What a day...

If you have come across this page by accident today, you can have no idea just how special it has been for Derbyshire cricket fans.

For those of a footballing persuasion, the news that broke last night of the signing of Shivnarine Chanderpaul can really only have one analogy. It is the equivalent of Derby County picking up Christiano Ronaldo or Lionel Messi in this transfer window. Seriously, it is that good.

For Chris Grant to secure his services, not just for this season, but for two, with first option on a third, is quite extraordinary. It will have taken weeks of negotiations and discussions and will mark a sea change in the perception of Derbyshire cricket from the wider cricketing fraternity.

No more can we be seen as 'little old Derbyshire' who are there to make up the numbers, a club that would be among the early casualties if county cricket were to be overhauled and revamped. We are now not only promoted-as-champions Derbyshire, we're 'signed one of the world's greatest-ever players Derbyshire'.

If they didn't know it before, they do now. We mean business.

Chanderpaul's Test average of 52 puts him among the legends of the game. T20 isn't his strongest suit, but I could see him as a good innings sheet anchor with the talent and nous to bat through an innings, allowing others to play the expansive shots around him. Likewise in the CB40, where his ability to find the gaps and time the ball will be a huge asset, as will his composure in run chases.

Cricket being the game it is, there is no such thing as a cast iron certainty. A player can be in prime form and peak fitness, yet get a good ball on a bad wicket. Having said that, I would nip down to a bookies now and be confident of plenty of runs from the Chanderpaul wand and a top three placing in the Championship batting averages next September.

If you have read this blog for any time you will realise that I have mentioned him as a fantasy player for the club - in Something For the Weekend, 9 November if you want to check. But be honest, who among us thought that we could afford the guy, or convince him to come? I didn't. The thought of watching him in our colours for at least the next two years is quite extraordinary.

Below last night's/this morning's post, Mark asked if I was worried about Chanderpaul's age. I actually answered that one on December 5 Monday Musings. There I suggested that Shiv was like Mark Ramprakash and Graham Hick, his technique being more than enough to see him into his forties. He's not an expansive player like others mentioned in that piece, rather one who has worked out his game and plays his shots when the percentages are in his favour.

I don't see him fielding at cover point, but he is a steady fielder. He used to bowl handy leg spin, though hasn't for some time. But they don't matter all that much, as long as Chanderpaul replicates the form that he has shown throughout a long and glittering career in Derbyshire colours.

With a young batting side, the close season has seen much discussion over a need for experience. Well, we've got that now, with someone as good as it gets.

Then, of course, we're spoilt. In the same press release we read that we are pursuing the signing of Martin Guptill for the T20. Be fair, Guptill and Chanderpaul opening the batting on a warm summer's evening has got to whet your appetite. Cricket doesn't get much better than that. Or this, as he takes apart Steve Harmison in one brutal over..

Chris Grant, Simon Storey and Karl Krikken have done wonders and deserve each and every accolade. They fully deserve the support of the Derbyshire business community and cricket fans for an astonishing coup and I fully expect, in the coming weeks, for them to get it. On behalf of all Derbyshire cricket fans, I'd like to thank them for their efforts and for a day that few of us will ever forget.

Shivnarine Chanderpaul is coming to Derbyshire. Be still my beating heart...