Usman back in the frame

By any standards, the innings played by Usman Khawaja for Queensland against Tasmania over the weekend was one of genuine brilliance.

If you missed it, Usman scored a superb 138 from 178 balls as his team made 360 all out and won by an innings and 123 runs, the next highest score in the match being 49 by Adam Blizzard.

It was a knock that did more than cement his reputation among his new team mates. It rekindled hopes that he would take a place in the national side that had seemed his destiny for the past two or three years. A very good article over on Cricinfo highlights the perception of people over there about him, namely that he doesn't rotate the strike and isn't especially good in the field. Khawaja is no Jonty Rhodes, but he held some terrific catches for Derbyshire last summer. The comments merely confirm what I wrote recently regarding there being no hiding place in modern cricket - and certainly not for a player with international aspirations.

Another thing the innings did was reinforce my feelings that we'll not see him back at Derby next summer. I think he will remain in the Aussie frame for the Ashes and one would assume him a better bet, with his experience of English conditions, than Rob Quiney, a good cricketer but with a less extensive CV. A good summer by one of several talented young batsmen could see them make the plane, but Khawaja has as good, if not a better chance than many of them.

Over the next few months I plan to run a new feature on the blog that will look at the overseas players we have had since 1970. The series will cover official overseas players, not the likes of James Bryant, Dominic Telo and Travis Friend, all of who flitted briefly across our paths in a relatively brief Kolpak capacity.

Nor will it mention the likes of Charles Ollivierre, Michael Frederick or Laurie Johnson, all of who arrived at different stages from the Caribbean with varying degrees of success. All arrived before overseas-born players were accepted in the county game without a qualification period. Johnson went on to give long and sterling service to the club as a dashing middle order batsman, while Frederick played just twice as an amateur in 1949.

Ollivierre was the first black West Indian to appear for an English county and played for Derbyshire between 1901 and 1907, scoring three centuries in a first class career of 114 innings. An average of just 23 was indicative of some sub-standard wickets in the era and a technique that might not have satisfied the purists, though at his best Ollivierre was favourably compared to Ranjitsinjhi.

His most memorable feat came at Chesterfield, where his first sighting of the crooked spire allegedly caused him to duck his hungover head into a bucket of cold water to sober up after a heavy night on the town. Against Essex in 1904, in the legendary "Perrin's Match" he made 229 in the first innings, followed by an unbeaten 92 in the second as Derbyshire won by nine wickets after Essex had posted 597 in the first innings.

Ollivierre was a trail-blazer, but it was a trail that was not to be blazed again until 1970, when a generously sideburned South African arrived at the County Ground for the start of our centenary season.

More soon.