Abbas to miss matches for Pakistan tour

Muhammad Abbas will miss three County Championship matches for Derbyshire, after his selection for Pakistan's tour of Bangladesh.

He will play in Friday's fixture against Gloucestershire, then miss the next three against Kent, Northamptonshire and Middlesex.

This may not be the end of the disruption for Derbyshire, as he may also be selected for the tour of England, later in the summer.

Of course it is a blow, as it would be to any side to lose such a player. Yet therein lies the issue in signing international players for overseas duty. There is always a possibility of tours being arranged at late notice and your winter plans, worked long and hard for, are scuppered. Then again, it can happen in other ways, as Kent have found out with Glenton Stuurman, returning injured to South Africa after just one match. It repeats what happened last year, when fellow South African Keith Dudgeon had to return home, also after just one game. 

Derbyshire will have known the possibility was there, but it will still be frustrating. There's very little you can do. We went down the alternate route of signing decent seamers who likely wouldn't be picked up at national level and neither Daryn Dupavillon nor Blair Tickner worked out for us. If anyone knows a high quality international bowler, who has fallen out with his national cricket board and ideally has an English passport through his granny in Codnor, I am sure Mickey Arthur would love to hear from you...

Donning my 'glass half full' hat, you can only look at it as opportunity for someone else. Competition in the second team will be all the more fierce now and much will depend on the fitness of Luis Reece as to how the team is shaped. I would like to see Rory Haydon get an opportunity to impress, which is especially likely if Reece's ankle injury is deemed a longer-term issue. If he is recovered after the current break, Wayne Madsen's return could easily be accommodated by Anuj Dal being the fourth, rather than fifth seamer in this potential side:

Jewell, Came, Montgomery, Madsen, Guest, Andersson, Reece, Dal, Chappell, Aitchison, Bashir

Time will tell. Anyway, congratulations Mohammad on his return to international cricket. 

You will excuse me for uttering these words through gritted teeth...