Weekend thoughts on the overseas roles

When you come to think of it, in selecting a good county cricket team you start with your captain, follow up with your wicket keeper and then build the rest around your overseas players. The occasional star player will be an early name on the sheet, but the principle stands.

When October comes and it is time to reflect on the county season for Derbyshire, hand on heart, Mickey Arthur has to admit that he got it badly wrong this year. 

Derbyshire cricket has been blessed by numerous overseas players, since Chris Wilkins was the first in 1970. Chris was an entertainer, not totally reliable, certainly not a player you would want to bat for your life, but certainly one who you would want to see when he came off. You tended to hold off from the trip to the toilet and ignore your newspaper when Chris was at the crease. Adrian Kuiper was a later model, in the same vein. Both would have been multi-millionaires in the modern game.

Since then, our landscape has included genuine giants of the game. Barlow, Holding, Wright, Kirsten, Rogers, Azharuddin - it has been my very great pleasure to watch such players and enjoy the massive contribution that they made to the county success on a cricket field. 

They were the 'go-to' - if you needed some tight overs or a wicket, you could toss the ball to Michael Holding or Ian Bishop and to be confident you got them. If you needed a player for the rest to bat around to win or save a game, those named above were admirable role models. 

Even as recently as 2022, Shan Masood was the catalyst for a season of heightened optimism. You knew that he would sell his wicket dearly and his success bred success - it was no coincidence that Wayne Madsen and Brooke Guest enjoyed especially fine summers. Generally speaking, to win cricket matches, three of the top six need to make good runs. It is why we were a good side under Kim Barnett, because either he, John Morris, Chris Adams or Peter Bowler would score well on a regular basis. It is also why, despite the admirable talents of Les Jackson and Cliff Gladwin, we never won the county championship in the 1950s. Aside from Arnold Hamer, no one scored consistently in that period, but if the peaks of Donald Carr and Laurie Johnson had come sooner, the Surrey dominance of that decade might have been considerably lessened.

For Derbyshire to get back on track next year, we have to find two overseas players for each competition who can win games. I'm not too bothered if the roles are split, because the likelihood of finding someone who wants to play for the whole summer gets less by the year. But Gloucestershire managed it with Cameron Bancroft and Glamorgan with Marnus Labuschagne, so such players are out there.

We need to be on a level playing field. How many times have we gone into matches this season with only one overseas player, or none? As I have written before, the principle of signing two seam bowlers for the roles was flawed from the outset and was likely to be thus. Our strongest one day side was always going to include Zak Chappell and Pat Brown, so two additional seam bowlers was leaving a long tail and a one-dimensional attack. Our red ball side needed to be built around Chappell and Sam Conners, with support from Aitchison, Brown and Potts. The former hasn't played this season (and likely won't now, I assume) and the latter has largely been a drinks carrier. With Harry Moore coming through, the selection of Daryn Dupavillon and Blair Tickner was silly, akin to when we had Geoff Miller, Fred Swarbrook and Bob Swindell on the staff and signed Venkat. Who, incidentally, was at least better than all of them...

DD and Tickner have been nice, articulate guys who have given their all, but they have not been good enough - a glance at their figures confirms this. When your overseas selections don't make the team, or are only second or third change as bowlers, you have got it wrong and are admitting so, as has often happened this year.

For Derbyshire to go into many of their Vitality Blast games with only one overseas player was ridiculous. To not have brought in a batter to boost a line up of increasing frailty was a major oversight. When we did, he got injured but his bow's second string was wicket-keeping, where we were already well-covered. Even the belated arrival of Mohammad Amir (another, admittedly better seamer) was something of a damp squib and he appeared to be bowling well within himself in Derbyshire colours. Even if he offered welcome accuracy from what we had become used to. 

I think that the expectation of many supporters, when Mickey Arthur arrived at the county, was that he would have a contacts book akin to the old Yellow Pages directory, once a feature of our homes. Very little so far has suggested that book is more substantial than a pamphlet. I mean no disrespects to the players concerned, because they have been unfailingly pleasant and I don't doubt their effort. Yet they were not of sufficient fitness or quality, nor did they have the skill set that was required, with the exception of Masood and Zaman Khan, who was missed this year.

For 2025 we need a batter of class, someone who offers an oasis of calm in the innings, a Wright, Rogers, Di Venuto, Katich. Players like Bancroft, Pujara, Harris and Labuschagne have made a big difference for their clubs in division two and note that most of the above are Australian, who usually give good service. Leicestershire had Peter Handscomb as well as Ryan Harris, averaging 107 runs an innings between them. Giving your attack something to work with takes off a lot of pressure..

We also need a spinner, because Alex Thomson appears not to be trusted at Derby, which is where we play half of our matches. I understand Mickey Arthur was looking for one this year but couldn't find one, which I find hard to believe for someone who has coached in Pakistan and Sri Lanka. Spinners on the sub-continent are as common as 'See You Jimmy' hats in Glasgow.  

While I accept spinners are not in their natural habitat in April and May, a decent one will always cause consternation - Jeevan Mendis did pretty well a few summers back, even if engaged for the 'wrong' end of the summer. The less known they are, the better, if they are of the requisite standard, of course. If they can bat, they offer much to love.

There is no point bringing in an overseas player who is not noticeably better, or bringing an alternate skill set, to what you already have. By the time salary, flights, accommodation and perhaps a car are added together, serious money is involved, perhaps better spent on a domestic player or maybe two.

I remain convinced that there is talent enough in the Derbyshire squad to do much better than they have shown this year. The greater need, for me, is having two overseas players from who they can learn. Kim Barnett felt that at this level the players didn't need too much coaching input, while John Wright famously said, in self-deprecating style, that the biggest challenge he faced as coach of India was ensuring all the balls were back after nets finished..

We have all focused on this year, because Mickey Arthur stressed that it was when he had HIS team. While I accept there have been highlights, including the win over Nottinghamshire and the recent one over Somerset, no one could claim that this has been a year of promise and/or fulfilment.

Next year could be a real watershed. It is the last one of Mickey Arthur's deal, while several players come to the end of contracts, including Wayne Madsen. It is also the last for Harry Came, Luis Reece, Brooke Guest, Aneurin Donald, Samit Patel, Alex Thomson and Ross Whiteley.

There is plenty to play for and I hope we get the replacement personnel right, this winter.

For what it is worth, I think we are off to a good start with Martin Andersson. 

But there is much to do in the coming months.