At least for now, the future of Alfie Gleadall and James Taylor does not lie with Derbyshire.
Both have been released from the club and are free to pursue their ambitions elsewhere. At nineteen and eighteen respectively, it seems harsh, but then professional sport is harsh and unforgiving.
That both boys have talent is undeniable. You don't play national age group cricket without that, but to progress to senior ranks, so much more is needed. You need the basic skills, but the mental approach has to be right, so too the willingness to get the body ready for the demands of the senior game.
Talking to Derbyshire players this week, most of them are carrying injuries. In some cases they have been for weeks, but it is this willingness to handle the pain barrier that sets apart the best. To make it as a contracted county cricketer, you are in the top 0.5% of players in the country, but it needs everything to be right. Not just ability, but a desire to get better, a willingness to listen and learn, as well as get your body right. Miss out one of those things, and all the natural talent in the world won't see you make it.
Few teenagers are blessed with strong physiques, but both these lads looked like they need to do some growing and filling out before they could potentially become county players. Sam Conners has been retained, and he has shown, in glimpses, the aptitude for the professional game, as well as the height, which is always an asset for a quick bowler.
Whether he will make it is a moot point, but he will know the work that lies ahead, A county with a limited and finite budget that allows only a small squad cannot gamble on two youngsters being fit next year, when they weren't for most of this. Better the budget goes on someone further on in his development, who can make the transition NOW to first-class cricket.
It seemed to me that neither Alfie nor James were close to the requisite standard at this stage. It may be that two or three years of mental and physical development might make a difference. They may get another chance to play second team and may make a better first of things next time, but wouldn't be the first lads to dominate at age group level and fail when they mixed it with the big boys.
I will retain the memory of Alfie bowling a rip-snorting yorker at Durham last year, ripping out a stump in the process, but he needs to fill out a lot to do that consistently. So does James, though both may make tracks elsewhere for trials over the winter.
There is a lesson for the county here, however. Last winter we were told that the three youngsters were making excellent progress and it was expected that they would push for the senior side. They didn't, and while bullish comments are fine in the world of sport, reality is also important.
They need look no further than Fynn Hudson-Prentice for inspiration. A player engaged by Sussex at 18, he was released at 20, but look at him now, at 23. He learned from the experience, went away and worked on his game (and physique) and this weekend will be a key component of a Derbyshire side in the Vitality Blast Finals Day. The same goes for Anuj Dal, released by Nottinghamshire at 21, but now looking better prepared for the game two years later, perhaps reinventing himself in the process.
Gleadall and Taylor's turn may come again, but for both there is a lot of work ahead,
Disappointing news but not a great surprise with their injury record. Gleadall had pace but his action looked like an injury waiting to happen, such was the force he used to compensate for his lack of height. They are just the latest in a long and depressing line of young bowlers that have failed to develop with us, and the sad fact is that we have not produced a single quick bowler who has gone on to have a sustained career since Tom Lungley and Kevin Dean before him. Tom Taylor and Will Davis might yet do so, and I've commented several times that I think it was a mistake releasing both of them. Taylor's had another injury-wrecked year after a very good start to it, and while Will Davis hasn't pulled up any trees, he's stayed fit and played more games than Logan van Beek, and has done slightly better with ball and bat in 4 day and t20 cricket. It's all very well saying we can't afford to keep injury prone players, but we can't really afford to let them go prematurely and spend twice as much on an unproven overseas player who delivers less.
ReplyDeleteWe have to hope that the work that Mal Loye and Steve Kirby are doing will start to identify and develop young fast bowlers for the future, but for the interim, there doesn't seem to be anything in the developmental pipeline. A line up of Rampaul, Palladino, Reece (if he can carry on delivering his unsustainable workload), Hudson-Prentice, Conners and Melton is desperately thin even if they are supplemented by a good quality overseas, and we need to be looking at early to mid 20 bowlers who have been released or aren't getting opportunities with their current counties. We've missed a number of bowlers in these categories who have gone on to do well for their new counties - Brett Hutton, Matthew Milnes, Josh Shaw, Harry Podmore (admittedly, I'm not sure any of us were wildly impressed with him when he came on loan a couple of years ago), Matt Salisbury for example - and its a market that we need to look at. I noticed that Abi Sakande turned down a new contract with Sussex while we were playing them, and while he may have other south-east irons in the fire, he's the kind of player we should be thinking about at counties that are stacked high with fast bowlers who get very little opportunity - Middlesex springs to mind where a raft of young bowlers must be getting pretty frustrated at their limited opportunities even in a failing side.