Winter warmer

I think we all need a winter warmer today. 

It has been a horrible weekend, weather-wise and at such times the cricket season seems a long way off. It is currently 107 days until Derbyshire start their summer with a pre-season match at the County Ground and we can only hope that it improves considerably between times. 

I have finally managed to book a trip down there and I will be staying in Derby between June 4 and 7. I will then be able to see two 20-over fixtures and also visit family and friends in the area. It should give me an opportunity to assess our chances in that format, which appears our better chance of success once again. 

Mickey Arthur did get a trophy under his belt this week, winning the Global Super League with a win over Australian state side Victoria in the final. 

Zak Chappell had a good tournament for them, as was always likely from an excellent bowler in the format. Wayne Madsen was less successful, but it is still good to see the county legend getting belated opportunities overseas.

I just hope the competition allowed our Head of Cricket to spot some untapped talent over there. There are still too many questions against the Derbyshire squad for me to go in to 2025 with any degree of confidence. Caleb Jewell continues to play for Victoria second string, while Blair Tickner is absent from the current round of fixtures in New Zealand for 'family reasons.'

While I understand the genial Kiwi remains Mickey Arthur's first pick for next year, the health of his wife will surely dictate availability and there are presumably other options on the table.

A recent article, however, highlighted the challenge in recruiting overseas players.

After the ECB successfully lobbied the Home Office five years ago,  regulations were altered so that eligibility – which was previously linked solely to international caps – instead took into account domestic T20 appearances. Players are eligible for an international sportsperson visa if they have played 20 top-level T20 fixtures in a full-member nation in the last three years, for those without international credentials.

However, with players increasingly specialised and many of the best white-ball players not regularly playing first-class cricket, the challenge to find eligible, quality red-ball overseas players is clear. Zaman Khan, for example, has never played red ball cricket and to recruit players good at T20 represents a gamble in both the skill set and also the level of fitness to bowl 15-20 overs a day.

Players who do not meet the criteria can apply for a 28-day permitted paid engagement visa, but that doesn't enable them to fulfil a complete block of red ball cricket. In Derbyshire's case, such a player might be available for the first four red ball matches but then not for the next three. 

It highlights why a player like Tickner, theoretically interested and available, becomes a target. With the PSL and IPL overlapping the start of the English county season, the available options are increasingly limited.

Oh for the days when you could sign a big name star, safe in the knowledge he was able to play for the full summer. They're gone and will never return. 

Finally today, the recent sad passing of Brian Jackson leaves Edwin Smith as the oldest surviving former Derbyshire player. 

Edwin will be 91 on January 2, which would take him past his highest score batting for the county. Nonetheless, he is the last man to take over a thousand wickets in the county colours and is a quite wonderful man.

Just behind him in the age stakes are Michael Bentley, who played just one match for the county in 1957 and will be 90 in February, all being well, then Keith Mohan, whose 90th falls in June of next year.

Keith, like Edwin, has had a poor spell of health recently but remains a great character with a wicked sense of humour.

I still recall, with a smile, when we were at Derby railway station after the funeral of Walter Goodyear in 2016. We were both awaiting trains home, him to York, me to Glasgow and we had half an hour to kill, which we did with a coffee in the bar.

As the pleasant young waitress approached, Keith asked if we could have two coffees, 'for my older brother and myself...' 

The twinkle in his eyes was evident, the following grin shared with me.

Long may it continue!

Book Review: A Striking Summer: How Cricket United A Divided Nation by Stephen Brenkley

A cricket book that is also a social history? That'll do nicely..

Coming from a mining background, the events of 1926 and the general strike, together with the subsequent treatment of miners,  has been well engraved on my soul. In this book, which is admirably researched and written, Stephen Brenkley has managed to encapsulate the mood of the country while England were trying to wrest The Ashes from Australian hands. 

It is a series that has been well documented but not previously, in my opinion, as well as this. Until the fifth and final Test the matches were played over three days, which in those pre-Bazball times were insufficient to produce a result, even when heavy rain produced 'sticky dogs' to contend with. Crowds queued through the night to see a hard-fought series, culminating in a legendary finale at The Oval.

England's selection was muddled, as always, with the side taking the field experienced to  ridiculous proportions. Jack Hobbs was 43, wicket-keeper Herbert Strudwick 46 and Wilfred Rhodes, recalled for the final (successful) Test 48. Yet they triumphed, largely through the well-documented opening partnership of 172 between Hobbs and Herbert Sutcliffe in that final match, after heavy overnight rain had left the pitch perilous, some deemed almost impossible, for batting. 

The young Nottinghamshire pace bowler, Harold Larwood, who was to go on to greater things in Australia in 1932-33, made a difference and the visitors were blown away in the fourth innings by his pace at one end and the guile of Rhodes at the other. 

The author paints vivid pictures of the matches in the series and remarkably gives greater background on what the players got up to in the evenings, how they fared between matches and how the country responded to a series that was in stark contrast to what was going on around the shires. There are also enjoyable pen portraits of the major protagonists, which add much to the quality of the book, as do excellent photographs.

The miners were defeated, like the Australians. They eventually returned to work and faced longer hours for less pay, if they had a job to go back to at all. Not all of them did and it was a stark episode in the class division of this country. 

Stephen Brenkley has produced a masterpiece and Fairfield Books are to be commended for three books this Autumn that are worthy of a place on the shelves of any cricket fan. 

This is quite superb.

A Striking Summer: How Cricket United A Divided Nation is written by Stephen Brenkley and published by Fairfield Books