Saturday 30 July 2011

Going to be tricky...

By that, I mean this landmark signing.

Like a good few of you I've given it considerable thought over recent weeks since Chris Grant first announced his plan and I struggle to come up with many names.

I don't think for a minute that Paul Collingwood will come. For what its worth, I think that he probably went public with Derbyshire's interest to local radio to secure a better deal on his own patch in Durham. Call my cynical, but I don't see him making a move down the A1 sometime soon.

Ricky Ponting will, I think, be more likely to move into a media career after he finishes playing, so I don't see him being interested in a coaching/playing role, especially one where he has to commit to six months in England. He's previously said that the county circuit is hard work and it will be harder for him now than a few years back when he had a month at Somerset.

South Africa tour England next summer and I don't see Kallis, de Villiers, Smith et al opting for a county stint instead of the national side. In any case, all of them can make a lot of money in IPL, so don't really need county cricket. Given the Indian slogfest runs until May, they would miss the opening month at least, hardly what we would want.

If Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Zimbabwe, New Zealand or Bangladesh have a supremo in their midst I can't think of one. India? I might have said someone like Rahul Dravid as a real wildcard, but he doesn't need county cricket and is revitalised this summer, so will be a fixture in the side once more. Fine player that he is, he doesn't strike me as a Barlow-type player. The West Indies are also here and their players are too laid back to galvanise a team too, so it pretty much leaves Australia for me.

To further complicate things, Australia play one-day games here too next summer, so you're looking at a player who may retire in the near future, or is now out of the international reckoning.

Which pretty much leaves me with only two names. Michael Hussey and Simon Katich. Hussey is still in the national side, but for how long is anyone's guess. He is also a successful IPL player, so could again be unavailable for the early season.

Which then leaves Katich. A first class average of 55 and Test one of 45 indicates a fine player, as we know full well from his season at Derby when he averaged over 70. He's not a one day player in my opinion and he wouldn't automatically be seen as another Eddie Barlow, but if I'm honest he's the only player, apart from Marcus North, who would appear to be free at this stage and experienced enough to lead by example to a young team.

North is less reliable as a batsman, but does offer a useful off-spin element as a player, He is another to enjoy a successful (albeit short) stint with the county and with five Test centuries hardly qualifies as a mug. Like Katich, North is a very good, experienced cricketer who more likely than not would be available for a full season.

What I'm less sure about would be two things. I'm not convinced either has much to offer for T20, so would prefer to see others in that competition. A top batsman and bowler for next season, if we really aim to compete, is a must. Otherwise it will be much the same as this year and last - plenty of promise but nothing to get overly excited about.

Secondly, I'm not convinced that North or Katich are necessarily players of a 'landmark' status, especially when they've already played for us. Having said that, I think they would be more successful than this year's overseas players, worthy as they have been and the signing of one of them might just leave scope in the budget for a T20 signing, maybe two.

Landmark? Probably not, but we've had our fair share of Primark over the years. If Chris Grant pulls off something more spectacular than that I will be seriously impressed.

As always, I welcome your thoughts and other suggestions. Bear in mind though, that the Saffers are here next summer so that will rule them out...

10 comments:

  1. I was actually thinking abouth this signing earlier and Dravid also came to my mind. He's 38 years old now, achieved everything in the game so why not have a cuple of years in England to see out his wonderful career. Whoever we do sign will be indian or english i think

    Falcon_Ram

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  2. Great minds Falcon Ram. Just not sure if he's a motivator though. Fabulous player...

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  3. Forget this 'landmark' rubbish the chairman talks like the club has never had a decent player before! It's all publicity for the chairman.
    On the field it looks like we put a better shift in today with Smith once again playing his part. I know that because this player has seemed to be leaving since he came some fans can't take to him but he would be a hard act to replace. He is likely to get near to 1,000 runs and 40 wickets in the championship alone this year and I can't see many players in the country topping this.

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  4. Katich as a captain wasn't particularly inspiring in his previous stint here.

    Donny Scorpion

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  5. Agreed Donny. Anon, the chairman will get a good player, I'm confident in that. My article simply highlights that he has a very difficult job on his hands. Shame you can't see how much he's doing for the club...

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  6. Hi Peakfan

    If the Chairmen wanted to go for a 'landmark' signing then there are limited option but top of my tree would be Daniel Vettori, he is a world class spinner, he can bat and can also teach the likes of Knight and Burgoyne to become better spinners and teach them the art of spin. This however is very unlikely to happen with the IPL but one interesting point about him is that he is obsessed with stats which could entice him.

    The likelihood of him coming is very unlikely but Peakfan we can always dream.

    John

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  7. Yeah, Vettori would be very good John. Impressed with his captaincy in the IPL and with a poor NZ team. He just has so much on his plate. In the IPL he finished bowling on one leg pretty much with a back problem and as national skipper doesn't really need the work or the money.

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  8. Peakfan, I would just like the chairman to stay out of team affairs. Would Alex Ferguson let one of the Glazer's pick his team?

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  9. As I said previously, Collingwood doesn't appeal to me on any basis, so his inaccessibility doesn't cause me too much grief. Vettori would be a hugely enticing prospect who I hadn't previously though about, but think Peakfan has it right, unless Vettori has a driving ambition to prove himself in Div 2 of English cricket.

    It's interesting though that everyone still seems to be focusing on overseas players. Krikken was asked a question a few weeks ago about the "overseas" landmark signing, and very carefully referred to "overseas or English" in his answer. This might just have referred to Collingwood, but if there is a Plan B, C etc, it might not be a foreign player. I'm still thinking about Dominic Cork. Given the current position of Hampshire, he's going to end his career in division 2 anyway, so why not in Derby given his other roots here?

    I know there's history, but so there is with Katich. Unlike Cork, Katich's divisive behaviour wasn't driven by his attachment and anbition for Derbyshire, and his reaction to the loss of his central contract shows that he hasn't grown and matured in the same way as Cork. Given where we've come from this year, do we really want another self-aggrandising authoritarian?

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  10. A few possible players could be:

    Steve Smith-Aussie leg spinner good one day player not picked by Australia for Sri Lankan Series. Not a mouth watering prospect though.

    Chris Gayle- Looks like he may never play for w.indies again, he definatley is a mouth watering prospect but would cost a lot.

    Ramnaresh Sarwan- Dropped By West indies for final india test so may be available next year if they still dont fancy him.

    Ricky Ponting- A long shot but coming to the end of his career past his best but still a great player.

    I have not checked the international calender for next year but these are players that I think will be available and are the sort of players that the club would have spoke about I reckon. If not we could just get Nantie Hayward on a kolpak.

    Falcon_Ram

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