Nuj, George and an overseas source..

Amid the puzzles of our current situation, the status of Anuj Dal and George Scrimshaw are fairly well up there.

After struggling for a fair part of his time with us, things finally clicked for 'Nuj' as the season came to a conclusion. The runs flowed, wickets came, the fielding was as good as ever. The club's PCA representative looked good value for a new contract, perhaps an all round  replacement for the now-departed Matt Critchley, albeit in a different style.

Yet the contract offer didn't come, pre - Houghton departure. I can only assume that the player and club are apart in their valuations for his services, because he had a greater claim to one than others who have been signed, sealed and delivered.

Thus he remains one of a number of county circuit  players out of contract. I would hope he wants to sign and we are now awaiting the new HOC to ratify things, but it is an additional uncertainty at a time when we don't need to look too far to find them.

So too George Scrimshaw, who I understood was talking to other counties after rejecting a deal with us. It is his prerogative, of course, but there was supposedly a multi-year deal on the table, fair for someone with his previous injury record. Will the new HOC ratify that, or has that now been withdrawn?

Anyway, the wait goes on and one assumes that contracts will eventually (shortly?) be flying in and out of the club faster than a Shaheen Afridi thunderbolt.

Quite apposite, as I expect counties to be looking to Pakistan this winter  after their stellar World Cup. 

There was a time, as I grew up, that the likes of Zaheer Abbas, Mushtaq and Sadiq Mohammed, Majid Khan, Imran Khan and Asif Iqbal graced the county game. Later came Mushtaq Ahmed, Saqlain Mushtaq and Danish Kaneria.

Then it all stopped, bar for the occasional T20 signing. Was it the match-fixing scandal involving the latter, or rumoured contract problems with some players represented by several agents, all wanting their cut? Perhaps a combination of the two, with post - Covid travel also an issue.

I expect that to change. They have looked a superb side in the World Cup, with powerful batsmen, canny spinners and lightning quick bowlers. With a population of over 200 million and cricket THE sport, there are a lot of fine players on the periphery, some of who would qualify to play over here. Nor are they awash with  tours this summer, an added appeal. 

Were I on the marketing side of a first class county, I would be looking to cash in on their huge interest in the game and bring over one or two of those stars to engage the local population whose roots lie in that country. We tried it before with the signings of Indian players, before the IPL put an end to that malarkey. It could well boost crowds and memberships to go down such a route, as besides anything else they are very good cricketers.

It must also be said, as an observation only, that should Anuj Dal leave for pastures new we have no players of BAME background on our staff.

I am not for a minute suggesting that we have been doing anything untoward in recruitment. With an Equalities Officer on the board, that is unlikely. Merely that, with all that is going on with our northern neighbours at present, it is not a good look. 

Hopefully the fine talent emerging from our Academy will help to naturally address this imbalance in time, as the role of bowling coach Ajmal Shahzad does, of course. 

But it is increasingly important that the county side reflects the demographic make up of the community that it represents, as long as recruitment and selection is on merit, not mere tokenism.