Derbyshire v Glamorgan day one

Glamorgan 408-6 (Ingram 136, ul-Hassan 69, Carlson 57, Root 52 Reece 2-64, Chappell 2-70)

v Derbyshire

When I look back on what is now 56 years of watching Derbyshire play cricket, the highlight of that period was definitely the years when Kim Barnett was captain.

It wasn't the time that I saw as much cricket, because I was in Scotland at that stage and only able to go to games occasionally. I didn't drive, so I got the train down to my parents and once there Dad and I would go to a few days, especially when I was single and with no attachments and commitments to worry about.

The thing was, you were guaranteed a really good day at the cricket. Regardless of whether we did well or not, there was a great battle between bat and ball on sporting wickets. If you were good enough to score runs, you could make them. If you were a good bowler, there was something there for you. Opponents hated coming to Derby, because they knew our battery of seamers and quick bowlers would make life very difficult and it would be very much to the detriment of their average. 

They moaned about it, but if they won the toss and put Derbyshire in, their arguments didn't really hold up when Kim Barnett, Chris Adams or John Morris had scored almost a century or more before lunch. We backed our players to be better than the opposition and often they delivered.

Fast forward forty years and I am finding it very dull. The cricket remains of a good standard, but it is all fine and dandy if you want to watch a runfest. You just know that in the ordinary run of things there will be two large first innings totals, a bit of rain and no chance to generate a positive result. Which will likely happen in the current game and is why we haven't won a four-day game at Derby since 2019. It is all well and good for 20- over cricket, when people want to see fours and sixes, but not remotely enjoyable for the longer format.

Here's a question for you, asked of me by a friend, earlier today. Do you think the current points system is conducive to entertaining cricket? What we find happening is that each side bats for maximum bonus points, in the hope they can ultimately win the game (16 points) take another five for their batting after making 450 and then bowl out the other side for the final three and a maximum of 24 from the game.

Would it not be more entertaining if the spoils for winning the game were 24 points, regardless of how many runs you made in the first innings? The best games of cricket are where 200 plays 200 through the game and the best side comes out on top. So if you were bowled out for 249 but went on to win the game, you reaped the reward of the maximum points, supporters enjoyed a fine game and groundstaff were encouraged to produce result pitches.

If team A makes 450 plus, team B sets its stall out to do the same and suddenly you are in the evening session of day three with not a lot happening. 

Yet looking around the country, most clubs have wickets that are more sporting. Sixteen wickets went down today at Southampton, twenty-two at Edgbaston, both of them international grounds.

So why can't we? I think it is a justifiable question for the forthcoming members forum. This isn't a go at Neil Godrich, a very good groundsman, but a question for the head of cricket who is presumably requesting anodyne tracks for batting on.

Today made for hard viewing. So much so that I went out to clean two cars and then took the dogs for a walk, because what was happening was patently clear after the first hour of the day. If Mohammad Amir was watching the ball do very little all day from home, he would realise that he is in for some very hard work, unless something is done.

David Lloyd looked like the sort of player we will enjoy watching, albeit in a brief display, but then Colin Ingram and Zain-ul-Hassan batted very well, the former making a classy hundred, the latter a more circumspect maiden half century.

When both were eventually dismissed, Root and Carlson pushed the score along and Glamorgan went comfortably past 400 before the end of the day's play.

Zak Chappell was the pick of the bowlers, but there was little joy to be had. Some of it was pretty awful and I felt sorry for Brooke Guest, who had 25 byes against his name at the end of the day, with little that he could do about most of them.

There was something rather unedifying about watching George Scrimshaw, on the first day of a championship game, bowling short with no slips and three men on the leg side boundary.

It spoke volumes for the kind of day and the kind of wicket we have, yet again.

While your opinion may be different if you are watching the action from Wales, I suspect that most people will have forgotten today's action very quickly.

Which is all rather sad really.

Postscript: hopefully Anuj Dal is OK after an awkward fall in his delivery stride near the end of the day. I am not sure if it is his knee or his ankle, but as the likely captain for the fifty over competition, we can scarce afford to lose him.