County Cricket: Weekend talking points

“Didn’t think you would turn into a defeatist, Peakfan” said the email I got this morning from Dave, who’s not a regular correspondent but is as welcome as anyone to get in touch.

I’m not, Dave. I’m just being realistic at this stage. Nothing about our performances so far suggests anything other than relegation at the end of the season. We’re not batting well, we’re not bowling well and we’re not holding our chances in the field. That being the case, any team at any level would struggle.

We’re losing on the margins of the games. When we have the opposition in trouble we don’t force a way through and bowl them out. When we are 100-2, we’re suddenly 120-5. We drop players who go on to add another fifty to a hundred runs.

This game was a case in point. Sussex were 100-5, essentially six with a man absent and we then proceed to bowl some poor stuff, drop catches and allow them to see out the day. That in turn allows the absent man to return and take the lead another sixty runs on. When we bat, we make a good start, then the middle-order goes like a pack of cards and we’re in trouble again.

Yet, as I pointed out last night, there is no magic formula to turn it around. We are not awash with the money to bring in Jacques Kallis on a Kolpak (even if he was agreeable) and the county game isn’t awash with talented players who could come in on loan and average 50. I doubt that there’s a hypnotherapist out there who could convince the players that they are Bradman, Sobers, Holding or Warne either.

We simply have to make the best of what we have. Rotate the players in and out and allow opportunity and exposure at this level. At the very least, a few games in the top tier would allow players of undoubted potential such as Alex Hughes, Ben Slater, Tom Knight and Peter Burgoyne see what they need to do in order to make it to the top. Likewise, this is a big year for Paul Borrington, whose contract is up. Why not, if things don’t improve, give him a perhaps final chance to see if he can make the step from outstanding club player to the county game? Sometimes things just click and Bozza could do no worse than those who have opened so far.

Some might ask how we could expect young players like that to do it, if more experienced ones like Whiteley, Redfern and Godleman can’t. Well, some rise more quickly and if you don’t allow opportunity, you will never know. Playing against the best, if nothing else, fairly sharpens your skills for when you come up against the more mediocre opposition, that’s for sure. When I played in the old Scottish county competition years back, the experience against good spinners and quicker bowlers made the ordinary club games a relative walk in the park, as things didn’t seem anywhere near so tough.

There is still time for Derbyshire to turn it around, but how they do so is another thing. Maybe this year is the one where, somewhat against the recent run of things, our one-day game is the stronger suit. On the other hand, perhaps it will be a summer that is the complete antithesis of last year and the players come out of it chastened but, in the long term, stronger.