Tuesday thoughts

It has again been a fairly quiet weekend on the news front, with little cricket news of real consequence to report.


Colin Ingram scored another century for South Africa against Pakistan and seems to be a player of real talent. Thanks to ‘Anon’ who pointed out that Ingram played for two seasons with great success for Spondon, scoring 2,400 runs at an average of 57. I’d not be at all disappointed if he were to return to the area as our overseas player next season, though I wouldn't necessarily see him as captaincy material.

I don’t understand the pessimism of some supporters with regard to next year. Even if, in common with other counties, we have to reduce our playing budget, I think we have the nucleus of a decent squad, certainly better on paper than some others at present. I posted on IMWT the other night, in reply to someone who suggested I must be crazy to write such a thing. Of course, in an ideal world we could and would replace Robin Pietersen, Graham Wagg and Chris Rogers with Daniel Vettori, Jacques Kallis and Graeme Smith, but this isn’t fantasy cricket. When times are hard, cloth has to be cut to suit and we have to remember restrictions on overseas players, the Memorandum of Understanding and the hectic nature of international cricket these days, as well as budgetary considerations.

Comparisons with even five or six years ago are unfair, as there are now far greater controls over who you can and can’t sign and on the general availability/affordability of players. The gap between the rich counties and the poor ones has widened and we must accept that this is unlikely to change in the near future.

Like all of you, I was delighted to see that Mark Footitt and Wayne Madsen have signed new contracts, but anyone who thinks that this will be on their existing terms is delusional. Both are fine players who will be rightly rewarded for good performances. In contrast to Graham Wagg, their demands will have been deemed affordable and our ongoing recruitment will continue in similar vein as finance permits.

On a different tack, my money is on someone signing Makhaya Ntini on a Kolpak deal now he has finished in international cricket. He would be a terrific signing, but I'm less sure who has the money to do so.

Finally tonight, I’m no betting man but I’d have £100 that the man who comes out as Derbyshire’s best-ever player whose surname begins with an I in the club website A-Z will be Richard Illingworth.

Why? Because he’s the only bloke to play for us with a name beginning with that letter. If you were wanting to introduce a little (I use the word loosely) competition, you could include Clive Inman, who had a few one-day games for us prior to retirement in the 1970’s. Mind you, my Dad was never sure whether we’d signed him or his namesake John from Are You Being Served.


I guess that tells you he was largely unsuccessful…