Thomson and Cohen sign deals

Alex Thomson has been rewarded for promising displays in his loan period from Warwickshire with a two-year contract, while Michael Cohen has signed for another year.

Cohen has struggled with his line at times, but there have been signs of improvement and some very good displays. He is young enough to get better and faster, while his coltish enthusiasm in the field is always appreciated. I think he can come on with the bat, too and at 22 he has time on his side to develop his all round game. 

It is some time since we had a regular off spinner of quality at Derbyshire and Thomson, at 27, has served his apprenticeship as a spinner. Back in the 1950s and 1960s, every county had a good one, but times have changed and there are few in world cricket, let alone on the domestic circuit.

It will be interesting to see how he handles bowling in first - class cricket and I feel he has been underbowled in the T20. I wasn't honestly sure if his performances had done enough to convince, but they must see something. Yet with McKiernan preferred to him in the last two games in that competition, you could be excused for thinking otherwise. 

It is another example of muddled thinking this year. Surely we won't also re-engage Mattie McKiernan and have three spinners on the staff? I think Mattie has also been under-utilised this season in the T20, which we got badly wrong. 

One also assumes from this that Dave Houghton will remain in charge in 2022. I have made my thoughts on that known already, but if there were plans to change the Head of Cricket, would you let the current post-holder recruit for next year?

One thing is sure, this winter is massive for Derbyshire. Critchley and du Plooy are out of contract at the end of next summer and their heads may be turned with good displays in the new competition. I would assume that they need to be assured of being part of a competitive Derbyshire to stay and so a good summer next year is vital.

Billy Godleman will also be out of contract, assuming that he and the club come to an agreement on what I understand is an optional year for next summer. 

Might offering the captaincy to Critchley be an option? Perhaps the time is right for Billy Godleman to stand down and focus on his batting? Such an offer to Critchley would be difficult for others to match, but we need also to get the overseas recruitment right next year and a quality overseas as captain might be an option. 

Let's be honest, which I always try to be, this year's overseas recruitment has been a disaster. Billy Stanlake lasted one game, Ben McDermott little more. We have hardly seen Dustin Melton with a succession of injuries  and while Logan Van Beek is the leading wicket-taker in T20 and has fielded brilliantly, he is too expensive, going at ten an over.

A young side has to be led by good overseas players, with good reputation and character. For me, they have to enhance the side and be obvious star players, not just a couple of extra bodies around the place who are of a similar standard to the rest.

If there is doubt we can attract such a player, I would sooner put that budget to getting a quality county pro in. Perhaps we need to have a smaller, tighter, better quality squad, without as many peripheral players.

There are a lot of questions and the Head of Cricket is going to have to come up with some very good answers.

Maybe it's just me, but I feel we are simply papering over cracks and hoping they disappear. We are bottom of the table in 4-day and T20 cricket. We have a looming court case. We bring in a loan for a few games, then another one, neither of them likely to be anything more in the club's history than Chris Harris once was. 

I don't feel there is anything akin to a structure, long-term strategy or even Baldrick-style 'cunning plan'.

It also appears that we have a board that is content for this state of affairs to continue.

Maybe that is the saddest thing of all. Because if we can tolerate and accept mediocrity, we are on a very slippery slope.