A lot to be said for experience

Irrespective of the age quota nonsense that dictates team selection in the Championship at the moment, there's a lot to be said for experience.

Take a look around the counties and you'll see a lot of good players who have rarely been close to being international cricketers on a regular or even occasional basis, but whose expertise is worth its weight in gold for their county.

I'm talking about players like Stephen Peters and David Sales at Northamptonshire, Alex Gidman and Jon Lewis at Gloucestershire, Glen Chapple and Mark Chilton at Lancashire and Anthony McGrath at Yorkshire. There's plenty around and most counties have got a few.

Except us.

As I wrote last week, we have a lot of players in either their first or second seasons and not too many of genuine, unchallengeable ability to know what to do when things are going wrong.

That is why, for example, the loss of James Pipe and Graham Wagg has been sorely felt this season. Their absence has placed the onus on young lads to do things that they have yet to encounter at this level. Some times they will manage it, but the pressure will be too much at other times.

Which is why, I think, that John Morris has accelerated the entry of Wes Durston into the Derbyshire side. At 29, Durston has played enough cricket to know his game pretty well and has the maturity to handle the pressures of run chases, as evidenced by his astonishing knock for the Unicorns last weekend. A first class record of 38 and a one day one over thirty suggests he can bat a bit, even if he's played a lot of cricket on a track at Taunton that is more conducive to free flowing stroke play than Derby is generally. Mind you, his career best 146 not out was made at Derby, so, in the words of some TV cop shows, the boy's got previous...

Durston is a hard hitting batsman, a tidy off spinner and a fielder of genuine brilliance. Exactly the sort of player we need in our middle order to tahe the weight off young players. The only ones you could say have had good seasons with the bat thus far have been Chris Rogers and Chesney Hughes. Park, Smith and Madsen have had their good scores but have not strung them together, Borrington, Sadler and Redfern have all failed to cement their place despite a few opportunities. Some fans on message boards have called for changes, neglecting the somewhat basic fact that there is no one else available. OK, there's Ben Slater and Hamza Siddique, but it would be a brave man who expectst them to make first class runs on a regular basis given their inexperience.

Chesney Hughes has done it, but Hughes looks like a player with maturity beyond his years, allied to the physique of a heavyweight boxer. I expect him to make a lot of runs in the future and hope that he continues to do so for Derbyshire, in the face of what is sure to be interest from more affluent counties.

So Durston comes in to show what he can do in the format in which he has been successful this season. It is only fair that John Morris has given him the chance, as a couple of twenty over slogs woudn't prove that much.

A few games in other competitions would enable a far better and accurate assessment to be made and we would then benefit in the seasons ahead.

I just hope he knows two or three decent seamers looking to get back into the county game...