Close season pointers in recent events

This has been an exciting week for Derbyshire supporters.

The thrilling T20 win at Northampton was followed by an equally exciting one against the same opposition at Chesterfield today. The performances in both matches were excellent, the commitment of the players exemplary and the results exactly what we wanted.

There is talent at the club and people within it who are making strong cases for contracts and/or improved deals. The club administration's response to these will largely determine whether members, supporters and I can continue to take them seriously.

Ben Slater, as we all know, is being courted by Nottinghamshire. That was always likely to be so, given their scouting network runs all the way to Leicester and Derby. I still maintain that Ben won't walk into their first eleven and would be better served by staying at Derbyshire for at least one more contract. He isn't yet the finished article and needs to convert more of these fine fifties into terrific tons, but the talent is there. He has passed a thousand runs in all forms this summer and is fully deserving of an enhanced deal. My understanding is that such a deal is on the table and I sincerely hope that is the case.

The same goes for Matt Critchley. He signed a contract with the club that gave him the security of a four-year deal, which was great for a lad of his age. Yet performances like the one in this match will make potential suitors look at him and wonder whether it might be worth making an offer to buy out the remainder of his contract. It was signed and agreed before his leg spin developed this year and before he became an England Lion. I know we are a club that has to live within tight budgets, but we simply MUST fight off the predators and retain the talents of a young man who will be in the England side before he is 25. Remember, you read it here first...

Then there's Harvey Hosein. Now I have written before that I don't think him an outstanding wicket-keeper, but I do consider him a technically gifted batsman. He played two key innings in this match and should have a run in the middle order now. It is deserved and it is the only way to see if a longer, deal should be offered.

Let's not forget Luis Reece, desperately missed. He has been absent for a fair chunk of the season but had shown before the stress fracture that he had developed into a real deal all-rounder. Everyone and their kid brother wants such a player and the club needs to be proactive in retaining his services.

Then we look at other players. Based on his performances in the T20, most would want us to look at signing Calum MacLeod for next summer. Not so much the runs, but the way that he has made them have made me think that he would be worth a contract. It's not all been bucolic hoiks and slogs, there's been sound defence, classy cover drives and deft glances, things that make you think there is potential in him.

There's also the case for Chesney Hughes. I understood the reasoning behind letting him go, because he hadn't kicked on and was getting out cheaply far too often. But he has gone away, thought things through, looks as if he has lost a bit of weight and looks more sprightly as a result.

He has made three scores of over 150 for the second team now. The case for re-engagement grows strong and it is one being made by actions, not words.

Lastly there's the case for Charlie Hartley. I have seen him two or three times this summer and liked what I saw. He is a strapping big lad, bowls at a lively lick and nips it around. While accepting that the level is lower, I haven't seen many batsmen play him with ease and his record for Kent suggested that he can do it at senior level. Being perfectly honest, as I try to be, I would prefer to see him in the eleven next year to Hardus Viljoen, on this season's form.

I've not mentioned Anuj Dal and I haven't mentioned Matt McKiernan. Not all of these second team players can get deals but we need to ensure that top performance is rewarded and encouraged.

Ah, but this all costs money, I hear you say. Well, of course it does, which is why my ears pricked up rather more than might otherwise be the case when I saw that the Little Mix concert had sold out, just as the forthcoming ABBA night at the 3aaa County Ground has done.

I don't think my pretty good grasp of arithmetic has let me down, and my appreciation of the costings of such events in the past has not eluded me, so I would estimate that each of these nights should be generating a ballpark six-figure sum for the club. That's £200K-plus, to you and me. If they aren't, you would question why we are doing them and why we are employing thirteen off-field managers when cricketers aren't being signed or retained.

Unless we have staff who are taking inappropriately large, top-line bonuses from this figure - and we would need to know why, were that the case, at a club that is always in a state of near penury - that is a sum of money that could be reinvested in the playing side. That was the entire rationale of the development of the off-field activity at the club and should be its raison d'etre. 

That being the case, a lot of people will be looking at the announced figures with a realistic expectation that we will see player retentions and signings this winter.

I know I will.