News today that Stephen Moore, Peter Burgoyne and Richard Johnson are leaving Derbyshire with immediate effect.
Of the three, that of Moore was the greatest surprise, although his signing was always likely to be short-term, given his intention to move into a business career. The increasing demands of juggling the latter with his cricket and family commitments meant that something had to give. It was a no-brainer that it had to be the cricket, given his age and circumstances.
Neither Peter Burgoyne nor Richard Johnson have played much cricket this year because of anxiety issues and we must respect the decision by both of them to leave the first-class game.
More on this breaking news and a look at tomorrow's game with Durham later on, but for now I have a day's work to do.
See you this evening with my thoughts.
Three months playing for Derbyshire and he wants to retire? Odd. Hopefully it's not to our detriment financially.
ReplyDeleteSurely some new signings have to come in now don't they?. Thought something was a foot with Moore as his omission from last night's game was strange. Didn't look too bad but wasn't scoring heavily enough. Good luck to all Three.
ReplyDeleteOn Cricinfo, they report Welch as saying "our strategy to target experienced match winners to blend with our promising young cricketers will continue." That sounds great, but my concern is how do we do that?
ReplyDeleteEven with our wage bill being lightened 4 times in the last week and most counties being in straitened times, it's unlikely we can stuff anyone's mouth with gold this winter, and if you are a player with choices, why join a team finishing (probably) so low down, especially when the times we have punched above our weights with domestic signings in recent years (Clarke, now Moore)have ended unhappily.
I'm all for developing the raw talent discarded by counties with bigger staffs (Footitt being an obvious example), but as in his case, this will take time to do and such signings are unlikely to impact both significantly and consistently from day one. Any thoughts?!!
Matt, Littleover
I suspect we'll just end up saving money on the budget this year rather than bringing anyone in for a dead campaign. Johnson and Burgoyne haven't played this campaign so am guessing we came to some amicable agreement to send them on their way and therefore don't need to be replaced this year and I suspect Moore leaving will give more/final chances to Hughes/Slater/Borrington etc. Still a bit worrying that two of our bigger name players Moore and Groenewald have gone, especially added to the interviews from both sides on the Groenewald saga this week. Doesn't look good from the outside.
ReplyDeletePS: A note of praise for the groundsman for the T20 wickets - good to see some big scores this year which is what this game is about rather than the rather turgid ones from previous years!
Tim...think you underestimate Mr Grants acumen with contracts...he will have gone and will be owed nothing. His decision, after all.
ReplyDeleteMark...dont think so. Right now you will get second team players and I would sooner save the cash and see what those we have can do.
At the end of the season when people are out of contract is the time to strike. Last opportunities for a few players to impress.
Spot on re the wickets, Gary. In previous years you couldn't play shots and the games were not the greatest of adverts. This year, though on the wrong end of things too many times, they have been much better and the groundstaff deserve credit for that.
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