Derbyshire go 'Pop' but promise remains

The season hasn't gone quite the way that Derbyshire fans might have hoped, but recent weeks have suggested that the coaching of Graeme 'Pop' Welch and his team is at last bearing fruit.

The club's Academy has been going on for some years, with Karl Krikken and Howard Dytham in turn doing sterling work in identifying and nurturing players of potential. The argument was that none of the earlier ones established themselves in the county game. Atif Sheikh, Dan Redfern, Ross Whiteley and Paul Borrington were the best known, but the first three moved elsewhere for still limited success, while the latter suffered from premature promotion to a struggling side and was released at the end of last season.

Yet the signs are that the current crop could be the real deal. Welch is known as an outstanding coach of seam bowlers and proved that first at Essex and then at Warwickshire, where his coaching of Chris Wright, Keith Barker and Boyd Rankin made them into a championship-winning seam attack.

Soon after arrival at Derbyshire, Welch said that the crop of young seamers that he had inherited were the best he had seen. Bold words that might have been written off as bombast, were he not known as a man never given to such. It made people sit up.

In the middle of last season, Welch surprised supporters by agreeing to release Tim Groenewald, an established favourite. Discussions over a new contract broke down and the coach reckoned that the time had come to give opportunity to his young charges, held back in their progress by his presence, alongside that of Mark Footitt and Tony Palladino.

The barbed comments were flying, but the more discerning were prepared to give it time and bow to his judgement, something that has been well-rewarded this summer. One by one, the youngsters known locally as 'Pop's pups' have emerged from the shadows and made impressive strides in senior cricket.

At 21, Ben Cotton is the oldest and at 6'5" the biggest. A side injury limited his T20 competition, but he showed impressive skills in the matches he played. Bowling in the power plays, he still went for under seven an over and showed composure and control when batsmen were trying to get after him. His ability to fire in a yorker, seemingly at will, must have pleased his coach and the genial Cotton will only get better and, quite likely, quicker.

Tom Taylor, like Cotton, emerged from Staffordshire cricket and is a typical, back of a length Derbyshire seamer, something in the style of Mike Hendrick. At 20 he already has over forty championship wickets, twice taking five in an innings. He has had a knee problem, but has shown an encouraging ability to dismiss good batsmen. While a slow trudge back to his bowling mark has caused a few alarms with over rates, he is one to watch.

Also 20, Greg Cork is destined to be known as 'Dominic's lad' for some time, but has shown the competitive edge of his father in his appearances. A left-arm seamer, he added several yards in pace over last winter and offers useful variation. Some good judges feel his stronger suit could yet be his dynamic batting, which has won several second team games with a range of powerful shots, but Cork minor can bowl, all right.

The youngest, Will Davis, may well turn out the quickest of the lot. At 19 he produced a fiery three-wicket burst against the Australians, should have had Michael Clarke in both innings but for a dropped catch and left David Warner warily counting the family jewels, after being rapped painfully amidships. Davis, like the others, has admitted to learning a lot from his coach, who is slowly turning the county around from the 'Kolpak central' it had once become.

Nor are seamers the sole output. At 18, Harvey Hosein is a prodigious talent behind the stumps and has the ability to bat in the top six with experience. While Tom Poynton has been given the gloves in the one-day games, Hosein is seen as one of the best young keepers to emerge in some time and has the ability with bat and ball to go all the way.

There's also Matt Critchley, another 18-year old, who scored a stunning maiden century against Northamptonshire in the championship and took four wickets against them with his leg-spin last week. Time is on his side, as it still is for Tom Knight. At 21, the slow left-armer has had his action re-modelled and may yet emerge next summer, as a genuine all round talent who hits a ball as cleanly as anyone in the club.

While Ben Slater and Alex Hughes are a couple of years older, both are now producing the sort of displays that leave supporters optimistic for the future. The club are looking to recruit 'at least one' Kolpak over the winter, which will allow them to compete on a more even playing field. Yet in stressing that it has to be the right sort of player, offering quality and experience on the field and mentoring off it, they stress their continued commitment to talented youth and reluctance to return to the old days.

Mark Footitt may become the first Derbyshire international player since 2002 later this week, but one or more of those players could well be the next. Yesterday's cricket reports referred to our seamers winning us a Royal London One-Day Cup match with ease, yet strangely neglected to note that it was with an attack whose average age is 20.

Surely grounds for optimism?