Derbyshire sign Mohammad Abbas!

Wow. 

There are certain headlines that stick with you through your life. I clearly recall, as a youngster, reading the Derby Telegraph back page that said in big letters 'Rams Sign Dave Mackay'. Fast forward a few years, I remember the goosebumps when I was able to write on this blog  'Derbyshire sign Chanderpaul'. 

Today I can add to that, with the new headline. 

What a signing that is, what a statement of intent. What a fantastic piece of work by the Derbyshire off-field team, not just Mickey Arthur, but also Tom Poynton, the Non-Executive Director (Cricket) on the club board, Ryan Duckett, Dan Wheeldon and others. A signing of this magnitude happens infrequently, certainly in Derbyshire circles, definitely in this modern age when season-long availability is increasingly a challenge. This has taken weeks of work to bring to fulfilment and they deserve every credit.

It probably wouldn't have happened without Mickey Arthur, who gave the bowler his international debut when in charge of Pakistan and maintains a close relationship with the player. But this is a major coup for the county.

A high class international bowler with well over 800 first-class wickets at twenty apiece? For the next two red ball summers? That'll do nicely, thank you. Mohammad Abbas has taken wickets for fun throughout his county career, for Leicestershire, Hampshire and Nottinghamshire. He will keep taking them, because his style is eminently suited to English pitches. He isn't especially fast, but doesn't need to be. He nips it around at medium fast and is a handful for batters at any level. He hasn't played as much international cricket as he should have done, but has one hundred Test wickets at just 23 runs each. 

Derbyshire needed an attack leader for next year, the leader of the pack (vroom, vroom, for those of a certain age). With Abbas, they have it in spades. I would think the other seamers will be itching to play alongside him, work with him and learn from his skills. Other counties in division two will doubtless be sitting up at this news, because we have landed a genuine international star for the next two summers of red ball cricket. 

To quote the player: 

It’s exciting for me to join Derbyshire and work with Mickey Arthur again, he’s a fantastic coach and hearing his plans for Derbyshire, we share the same ambitions for the Club: to be in Division One. 

The team only just missed out on promotion in 2025, so I’m hoping I can come in and perform to win a few more games and give our supporters a trophy to celebrate.

Derbyshire did extraordinarily well to see off strong competition for the services of the player. Nottinghamshire, Yorkshire and Hampshire were all interested and the competing offers will have given Abbas and his agent some food for thought. I have no doubt there might have been more lucrative ones, given that those three counties play in division one and on Test grounds. 

Yet the bowler has chosen Derbyshire. He has a sports coaching business in the city and perhaps wants to lay down roots. I don't worry about the cost, because the club will be confident they can handle this, even at the level that was rumoured a few weeks back, figures of £110K plus £400 a wicket being mentioned. It may or may not be accurate, but even if it is, with inflation taken into account, those figures are similar to what was paid, back in the 1970s, to Eddie Barlow. 

Abbas has the potential to be an equal talisman. Not as a captain, certainly not as an all-rounder, but as that all-important man that they can throw the ball to if a wicket is needed, or the opposition are getting away. He will give confidence to everyone in the side. Such players always do. Risks will be taken at the other end, because he gives little away, so others will benefit.

Some might churlishly say he's too old. My reply would be simple. At 35, he has a good few years in him yet. Barlow was 35 when he came to the county, while Mitchell Starc has been bowling out England, at 36. Then there's Jimmy Anderson...

There is, I suppose, a chance he could miss some county cricket this summer, if selected for the Pakistan touring side on a 'horses for courses' basis. Yet he is likely to take more wickets in 2/3 of a season than many in the full season.

You have to be excited at this. You have to applaud the initiative, the dogged pursuit and the eventual capture of the man who could see Derbyshire go one better than they did this year, in red ball cricket.

I can't wait to see him in action. It is as if the winter has already shortened and Spring is already here.

Ashes to ashes

Dust to dust

If Abbas don't get ya

You'll be doing well...

Mohammad Abbas. Of Derbyshire. 

Merry Christmas, everyone! 

Postscript: there is a terrific recent article about our new man here

And you can watch him taking ten Australian wickets here