Madsen set for international call

Wayne Madsen, as reported by Cricinfo, will miss two county championship games for Derbyshire in the coming season, between July 20 and 28, as he will at last be playing international cricket - for Italy.

An Italian passport through his mother, which enabled him to qualify and play in this country in the first instance, allows him to represent that country in the T20 World Cup Europe qualifier, which will be held in Edinburgh between the above dates.

Two teams will qualify and the hosts, Scotland, together with Ireland, will be the favourites to do so. Yet the recruitment of Madsen, as well as Kent's Grant Stewart and Australians Spencer Johnson and Ben Manenti, will make the Italians competitive, under captain/coach Gareth Berg.

Michael di Venuto previously played for them and it should make for an entertaining tournament. It is played on a round robin basis, with Austria, Denmark, Germany and Jersey also involved.

It is belated international recognition for Wayne, who could likely have done a fine job for England at different points over the last decade, especially on overseas tours, where his ability against spin might have seen him do better than others who got the nod.

Assuming that it is confirmed by the club,  he will miss home matches against Durham and Glamorgan, but only the churlish would deny him the opportunity to play some cricket at international level.

He has graced the county game for a long time now and most county supporters will likely have one eye on Edinburgh for the duration of the tournament. 

Mark Watt will also be involved, of course, representing Scotland.

Ali watching

Thank you all so much for your kind words below my last post. Which, when I come to think of it, should probably have a bugle call attached at the end of the sentence...

Those words were very much appreciated and I am grateful to you all for taking the time to message, or to send me an email.

I'm not doing much at the moment, on medical advice, which has afforded me the opportunity to watch Haider Ali in the PSL.

It is quickly obvious, in watching him, that he has talent to spare. He is one of these mercurial players who seems to have a shot, sometimes two, for every ball. What will be interesting in the coming months will be to see how he tempers his approach at the top of the order and on English wickets.

Even in the context of T20, a couple of his dismissals have been poor. In one of them, having just come in, he stepped outside leg stump to attempt to penetrate a fairly well populated offside and was comprehensively bowled by the leg spinner. The match situation did not require such an approach and it will be interesting to see how that improves under Mickey Arthur.

In the game yesterday, he played several scintillating strokes then charged, rather than sashayed, down the wicket in the manner of Ranjitsinjhi, in the famous Beldam photograph. It was a far from glorious end to an innings that promised much.

I think that as supporters we will need to temper our expectations. I don't expect batting conditions to be as favourable as they were last year, when April and May saw uncharacteristically docile tracks. In any other year it may well have been Suranga Lakmal with a perpetual grin on his face, instead of Shan Masood, but the latter got himself in, got into a rhythm and drank at the well while conditions were in his favour.

Ali is a completely different player, closer to Shahid Afridi than Masood in style, though a better batter. Once he grasps his responsibilities and the conditions he will entertain and, perhaps like Chris Wilkins, will be well worth the entrance money when he comes off.

We must remember that he is relatively inexperienced and still a young man. He will make the mistakes that all young men make, but provide the fearless approach that is also their major attribute.

If he succeeds on a regular basis, Derbyshire should score runs fast enough to force positive results, which they need to do, with only three points for a draw this year. Too many sides last year took the easy way out and ground out draw after draw, which would really do no one any favours, this time around.

It should all make for outstanding entertainment and I'm sure that I could probably put a capital E on that word, in due course.

Enjoy your evenings, I will be back soon, when I can.

A change to the advertised..

With the cricket season 50 days away, excitement is building among supporters around the country. Over the coming weeks, the ' big Spring jacket' will be brought out and checked, as will the location of the flasks, gloves and hats that are de rigeur for the start of summer cricket follower.

I was among them, having planned a trip to Derby in April for an early home fixture, one to Durham for my usual 'home' game and my attendance of the Chesterfield cricket festival, the date having worked for me for the first time in a number of years.

Alas, yours truly will be getting surgery in April - the date as yet unconfirmed - which will require a hospital stay of 7 to 10 days, followed by convalescence of 2 to 3 months and no driving. So it looks like my cricket watching will be entirely stream-based this year, at least until the tail end of the season.

What it means for the blog? At this stage I'm unsure but it will be dictated by how I feel. There will be a point at which it has run its natural course and various factors will determine when that will be.

Hopefully it isn't yet, but this is an early warning for there being an interruption to the advertised programme this summer.

I will prepare my season preview in advance and I hope, at least, to do a header for each match, so that comments on the play can go into their rightful place, much as I have done during our annual holidays in previous summers.

Time will tell, but I felt it fair to let you know that coverage may not always be as detailed as in previous years, especially in early season.

But if I can, I will.

In My Mind's Eye Number 2: William Chatterton (1861-1913)

On the basis of contemporary accounts, William Chatterton must have been one of the most graceful batsmen to represent Derbyshire, as well as being one of the most loyal.

Indeed, when the history of Derbyshire cricket is considered, there is strong argument that he, with George Davidson, were the main reasons that the club regained and retained first-class status in 1894, having been demoted in 1888 for poor results.

A batting average of 25, to modern eyes is indicative of a player of only modest talent. Yet Chatterton, or 'Chatty' as he was known, made many of his on poor, uncovered and under-prepared wickets. It was 'Fiddler' Walker, then groundsman at Trent Bridge, who started to top dress wickets with marl. The high clay content of this, rolled out, improved wickets considerably, The downside was that wickets at the ground became fast and true, high scores of up to 500 runs in a day not uncommon. Tellingly, when the quality of wicket improved, Chatterton's average went northwards too, although his sound defence, noted in reports of the time, enabled him to score more runs on awkward tracks than many of his contemporaries.

Born at Birch Vale in the High Peak, he made his first appearance for the County Colts in 1885 but took two or three seasons before returning any figures of note. Indeed, his slow round-arm bowling looked the best of his game at that time and he continued to bowl throughout his career, taking 208 wickets at an average of 21 in first-class cricket. He was also a reliable slip fielder in an era when fielding ability was not necessarily commonplace.

His batting gradually developed, however, as he became known as one of the game's stylists. In 1889 he averaged nearly 29 with the bat and 16 with the ball, this after a couple of seasons when ill-health prevented him from showing his best form. With Derbyshire demoted at this time, fixtures were limited, though a fine season in 1891 saw him invited to go on tour with an England eleven to South Africa. He played in one Test match, scoring 48 in his only innings, yet made over 950 runs on the tour, easily heading the averages. He would have passed the thousand-run mark, but for illness again ruling him out of several matches.

Commentators waxed lyrical at his sound defence and technique, while his stroke play, when he chose to unfurl it, was 'a delight'. Reports confirm several offers to play for a first-class county around this time, but he declined them all. There was also an offer to spend three winters in Kimberley, South Africa, for  a sum of one thousand pounds and 'perquisites', but Chatterton again declined the offer, as a condition was that he become a permanent resident there.

He returned to England and a celebration dinner at The Old Bell Hotel in Derby, where his admirers entertained him and presented him with a cheque for £160, referring to him as 'the great standby' of the county eleven. He in turn said that he had no interest in playing for anyone but Derbyshire, and saw only good times ahead for the county.

The club's return to first-class status saw his form blossom still further and an average of over 40 in 1896 was his best. 'No batsman has ever had a more graceful style' wrote one onlooker 'and when he has played himself in he is one of the most attractive batsmen that ever took guard. He is a master of many strokes and to be trusted anywhere in the field'. He made several appearances for the Players against the Gentlemen and was regarded as unfortunate that no further invitation came to play for his country.

He again passed a thousand runs in 1901, but his form deserted him in 1902 and he was released by the county. Ill-health returned to dog him and the man who had been talented at both rugby and football (he played a few games for Derby County) was a shadow of his former self.

He returned to his father's home at Flowery Field, near Hyde and died of tuberculosis on March 19, 1913.

Perhaps accepting that offer in South Africa might have helped to prolong his life, but William was Derbyshire through and through. Plenty of other batsmen have exceeded his near eleven thousand runs for the club, but his skill and loyalty at a time when they were both badly needed helped to establish the county in first-class cricket.

We were very lucky to have him.

(Image sourced courtesy of David Griffin at the Derbyshire CCC Archive)

NB for some reason this piece never published a couple of winters ago, so I thought it time for it to see the light of day

Good luck to Leus

This afternoon, Leus du Plooy will play in the semi-final of the SA20 for Joburg Super Kings, after his batting was a major factor on them getting to this stage.

There are a lot of very fine batters on display in the competition, but the Derbyshire captain has looked very much at home in such elite company. 

I am hopeful that this summer will see him truly emerge in all formats as a player of the highest calibre. There have been times since his emergence over here when he has looked that way, but others when his footwork has been hesitant and his scores disappointing as a result.

For me, he's always looked a better player when he has gone for his shots, rather than when occupation of the crease has been more the order of the day. Perhaps 'Bazball' might be his natural home and his ability to score runs around 360° makes him a very dangerous customer.

His first season of captaincy will be interesting. Some players thrive on the additional responsibility, while others struggle to maintain their standards when they also have to think about other players.

Leus has some experienced cricketers to lean on and I think the new role could be the making of him. In what should be an exciting batting lineup, runs should not be an issue for the side and we could see the blossoming of player and county.

It promises to be very exciting.