Four more days of cricket to go for Derbyshire, weather permitting, then the players can go away on hard earned holidays, while Dave Houghton arrives at the club and gets his bearings.
Signing Billy Godleman and Tony Palladino to new deals is good work already. Hopefully a new contract for Wayne Madsen isn't far behind, his current deal finishing at the end of 2019. With Luis Reece, Matt Critchley and Alex Hughes all contracted to the end of 2020, the nucleus of the squad that most would envisage in a first choice line up is in place.
That's the good news. The bad is that of the others there are no certainties to be with us in two summers time, not to mention 2019.
There's the wicket-keeping situation first of all. Harvey Hosein may have done enough, especially with his match-winning innings at Northampton, to secure a new deal. Yet that would be dependent on Dave Houghton's understanding of his worth. I think his glove work was better at the end of the summer, the result of hard work, but only time will tell if he can maintain a high standard throughout a long summer.
Of course, he needs opportunity to do that and my guess would be that unless there is a hidden gem elsewhere in county second team cricket he will get that chance next year. Neither Daryn Smit or Gary Wilson have done enough with the bat to take precedence, though we all know the former's ability with the gloves. In the season's closing weeks he has appeared a peripheral figure, however and one of Houghton's early jobs is to look at his wicket keepers and see what can be done. If Smit could score the runs he managed in South Africa, his glove work would make him a shoo-in, but he hasn't done that.
Nor has Gary Wilson. He is a nice bloke, but the reality is that our vice-captain has scored two half centuries, highest score 66, in all cricket this year. Given that he has spent a fair part of it in the top five, it isn't enough by some distance.
Then there's the seam bowling. We are bowling sides out now, something we singularly failed to do in the pre-Barnett era, but there are question marks against both Hardus Viljoen and Ravi Rampaul. Both are among our highest earners, but Viljoen's 36 wickets at 32 isn't, for me, a strong argument on being value for money. There have been some hostile spells, but more dreadful ones than we should expect at this level. Pace without direction is no use and when Hardus goes off kilter it is generally spectacular.
As for Rampaul, thirteen wickets at 50 is a dismal return and the recurrence of his breathing issues at Lord's is worrying for his first-class future. At times he can bowl some canny deliveries, but too often he has looked worryingly ordinary and not especially fit.
As for the younger players, I'd be confident that Hamidullah Qadri has a long term future, one that I hope can be secured, but for others things are less clear cut. Will Davis played one first-class match all summer, which tells its own story. I would be surprised to see him retained, even more so if someone else didn't give him a try.
There's a good bowler in there, but maybe the mental side of the first-class game isn't yet right. Were it so he was surely worth more senior cricket than he got. Perhaps a change of environment will see him prosper. Maybe if his too fragile body bulks up he could do it, but it doesn't look good for a lad who has a lot of talent.
I think Brodrick and Gleadall will get opportunities, in time, but I don't think Anuj Dal has done enough to be retained. He seems a really nice lad, is terrific in the field and like a whippet between the wickets, but he hasn't scored enough runs, either in the second or first team. He always looks classy and stylish, as I have written before, but that counts for nothing if there are no runs in the scorebook.
We do need competition in the middle order and I would like to see at least one batsman and one bowler come in over the winter, aside from the change in overseas players that each season seems to bring.
As it stands the opening eleven for 2019 is a long way from completion.
I've put the case for Will Davis often enough not to repeat it all again. His record, broken as it has been by injury, speaks of a talented bowler with a higher strike rate than any of the other bowlers we know we'll have next year apart from Viljoen, and less likely to go around the park than anyone but Palladino. Unless something has changed this year, I don't think anyone who saw him bowl on a road at derby against Leicestershire a couple of years ago will think he lacks heart or mental fortitude either. His injury record is an issue, but no more so than a number of his contemporaries, and very much par for the course for developing fast bowlers. Of course you have to call time somewhere, but I think this is too early for a bowler whose quality we have seen.
ReplyDeleteIt's not as though we're rich with alternatives. Neither Gleadall or Taylor, the only other contracted quick bowlers on the staff, did any better in the seconds than Davis and both had injury problems. Sam Connors seems to have shown promise, but none of the three have records to suggest that they are ready to fill a gap in the first team. It's extraordinary that we have gone in 15 months from a situation where we could have put out a full team of pace bowlers to one where, as Daryn Smit said on the radio commentary yesterday, our only available quick bowlers were those playing at Lords. Perhaps there are other options that Derbyshire have in mind to strengthen the bowling without breaking the bank again, but I'll take some convincing that they are better prospects than Davis.
I'd be inclined to give Anuj Dal a proper opportunity. He's not produced the innings that demands a contract, but he's played in challenging situations on difficult wickets against good bowlers in a position he's not familiar with, has spent more time at the crease than a number of his team-mates, and, apart from playing on with a mistimed cut in one innings, hasn't surrendered his wicket easily. If he plays again this week, a typical Derby wicket might provide a more friendly environment to show what he can do. From what I've seen, he looks to me a better prospect than Brodick, who hasn't particularly impressed me in his limited opportunities, and doesn't really seem to have progressed in the second team.
It's an interesting point though, that we often judge young players by rather more stringent standards than their more experienced comrades. Hughes, Smit, Wilson and even Godleman had much less productive spells this season than Dal, but their record meant that people believed that they would eventually come good. A young player having such a run would have been left out much earlier, and in Dal I see a player with concentration, determination and a touch of flair to go with his outstanding fielding and one day ability.
Agree with comments made
ReplyDeleteI would look to terminate Wilson ,Smit and Rampaul
Hosein is ringfenced at 7 for me
We need 2 proper batsmen to integrate with Godleman Reece and Madsen and allow Hughes and Critchley to shore up the lower middle order with Harvey
Olivier and Palladino both excellent and it would be great to secure Duane on a Kolpak
I would persevere with the remaining youngsters and let Viljoen run his contract down
Notts have now signed Slater Duckett and Clarke from less glamorous neighbours
We need to ensure Hosein and Critchley feel valued and central to the clubs planning to avoid similar
There are few professions where we write off people at the age of 21. There's Somerset today announcing the release of Fin Trenouth, who was an England under 19 not that long ago and a fine player in the right environment.
ReplyDeleteIt's a shame but professional sport is very demanding, the creme de la creme...
That lad sounds very interesting. I'd be inclined to keep tabs on his winter progression as he could be worth a year.
ReplyDeleteI get a little concerned when there is talk of more young players potentially being released as they are not good enough, Davis being an example, we all were excited to see this young lad run in and bowl at the Aussies, and get, i think it was their captain Michael Clarke as his first wicket. Surely we need to look at trying to get two reasonably stable teams, 1XI & 2XI, say 20 played plus 6-8 trialist etc. Everyone is not going to be good enough to hold a regular place in the 1XI, but we need to give players time to develop in the 2XI rather than cast them out to potentially develop elsewhere, cotton, taylor etc. I know we cannot fulfill all players expectations, but we must allow some time to develop the promise that must have been recognised at a earlier age to make someone take them on to the staff. Hopefully we can retain the hosiens and critchley, they have developed when they have been allowed to, i.e. hoseins keeping gets better the more he keeps.
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