Whoooo-wee. There were a lot of comments yesterday after what history will record as the Debacle of Headingley. It will take its place alongside the Treaty of Versailles, The Defenestration of Prague and many other major events. It may even - we can hope - be a turning point.
I'm not so sure and a day on I think we have to accept that this will be a tough summer. We have a young squad and, while I accept a comment from yesterday that Yorkshire have their young players too, they have a lot more experience than ours. You cannot, for example, compare Redfern and Hughes with Root and Ballance. It's not just the experience, it's the type of experience.
It's funny though. Last summer, over the winter and pre-season people have suggested that Chesney had lost it and would never make it. One very special innings later, he's Saint Chesney of Anguilla, the man who can do no wrong. I don't mean to be disparaging, but he needs to build on that now and produce on a regular basis. I dearly hope he can, but one innings doesn't make a career, even one as special as that was.
Much the same as Whiteley and Redfern haven't become bad players in six months. Think back to that Hampshire game last September, when Ross was taking us across the finishing line like Usain Bolt with a tail wind. Or the knock that Redfern played to see us to the win against Kent at Derby by one wicket. They earned similar plaudits, albeit for the mini-me version of Chesney's Headingley meisterwerk.
It's not what we want, nor what we need, but there has to be an acceptance that young players will enjoy and suffer peaks and troughs more than experienced ones. When I think back to my early working life, I made more mistakes as a callow youth than I do now with thirty years behind me (either that or people don't like telling me...) It is part of growing up, learning a trade, maturing.
The alternative would be going down the John Morris route of signing Kolpaks, which was of only limited merit, even though he brought in some better quality English players. Or we could go down the 1970's route and sign old lags, like Clive Inman, Fred Rumsey, Fred Trueman, Ron Headley or Phil Sharpe. They were all good players, but their best days were behind them and history (and my memory) suggests they enjoyed equally mixed fortunes, most of them bad.
Why didn't we strengthen in the winter? That was one cry, but as the chairman pointed out on Twitter, we spent £200K-plus in deservedly improved contracts for the players who won a championship. There were no dissenting voices. We signed Billy Godleman and Richard Johnson, who have still to convince supporters, as well as the second ranked batsman in world cricket. All this with the lowest playing budget on the county circuit.
Could we have signed someone like Jack Brooks, or Liam Plunkett, maybe Alex Wakeley or other batsmen? No, because they cost serious money, allegedly the best part of six-figure salaries. We don't have that, despite laudable efforts behind the scenes. What if you do sign them and they under perform like Rikki Clarke? There are still some Derbyshire fans are convinced we picked up Nicky Clarke by mistake and the financial divide between his salary and the others was counter-productive. So we must develop our own, help them to develop and bide our time, rewarding success and retaining the best of them.
We may go down this summer. We might do so without winning a championship match and on current form that isn't unlikely. Alternatively, the players could pick themselves up and start to find their feet in a funny division. We've lost three from four, but Nottinghamshire have lost two from three, Somerset have yet to win and Surrey - at least until today - have performed poorly.
Tomorrow we play New Zealand and say hello to Martin Guptill. The importance of this game is accentuated by the current form of the batsmen, which has seen the following side selected:
Godleman, Hughes, Madsen, Durston, Redfern, Whiteley, Johnson, Burgoyne, Footitt, Evans and Higginbottom.
There are opportunities for people to cement or secure a place in the first eleven throughout that side and Chris Grant was absolutely correct to have a go at the players in today's Derby Telegraph. He has ensured that they are well looked after and probably thought, like most of us, that such episodes as Thursday were consigned to history. I have no doubt that the players are hurting right now and they need to show their passion to improve things, starting tomorrow.
If they're looking for inspiration they have only to look within. Some of you may have missed this, but the Academy are unbeaten this season and had a couple of excellent wins over Northamptonshire, which you can read about here
Some of these lads will be fixtures in our side in the next few summers. As The Hollies once said, the road may be long with many a winding turn, but stick with it guys.
It will be worth the ride.
We do have to stick with the prosperity plan,no doubt about that,but maybe a little more flexibility might have been beneficial,at least in the short term. As a whole,the squad is a little threadbare and I have felt for some time we were at least one seamer short and also another batsman. I made these points on more than one occasion last year. I,m fully aware we have limited resources but maybe,just maybe, had we gone the extra mile we may have been in a better position to cement our place in this division.
ReplyDeleteYou,re right about Hughes needing to produce the batting goods on a regular basis now,something which applies to others as well as him. I don,t think Redfern or Whiteley are bad players but there is room for improvement. Whiteley had a poor summer last year,rescued slightly by one or two better innings towards the end. Redfern is a class act when he gets himself in but my main criticism is he doesn,t produce enough innings of significance. I wouldn,t want to stifle his natural instincts because he,s just as likely to get out prodding and poking,but he must learn to be a little more disciplined at certain times and keep his wicket intact.
Godleman has been a bit disappointing up to now and still seems prone to falling Leg before,which doesn,t come as big surprise. I hope he and the others can use the Kiwi,s match to play themselves back into some sort of form. I think Godleman will come good. I hope so because we don,t have much in the way of alternatives. I still believe Chanderpaul should bat at three and let Madsen come in at four.
There are a couple of teams who,similar to ourselves, have made poor starts. We can still get over ours and prove we are not the divisional rubbing rags,by being more professional,more focused and eliminating some of the errors which seem to keep reccuring.
Good points very well made Marc. Thanks as always for contributing your tuppence-worth!
ReplyDeleteMarc is quite right that we are a seamer short and, in reality, we have been for many years. It could be argued that we have lacked a 'go to' wicket taker since the departure of Dominic Cork. (A case could be made for Langeveldt and Wagg?) The problem is how to get them here. There is no obvious attraction in coming to Derbyshire - we are not a test venue and don't, at present, have any Division 1 pedigree. There is also no reason why the club should take financial risks and overstretch the budget to bring in additional players. For what is the gain? It is not like the football where the Premier League brings vast riches - the prize money in the County Championship pays more to the winners and runners-up in Div 2 than 4th place in Div 1! I also doubt that playing in higher leagues substantially affects gate receipts.
ReplyDeleteAll the teams we have played this year are filled with Internationals, past present and future (Lions). I think that our Overseas player is the only one in the Derbyshire line-up. Going by England's International success, using this alone as a barometer shows that we are going to struggle. As Peakfan says in the blog, the Acadamy is our best route to success and we can rightly be optimistic about the future. How quickly they can be exposed at the highest level is another question though. Somerset recently blooded Leach and the Overton twins in the Championship, but look at the other 8 players they were surrounded by. I guess those sort of calls are what the management are paid for.
Craig
Totally agree Craig. Well said mate!
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