The young ones

Last night I penned my pre-season Championship preview and got an e mail that I had omitted the name of Jon Clare. I did, but then again, I didn't mention Chesney Hughes, Atif Sheikh, Ross Whiteley, Tom Poynton, Matt Higginbottom or Ben Slater either.

All these young players are rich in potential and talent. I think that they may well have long and fulfilling careers ahead of them, hopefully for Derbyshire. Most are, however, unlikely to be too involved this season unless things go badly or we have a lot of injuries.

As I've previously written, Hughes isn't qualified for England so we would incur a financial penalty whenever he played in the Championship. The others named above need a couple of years of continued development - an apprenticeship if you will - under John Sadler and Karl Krikken, with perhaps an occasional first team opportunity at the right time.

Clare is different, much like Jake Needham. I've had people tell me that Needham has lost it, which is both wrong and very unfair. He's only 23, for goodness sake and has already bowled enough good spells in one and four day cricket to suggest that there's something there. John Morris obviously thinks so as he put him on a four year contract until 2012, along with Redfern, Borrington and Clare. Working with Robin Peterson this season will do him no harm, letting him get inside the mind of an international cricketer, watching him work and talking to him in the nets. He may play some one day cricket, but he needs to bowl a lot of overs and get his loop and confidence back.

The same goes for Jon Clare. My selection last night was based on last year's form and the vagaries of a selection process where you must pick age group players to get a share of the loot. Clare burst onto the scene in 2008 and looked like an all rounder of great potential, averaging over 40 with the bat and under 30 with the ball. He spent a lot of time with Charl Langeveldt and learned a lot from the South African. However, such an introduction was always going to be hard to sustain and a perceived weakness against the short ball saw his batting struggle a little last year. Even worse, injury problems meant that the Jon Clare I saw bowl was a pale shadow of the 2008 version.

It was something I could relate to. A number of years ago I damaged my rotator cuff in the shoulder, like Clare, and had physio for months. I couldn't play cricket because it was sore if I threw the ball, certainly when I bowled and niggled when I batted. The following year I started to play again, but I had gone from bowling at a pace akin to Garry Park to one closer to a declaration slow bowler. I was wary of letting go and it took me all that season to mentally realise I was OK, even if physically I had been for months.

I am sure that Steffan Jones and Andy Brown have worked a lot with Clare over the winter and got his confidence back. If they have done, he will be in the frame for a lot of cricket this year as a lad with a lot to offer.

At this stage, I don't know though and none of us do until we start in a couple of weeks.