Tuesday 25 October 2011

Closing in fast...

Well, the blog is rapidly closing in on 200,000 hits, a figure that at present usage should be reached sometime next week. I'm especially grateful for your support at a fairly quiet time of year when there is little news to report, in all honesty. I could branch out and cover wider cricket issues but there's loads of sites you can go to for that, so I would rather continue to supplement the titbits of Derbyshire cricket information with some book reviews that may be of interest, especially as we approach the festive season. If, like me, you're asked what book you would like for Christmas, I hope that these reviews might be of interest.

I've had a good few sent to me this year by publishers and will be reviewing another couple over the next few days. If you want to look back over reviews, simply enter the term "Book Review" into the search box at the top of the page. I'm grateful to an increasing number of publishers who send books to me and am continually impressed by the high standard of books over the course of 2011.

As for Derbyshire news, there's not a lot. Martin Guptill missed New Zealand's game today, while Usman Khawaja will be en route to South Africa, where the home team returned to form and thrashed Australia the other day. There was a fine performance by Morne Morkel, a player I would love to see in Derbyshire colours sometime, perhaps in T20, if he could be bothered and we could afford him. He is fast, awkward and gets a lot of bounce at his height, not bad attributes for a fast bowler...

Such news will have to wait though. I don't see many T20 players being signed around the country till the IPL auction is complete and we see who has and hasn't got deals. There are usually a few surprises, more often than not of the "how the heck are they paying him $100K?" in relation to an Aussie player with less first class experience than Tom Knight. Good luck to all those who can get the big pay day on the back of (presumably) their fielding ability. Being purely selfish, I just hope that Martin Guptill is overlooked, as otherwise any idea that he could join Derbyshire for the early season will be well and truly kyboshed. December will reveal all.

Finally tonight, thanks to those in the Netherlands and Romania who are currently making those countries the third and fourth heaviest users of the blog. As always, I'd love to hear from you!

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