I look forward to your comments in due course. Please remember, everyone is entitled to an opinion and I am curious to see the responses to the things that I post below.
1 Is it realistic to harbour genuine expectations of progress from the Northern group every year? Or does the financial advantage of the big counties make it a once every so often affair?
For example, Lancashire have signed two established international cricketers for their overseas roles in Mitchell and de Grandhomme. Nottinghamshire have done the same, with Afridi and Munro. Derbyshire, with no disrespect intended to those concerned, have signed two young players with reputations to make.
The likelihood is, after his efforts so far, that Zaman Khan will be pursued by one of those bigger counties for next season, just as Shan Masood was by Yorkshire last year.
2 How could we improve the output from the Powerplay? On the face of it, our top four is pretty impressive and contains some serious players. Yet in the matches so far, our first six overs have resulted in totals of 47, 56, 47, 52, 43, 38, 57 and 46. Is the answer perhaps, as someone posted on here last week, to have a more expendable pinch hitter at the top, whose dismissal would allow the serious batters to play a natural and less risky game?
I would regard 55 from the first six overs to be a fair notional target and we have only hit it twice, so far.
3 is it realistic for Derbyshire to challenge in three different tournaments, or do we focus budget on the ones offering greater opportunity of success?
4 Equally, is it realistic for a small county to have players on the staff who will likely only play in one format? For example, Tom Wood, Mattie McKiernan and George Scrimshaw haven't been anywhere near the four day side, but are presumably on full-time salaries. I can see George being in demand elsewhere at the end of the season, likely at a county with far greater resources and better able to afford a specialist.
I think our overseas positions are crucial, moving forward. A lot of money was presumably spent on Suranga Lakmal, to convince him to give up his international career. Yet he has been playing second team cricket during the T20, not really pushing to take the place of either of the young players in that team.
So 5 - is it more realistic to split the overseas roles for another summer, engaging players specifically for the Vitality Blast and others for the county championship and Royal London Cup?
Or are there players out there with the ability and willingness to play in all formats for six months?
These are questions running through my head and I would love to know what people think!
I would especially love to know Mickey Arthur's thoughts on them all. I suspect that the next six months for him, may be more challenging done the last six. He has contract decisions to make for a number of current stars, while also needing to convince those elsewhere that he would like that Derbyshire really is the county of choice...
Very interesting, PF. I think that , unless we manage to turn things around in dramatic fashion, this is going to be a mediocre season despite our high expectations. There might be surprise victories like the two we have seen against the so-called Bears, but we have to resign ourselves to the fact that we are unlikely to progress further in this year's T20 and that we will be lucky to avoid the wooden spoon in the Championship. We seem to be perpetual underdogs and I'm not sure what we can do to reverse this situation. As you say , it would be enlightening to hear what MA thinks.
ReplyDeleteI think Matt Lamb's back injury and Anuj Dal not being able to bowl limited our options.
ReplyDeleteAlso the crazy schedule meaning George Scrimshaw and Matty McKiernan were short of bowling when the Blast started didn't help as they have taken a few games to get sharp.
The decision to sacrifice a home game for Blast Off may also come back to haunt us come the end of qualifying.
As you have mentioned in previous posts someone like Tom Wood should open as he has ability to clear infield and in the powerplay it will give him a greater margin error in avoiding the outfielders.
I think we should always aim for success each year in the north group. Not to do this would be pretty much saying that we weren’t good enough. I also think we should challenge in all three competitions, for the same reason. We don’t have the kind of budgets that team such as Notts and Lancs have. But neither do teams such as Leicestershire and Northants.
ReplyDeleteRegarding the powerplay, this has to come down to coaching and the game plan, or, as Mickey calls it, game management. Going into a T20 game, each player needs to know clearly what his role is. This echoes what Anuj Dal said when Mickey told him at the start of last season he’d be batting at seven We also need a plan b if plan a doesn’t work. Knowing Derbyshire, we probably need a plan c as well.
Our top four of Ali, Reece, Madsen, and du Plooy can all go big and find the boundary. Against Warwickshire during the week, du Plooy showed what he can do when the pressure’s on. The problem is that we don’t seem to have much consistency in our big hitting. Sometimes we fire, and sometimes we don’t. In fairness, though, you could say the same about other teams.
When Mickey signed Khan, I was surprised, as we already had an overseas bowler in Lakmal. Unless Ali is dropped or gets injured, they won’t play in the same game. From a budget perspective, it doesn’t make a lot of sense having Lakmal playing for the seconds.
I’d like to see Big George play in the CC. Has it been decided he won’t be doing this? Also, I noticed that Connors isn’t in the squad for the Yorkshire game. Does he have an injury?
I’m not against signing a player for one format. Other teams do this. It all comes down to how much money is in the pot and how it can be best spent.
So far this season, I don’t feel we’ve made much progress from last season: no wins in five CC games and only three wins out of eight in the T20. We haven’t started the season with all guns blazing. Dal, Guest, and Lamb have all had injuries, of course, but even taking this into account I believe we should have performed better.
But, of course, this can all change. Let’s hope we can beat Yorkshire in the game beginning tomorrow is the start of an improved run of games.
Conners is injured. With a fair wind he might even have been in the same boat as Josh Tongue this year.
ReplyDeleteDerbyshire won't progress until it is run better off the field. We take joy in making a profit every year - while noble, we are not a profit-making business, we are a sports team. There should be a 3 or 5 year plan (or both) that allows for sustainable investment in the team and facilities. For example we've relied on 2 (or 3?) overseas gambles this year that haven't paid off. The current chairman admitted on a recent podcast he serves no executive function, leaving that to the CEO, which leaves us rudderless (e.g. Warks have muscled in on our previously excellent minor counties links, while we have dithered), and all but one members of the board have no cricketing experience. Bar Conners, our academy does not produce homegrown England Lions players, never mind England players - now 31 years and counting since Cork was the last to debut for England while still in Derbyshire colours.
But hey, we have Wayne Madsen, a few underrated performers (e.g. I've witnessed strong performances from LDP and MMcK this year), and a fair bit of pluck. But we need to be more ambitious. Mickey can only do so much. A big winter ahead.