More on that overseas berth...

Thanks to DCCC Forever for coming up with the name of JP Duminy as an overseas player that Derbyshire should go for in the Twenty/20 competition this year, which is to be sponsored by Friends Provident and has been cunningly called the Friends Provident T20.

I couldn’t argue. He’s a player I would love to see in Derbyshire colours. I think South Africans give good value for money and Duminy is a very fine cricketer.

I also agree that if we are going to fill, or part fill the additional 2,000 seats to be installed over the winter, we’ll need to get someone who will help towards that. Better results will do us no harm, but with an extended competition in 2010 we want to be making a better fist of it than in recent years.

Another problem, other than those I highlighted yesterday, is that it is not yet known if this second overseas role has to satisfy the criteria for overseas and Kolpak recruits. If there is no restriction the field opens up for a lot of good players, but otherwise the competition for those who satisfy the criteria and want to come is going to be huge. And guess what? Money will talk…

I’ve read that Somerset have approached Graeme Smith, while Herschelle Gibbs may well be back at Glamorgan. I don’t think Jacques Kallis is especially suited to this form of the game, but he is a fine player.

The Morkel brothers are both good cricketers, though the fast bowling Morne seems to have had a bad patch of late. His all rounder brother Albie would be an asset, but he too may well be set for a return to a previous stomping ground at Durham.

In an ideal world I could use some of my millions (we’re talking Monopoly money here guys, not reality!) to finance a player for the club from that neck of the woods. In that case I’d be tempted to sign AB de Villiers. I think he’s a superb batsman and a brilliant fielder. Another I might consider would be Justin Ontong, a hard-hitting batsman and useful off spinner, as well as being another superb fielder.

The thing is, it is generally accepted that, with a few exceptions, batsmen are the crowd-pullers, but based on the Twenty/20 season just finished, there would be a strong argument for Derbyshire to sign a bowler who could put the ball on a length. In most matches we posted decent scores yet gave it away by shocking bowling in the first half dozen overs of the reply. If you score 150 in 20 overs you have a good chance, but not if your bowlers then go for 70 in the first six.

That being the case and assuming that he was fit, available and satisfied the requirements, there would be a strong argument for re-engaging Charl Langeveldt. You know with Charl that you will get 24 balls to test the opposition. He would be two years older and have lost a little more pace, but Langers was our “go to” bowler. In (almost) the words of Billy Ocean, when the going got tough, Langers got going…

Many will remember a similar role being played by Michael Holding back in the 1980’s. Kim Barnett’s job was made much easier by the legendary West Indian coming back to make the batsmen work for their runs. Or just getting them out…

I’m not sure if Langeveldt would put “bums on seats” as a big-hitting batsman would do, but he would probably help us to win as many, if not more games, assuming our batsmen continued their 2009 improvement in the short form. A winning side at any sport will always attract bigger crowds and Derbyshire are due a decent run in the Twenty/20.

Yet fantasy is all it is and all it can be for now. Conjecture of any kind, without knowing what we have available financially, who is available and who wants to come is pointless. We may as well say we’ll take Keith Miller as our second player and we’re signing Eddie Barlow on a Kolpak deal.

Hmmm. If John Morris pulled THAT one off I’d be at every game!