Not the ideal start, but..

I'm sure that John Morris might have fancied a better start than 185 all out on the first day of the tour in Barbados, but anyone who gets worked up about performance at this stage, in either direction, is silly.

The absence of Rogers, Peterson and Wagg from what is likely to be a first choice side, plus the loss of Wayne Madsen to injury meant that it was a young Derbyshire side taking the field, albeit against young opposition. A few players missed the chance of time in the middle, but this is the time to hone issues of technique and timing so that all guns are blazing come April 9th

There's a comment from Chris on a previous article saying that he is surprised that so many in the poll feel we need a bowler for the T20. He reckons that our greatest need is someone who can put it into the crowd a few times and I wouldn't argue that we have no really big hitter in the current line up. However, where I and a lot of others are coming from is that last year we posted decent scores yet bowled very poorly. The problem with most hitters is that the nature of their game makes them inconsistent - take Yusuf Pathan, Shahid Afridi and Yuvraj Singh as prime examples. It is still possible to score quickly by playing proper cricket shots. I loved watching Tendulkar yesterday as he produced a fine array of shots using footwork and timing to score quickly. There aren't many around of that class though!

I'd have no qualms about signing a batsman, especially if he could bowl a few overs. One who would interest me would be 22 year old Rohit Sharma of the Deccan Chargers, who is one of the best young batsmen I've seen and bowls tidy off spin at less than 7 an over in 20 over cricket. He has yet to play a Test for India but a first class average of 55 and a highest score of 309 suggests that is just a matter of time. He also averages 34 in the short game, with a century to his name and several fifties. Again though, would his name pull people in? Perhaps not, but a discerning county cricket manager could do a lot worse than sign a young player who I think will be a massive star in the next three years. He's the best young Indian I have seen so far and looks to have a lot of time to play his shots.

I've had a couple of e mails from people about the poor coverage from Barbados. To be fair, it is a pre-season tour and the station covering it for Yorkshire are sports-specialists. I just hope that Derbyshire get a fair crack when the season proper starts. I find the online commentary a little frustrating at times, as Charles Collins gets carried away with nicknames and peripheral stuff at the expense of the action. He is a decent bloke by all accounts and I couldn't argue that the cricket side get far less coverage than Derby County. I've always wondered what would happen if Derby County signed a player on the day that the cricket club played a big Cup semi final or something similar. My guess is that the football would get top billing, which is unfortunate. I know more people go to see the Rams than the Falcons, but it just goes to show that the truly discerning in life are only available in limited numbers....

Finally today, I've no idea why the new seats aren't yet in situ. My guess would be that they want them in as close to the season as possible so they don't get weathered. I'm assuming they'll just drop into place and not need individually mounted, so it will not be a huge job when April comes around.

I start the new job next week, so no more daytime blogging and no more IPL. Just when I was almost becoming a fan of the format...

See you soon.