Monday musings

Despite the defeat in the northeast, I am especially excited at making the trip down to Chesterfield this week. It will be an homage to my old Dad, who sixty years ago next month took me to Queen's Park for the first time, to see Derbyshire play Yorkshire. He started something that it is fair to say has become a passion over the intervening period.

I will arrive on Thursday afternoon and will see the first three days of the game, before travelling home on Monday. Strange but true - you can get a direct train from Edinburgh to Chesterfield. Who knew that? 

Mickey Arthur labelled the defeat at Durham as  'incredibly disappointing'. I suspect that sentiment is shared among the members and supporters. 

For all that the player skills are supposedly getting 'better and better', we have lost eight matches this summer and the evidence continues to point to a worrying lack of mental toughness. How you instill that is down to coaching ability and bringing in the right players. There aren't many Eddie Barlows out there, but the right overseas players can bring swagger, confidence and panache. 

Michael Holding had it, so too Mohammad Azharuddin and Adrian Kuiper. Meanwhile, Dean Jones, Chris Rogers, Michael di Venuto and Simon Katich gave you reassurance that they were up for a battle. When the going got tough, they rolled up their sleeves and got going.

I played with an uber-confident overseas professional (yes, an Aussie!) who carried us through a wonderful summer when he made us all feel ten feet tall. If we were chasing 200, he would look around the dressing room and say 'Guys, I am going to score a hundred, so if you can all pitch in, we will breeze this'. He usually did, he took wickets too and the team ethic was very strong. 

Mickey has had five years now and hasn't found that sort of player in his overseas picks. Shan Masood was quietly authoritative, but if he failed you sensed the warning sirens were going off. I expected more from Mickey and his 'black book', I have to admit.

Zak Chappell, Anuj Dal and Rory Haydon should all be available for the game against Lancashire,

which both teams really need to win to maintain any credibility of a promotion challenge. It gives an obvious selection headache.

For me, his biggest decision is probably the one that he will decline to make. Are his overseas choices for the summer in sufficient form to make the final eleven? 

The challenge in overseas recruitment these days is well known. I understand that there is a possibility of going back to just one overseas player for 2028 and onwards, which is partly driven by these challenges, as well as the desire to give greater opportunity to domestic players. 

While accepting that 'resting' an overseas recruit is unusual, it is not unique. Middlesex had to do it with Pieter Malan, when he struggled for form and indeed averaged only 14 in 2023. There will have been other instances when an 'injury' ruled someone out over the years.

Caleb Jewell currently averages 23 in red ball cricket, less than Ben Aitchison and Nick Potts, less than all of the other batters. He has two fifties in twelve innings and has struggled, after a winter in which he did the same in Australia. He has my sympathy, but at this stage both he and, very surprisingly, Mohammad Abbas have to go down as signings we shouldn't have made.

Abbas, who didn't lack offers when the 2025 season ended, has only eight wickets at 45 runs each. I would love to see him prove me wrong and take ten wickets at Queen's Park, but he now looks like a bowler who contains, rather than the attack leader we needed and hoped for. It is easy to be wise after the event, of course; who wasn't excited when the news broke of his signing? Not many. There have been a few dropped catches, but not enough to excuse figures which see him bottom of the averages among our regular bowlers this summer.

One could easily choose this side at Chesterfield and to some extent, rest easy in the knowledge that it contains the 'form' players of the club:

Came, Reece, Guest, Montgomery, Madsen, Andersson, Dal, Chappell/Potts, Aitchison, Haydon, Morley.

The counter argument would be that the agents of our overseas players may not be happy and it might affect future dealings with them. But shouldn't there be a point where you pick a team solely on merit, rather than because some players fill roles that are wrongly perceived as sacrosanct?

Even when I played strong league and then  Scottish county cricket, selection was keen and considered. You needed a balanced side and you looked at the opposition, the likely pitch and the form of those who were in contention. Even there, selection was not a formality and you were only as good as your most recent form, regardless of what you had done last month, or last season.

Back in my later days when I captained a village club for nine seasons, my selection process was more simple. My best friend always played, so too the guy who every week cut the grass and prepared the pitch. Oh, and the fella whose wife provided the most amazing cakes and sandwiches. It was social, friendly, fun cricket with the result less important than an enjoyable afternoon with friends. For an away game, the chap who had a people carrier for his large family was choice numero uno...

But the ante is well and truly upped at first-class level. Selection HAS to be on merit and if you are not going out there with the best eleven players at your disposal - on FORM, not reputation - you start behind the eight ball.

I have written before that for Derbyshire to compete against sides that are better resourced and in good form, we have to have eleven players battling and producing their best, or an approximation of it. 

In a sentence I didn't expect to have to write, I don't think the current best Derbyshire eleven contains either Caleb Jewell or Mohammad Abbas. That one has to come down on the shoulders of Mickey Arthur, because he recruited them and they are not producing anything like the form that was both needed and expected.

His challenge now is to get them producing it. We know Jewell can bat, he showed us that last year, but he has been in a trough for a long time now and there is no hard evidence of escaping from it. Especially with Jimmy Anderson ready to run in against him, which hasn't ended well so far.

As for Abbas, the epithet of 'outstanding' is appropriate for his form in county cricket over many years. Has time caught up with him, or is he subconsciously saving himself for the Pakistan series in England?

Derbyshire need better from their overseas players. If Mickey Arthur doesn't feel they are in the mental and physical state of mind to produce it, he has to be big enough to rest them.

They deserve that and supporters are entitled to grumble and ask questions, if they continue to be selected but don't do better.

For what it is worth, I don't now expect a red ball promotion challenge unless we beat Lancashire and can bring in someone more effective to lead the attack when Abbas joins Pakistan. If we don't beat Lancashire, it wouldn't be an effective use of money anyway. I suspect Northamptonshire will join Durham in being promoted, where Darren Lehmann is doing a terrific job across formats. Compare and contrast: his overseas picks are leading the charge, with Nathan McSweeney averaging 56 with the bat, Harry Conway having 31 wickets at 24. Envious? Moi? You bet.

Nor do I expect better in the One Day Cup, unless they can bring in someone of stature, reputation and suitability for the format, which may or may not happen.

Controversial, yes. 

But I will always be honest...and of course, I would appreciate your thoughts.