Grounds for disappointment

There's a few murmurs of discontent around the boards tonight at the lack of cricket at outgrounds in the coming season, especially for Derbyshire.

I can understand the disappointment, as I'd really hoped for a game against Yorkshire at Scarborough. As regular readers will know, it is my last remaining cricket ambition to see the county play there, but it won't happen next year. Nor do we seem to be playing at any outgrounds elsewhere, which is a shame but symptomatic of the times, I'm afraid.

The fact is that preparation of wickets and grounds costs money. Transporting equipment and boundary hoardings does too, then there's the erection of marquees, perhaps additional security/stewarding. A county would have to be very confident of making money to bear such costs. There's also health and safety issues, not the least in food preparation and hygiene at grounds where space is at a premium, and car parking concerns to address in some places. This is why Leek seems to have been a one-season experiment, with the cost/benefit analysis coming down on the wrong side of things.

I'd share disappointment that there's no T20 at Chesterfield, but that will be the reason, my friends. Its one thing doing it for Cricket Week there, when you only have to ship there and back, but to do it two or three times doesn't make financial sense. I'm not privy to the club receipts, but presumably the additional crowd for last year's T20 against Leicestershire at Chesterfield didn't balance out the costs of shipping all that gear.

A lot of money has gone into developing Derby and we now need to make it work. I mentioned last week the need for a big name draw as overseas player, but key to next season is going to be the tracks there. Crowds are less likely to turn up for matches where a good score is 130 in a T20. Most want to see the ball appearing in their midst, preferably deposited their by our players.

We need more pace too. When we have Marks Turner and Footitt, Sheikh  et al, a slow track is probably the last thing we want. If the groundstaff can get a bit of pace and life into the wickets while still keeping them sporting, I would suggest we have a better chance of success than if the bowlers need semtex to remove batsmen.

Anyway, I've got a few dates pencilled in already for potential trips and can't wait for it all to kick off.

One final thought. Gloucestershire away in the first match? We'll be saving money from the off. Two nights accommodation maximum then home on the third afternoon.

With a win under our belts of course...