Something for the weekend

Seven of Derbyshire's players are again heading out to India for training and experience against spin bowling at the Pune International Cricket Centre.

The party, led by skipper Wayne Madsen, also features Dan Redfern, Tony Palladino, Mark Turner, Richard Johnson, Tom Poynton and Tom Knight. They will be away from February 5 to 16 and it is a golden opportunity for all of them.

Poynton and Johnson can both hone their wicket-keeping skills against the spinners, while all of them will benefit from batting against the local talent, something that can only help them as they prefer for the coming summer.

The presence of Palladino and Turner may surprise some, but both will get a chance to run in and get early rhythm on grass, rather than on hard surfaces indoors. They will both have a role to play with the bat, of course, as will all the Derbyshire eleven in every match this coming summer. The important contributions of Poynton, Palladino, Groenewald and others last summer rescued a few perilous causes. It would be silly to think that such input will not be required on occasions this summer, irrespective of the additional batting talents of Billy Godleman, Richard Johnson and Shivnarine Chanderpaul.

In other news, the club are advertising for a new Strength and Conditioning coach after the departure of Luke Storey to an overseas role. The importance of this position cannot be overestimated, as Storey played a major part in keeping our seam bowlers in particular  fit for most of the summer. At a time where the sheer volume of cricket sees many bowlers around the country missing chunks of the summer through injury and niggles, the fitness of our seam bowlers was a major factor in the winning of the championship.

I'm sure the club will get plenty of applicants for the role and am equally sure that they will find someone eminently capable of doing the job.

Finally tonight, Northamptonshire have given up on signing South African Rory Kleinveldt for an overseas role this summer after he took too long to get back to them. Instead, they are now talking to Australian seamer Trent Copeland, who at 26 seems to have only a slim chance of selection for the Ashes tour party.

Still, the possibilities of stepping into the breach in the event of injury do not seem to have passed him by, especially if he is already in the country and match-fit. I'm not sure whether Copeland is a Test standard bowler, nor if he will end up signing for Northamptonshire. But I know one thing.

He's not daft, that's for sure.