Weekend warmer - the road to improvement

For all that there was disappointment in white ball displays, the third place finish in the County Championship gave Derbyshire supporters the hope that good times might lie at the end of the tunnel, the light there being something more than a mere burglar's torch..

So what is needed for us to take that next step - promotion in the red ball, knock out and finals day in the T20, improvement in the one-day cup? 

Here is my list:

Quality overseas players

We need an attack leader in red ball cricket, someone who can take wickets and ideally be available for the full season. Everyone has seen the links with Mohammad Abbas, who would be great, but it is not yet a done deal. Your overseas bowler, if available for the full season, needs to take 50 wickets, or at least more than anyone else to justify his position. Abbas would likely do that, but importantly would be a man to bowl the 'hard' overs when the batters were in the ascendancy, much as Michael Holding or Charl Langeveldt once did.

In the white ball, we need a spinner of equal quality, ideally someone who can hit the ball a long way if required. Such players are always in demand and attracting them to Derbyshire, ahead of other engagements around the globe, will show how big the name of Mickey Arthur is and how strong that book of contacts.

Wanindu Hasaranga has been linked, but there's likely other interest there, too. Encouraging signs, but getting signings over the line is the challenge.

Result pitches

I have mentioned this before, but we need Derby pitches to be more like Chesterfield. Good for batting if your technique is strong, but with something for seamers and spinners alike at different stages of the game. In giving Neil Godrich the go ahead to prepare such pitches there is an element of risk, of course. Yet for Derbyshire to progress we have to be willing to risk losing, to give ourselves a chance to win. 

To quote the great Kim Barnett, in a recent Cricketer magazine interview:

I'd grown up with the stories of Yorkshire, only booking into their hotel for two nights. I took a detailed six-year look back at what made sides like Essex and Middlesex so successful. Their batters did well enough, but it was bowlers like John Lever, Wayne Daniel, Emburey and Edmonds who turned them into champions.

I'd started with John Wright and Peter Kirsten as overseas players – top international batters – but we couldn't bowl sides out. So we started preparing wickets for Michael Holding, Alan Warner and the like.

To attract Mohammad Abbas or any other seamer of genuine class, you need pitches to help them. I would argue that with Aitchison, Chappell, Reece, Moore and Haydon in your ranks, you have the potential to outgun most, with the addition of that quality overseas input.

New bowling coach

No disrespect intended, but the figures suggest that the bowling group need a different voice to that of Ajmal Shahzad. 

As Mickey Arthur said when he arrived at Derby, four years was what he regarded as the maximum for the input of a coach to remain fresh. 

There was little wrong with the Derbyshire batting in 2025. We scored well in all competitions, so credit to Ben Smith for his input in that area. The bowling let us down, especially in the Blast, where collectively we lost line and length, struggling as a consequence. Only the re-emergence of Ben Aitchison and the introduction of Rory Haydon saw us gain greater control later, neither of them, through circumstance, because of the input of the coach.

I have no idea on the contractual situation, but we need fresh input, new ideas on the bowling side, otherwise I fear for similar issues to plague us in 2026. Players do not 'lose it' when they are established, but the evidence suggests a disconnect between bowlers and coach.

Put it another way - the average runs per over conceded in The Blast, by bowlers who will be here next year, suggests we  would always be chasing 200-plus. There isn't the money to change the personnel, so I would hope for a close look at the alternative this winter.

Fielding

At times we could be very good in the field, Caleb Jewell brought greater consistency to the slip cordon, while Ben Aitchison was another asset, alongside the ever-reliable Wayne Madsen. Yet it goes without saying that the bowlers need that, especially when getting a response from pitches was far from easy.

In the Blast we looked slow and cumbersome in the field at times. One or two players are not athletes and you can only hide so many in an unforgiving format. Starting the competition with two men over 40 and an overseas bowler who, while supremely talented, didn't list catching and fielding among his attributes wasn't likely to end well. No disrespect to Wayne Madsen intended, who is still fitter than men ten years his junior, but at 42 he can't be as fast as he once was.

This time we have to be better and the addition of Basra, Haydon and Montgomery is a good start.

Luck

Few sides win without their share of the rub of the green. Whether it is in decisions going your way, key players staying fit or the weather playing its part, Dame Fortune smiling on you is always handy. Remember 2012, when we forced a win in Cardiff thanks to a Jon Clare masterclass with the ball? We won in three days, when other games barely got going, building an impetus in the process.

That year we came out of the blocks like Usain Bolt and despite a late season wobble, ended it with silverware. 

That extra five/ten per cent

Finally it is important that the current players haven't reached their ceiling. In the absence of big stars, it is important that everyone plays a part. If the batters can take their averages up by five runs and the bowlers their averages down by the same, we won't be far away. Similarly if a couple of bowlers go for eight an over, rather than ten or eleven in T20, it would make a world of a difference.

I think the addition of Montgomery, Basra and Haydon will be important in all formats and there should be increased vitality on the pitch in 2026.

If all of these pieces fall into place, I have high expectations for next year. 

The key word is 'all'...