop RMJ

8:00am Wednesday 8th July 2009 in

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Coach Mark Robinson has revealed how hard it was to leave stalwart Robin Martin-Jenkins out of the Sussex team.

The 34-year-old all-rounder has not missed a Championship game since August 2007– a run of 25 successive appearances – but he has been dropped for the match against Warwickshire which started at Edgbaston yesterday.

In six games this season he has taken 13 wickets and scored 199 runs but the emergence of West Indies all-rounder Dwayne Smith put his place under threat and in his last three Championship matches he has only bowled 39 overs.

Robinson said: “It is tough on Tucker but I don’t think he’s been quite at his best in four-day cricket in the last couple of games.

“But any team that can leave him out must be in quite a good place. It was a hard decision but Dwayne Smith has been the pick of our seamers in the last two Championship games and didn’t deserve to be dropped.

“Obviously we also have Yasir Arafat back as another bowling all-rounder which changes the dynamics of the team.

“Nothing lasts forever and Tucker has got a good record at Arundel where we are next week and I’m sure he will be in contention.”

The future of another Sussex veteran Jason Lewry seems less certain. The 38-year-old has played just two games this season after recovering from glandular fever but is now struggling with a knee problem.

Robinson added: “Jason hasn’t been able to get where he wants to be all season.

“He tried to bowl in the second team last week but could only bowl three or overs. You always hope, Jason being the performer that he is, that he might have been okay but he was never really in contention this week.

“We need to have 11 blokes out there who are fully fit and can give it a red-hot go. We want to be aggressive and you don’t want to put people in the side you are worried about fitness-wise.”

Only four overs were possible on the first day at Edgbaston with Warwickshire reaching 5-1 before another torrential downpour forced umpires Barry Dudleston and Peter Willey to abandon play at 3.30pm. Arafat broke through when he pinned Bears’ out of form skipper Ian Westwood for a duck with a full-length ball which swung back in.

Skipper Mike Yardy has lost the toss in the last four Championship games but Robinson admitted this was one occasion when he was hoping to call incorrectly.

He added: “The wicket is green and damp and a bit soft. We are a bit worried about the ball indenting the pitch on days three and four which does happen here at Birmingham.

“We wanted to lose the toss but when we won it we bowled because we see it as a positive move and in the brief period of play it did enough to justify our decision.”

While Martin-Jenkins was left out, Carl Hopkinson got an opportunity following his hundred against Australia a fortnight ago in an elongated batting line-up which goes all the way down to Ollie Rayner at No. 10, only last man Corey Collymore not boasting at least one first-class hundred.

Robinson added: “It was a tight call because Joe Gatting and Rory Hamilton-Brown had good arguments to play.”