MacLeod heads to Derbyshire with reputation enhanced

Scotland's batsman Calum MacLeod, man of the moment after his unbeaten 140 played a major role in the vanquishing of England in Edinburgh, will join Derbyshire for this summer's Vitality T20 Blast.

Derbyshire, who have been negotiating with MacLeod for some time, will feel they have caught the mood after announcing that MacLeod will be available for the entire tournament, alongside his team-mate Safyaan Sharif.

And the Scotland links do not end there. Grant Bradburn, a Scotland coach who has now gone down in history, will join Derbyshire's coaching team for the Vitality Blast and provide support for Specialist Twenty20 Coach John Wright and Bowling Coach Dominic Cork.

Bradburn is a former New Zealand international and has been the Head Coach at Scotland since April 2014.

Derbyshire's Cricket Advisor, Kim Barnett said: "We're delighted to be working with Cricket Scotland and to have Calum, Safyaan and Grant on board for our Vitality Blast campaign.

"Calum is a powerful striker and only yesterday showed what he can do on the big stage. He offers further depth to our squad, alongside Safyaan, for what is a busy month of cricket.

"I would like to extend my thanks to Grant and Cricket Scotland for supporting this new partnership, and we hope it can help all parties."

Talk of "partnerships" suggests that links with Scotland have switched from Durham, stricken by financial hardship, to Derbyshire, with Bradburn adding: "It's an exciting partnership between Cricket Scotland and Derbyshire. Calum and Safyaan are both highly-talented cricketers and will add depth and international experience to the Derbyshire squad."

MacLeod, who has played 85 times for Scotland scoring over 2,000 runs and a top-score of 175, has scored 1,853 ODI runs at an average of 35.

He has had previous experience in county cricket with Warwickshire and Durham, and has featured in 74 Twenty20s, scoring 1,867 runs at an average of 29.17 and a strike rate of 126.