While the eventual first innings total was below last night's expectations, Derbyshire are still in a good position going into day three against Kent.
With the hosts 262 runs behind, Kent still have work to do, but with Darren Stevens and Azhar Mahmood in next they could still get close to our first innings. We need a morning tomorrow similar to they had today and could then work our way into a strong position by this time tomorrow.
There's a lot of comments on the blog regarding signing another overseas player for the T20. Fair enough as a concept and you'll get no arguments from me if we attracted a big name, but I'll reiterate my comment from last night. Why would they come? When the big name players are earning £500K plus for their IPL stints and are in all likelihood millionaires after playing there for several years, what incentive do they have to play here for six weeks? If we somehow put together £40,000 that is small change for these guys, but a fortune for us, with no guarantee of success.
Delhi Daredevils spent a fortune on Dave Warner, Virender Sehwag, Andre McDonald, James Hopes and Morne Morkel this year. They came bottom. Jesse Ryder, mentioned on here by someone the other night and a cricketer of fairly modest talent, went for £100,000 and such money has completely skewed the market for county sides. Loots Bosman has also been mentioned tonight, but for all the splendour of his assault on Yorkshire at Headingley last year, Bosman was not a huge success. I'll accept he had a knee problem, sustained at Chesterfield, for part of the campaign, but the wickets here are not conducive to Bosman's full throttle assault from ball one.
I am confident that Martin Guptill will score much more heavily this season and I'll not argue that another big name would be useful. Yet in a restricted market, I can't really see where that player will come from. Comments along the lines that 'John Morris would know' are unhelpful, as are suggestions that Luke Sutton won't have the contacts. It is not his role! If Karl Krikken decides another overseas player is required, he and Chris Grant will have contacts among players and agents of their own. It is a small business and if there's a will, there's a way.
I'm not holding my breath though. I expect us to go with what we have. Any more is a bonus.
In closing I was amused to see 'Lotsie' Tsotsobe's rant on Twitter about his stint at Essex and his disappointment at being dropped. Today it resulted in his contract being terminated. Tales of his attitude, lack of fitness and insular personality are out there and five wickets at 77 tells a story that does him no favours whatsoever.
I suspect we'll not see him back as an overseas player. Call me Sherlock if you will...
I heard a figure quoted that Bosman cost us 30k last year. If he's nothing on he might come for 20k which would be peanuts if we were to qualify for the knockout stages.
ReplyDeleteIf that figure is correct, if he'd come, if we qualified. If we didn't... a lot of ifs in there and I wasn't that impressed by him to be honest. Technically he was all over the place.
ReplyDeleteWhy not blood Matt Lineker in the T20? He will have a chance to prove himself and give him a taste of first team cricket. If he doesn't do it nothing lost.
ReplyDeleteDonny Scorpion
You say Bosman was all over the place! Well I saw him when he batted at Headingley and the only thing all over the place was a quality Yorkshire bowling attack as he raced to 90 odd in no time!
ReplyDeletePerhaps others' memories are stronger, but I don't remember any of our specialist 20/20 imports being much of a success. Bosman was quickly worked out and worked over after one big innings, Langeveldt wasn't up to his previous standards last year, Law didn't add much the previous year. As a principle, I don't see why it would work, bringing in players fresh to the vagaries of English early summer conditions with the added challenge of playing under lights in long twilights with dew settling. I can't think of many great successes at any county, and after the Bravo fiasco last year on finals day, I would have thought that many counties are lukewarm about the idea. Unless we can find a banker (and I'm not sure how we'd know) I'd rather see us work with what we've got.
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