A change in the air...

There's a fairly obvious change in the air with regard to the cricket world's perception of Derbyshire and it is heartening to see.

Even the cricket magazines seem to have caught on to the fact that the Morris revolution is gathering pace. One of them this month calls Derbyshire a "dangerous" side this year. When was the last time you heard us called that? The Barnett era perhaps? Newspapers and cricket magazines alike refer to our battery of good all rounders and our pace attack with Langeveldt and Wagg "the best in the division".
There's also universal approval in the signing of Stuart Law, with Dominic Cork calling him the best batsman by a mile at Lancashire last year. It is extremely heartening and if the players can live up to this advance press and produce the results that their undoubted talents justify we could have a good season ahead.

Yesterday's FP trophy scores backed up my impression a couple of weeks back that Lancashire and Essex are the teams to beat. How Glamorgan can pick a team sans Croft is beyond me. If he was the size of WG Grace he'd still be in my side for the Welsh county. Northants have some good batsmen but don't look to have a startling attack. Lancashire now have Ashwell Prince and du Plessis back, as well as having Anderson, Mahmood and Chapple in harness yesterday. With those playing they're a much better side, but I still think we could beat them on our day and Mr Law will have every incentive to do well. Essex are a far better one day side than four day one and destroyed Northants, despite missing all their batting big guns.

Botha and Clarke did nothing for Warwickshire yesterday and it is a sobering thought for Ant that when he takes his first wicket this year his average will be around 200.
I was amused to see a cricket magazine today refer to Clarke as an option for Freddie Flintoff if he was unfit for the Ashes. Considering he was only fourth best all rounder at Derby last year that's a fair old leap...

Interestingly both Graham Wagg and Jon Clare are regarded as options, the latter "at some point but not now", the former a good player but lacking pace when he bowls. That's as maybe, but you can think them out just as well as blasting them. I just hope Wagg's hip injury, which looks set to rule him out of Wednesday's game, heals quickly enough for him to play in our FP Trophy campaign.

Quick aside - Wayne White was batting 7 for Leicestershire today. I know he scored a few runs, but how bad must 8-11 be? He's a fair cricketer, but I never looked at him as a number seven and I would doubt he did either.

Thanks for the responses to my "Please Don't Go" article. How I forgot Ian Blackwell I don't know. He's a fine player and would have been a great asset to us, but he hasn't made the impact I thought he would. I saw him make a hundred for our Seconds at Chesterfield a few years back when Bud Hill was coach and he looked a huge talent, yet he seems to have stayed an eye player and his varying fitness levels seem to have counted against him. Thanks to Matt for reminding me.

I'd not forgotten Bob Stephenson and Keith Stevenson but didn't mention them. Bob was a good keeper and fair batsman who had to move because he was up against Bob Taylor. How unlucky is that? He forged a good and long career at Hampshire and gave them excellent service. Keith Stevenson went the same route and was the victim of a period when we had a few decent seamers coming through. He did well at times and could get extravagant movement, often getting clusters of wickets. He ended up with over 350 at a shade under 30 each, good going in an era when there were some great batsmen around the counties.

Finally tonight, I read a report about Suliemann Benn, the 6'7" left arm spinner from Barbados who took four wickets today. "Undoubtedly the tallest spinner in living memory" it said. Er... maybe not. I'm sure that Dallas Moir, who came to Derbyshire from Aberdeenshire and took over 200 first class wickets was at least that height and possibly slightly taller. I'm six feet tall and don't usually feel a midget, but I remember talking to Dallas one day and feeling like Jimmie Krankie. He naturally got a lot of bounce and had some good matches for us in the early 80's.

That's all for tonight. Tomorrow we'll know more about the likely line-up for the game against Surrey on Wednesday. Still no sign of Chris Rogers, which presumably means another match for Stuart Law. Jake Needham may well come into the equation to give a better balanced attack if Graham Wagg is unfit. Wavell is expected to recover from his slight calf strain, so fingers crossed. Surrey will be without Mark Ramprakash. Shame for those who like to see a class batsman, irrespective of the colours. Good news for those who want us to have the best chance of winning. More on that game tomorrow.