Overseas ..over and...out?

When I was a young boy, first getting into cricket and its rich history, my experience was made all the more special by the overseas players who came into the county game. 

I went to my first cricket match in the summer of 1967, when ironically in a game between Derbyshire and Yorkshire, there wasn't an overseas player in sight. Derbyshire didn't move into the overseas market until 1970, with the signing of Chris Wilkins, while Yorkshire didn't feel the need for one until as late as 1992, when they picked up a young Indian by the name of Sachin Tendulkar. He was a late replacement for Craig McDermott, the Australian quick bowler, who injured his groin on the eve of the English season.

Tendulkar did quite well, making a thousand runs, even if it was asking a lot of a nineteen-year old player. He did pretty well subsequently and has frequently cited his time in England as being the making of him. 

Even now I can go through the counties and reel off the names of the legends who played for each as I was getting into the game. Wilkins at Derbyshire, Keith Boyce at Essex, Majid Khan at Glamorgan, Mike Procter and Zaheer Abbas at Gloucestershire, Barry Richards and Gordon Greenidge at Hampshire, etc..

They were golden days. Until 1976 most of my summers were spent at Derby, Chesterfield or one of the outgrounds. Dad and I, together with friends, saw many of the greatest players in the history of the game. If we couldn't make it, or Derbyshire were playing away from home, there was the John Player League on BBC2 from 2pm, with full coverage of a 40-over game from one of the grounds. You never knew which, until the captions rolled at the start, but that just added to the excitement. 

I still remember a televised game between Hampshire and Derbyshire from Southampton in 1972, when Chris Wilkins made 84 as Derbyshire recorded an improbable, at that time, 217 in their 40 overs. They duly beat Hampshire, even though Barry Richards made a glorious 95 for our hosts, yet what a feast for the eyes that was!

Fifty years on, the game has changed so much. 

The best overseas players don't head for England, formerly the only place to play cricket at that time of the year. There are so many franchise competitions around the globe, they don't need to. Why would you condemn yourself to six months hard slog here, when you can get more money for a fraction of the work elsewhere? Why would you bowl 20 overs a day, often in cold conditions, when you can be far better rewarded for bowling just four? Not to mention seeing other parts of the world out at someone else's expense...

It was touched on last night at the Lancashire Members Forum. Mark Chilton, their Director of Cricket Performance, said that as soon as a bowler who can reach 85 mph comes on the scene, the franchise sides are all over them. No wonder counties find it difficult to recruit and it is just the same for spinners, especially leggies, who are always worth their weight in gold when people try to hit them out of the ground.

The Major League Cricket tournament in the United States this year saw top players able to earn £175k for a minimum of FIVE matches. It took place in July, the height of our season and coincided with The Hundred at the end of its run. How can counties possibly compete with that? 

Yesterday came news that Lancashire have engaged Australian spinner Chris Green for the next TWO years for white ball cricket and some red ball if available. Green is 31 and has only played 13 first-class games in his career. I don't recall seeing a player engaged for white ball on more than a single year basis before, but again it is a sign of the times. He is a good performer, would probably have done Derbyshire a turn this year, but with respect,  he won't go down as one of the all-time greats of the game. 

Which brings it all back to our club. Caleb Jewell isn't the biggest name to come to Derbyshire from Australia, but he is a shrewd signing. If he has a stellar Big Bash he will come to the attention of other franchise competitions around the globe so this might be his only year with the club. Of course, not everyone is motivated solely by money and his long-term possibilities for Australia may be better served by building a reputation on the pitches of their oldest rival. A year or two in England could open the door to a central contract, from where the world is his oyster. It did no harm to Usman Khawaja, that's for sure.

Which is why last season we ended up with Blair Tickner and Daryn Dupavillon. Players with limited international experience, but with sound enough domestic record to be worth a punt. The danger is in assessing the quality of opposition they have faced and if they are capable of handling the pressure of being the go-to bowler in a foreign country. Kim Barnett has often cited the importance of Michael Holding to him, when he was a young Derbyshire captain. If the opposition were getting away, he could toss the ball to Michael, who would either keep things quiet or take a wicket or two. Charl Langeveldt did a similar job for the county a few years later.

The market for overseas players in this country is shrinking. There is a handful whose international career is over (like Cheteshwar Pujara, Mohammad Abbas), those with ambition (Shan Masood, Matt Breetzke, Caleb Jewell and plenty more) and those who want a short stint for experience, perhaps ahead of a tour.

My best guess, ahead of any official announcement, is that Blair Tickner will return next year, assuming all is well with his wife. A recent news article in New Zealand suggested she still had three months of 'heavy' chemotherapy to go, before a further eighteen months of 'maintenance-based' chemotherapy. How she responds to this will likely dictate the final decision, but I suspect he will commit only to red ball cricket at the start of the summer, leaving Derbyshire to find a T20 specialist for The Blast.

Time will tell. But if a change of target is required. It will be in players of similar experience and certainly there is no expectation from me of really big international names. 

It simply isn't worth their time to commit to the county game.