Monday musings

Aside from the fact that he played some cricket at Matlock, IainO’Brien’s failure to win an appeal that would have allowed him to continue to play cricket in England has nothing to do with Derbyshire cricket.


Yet it is hard not to feel sorry for him and to be increasingly baffled by some of the current regulations. When he looks at Durham and Derbyshire and sees Michael di Venuto and Wayne Madsen playing on Italian passports through family relationships I can understand that. As O’Brien says, the fact that he has an English wife appears to count for nothing, yet had his wife been from Europe he could have played without question. It is, in a word, ludicrous.

Elsewhere, it would appear that Marcus North and Michael Hussey’s international futures hang by a thread after the Australian cricket authorities named Callum Ferguson and Usman Khawaja in their squad for the Ashes. I would be very surprised if they jettisoned both, but would also suspect that a few counties will keep a close eye on that situation. Irrespective of recent international form, both are still fine players who would have a lot to offer at county level.

Meanwhile the run machine that is Hashim Amla goes on and on. The South African is perhaps the form batsman in the world game in the past twelve months and rarely fails in any form of the game. Jacques Kallis also continues to score heavily, a remarkable achievement for a player who has been at the top for fifteen years. A Test average of 55, slightly ahead of his first-class one, is indicative of a player of rare talent, but when you throw in his one-day average (45) and well over a thousand wickets in all cricket, Kallis has earned the right to be acclaimed one of the all-time greats.

On the Derbyshire front it is all very quiet. I’ve no doubt that budgets have been discussed at various meetings, but these are rightly conducted behind closed doors. One would assume that the balance sheet will be announced some time soon and with it perhaps get a better idea of any leeway that John Morris has for further signings.

More soon.