Derbyshire v Sussex: Day three - Tough times ahead

Derbyshire may or may not escape this game with a draw tomorrow, at least judging from the weather forecasts that I have seen, but that should not mask the overwhelming feeling as this game draws to a close that promotion came too soon for this young side. Indeed, it is hard to see anything but ultimate relegation at the end of the season as things stand.

At the moment, the only players who appear to be ready for this level of the game – and we must not lose site of the fact that the team is a work in progress, as I’ve said all along – are Madsen, Johnson, Footitt and perhaps Wainwright. One assumes that Chanderpaul is too, but the West Indian at this stage is not doing his stuff and the side is suffering.

It gives me no pleasure to say that. These are all very good players or they’d not be in the county game; but for one reason or another, be it mental, technical or whatever, they’re just not at the races this summer.

For all that we were ecstatic – myself included – when he signed, Chanderpaul has not yet scored the runs to justify the likely high cost. He may yet do so, but in adversity you need your main men to stand up and be counted. It’s not happened for Shiv yet, but I recall similar mutterings when we signed Eddie Barlow. He also had a slow start but became a club legend. We can only hope that the genial Chanderpaul does the same.

To be fair, this wasn’t a 400+ wicket and I’m told that there should have been parity in first innings had we bowled remotely well. Too many poor balls were bowled and catches were dropped, which you simply cannot do at this level. The wicket offers a lot of movement and is now turning, but we didn’t play a spinner. While the batsmen will take the flak tonight, the bowlers let us down in this one, no doubt about it. Even Mark Footitt admitted he’d bowled badly, even though he took the wickets.

Chesney Hughes at least has his Headingley innings, but the likes of Godleman, Redfern and Whiteley are struggling and it hurts to see players of talent in their current state. Yet compare it, if you will, to football. A player can score 25-30 goals to get a team into the Premiership, yet be short of the requisite standard to score at that level.

We need to allow these lads to develop, but it happens in the fullness of time and you cannot accelerate it. Suggesting we can go and sign experienced men is pointless, as we couldn’t afford the ones that were worthwhile, and there’s no guarantee that will work either. Look at the money that Surrey spent this winter on the likes of Keedy, Solanki, Smith and Ponting and where they are. They’re more competitive than us, but with a playing budget around three times the size, they should be. The same goes for Somerset, a club with loads of money, but struggling at present.

It takes time and, while we all want instant success, it doesn’t happen that way. In five years time, we will look back on this season and see it as a year when some of our brighter young players revealed they weren’t quite up to the mark and they subsequently never quite made it. Others will see this year as one where they realised just how much work needs to be done to play at top level with any degree of success and used it as a springboard to success.

The future? Well Ben Slater has to come in. He and Paul Borrington added 150 the other day, and while there has been intolerance from some towards the latter, he could scarce do worse than some others at present. I doubt that both would get the call though, and Slater deserves the first opportunity. Having said that, Hughes could then move to the middle order and with Durston back there might be better options for us.

It is Karl Krikken’s call, but he has a tough summer ahead. I hope that people don’t get silly and demand change, as that would do nothing at this stage. We simply have to stick with the long-term plan of developing our own young players and be patient.

That’s all I can say, really. Tough times ahead.