Weekend roundup

Perhaps this week will bring some of the news that Derbyshire supporters have been craving, that of new players coming into the club.

Last week's announcement that George Scrimshaw was staying was welcome, if not exactly a surprise. He was still listed on the club website as being on the staff and since no one had announced him as THEIR new signing, logic suggested he might stay. While he bowled well in a handful of T20 appearances, there was perhaps not enough of them at this stage to start a clamour for his services.

I can confirm that there WAS interest from along the A52, but it was not pursued, for whatever reason.

Mickey Arthur starts his last match in charge of Sri Lanka tomorrow and will hope for a winning finale against the West Indies. I think he will get it and the home side's bowlers (Lasith Embuldeniya is a canny bowler) will be too clever on their home turf.

Off the pitch there were two bits of news that may have passed you by. Apparently every first-class county has been the subject of a complaint to the ECB on grounds of racism, which means that Derbyshire are one of them and they will need to investigate.

It doesn't automatically mean that there have been wrong-doings, but it is another reason why employment and recruitment policies and processes must be robust and thorough. We have made mistakes in the past year and the Tony Palladino case still needs to be resolved, but hopefully we can soon focus more attention on matters on the pitch.

On the upside, an article I saw an article on diversity in county cricket in the Guardian which said:

The Guardian found that of 158 current board members at the 18 first-class counties, according to the counties’ own websites or their most recently published reports or accounts, only 28 are women – less than 18%. Only Derbyshire, who have three women on a nine-person board, have unequivocally met the target, with Lancashire closest to joining them – six of the 16 attendees at their board meetings are women, but only two of eight are full members of the board

Fair play to the club for doing the right thing here. After appointing a good Head of Cricket after a robust interview process, things appear to be moving in the right direction.

Now for some players...