Astonishing..

Excellent news this week about the club returning a third successive surplus. There may be so-called bigger clubs in the country but Derbyshire have shown that they are as well run as any of them.

It does pose the question as to what profit we'd have posted if we'd not shelled out a fortune on the former captain. As I've previously posted, there's an imbalance in the money we must have saved on the salaries of those who have gone in the past six months and the guys who have come in. Most of the fans I know are concerned, in the nicest sense of the word, as to where the money is, especially when we're saving a few thousand on the club yearbook.

As the days and weeks pass, I'm increasingly convinced that we'll be recruiting a big name for this year's 20/20. While Buck is an outstanding player, I don't see him playing the short game and he may well take a well-earned break. There may be a few Aussies who'd fancy a "net" prior to the Ashes starting, while the likes of Sehwag and Yuvraj Singh would attract large crowds from the local ethnic population for whom they are cult heroes. The South Africans have some fine players too (Duminy, Amla, de Villiers) but they may be looking for well earned breaks after back to back series against the Aussies.

Speaking of whom - well done Middlesex. England must have their best chance of winning the Ashes in a long time after the retirement of so many of the Australian top players. With Matthew Hayden gone, they look like opening with the talented but inexperienced (in English conditions)opening batsman Phil Hughes. So good old Middlesex give him a nice six week net in our conditions so he can get off to a flyer when the series starts. Well done lads. One would have hoped that with Angus Fraser involved they may have thought long and hard about this, but not hard enough. Had Derbyshire done this the wailing and gnashing of teeth would have been heard in Sydney...

Had a look at one of the cricket magazines in the local library - sorry, WH Smith - today. Interesting to see that in a section on "Ten to Watch in 2009" we had two players, Waggy and Dan Redfern. John Morris referred to Wagg as "the most versatile all rounder in English cricket" and few would argue. Dan has a lot of expectation on him this year and I wouldn't be surprised, at 18, if it was a year of fits and starts. Still, two Derbyshire boys in there is nice to see and one in the eye for those who stupidly see us as a Kolpak county.

Finally, what a farce in Antigua. I didn't know about it till I got a text this afternoon (thanks mate!) and it is hard to believe this level of incompetence. Bet they'll never moan about a slow track at Derby again after that. No wait, of course they will...