The goal posts move again

So, no cricket until the start of July now, according to the ECB press release this morning, closely followed by one from the counties themselves.

Nine rounds of County Championship cricket will have been lost, but there is still a commitment to get both red and white ball matches in, if at all possible. The Vitality Blast will be pushed as late as they can, to allow the best chance of the biggest county earner taking place, while a further discussion will take place next Wednesday on the new competition.

On the one hand there are grounds for optimism, perhaps some cricket to enjoy in two months, but the reality is that it will be unlike anything we have enjoyed before. I suspect that even the level of attendance we see at the average four-day game may be too great for safety, while the packed crowd of a T20 night is likely to have zero chance of taking place.

Streaming will be the way to go, but will commentaries and press boxes be possible? The games are likely to have less atmosphere than the quarter-final last year played at The Riverside, when Old Trafford was needed by England and Lancashire played Durham in a cavernous, empty stadium.

It will be not as we know it, but will be cricket all the same. Assuming it happens.

My own gut feeling, and it can only be that, as I am not trained in medical matters, is that July will in turn become September and we MAY see some sporting participation return at that point. I just have concerns that already some are struggling to observe the requisites of social distancing and if that continues, the curve that we all need to see flattened will take longer.

All rather ironic in relation to the weather, which is remarkable for the time of year. I sat in our garden yesterday and watched an array of birds swoop in and out of baths, a cold drink at my side and craved sitting in the stand at Derby, watching the action unfold. Or wandering around the boundary, chatting to friends old and new, joining in the applause for another boundary, another wicket. Better still sitting in a comfortable chair at Chesterfield, enjoying a cooling breeze on a hot day, remembering days and deeds over fifty years, as our heroes glide across the grass.

Oh, my Godleman and my Madsen, long ago...

A strange summer

Normally at this time of the Spring, the blog is cranking into gear and I am writing and publishing posts on a daily basis.

This year, sad to relate, it would appear we are still several months away from county cricket and it is all so sad. Of course, there are bigger things going on in the world, but when my nightly chats with Dad always switch to the greatest of games and he, at 92, pines for news on the club it is hard for him, for me, for all of us.

Yesterday's news was the cancellation of the contracts for this summer of Sean Abbott and Ben McDermott. It was always a matter of time, when other counties were starting to do the same and indicative of  a growing feeling that there will be little if any cricket this summer.

It is tough, losing the best part of a summer in a career that is already finite and relatively short. Especially so if you have more years behind you than ahead, perhaps even more if you have earned a summer contract to show what you can do. Toughest of all, perhaps, for those in the final year of deals and hoping to show that they are worthy of a contract extension.

Counties will face a dilemma on this, of course. Will a player who was good in 2019 still have it in 2021, or will the eye have gone for batsmen, the nip for bowlers? There will be several around the circuit who will have been robbed of one last hurrah before slipping into retirement and a new career.

For club cricket it will be challenging too. Some players will get used to doing other things at the weekend, even if it is cosy domesticity and sprucing up their garden. Yet plenty of others will be chafing at the bit to get the whites washed and ironed, the new bat knocked in, the new thigh pad tried out, the new gloves given an airing.

At least Derbyshire have done the right thing in deferring the deal for their Aussies to next year, subject to agreement from their Cricket Board. It may not work out quite so well as it would have this summer, when numerous Australians were planned to be over here with a summer free of international cricket. Next year may see tours eat in to availability.

Always assuming, of course, we are able to return to normality by then. When one reads experts suggesting that a return to packed grounds and stadiums would be 'impossible and dangerous' before a vaccine has been found and made widely available, normality seems some distance away.

It is good to see counties and players trying to maintain engagement on social media though. Between players answering supporter questions, offering tips from their gardens and playing each other at a cricket video game, there is plenty to enjoy, even if it really isn't the same.

I'm not really a gamer, but am finding Stick Cricket Live a lot of fun, after the suggestion of a work colleague.

I'm just pining, like the rest of you, for the return of the real thing.

John Wright is new club president

The news that John Wright is the new club president is welcome, a ray of light in what threatens to be a summer of largely cricketing darkness.

If one were to sit down and come up with the names of the truly great batsmen that have played for Derbyshire, the chances are that John would make the top four, alongside Dean Jones, Peter Kirsten and Mohammad Azharuddin.

Even in such company, were you were to choose one player who, irrespective of the state of the wicket and who was bowling would get his head down and graft, he might well be my first pick.

For all that he had a fine array of shots and, like all good left-handers, was immensely strong off his legs and especially through mid-on, the thing that I most remember John Wright for was his 'leave'. He was the best judge of the ball to let go I have seen in county colours and an unerring ability on a humid morning, when the ball was swinging around, to play only what he had to. The 'oohs' and 'aahs' of a myriad county seamers must have been music to his ears and if it bothered him at all he never showed it. Instead, he just leaned on his bat, chewed his gum and smiled.

That was another thing about John Wright. He smiled a lot and seemed to appreciate that being paid for playing cricket, while undoubtedly not easy, was something that a lot of us cherished. He was one of the more genial players on the circuit and was well-liked by cricket fans around the country. Certainly in Derbyshire, where the support for him never wavered, long after he finished playing and even before his return as T20 coach.

He might have ended up at Kent, where he turned up for trials, but their surfeit of overseas stars saw him try his chances at Derbyshire, where 150 in a second team game convinced the county that they had found a good 'un.

He was that all right. From 1977 to 1988, Wright was a model of consistency, his second-wicket partnership in some of that time with Peter Kirsten giving the county the greatest solidity they have ever had in batting. To a Derbyshire fan of my vintage, thinking back to the two of them batting at Lords in 1981 will bring a wistful smile to the face. When they were in full flow, which was often, there appeared little that the opposition could do to stop them. Indeed, a sign of their ability was how the opposition last-day targets got higher and higher. For supporters who recalled all to easily our inability to score 200 in the last innings, seeing us chase down 250, 300, even 350 was a joy.

1982 was the peak. In that golden summer, Wright scored 1830 championship runs at 56, with seven centuries and five fifties. Kirsten scored 1941 runs at just under 65, eight centuries and six fifties. I would listen for the cricket scores on the radio and in my mind's eye we always seemed to be a hundred and plenty for one, with both going like trains. I saw them score plenty in person too and for two Derbyshire players to be within touching distance of 4,000 runs between them, even now, seems extraordinary.

They were good friends and shared a flat together for some time. I remember a former girlfriend of mine telling me around that time that she'd been out for a drink with some friends in Chesterfield and chatted up by a 'New Zealander who played cricket for Derbyshire'. I was jealous, but more that I hadn't had the chance to chat to him myself, which probably shows I wasn't all that serious about her...

In 1984 Wright averaged over 60 and scored 1200 runs in just 21 innings, but by that stage he was job-sharing the overseas role with Michael Holding. In a delightfully self-deprecating way, he told of how the opposition were always pleased to see his name on the team sheet in that period, as it meant that they wouldn't face trial by Holding. One got the impression that a lot of the enjoyment had gone by this time, something confirmed in his excellent autobiography, but he continued to give value for money and bad trots were few and far between.

He was a thinker about his game and team mates recall his gluing his top batting glove to the bat handle so it was in the right position all the time. They also attest to the origin of his nickname 'Shake', due to his messy kit bag, which he used to shake onto the dressing room floor in an attempt to find the cleanest gear. He was immensely popular in the dressing room and in 1976, when Eddie Barlow arranged a team bus for away games, Wright kept the players entertained with his singing and guitar skills. He was also willing to help with advice for younger players and few were surprised when he became a respected coach.

His dry wit continued in his successful tenure as coach of the Indian national team in the era of Dravid, Ganguly, Sehwag and Tendulkar. 'The most important job is to make sure you get all the practice balls back'  he said, accepting that players of such talent needed little coaching.

I will always remember his innings against the West Indies at Chesterfield in 1980 as perhaps the bravest I have seen by a Derbyshire player. It was a typical green-top and Roberts, Garner and Marshall were fast and nasty, most of the batsmen taking blows to the hands and body.

Wright took more than most, but made an extraordinary 96 from a total of 229. I am sure that the visitors wouldn't have grudged him that extra four runs in an innings of remarkable skill and courage. He went on to become the first New Zealander to pass 4,000 Test runs and remained a player that the opposition knew that they would need to dig out.

His return to the club as T20 coach brought a change in our approach to the format, one that has been developed since. It came after a memorable Skype interview I had with him for my second book, which took some time to find an appropriate hour between here and New Zealand, but was worth the wait.

His fond memories of his county stint and the friendships he made were touching, while his laughter as he recalled stories from the circuit made it an interview I really didn't want to end.If you haven't read it, do pick up a copy from a good book shop, because John, as well as a thoroughly pleasant man, was comedy gold.

He deserves warm congratulations on his new role. Let's just hope that the pandemic relents, we all come out the other side intact and we can meet up again in the very near future.

Congratulations, Mr President. 

There will be no complaints on your deserved award.

Will we, won't we?

I have no idea if there will be any cricket this summer, any more than the rest of you.

Our best chance is if the silly idiots who insist on meeting up and carrying on as normal toe the party line and do what they are asked. The horrific Covid 19 is sweeping the globe and any risk, for any sport, is simply not acceptable.

I hope that we all come through the other side relatively unscathed and apart from a dog walk per day I haven't left the house and garden for over two weeks. Whether that is enough, time will tell.

This week has seen various reports in the media. One said that there would be no cricket this summer, another that the ECB has four fixture options on the go, depending on what time is available when the all-clear is sounded.

For what it is worth, I think the biggest mistake they could make would be to try and launch the new competition this summer. Yes, the lack of cricket  might enhance the appeal, somewhat akin to the Victory Tests at the end of the last war, yet it would do much less for the supporters than the Vitality Blast, and considerably less for the coffers of the various clubs.

I have seen suggestions that they will play the new competition and the Blast, given time, but see that as a non-starter. For one thing, it would annoy the traditionalists who have supported the game for many years. I know that the four-day game is the least lucrative, but it prepares players for the greatest format of all, Test cricket, and is still the version for the aesthete and connoisseur. I love the cut and thrust of the format, plus it also gives me the best value in travelling a long way to see cricket.

It would also mean that the many players who are not selected for T20 will play no cricket this summer. One would assume that the Professional Cricketers Association have already made their thoughts clear on that one, with some players picking up two salaries for the summer and others perhaps only a reduced one.

Better might be scrapping four-day cricket for one season only and playing two three-day games in a week, with a day in between. If the counties were split into two, or even three groups, you wouldn't need too many weeks to have sections and perhaps then a final. It would be tiring for players, but you would be talking a season of perhaps only two months, when they haven't played in over a year in most cases. It would likely have to be played without overseas players, as I would be surprised if international travel resumed so quickly, but would give something to the loyal fans who have been there for years.

I suspect the Vitality Blast would set new attendance records, were it to go ahead. I share the bullish attitude of Dave Houghton, in that we have a real side coming together with genuine prospects of success. Mind you, the Aussie overseas would have given us an edge this year, so that might temper things slightly.

Of course, it could all be academic and we may have to wait another twelve months for county cricket.

Patience is key.