Something for the weekend

Apologies for the lack of blog activity this week, but in all honesty there has been little to report.

Aside from the encouraging news that only two Christmas party nights remain free at the 3AAA County Ground, there was little of any importance for Derbyshire fans. Indeed, for county cricket fans across the country there was little to get overly excited about.

At international level, the sad end of the West Indies tour of India has sent tremors through the international game. Is this going to happen again and can the Caribbean stars be trusted not to do so if things don't go their way? The gap between the haves and have nots in their cricket is substantial and it looks increasingly likely that the biggest names in their side will perhaps be seen only in T20, or laugh and giggle cricket in future. It is where the money is, after all, but the abandonment of the tour was, in my humble opinion, the wrong way to go about their business.

The international game is falling apart. Besides the West Indies issues, Bangladesh and Zimbabwe are the international equivalent of Leicestershire, while Pakistan can only play away from home. India control the international game with their unhealthily dominant IPL, England, Australia and South Africa busy about and jockey for position, while Sri Lanka and New Zealand, like the words of the old song, hang on in there baby.

It makes me wonder what happens to the future tours of the West Indies and what that means to Shivnarine Chanderpaul in his quest to become West Indies cricket's leading scorer. If there is no cricket, even Shiv can't score runs and this would be a sad way for his outstanding efforts at international level to end.

That's really it for today. A hand injury is currently limiting my typing and I'm grateful to family members for helping out at present.

What a great job they have done! Thanks guys...hopefully normal service will be resumed in the not too distant future.

Bye for now - and don't forget to put your clocks back tonight...