Derbyshire Barbados-bound while Arthur takes the Mickey...

Derbyshire will head out for the warmer and sunnier climes of Barbados today, at the start of a pre-season tour that has become a key part of their preparations in recent seasons.

Getting the sun on their backs will enable bowlers to bowl close to flat out, something they could never do at home in the current biting cold, even if the weather allowed for outdoor practice. Batsmen and bowlers can hone their skills in match conditions, while the matches themselves, while not especially important from a winning perspective, offer a chance for players to stake a claim for a place in the eleven when the real stuff starts in a month's time.

Having said that, few of us following the Plate Final against Hampshire late at night last year could have expected it to be the catalyst for a championship-winning campaign. So it proved, however, as Derbyshire hit the ground running back home and maintained their professionalism to the very end.

It would be asking a lot to replicate that in the coming summer, but as Karl Krikken says, the team can play without fear as the media and bookies largely have us set for a quick return to division two. I'm not so sure. The gulf between the two divisions is nowhere near that between the Championship and Premiership in football and I maintain that we will surprise a few sides this year, especially if they underestimate us.

While they are en route to Barbados, it is likely that a few of the side will spare a thought for erstwhile colleague Usman Khawaja, who, along with Shane Watson, Mitchell Johnson and James Pattinson has been dropped from the Australian squad for the forthcoming third Test against India for a 'breach of discipline'.

"We were particularly aware of where we were as a team and how we were going to get back. I asked the players at the end of the game to give me an individual presentation. I wanted three points from each of them technically, mentally and team as to how we were going to get back over the next couple of games, how we were going to get ourselves back into the series" said coach Mickey Arthur.

Fair enough, I suppose and all but the four named complied. Am I alone, however, in thinking that the 'punishment' is more than a little draconian? As vice-captain, Watson might have been expected to comply, while Pattinson has been the closest they have to a successful bowler so far.

Yet Johnson, a cricketer of mercurial talent has yet to feature, as has Khawaja. I'm not denying that there has to be discipline in any working or sporting environment, but does the punishment really fit the 'crime' here?

For reasons that have never been explained, Usman doesn't seem to be favoured by the Aussie selectors and for me, as a bloke on the periphery of the team, he was in a classic 'Damned if I do, damned if I don't' scenario. It may be that he simply forgot - not especially professional, but surely not of critical importance? It may also be that he was unsure what to put.

'Play me' might have been tempting as an answer, having watched his team mates play the Indian spinners at times as if they were lobbing hand grenades at them. Yet in so doing he would risk being seen as cocksure, something that his current position in Aussie cricket circles doesn't substantiate. Nor does it fit with the bloke who got on so well at Derbyshire.

To say anything else could equally see him labelled a trouble-maker, kicking team mates when they're down. Only those involved know how it was presented to them, but asking players outside a team how you can improve it is fraught with potential issues, especially if anonymity is not assured.

We all know that the Aussies are straight-talking and hard-nosed, but I think they've erred badly on this occasion. Part of the problem is that they have no real leaders anymore, no giants of the game, but a bigger one is that much of their selection appears based on a 'square pegs in round holes mentality'. Dave Warner is a very good T20 player. Moises Henriques a decent one. Yet both feature in an Australian Test side with  track records that are, at best, fair in the longer form of the game because they're the best available.

Mickey Arthur is an intelligent man and a good coach. The two things combined should help him to understand that Australia cannot expect to be a world-class side without world-class players. Until they can develop the next Hayden, Langer, Waughs, Ponting, Gilchrist, McGrath and Warne they're unlikely to get there.

Mind you, the cause could be helped by the selection of a player, in Khawaja, who can bat for a long time and could, given a lengthy opportunity, solve the current massive problem that they have at number three. He is a proven scorer of runs in the longer forms of the game.

Horses for courses, that's what I say.