Monday musings

Thanks for your comments below yesterday's piece, which are welcome.  I'm not sure that I necessarily need entertained Mark, but thanks anyway! Mind you, a little bit of Alan's Slim Whitman impression might be well worth a listen, while I could see the similarity with Marty Robbins...

To respond to some of those comments, I'd be surprised if our need for an opening batsman transformed into an all-rounder, unless Shane Watson is turning his back on the Ashes to become Derbyshire's new talisman. I think that marginally less likely than the chances of me winning this series of Strictly Come Dancing. Mind you, I'd be better than Michael Vaughan...

Plans will be further advanced when the counties see the draft of next summer's fixture list, which should be sometime around now. They will then have an idea as to how domestic competitions are dovetailing with the international calendar and be better placed to see who might or might not be available. Demand will outstrip supply for the best players, so competition will be fierce, but I have every confidence that Derbyshire will be in the mix and working hard to bring the right player to the County Ground for that crucial overseas role.

In response to Anon, there are probably 'around' sixteen players who would be seen as viable first picks for the senior side, as well as a further half dozen who are in the up and coming bracket. I can't say that I counted them all up - there could be seventeen or eighteen - but the number was irrelevant. The point was that Karl Krikken is going to have the nicest kind of problem in his team selections next summer. If players develop as they might over the winter, he could have eighteen, nineteen, twenty players with justification for inclusion in one format of the game. That can only be a good thing.

Further afield, the Champions League T20 continues apace and there is surprise in some quarters over the poor performances of teams from the Indian Premier League. Not from me though, as Indian players haven't been travelling especially well and, unsurprisingly, they make up the bulk of the sides. I feel the eventual winners will be South African or Australian, with the Sydney Sixers playing above themselves as a genuine team (sound familiar?) while the South Africans, on home turf, are always a handful.

In some ways I'm quite pleased, as in any sport I will generally support the lesser lights, the underdogs. I'm not that impressed by success bought by an open cheque book, so can't get excited at the likes of Chelsea, ManchesterUnited and Manchester City dominating football, any more than Warwickshire, Somerset and Nottinghamshire doing so at cricket. Indeed, the question should be why the cricket clubs named haven't won more, given their resources.

I think that is why Derbyshire's success this summer was celebrated further afield than the county borders this summer. It was victory for the little guy, albeit a little guy with talent, like Rocky Balboa in the eponymous films.

Maybe, just like the films, we will see a few sequels in the coming summers. Unlike the films, they might just get better and better...

Until next time. Keep your comments and e mails coming.