Derbyshire: Buoyant Cork expects results (24 Mar 1998)

24 March 1998

Buoyant Cork expects results

By Neil Hallam

WITH last summer's in-fighting and underachievement followed by the departure of Devon Malcolm and Chris Adams, Derbyshire's ambitions for 1998 might be expected to be modest.

Peace off the field and some progress towards greater reliability in the middle, perhaps.

Not a bit of it. Dominic Cork, the new captain, is adamant that he expects Derbyshire to be "extremely competitive" in four-day and one-day formats.

"No way would I have accepted the captaincy if I thought we'd be happy to make up the numbers this season," he insists. "We are committed to winning something and despite what happened last season, I see no reason why we shouldn't have a good shot at it.

"Last season was a disaster and performances were inevitably affected by events off the field. We had no overseas player from early June, when Dean Jones flounced out and sparked off all the problems between the dressing room and the committee. Devon Malcolm was away with England a fair bit and I was injured for most of the season.

"The test now is to prove that finishing third from bottom in the championship last season was a freak situation and that the second place we achieved the previous summer was a fairer reflection of the squad's abilities."

Derbyshire are now, however, without two players who did much to achieve that second place. Adams, who scored 1,590 championship runs in 1996, was released last September to join Sussex as captain after three years of pleading to leave.

And Malcolm, who took 73 championship wickets in 1996 and was the county's leading wicket-taker with 60 last season, has gone to Northamptonshire with a testimonial cheque for around £250,000 in his pocket.

"I have no qualms about them leaving," Cork says. "If people don't want to be part of a team you are better off without them and I expect morale to be all the better without anybody nursing grievances around the place.

"Adams managed 1,000 runs only three times in 10 years here and finished ninth in our batting averages last season with only 611, a total Tim Tweats should pass comfortably after his terrific progress in the latter part of last summer."

Cork insists he is "fully fit and very motivated" after two years blighted by injuries and domestic problems and he believes that with Phil DeFreitas, Andrew Harris, Kevin Dean and Trevor Smith in support, the seam department is well equipped to compensate for Malcolm's departure.

With their original choice of overseas player, Pakistani Saeed Anwar, unable to guarantee his availability, Derbyshire have recruited Australian Test opener Michael Slater to bolster a batting order heavily reliant on Kim Barnett and the improving Adrian Rollins.

"I rate Slater highly," Cork says. "He's a very positive player who'll keep everybody on their toes with his running between the wickets and we're hoping other counties make the same mistake we made against him when Australia toured England in 1993 and there was a whisper that he didn't fancy the short stuff.

"Messrs Malcolm, Cork and Simon Base tested the theory to destruction and Michael lapped it up with 133 off 149 balls."

Those who question Cork's temperament may be predicting more explosions from the County Ground this summer and he accepts that captaincy presents a test of character as much as ability.

But a lack of self-belief has never been among Cork's problems and with a new chairman (Vic Brownett), director of cricket (Andy Hayhurst), secretary and general manager (John Smedley) and commercial manager (Keith Stevenson), Derbyshire are facing a new season with renewed confidence.

Source :: Electronic Telegraph (https://www.telegraph.co.uk)