So who will it be?

Sorry about the lack of activity of late, but I've been somewhat preoccupied with the ever-rising snow outside and attempting (and failing) to get to work.

Hopefully I'll manage in tomorrow, but I was as intrigued as all of you by the news in the membership information sent out by the club that John Morris was chasing an overseas player (no suprise) and another one.

I'm as in the dark as all of you, but there are various options. I'd like to see us sign a big name overseas player who can come in and be skipper on the back of his reputation. I'm thinking of a Mike Hussey, Marcus North-type player. Given the choice and money, I'd love to see us sign Ricky Ponting after Australia lose the Ashes and he perhaps quits international cricket, but I don't see that happening, sadly.

Another alternative would be to address a shortcoming of the current side and pick up Danish Kaneria, who has been released by Essex. He always gets wickets and would do well at Derby. That would leave the second player as perhaps another seamer, but wouldn't address the captaincy issue.

If we went down that route my preference would be for Luke Sutton to take over the captaincy, a post he filled with success in his first stint at the club. Greg Smith would be OK, but his is such a pivotal role in the side that he scarcely needs something else to do. We need his batting back to its best next year and that is only likely to happen if he has less bowling to do. Perhaps he will need to choose between seam and spin to master one of them, rather than doing a bit of both.

Then there's Mark Cosgrove. A good player who will probably score runs, he attracts plaudits and jokes in equal measure. Definitely not a skipper, but could do a job. For me, Cossie's main appeal is the possibility of his becoming 'English' should he choose to use his British passport. As I've said before, I'd not be disappointed if we signed him, but would still prefer a bigger name.

As for that other player, I still think a seam bowler is the most likely, as I wrote last week. That's mainly due to the fact that we have a reasonable number of batsmen, as well as Smith, Needham and Durston to bowl a bit of spin when required. Its also down to the fact that I can't think of a spinner on the market who is substantially better than what we have in Needham. Former Somerset leggie Michael Munday has been mentioned a few times around the boards, but is he better than Needham or just another Mark Lawson? With Wes and Steffan on the staff we should have an inside opinion on his worth and I daresay that it will come down to whether his salary demands are acceptable at the end of the day.

Still, that's two things to look forward to as we approach December. Another month and the countdown to the season begins!

Maybe we'll get some fixtures soon...