Thursday 30 March 2017

No complaints about the new board

I'm sure, like me, that you all wish Ian Morgan, the new chairman of Derbyshire County Cricket Club, the very best for his tenure at the helm of the club.

I don't know him, though that is something that I hope to correct in the coming months when I get an opportunity to say hello.

Alongside him, on the new board, are some very good people, all of them eminently qualified for those new roles, as one would expect them to be. They cover all the bases and have the expertise that we would wish for to take the club forward.

It is good to see Mike Hendrick back in the fold. He has been estranged from the club for too long and it is good to have his expertise working for the club where he made his name and reputation. Mike was an outstanding bowler and will doubtless have thoughts on our current young crop and how they might develop further. His relationship with Kim Barnett is one that could flourish, undoubtedly to the club's benefit.

No arguments either in the appointment of Michael Holding as club president. It is hard to be critical of an international legend getting involved and it will be great to see him back on an occasional basis at the ground where he left so many golden memories.

My only negative? One that I hope the club will address when Michael's spell in the role has come to an end.

We seem, as a club, to have forgotten many outstanding players who made the club what it was between 1950 and 1980. I'm talking about players such as Edwin Smith, Harold Rhodes, Brian, Jackson, Peter Eyre, Tony Borrington and Alan Hill. All of them, and more, made huge contributions to the success and history of the club, yet in the appointments of Geoff Miller and now Michael, we seem to have overlooked that contribution.

Time was when the role went to the senior capped former player - in other words, the one who was capped the earliest. That was a way of acknowledging their efforts and involving them in the club once more.

Of course Geoff and Michael were legends too, but I do think it a shame that earlier heroes appear to have been ignored.

They deserve better and I think, moving forward, the club could improve in this area.

I look forward to them doing so.

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