Glamorgan v Derbyshire day 1

Wes Durston's first Championship century for Derbyshire was the highlight of a first day that we can be pretty pleased with on the whole.

219-4 was a decent bit of batting on a truncated day, with good support coming from Wayne Madsen and Dan Redfern, who is still there at the close, unbeaten on 48. I hope he gets his head down again tomorrow and gets the maiden century that his improved form this summer so richly deserves.

The side was as I had suggested last night and with Ross Whiteley with him at the crease, Redfern will be in familiar company first thing tomorrow. If, as I suggested last night, we can go on to get over 350 we would be in a good position - assuming we back it up with disciplined bowling of course.

It was a day to say hello again to Graham Wagg, who must have some regrets over leaving the County Ground. A batting average of 23 and a bowling one of 50 was not what the player or club hoped for after a considerable outlay. While Wagg remains a player of ability, he is also prone to bad days, which have been a little too common this year. 14 wickets in eight matches is as negligible return.

Another former Derbyshire player, Ant Botha, has circulated the other 17 counties regarding his availability after an inconclusive mid-season appraisal with Ashley Giles at Warwickshire. At 34 Botha will be lucky to get another deal and is another who left for pastures new and found that the grass was not green at all on the other side of the fence. With the advent of Tom Knight, the potential of Peter Burgoyne and the possibility that Jake Needham could re-emerge next season after coaching with Jack Birkenshaw, I doubt Derbyshire will want him back. If anyone can rediscover Needham's mojo, Austin Powers style, it will be Birkenshaw, a very canny spinner in his day and acknowledged as a fine coach of slow bowlers.

Finally tonight and on the subject of young players, I'd like to highlight an excellent comment made last night by notoveryet, which ran as follows - he was commenting on yesterday's win

"Hmm, might set us up nicely for a fall back to earth on Friday. The ease of Notts win against Lancs today puts our tie with them in perspective. They are a truly formidable t20 team, in sharp contrast to their recent CC form, which has started some of my Notts supporter friends twitching about whether they are might be heading for relegation.


I think they are probably still a little too strong for this to be a real danger, but there is a real weakness and failure at Notts. It's exemplified by the fact that we have as many players in the England under 19 squad as they have. Notts have built their strategy on importing players, and in the meantime their development of their own players has dried up. I suspect that a Derbyshire side of their current home-grown players would see off the equivalent of Notts with comfort.

Peakfan's comment a few weeks ago about the make-up of WI Cavaliers (Usman Afzaal, Alex Tudor and Saqlain Mushtaq) demonstrates the weakness rather than the strength of Notts Premier League cricket, that it isn't producing potential future county and test players, but recycling the has-beens and never-weres from first class cricket.

This is the trap that Derbyshire have fallen into over the last few years. Think about how excited we are every year when we see who we've signed from other counties, and how the discussions about about next year always focus on who we can sign from elsewhere.

This was a survival necessity between about 1998 and 2006 because of the atrophy in our scouting and coaching set-up and the haemorrhage of talent. Since then, it has become a yearly narcotic injection. It makes us feel good for a time but ultimately doesn't deal with our underlying problem. It also drains our resources, and prevents us from developing our own solutions.

This is why I think the new direction has to be right. We can't compete in the market with Notts and their ilk, but ultimately their approach takes them into a cul-de-sac where they either have to carry on spending larger and larger amounts (Surrey for example) or have to risk short-term failure by developing their own (Hampshire and Yorkshire for example).

We only have one real option, and that's the one we're taking."

I totally agree with him. With regard to Friday, I think we will do very well to get something from the game against a team that I see as one of the best two in the format (with Somerset). If we do it will be a remarkable performance but we would still need to win other games that are winnable but we could just as easily lose (e.g Worcestershire).

Sooner or later, the ECB need to face facts. Either the big counties need to set up their own academies and stop using their wealth to poach those of others, or we need to introduce a transfer system of some kind that recompenses the county who spend years developing a player, only to lose him to another that has an inferior coaching infrastructure and more money.

See you tomorrow - then its holiday time!