Midweek Musings

There is fascinating and - if true - unbelievably exciting news on Cricinfo today, where George Dobell suggests that Derbyshire are chasing Shivnarine Chanderpaul for part of next season.

You can read what the excellent Mr Dobell has written by clicking on the link above. I don't want to get too excited at this stage, however, as there are a number of unanswered questions in the piece.

For one, there is a world of difference between 'chasing' and 'have signed'. Another is that there is no indication as to how much of the season he might be available for. The West Indies have mid-summer commitments this year and one never knows whether additional tournaments might be arranged for some corner of a foreign land that will forever not be England...

It is very exciting but I will temper my excitement for the time being. When you have been a supporter of Derbyshire for the 45 summers that I have, you have seen a few names linked and more than a few chased that came to naught. Dennis Lillee was the earliest I recall, a move that fizzled out when he got a stress fracture in his back. There have been plenty of others since and as fans we have little idea of the number of players that the club has pursued to some degree.

Last year we came close to signing both Chris Gayle and Lasith Malinga for T20, but both fell through for different reasons. The story suggests interest from Worcestershire, but their second division status would surely count against them. One assumes that a player of Chanderpaul's quality, IF he is interested in another county stint, would wish to do so in the top tier, something that would be in Derbyshire's favour. By the same token, other counties yet to secure a player for the summer cannot fail to be interested in the availability of one of the modern greats of world cricket, a player who until very recently was ranked the number one batsman in the world. He is still number two, after Michael Clarke's recent golden run and would be a quite breathtaking signing.

The very fact that we are linked with a player of that calibre is indicative of how far we have come in a very short space of time. The acid test will be if we manage to secure the services of a man who sits between Brian Lara and Viv Richards in the top three West Indian run scorers of all time.

Now THAT would be something to get excited about...