Ben Cotton

Ben Cotton, a burly seam bowler, signed a new one-year deal with Northamptonshire for 2019 after impressing during three Championship matches in 2018 which included a career-best 5-48 in an end-of-season win against Sussex.

Once seen as central to Derbyshire's future, Cotton was released ahead of the 2018 season as Kim Barnett, a former captain who had returned as cricket advisor, trimmed the playing staff in an effort to raise expectations of the county's younger players.

Cotton signed his first professional deal with Derbyshire in 2014, featuring in 20 first-class fixtures for the club and taking 37 wickets. He also appeared in 29 one-day matches and 18 T20 games.

He had never quite lived up to the promise of a debut season in which he collected some impressive scalps: Jos Buttler on his first-team debut in a T20 Blast fixture against Lancashire at Old Trafford, he claimed the wicket of Jos Buttler; Shikhar Dhawan and Virat Kohli in a tourist match against India at Derby. To complete a promising first season, he also featured in Derbyshire's first quarter-final in nine years in the Royal London One-Day Cup.
ESPNcricinfo staff