Madsen testimonial gesture typical of the man

"I will give a percentage of all the money raised this year to my three nominated charities – the Derby Hospitals Charity, LIV village in South Africa and the PCA Benevolent Fund," said Wayne Madsen. "But I'm also looking to support other charities like the Cricket Derbyshire Foundation because, for me, it is about leaving a legacy – something that can be taken up and developed after this year. It's a huge honour and a privilege to be awarded a testimonial year and one of the benefits of it is that I am able to do a lot more for charity to help people who are less fortunate."

There, in a paragraph, is the essence of the man. In an era when too many sportsmen are seen as in it for everything they can get, Wayne is thinking of others and it is heartening and refreshing to see. 

I hope that his testimonial year is a huge success, as it deserves to be. There is an excellent range of events and his organising committee deserves warm congratulations for the breadth of activities available.

I look forward to helping to broadcast them in due course and if they coincide with trips down south, hopefully getting along to one or two. I hope you do too, because he has been a wonderful servant to the club - and hopefully will continue to be for many years to come.

Finally tonight, what do you reckon to Lancashire signing Shivnarine Chanderpaul and Dane Vilas? I have to say that it strikes me as a little odd for them to sign another wicket keeper, irrespective of his minimal international record. I know that they will be short of Jos Buttler for a fair part of the summer, but one would hope they have enough in Alex Davies, to cover in his absence.

In some ways it mirrors Derbyshire, with Gary Wilson and Harvey Hosein. I know there have been lively discussions over signing Daryn Smit, but were we to move for the South African I would see him as a batsman and occasional leggie, with his wicket-keeping as emergency back up.

I'm not sure Vilas is good enough with the bat, in English conditions, to be a specialist, so it will be interesting to see how that goes.

Shiv? Of course he is a legend and his influence of the pitch will doubtless be important. Yet he struggled in his final season with us to translate the hard work into weight of runs and three years on will be 43 when the action starts.

 

I acknowledge he is scoring runs heavily in West Indies domestic cricket, but the level is considerably lower than division one of the county championship. If you need any proof of that, try and find another West Indian cricketer on a county deal that isn't T20 alone (I'll allow you Fidel Edwards...)

 

Shiv will grind out some runs, but at 43, six months in England will test his unique technique and fitness. I hope that the runs come, if for no other reason than to preserve the legend, but I think it will be tough for him and a strange call by Lancashire.

 

I can't think that any county since the last war has signed a player of 43. Crikey, back in the day when we picked up Fred Trueman and Clive Inman, they were relatively young lads of 41 and 37 respectively.

 

Mind you, Inman had been retired for a year...