The start of a new week always brings wistful sighs for those who love their weekends and just wish they could last a teensy bit longer. Like five days longer, in my case, but a man's gotta do what a man's gotta do, as John Wayne once (allegedly) said in a film or two...
Still, the good vibrations (spot the ongoing musical references) continued with news that all but two of the Christmas party nights had been filled at the club, testament to a fantastic effort by the off-field team, as well as a response from the Derbyshire public to what is a wonderful facility in the marquee.
I am sure the events will go well and am equally sure that the money raised will go towards improving the club's playing resources, putting us on a more level playing field with other counties. The vast improvement on this side of the business in recent times has been quite extraordinary.
Then the membership fees for next year were announced and supporters will be pleased to see no massive hike in the costs of watching cricket. It is very good value, especially when one compares it to football and my guess is that those sensible enough to sign up are going to get good value next summer, with a lot of exciting - and successful - cricket in store.
On the field, the big news is that Graeme Welch admits we are 'in talks' with Cheteshwar Pujara over a return next summer. I don't know about you, but that's the best that I have heard in some time. I think back to the innings that I saw against Leicestershire and, notwithstanding the opposition attack not being the finest, it was one of breathtaking skill and poise.
It was interesting to read on Cricinfo that a number of Indian cricket fans are urging Pujara to ignore the IPL for this year and instead, come to the ultimate finishing school that is county cricket.
Given that last year he earned £190,000 from a peripheral role with Kings XI Punjab, that will be a tough gig to ignore. I think we will be looking at cover for the early summer, with Pujara (hopefully) coming in June for the second half of the season.
Good news to start the week though!
More from me as the week progresses.
That would be very good news indeed if Pujara joined us from June onwards. I don,t expect it will prove too difficult to find someone to cover the first weeks of the season,once we know exactly where we stand with Pujara.
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