So Mike Hendrick has left Derbyshire, as various rumours doing the rounds had been suggesting for a few weeks now.
According to the club site, John Morris is "restructuring" the bowling coaching. That could mean any number of things, from a new man coming in to a current player taking on additional responsibilities. I can't think that Morris and Andrew Brown would be taking on those responsibilities as neither were bowlers in their playing days.
It wouldn't be beyond the realms of possibility for someone like Charl Langeveldt, highly respected (revered even) as a bowler to take on coaching as an "extra", but more realistically a new man could come in.
No doubt Graeme Welch would be a fans favourite, but whether he would leave Essex, where he is doing a fine job, for a position at Derby is a moot point. My gut feeling is that Pop would come back to the county, but only for the top position and that is entirely understandable. I'm not sure whether replacing Hendrick with anyone is technically a restructure. Where I come from, that's called a replacement...
It's not clear at this stage whether there has been a fall out between the two, or whether Morris feels we're needing something from the bowling coach that Hendrick couldn't give. I don't know whether Hendo is a better coach than Morris, but there is little doubt on the evidence of last season that all departments of the game next season need to be stepped up a level. While the bowlers at times seemed incapable of bowling to a line and length, especially in the one day games, our batsmen still seem to panic to an alarming degree.
If we get only one improvement from the side next year, I hope it is that we can be more professional in our run chases. Even following a game on teletext, it became obvious that the fall of Rogers and Hinds was accompanied by mental alarm bells, klaxons and a collective gnashing of teeth. If we could just appreciate that seven an over from the last ten is only one a ball and an occasional boundary, we'll go a long way to becoming a decent side.
And the bottom line is that if players at this level can't work into gaps for singles pretty much most of the time, they're really not first class players.
Like the rest of you, I'll be watching the next developments in this "restructure" with a great deal of interest.
Sad to see Mike Hendrick go but at 60 years-old nothing goes on forever. He seemed a nice bloke but we will have to trust John Morris for another season at least. Still Hendrick's salary might go towards bringing in a new world class player that we haven't signed yet! The worry though is that the younger bowlers at the club might miss a bowling coach.
ReplyDeleteI have two lasting memories of Hendrick. 1. He was a very good bowler and 2. That he left to us to join our arch rivals Notts, so as they say what goes around comes around.