Sussex CCC previews 2025: Danny Lamb on his winter and his hopes for the new season
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00:00Good to see you again Danny, how's your winter been firstly?
00:03It's been very good, a bit of training, a bit of physical work, getting my shoulder back up to speed.
00:09It's been enjoyable but I'm looking forward to the summer now.
00:14Get some cricket in and I'll be really good.
00:19Perfect. I can imagine it's been a relatively frustrating winter after the end of last season with the shoulder of course.
00:25Was it quite a long wait in recovery or were you able to be quite active during that time?
00:30First month or two it was a pretty painful idea, I wasn't really able to do much.
00:38It's a shoulder so at least I could walk or do some physical work on the bike and what not, so that kept me sane.
00:48But I always want to play cricket and that last two months of the season that I missed, that was painful, that was really painful.
00:59I'm doing everything I can to not let that happen again.
01:03Is that a lot of rehab and strength and conditioning now to make sure it's as durable as possible?
01:10Yes, the surgeon did a really good job. I was well ahead of schedule with everything really so I couldn't have been in better hands.
01:22I've got myself in a place where physically it's back to as good as normal as it's probably going to be.
01:30My cricket, it seems so far, touch wood. There's no wood around.
01:36No, unfortunately.
01:38Touch wood. It's in a better place than what it was last year. I'm really looking forward to the season and I think I can do really, really well.
01:50Brilliant and of course you've had the two two-day matches as warm-up before this.
01:54I was watching a bit of it on YouTube the other day and I don't mind saying that your batting looked pretty solid.
01:58I can see your bowling's been going pretty well as well.
02:00Yes, not at the wickets but there's no point wasting wickets in pre-season.
02:08I'm happy with where my bowling's at. I feel like I've put on a yard of pace. Not that I'm overly fast anyway but that extra snap.
02:20Hopefully I can take a few more wickets this year and my batting, I'm pretty confident where that's at.
02:29I know what I'm doing. I'm not going to be reinventing the wheel at my age now.
02:35I'm happy with where my game's at. I'm looking forward to Warwickshire.
02:40It was very interesting inside there that Fabio was revealing to us that he's looking at playing a third specialist seamer this season
02:46rather than having the dual all-rounder of you and Finn last season.
02:51Are you focusing a bit more on your bowling in training to make sure you can nab that spot if it's available?
02:58I always concentrate hard on my bowling. I'm the impression that I can only control what I can control.
03:09If I start thinking about this, that and the other, I don't think it's going to benefit performance in any way, shape or form.
03:18I'm just going to do me and hopefully that's enough to get me in the team and do well.
03:26Having said that, I think my game's in a really good place and I'm not overly concerned about anything in that nature really.
03:35You are one of the few players in the squad who do have existing Division One experience
03:41because the squad has been mainly composed of younger players.
03:45Are you expected to be leaned upon this season as a player who can lend a lot of advice and experience during those tough moments?
03:52I'd like to think so. I have experienced a lot of Division One.
03:57Have I played any games other than here in Division Two? Maybe a few.
04:02I did actually in 2018. It's definitely a different beast. It's stronger for longer.
04:16But we did discuss the other day, I made a point, it's not like it's a different sport.
04:22Much of the same will work, it's just can we do it for a bit longer?
04:30I think that mentality will stand us in good stead.
04:34I've got a good feeling about this year and I think we can do well.
04:43I know last season when we spoke after one of the Blast games, you were saying that you were commuting down from up north back to your family home.
04:52Hybrid living.
04:53Hybrid living, I like the sound of that. Is that the plan to continue that this season?
04:58Not as much now. I've got a flat down here now, so I've still got my place up north.
05:10But I'm going to be around a bit more for the summer and for training and whatnot.
05:17I want to put more of an emphasis on it. Especially Division One is a bit of a different beast.
05:24Not that I didn't put all in, I did.
05:34But just with my living situation last year wasn't ideal.
05:37That's sorted now and hopefully I can pay dividends.
05:42Am I right in saying you got married over the winter as well?
05:45Yes, I did.
05:46Congratulations.
05:48Something again that's led you to feel more settled and more secure in terms of life down here that you can up sticks and move down here?
05:56Yes, I'd say so. It wasn't necessarily that anyway last year.
06:04It was just not an ideal living situation of where we were located.
06:13We've resolved that now, so happy days.
06:18Brilliant. We'll finish off with a few quickfire questions for the season ahead.
06:22I've been asking a couple of lads already and it's been interesting to hear their answers.
06:26First of all, what ground are you most looking forward to playing at this season?
06:34We're not playing at the Oval, are we?
06:36Well, we will be, of course, in Division One.
06:39No, I don't think we are. We've only got one home game.
06:42Yes, we do, don't we?
06:43I'm quite right.
06:44You're looking hard at the schedule, aren't you?
06:46I've never played a first-class game at the Oval and I really want to.
06:49I'm pretty gutted we're not going to get that this year.
06:57Edgbaston's a great venue, I like that.
07:01Who else? I've not played a four-day game at Somerset since I was involved in that tie in 2017.
07:14Yes, incredible.
07:16So I'm looking forward to that.
07:18It'll be nice to go there and maybe correct it by getting the win.
07:21Yes, hopefully.
07:22Brilliant. Let's go through the competitions as well.
07:25In terms of our squad, who do you think will be our top run scorer in each of the three competitions this year?
07:35Coward Championship, I don't think you can walk past Simmo again.
07:39That was pretty impressive last year.
07:44In T20, Dan Hughes.
07:49He's been the favourite so far.
07:52Again, I think only in Bayern T20 you're going to get yourself in.
07:57You can go a big car here where people down the order, you're not going to get the volume.
08:03And then the one-day court, hard to say really because it depends what kind of squad we put out.
08:11Hopefully one of the young lads steps up and really puts their hand up and goes, yeah.
08:17So I don't know on that one.
08:20I'll press you on wicket-takers in all three competitions as well.
08:24Oli Robb, I think, in the Championship.
08:30In the Blast, again, Milsi.
08:34These are not left-field answers.
08:37Not so much as the others?
08:38No.
08:39Some really left-field answers.
08:41In the one-day cup, threw up a few interesting ones.
08:47One-day court, it all depends on what kind of squad we put out.
08:54Exactly, it does, doesn't it?
08:55So again, hard to say.
08:58Bertie Foreman potentially in the one-day cup if he gets a good run.
09:03I don't know, in a good year it could be yourself.
09:06Hopefully.
09:07Brilliant.
09:08And the final question would be, who would be the breakthrough player or the wild card for us this season?
09:13Crokes looks like he's playing well.
09:18Spent a good chunk of the winter with Charlie Teer and he looks in really good form.
09:28He's made a few technical changes and it looks like it's paying off.
09:33He's maybe not had the luck in pre-season.
09:39He's had a bad decision and a strangled down leg.
09:43But get them out of the way now rather than in the season.
09:48Hopefully he can go on and really kick on.
09:50Most definitely.
09:51That sounds good, Danny.
09:52Thank you very much for joining us.