Slater leaves as Godleman signs contract extension

There are things in life that surprise you, while others take place with all the inevitability of Summer following on from Spring.

The latter was very much the case with the news finally and legitimately breaking that Ben Slater has joined Nottinghamshire on a three-year deal. He will play there on loan for the remainder of the season and then have until he is thirty to make it as a top level player with them.

He has some way to go. For all his obvious talents - and he was one of the best fifty-over batsmen I have seen in Derbyshire colours - he has not yet translated that ability into the most convincing evidence of it. Runs in the scorebook. AND he needs to do it at a higher level than he has so far played.

Rumours have gone around the 3aaa County Ground all summer, but then they usually do. If I had a tenner for every time I had been told Wayne Madsen was leaving over the past five years I would be writing this blog from my yacht off St Tropez. Yet there was obvious credibility in the stories around Ben. If you have a player of genuine talent who wins you matches on a regular basis, you offer top dollar to retain their services. For those below that level, you offer what you feel is the appropriate going rate, which leaves the danger of someone else coming in to procure their services.

So it was with Ben. I would like to think, as they have said, that the club offered what was a fair deal for his continued services, but Ben's agent found our near (not dear) neighbours down the road were prepared to offer more. We will always, as a smaller county, be at the predatory mercy of the big fish and the harsh reality is that even our maximum isn't close to that of others.

It is entirely Ben's prerogative to go for the best offer on the table. It is a short career and any one of us, offered the chance to ply their trade somewhere fairly close for more money, would do the same. By the same token, I don't think it fair for supporters, on this occasion, to be too harsh in their criticism of the club.

Ben may go on to be one of the best openers Nottinghamshire has ever had. Yet in a lengthy apprenticeship at Derbyshire he has made just three centuries in 121 first-class innings, two of them in the same match. He has passed fifty on 23 occasions, but that conversion rate is key. Fifties rarely win cricket matches, so the bargaining power wasn't there. If you compare his record with Luis Reece, four centuries and 17 fifties in 79 first-class innings, you will see what I mean. There is bargaining power to be had in the statistics of Luis, a player I hope we retain for a long time.

I loved watching Ben Slater bat, a busy player who has the talent to be doing so much more, This is why, of course, we need a Head of Cricket, because players need someone to turn to who can take them on a level. The reference to 'Nottinghamshire's top coaches' in the club's press release hints at something that we don't have, and need.

Peer assistance, mentoring and buddying, if you choose your preferred term, will take you so far, but with an elite group, such as we have at present, I feel there is too much scope for self-preservation. While I whole-heartedly support Billy Godleman's autonomy as captain, he too needs someone to turn to for support and guidance, as he had in Kim Barnett. In my long time experience of different cricket and hockey clubs, over forty years, very few people on selection committees get dropped...

So Ben's gone, but for me there's no disappointment today, just a final acceptance of what has seemed inevitable for some time. More important, as the club threw something on to the media scales that has been known for a couple of days, presumably to balance things up, was the confirmation of Billy Godleman's contract extension, a deal that will take him to the end of 2021.

I like and hugely admire Billy. He was a youthful prodigy who seemed in danger of losing it at Essex, but came to Derbyshire and has become a man admired and respected for everything he does. I have enjoyed watching him grow as a player and a man and become a captain of quiet authority. I watched him at Durham pose for photographs with any number of people, with a word for them all  and a ready smile. An interested enquiry as to the book that a teenage girl was reading was a little thing that meant a lot, both to her and her father.

He has proved me wrong in showing he can play T20 and is now an automatic pick in all formats, bringing me rather back to my earlier point about players commanding top dollar. He wouldn't be in my 'top players to watch' list, but I would put him up there with Steve Stubbings, Alan Hill and Tony Borrington as a bloke you would want on your side, because you knew he would battle for you.

With the right Head of Cricket, I still think Billy can get us promoted. Irrespective of there being the money to replace Ben Slater, I would like to see our top three next year as Godleman, Reece and Madsen. You can build a good team around such a strong base, with Alex Hughes and Matt Critchley also in that mix.

The key will be in the rest. We need to keep the above five and then make serious decisions about a number of others. We need one of our three wicket-keepers to start scoring runs, or find one from somewhere who can. We need to decide if the large outlay on Hardus Viljoen and Ravi Rampaul is being repaid in the required manner and find players who can genuinely contribute and want to play for Derbyshire.

I don't think Ben will be the last to leave the county this winter, as too many, for varying reasons, have none of that bargaining power when hard discussions are had. Yet next summer will come around, just the same.

We can only hope that we continue to progress when it does so.

In closing - thanks Ben. I wish you all the best in your continued career.