Wednesday 26 October 2011

Because they're (not) worth it?

There was good news about the signing of Peter Burgoyne on a two-year deal this morning. The youngster, whose season in 2012 will see him complete his school education before becoming a full-time professional in 2013, is the latest to put pen to paper over the last couple of months as Karl Krikken and Chris Grant have tied up the signatures of all the major members of playing staff who were coming into the final years of contracts or had come to the end ofan existing deal.

That being the case, it amused me that a contributor on the Falcons Forum had posted "Give Us More Signings." To be fair it was a piece on our winter signings over the last fifteen years which was well-researched and illustrated that we had got a lot better over recent years in picking up players of decent quality. That had a lot to do with John Morris' eye for a player and ability to convince them Derbyshire was the land of opportunity, but I don't see us spending winters looking for announcements of new signings in the years ahead. Rather, we will ensure that our own young talent is tied to the club as far as possible and their skills will be augmented by picking up an occasional player of proven quality.

A few days ago I suggested that counties might eventually sacrifice signing an overseas player of minimal experience for an older professional of ability if there were people around with the right talent. Jamie Dalrymple is a worthy example and I could see a lot of merit in picking up such a proven all-rounder on perhaps a three-year deal over a second or even third tier player from overseas. Many of these can only play for three months between tours, before handing over the role to another nomad from warmer climes and most are simply not here long enough to make a worthwhile contribution.

Take a look at these Championship stats from last year:

Derbyshire - Guptill 537 at 38, Khawaja 319 at 39
Durham - None apart from T20
Essex - Tsotsobe 5 wkts at 77
Glamorgan - Petersen 1069 at 42
Gloucestershire - Williamson 831 at 36
Hampshire - Tahir 28 wkts at 24
Kent - Riaz 13 wkts at 34
Lancashire -  Maharoof 281 at 31, 14 wkts at 50
Leicestershire - McDonald 312 at 39 and 8 wkts at 38
Middlesex - Rogers 1300 at 54
Northamptonshire - Vaas 403 at 26 and 70 wkts at 21
Nottinghamshire - Voges 845 at 44, Bravo 248 at 35
Somerset - Kartik 285 at 28 and 26 wkts at 35
Surrey - Ojha 24 wkts at 12, Arafat 20 wkts at 48
Sussex - Naved 180 at 15 and 27 wkts at 34, Parnell 15 wkts at 41
Warwickshire - Chanderpaul 539 at 89 Yousuf 353 at 32
Worcestershire - Shakib 7 wkts at 18 Wright 31 wkts at 27 Ajmal 17 wkts at 28 Roach 14 wkts at 40
Yorkshire -  Rudolph 318 at 45

Dalrymple averaged 36 with the bat in a truncated year and took ten wickets at 44, not suffering in comparison to some very average figures above. There were successes, of course.Vaas was a standout for Northamptonshire as Rogers was at Middlesex, while Ojha's late season wickets were crucial for Surrey but no more so than the 1300 runs scored by Zander de Bruyn as a Kolpak. Likewise, Neil McKenzie exceeded a thousand for Hampshire but they were still relegated and others like de Wet and Myburgh were singularly unimpressive.

T20? Another mix and match to be honest...

Derbyshire - Guptill 476 at 34
Durham - Miller 212 at 26
Essex - Styris 220 at 37 and 7 wkts at 23, Southee 130 at 15 and 22 wkts at 19
Glamorgan - Petersen 423 at 32, Cosgrove 293 at 20
Gloucestershire - Williamson 248 at 17, 9 wkts at 25, Muralitharan 12 wkts at 31
Hampshire - Afridi 180 at 20, 17 wkts at 11, Tahir 17 wkts at 16
Kent - Riaz 20 wkts at 20, Langeveldt 15 wkts at 31
Lancashire - Maharoof 59 at 11 and 10 wkts at 23, Junaid 12 wkts at 11
Leicestershire - MacDonald 600 at 52 Razzaq 300 at 30 and 19 wkts at 24
Middlesex - Rogers 154 at 22, McLaren 136 at 13 and 14 wkts at 33
Northamptonshire - Botha 245 at 20, 12 wkts at 24, Vaas 2 wkts at 44
Nottinghamshire - Hussey 357 at 39, Voges 434 at 30
Somerset - Van der Merwe 169 at 56 and 4 wkts at 31, Pollard 234 at 39 and 12 wkts at 27, Kartik 17 wkts at 21
Surrey - Arafat 71 at 23 Nannes 19 wkts at 20
Sussex - Naved 118 at 23 and 16 wkts at 15, Gul 12 wkts at 21, Parnell 6 wkts at 33
Warwickshire - Patel 11 wkts at 31
Worcestershire - Shakib 110 at 9 and 19 wkts at 16, Ajmal 16 wkts at 11
Yorkshire - None

Again, some decent performances but a lot that are nothing to write home about as far as I'm concerned.

Thoughts?

4 comments:

  1. Good news re Burgoyne, as with the other signings, of course.
    Personally, I would like to get back to the days of the overseas player playing for the whole season although that appears to be not very practical nowadays & you could argue that Guptill & Khawaja both performed reasonably successfully in their half-season spells. I'm sure that they would both be assets should they be required to perform for us next year.
    As for the T20, who cares ??
    Giving my age away there !!!

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  2. LOL ACD! I must introduce you to my Dad who loves it just as much.
    Yes, Khawaja and Guptill would do nicely, but there's few other genuine options out there. Some well rated players turned in pretty ordinary stats last season.

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  3. Just to be pedantic, Peakfan, my "Give Us More Signings" comment was intended to poke fun at those who clamour for more free agent signngs at this time of year. I posted some time ago that I think next year's team will look much like this year's team. That's fine by me; I believe producing our own players will give us a much better team.

    Just Wondering

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  4. I know mate! That's why I said that it amused me when I saw the headline, then clarified that it was a well-researched piece on recent winter signings. I thought at first it was someone desperate for us to sign every Tom, Dick and Harry on the market. Thank goodness it wasn't!

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