Talking points : Derbyshire cricket

One of the pleasures of being a professional cricket blogger (and there are a few, believe me) is in the discussions held between like-minded fans over current issues. I like to think that this is a place where sensible comment – positive and negative – can be made without fear of the whole thing descending into the anarchy and character-assassination that has ruined a few other sites over the years.

Last night was a good example. Paul agrees with me that Ben Slater should now get a crack at the first team and on the basis of his statistics in the Derbyshire Premier League and in the Seconds, it is hard for anyone to disagree.

Slater is a batsman in form and let’s be brutally honest, we’re not awash with them at present. There is no logical reason, unless Billy Godleman scores big runs today, for him not to be in our next championship side. You have to select players when they are full of confidence and playing well, especially when those above them are not. I cannot buy into an argument that ‘he isn’t ready’, because until opportunity comes it is hard to make such a judgment. If, on the other hand, one was to suggest that it’s too big a leap from the level he’s playing at to the one he is required for, then you have to question the viability of a second team. I think the side is a vital conduit for young players en route to the senior game, as well as an opportunity for good players out of form to rediscover it with less media coverage.

Slater has done all he can do in the winter and early season to state a case for inclusion. As far as I’m concerned, there is no counter-argument for his exclusion from the next championship match against Surrey at the end of the month, other than an injury between times.

Thanks to Tim for his point regarding Chesney Hughes’s possible finger fracture. If that is the case, then I can understand him not bowling but being OK to bat with the obvious protection of that digit. He will be a key part of our one-day game with the ball though, so we must hope for a full recovery soon if that is the case.

Notoveryet always makes valid and lucid comment and he is also correct in his assertion that the team selection for this game was muddied. I’d suggest it was the least logical since Krikk took over. With Hughes unable to bowl and Durston injured, we piled all our eggs into a seam bowling basket and left Dan Redfern, who hardly turned his arm last summer, to be the spinner.

As Whiteley didn’t bowl either and is out of touch at present, there had to be greater logic, as Notoveryet suggests, in playing David Wainwright, a genuine front-line spinner and a batsman more likely at present to score runs than Whiteley. I have said before that Ross is important to this side for the balance he brings but it is only now, when form is elusive for the lad, that some are realising how true that is.

He’s not the first and won’t be the last player to lose form. It is cricket and it is the game, but there was more merit in his playing with ‘Stubbo’s Secondos’ in their excellent win at Worcester, then having a good hit in Edinburgh next weekend, than playing here.

My comparison of Mark Footitt to Devon Malcolm was based purely on their speed and the occasional ‘issues’ that brings. Mark has a long way to go to match Devon as a bowler but his inclusion is important because he takes wickets. Yes, they can come at cost, but we’ve not had too many bowlers yet looking like they may run through the opposition this season.

Notoveryet says that Devon was a luxury that could be afforded because the likes of Cork, Dean, De Freitas and Warner made things difficult at the other end. By the same token, one cannot exclude Footitt because you don’t have bowlers of that calibre. If we currently had Hendrick, Welch, Dean and Cork as seamers Mark wouldn’t get a game, but as things stand he is perhaps our best chance of getting the wickets we need to win a match. The possible cost of those wickets is something one needs to accept, I’m afraid.

Finally, Mark thinks the weather may save us and asks how many times I am going to suggest we ‘need big innings today’. Fair point and perhaps I’m stating the obvious, but as a ‘glass half full ‘ bloke I give people the benefit. If I didn’t and adopted my best Private Fraser from Dad’s Army voice and cried “We’re doooooomed” every match, you’d soon be reaching for the anti-depressants.

Sooner or later this side will come good. I hope it is the former, because then 2014 will be spent in the top tier. If it is the latter, then this year’s experience will at least have shown the players how much they still have to learn.