Monday musings

I'd a smile this morning when looking at the report of an extraordinary Test between Australia and New Zealand, which the visitors ended up winning by seven runs despite a fine unbeaten century by Dave Warner. In the course of the Aussie innings, Phil Hughes was once again caught by Martin Guptill. Poor Hughes has been found out against the lifting ball by the Kiwis, as England did last winter and it prompted a comment of wit by ex-Aussie (and Somerset) spinner Kerry O'Keefe.

 "If Hughes nicked himself shaving I reckon Guptill would pop out of the medicine cabinet with a bandaid" he said, a reflection of our man holding him three times in four innings between second slip and gulley. A small man, Hughes will need to work out a technique against the lifting ball as he'll get a lot of it from now on. You can expect hm to get plenty next summer, now he's signed on the dotted line for Worcestershire. He'll get plenty of runs for them, as there's not the same skill sets evident at county level as he will face on the Test scene, but he'll need to practice his ducking or hooking, that's for sure.

Elsewhere, ten sixes Kieron Pollard still couldn't steer the West Indies to a win over India and their batting, shorn of Gayle, Sarwan and Chanderpaul gives a new dimension to the word "brittle". It doesn't lack talent, but the days when enough players make a worthwhile contribution are sporadic in the extreme. The days of Greenidge, Haynes, Richards, Lloyd et al seem like a lifetime away.

Over on the Forum there have been comments on the lengthy contracts at Derbyshire, old ground as far as I'm concerned and I don't plan to belabour the point here. Suffice to say that if you are going to invest 7-10 years in the development of young players from 10-20, surely they are worth persisting with, if they show any real talent, until they are 26? All of our young players need to show year on year progress and I get the impression through the use of development plans that one good year in three, just before the contract is up, will not be the road to success in the chosen career. There are plenty of lads pushing through behind the current staff and the onus will be on all of them to move forward each year whenever they have an opportunity.

Some will undoubtedly fall by the wayside, which is part of life. I've coached enough kids myself over the years to know there are some look terrific at 15 but never kick on, while some are later developers who suddenly develop physically and mentally and become good players in their late teens and early twenties. Karl Krikken and Howard Dytham will have their ideas about the young players at Derbyshire and I look forward to seeing which of them become club stalwarts in the years ahead. By giving the cream of them three-year contracts, they have given them the stability to play without fear and to develop in their own time. At the end of the day, that's what happens - for some, the penny drops a little quicker, but this embryonic stage in our club's development may well turn out to be something well worth remembering.

There will be frustrations along the way, but as one contributor pointed out on the Forum tonight, you don't watch Derbyshire EXPECTING to win trophies. Yet there's a chance that might change in the years ahead.