For part three in an interview series with new Director of Cricket, Kim Barnett, he discusses his on-field plans and player recruitment.
Barnett will implement the Club’s new coaching model which will give greater responsibility to the players to go out and perform.
Captain Billy Godleman will lead the side in both the Specsavers County Championship and Royal London One-Day Cup, while a Twenty20 Captain will be appointed for the NatWest T20 Blast.
Speaking exclusively to derbyshireccc.com, Barnett said: “It is a big responsibility for Billy and he is the man for it. I would not take this on without knowing that Billy is a very strong character.
“He is a good leader, he leads from the front, he opens the batting and he has the respect of the players. He is the perfect man for this situation. I feel that we are lucky to have him.
“As far as I am concerned, the Captain will pick the team. He has already done that towards the end of the season and was the instigator of all the big decisions such as moving Alex Hughes up the order.
“We were lucky in a way that all of Billy’s decisions went our way, it was he who brought Tom Milnes back into the fold who also did well.
“That shows his vision that he wanted to give the right people an opportunity which will only help those guys next season.”
Barnett has outlined the Club’s plans to strengthen the squad with a blend of talented and experienced senior players which will provide quality on the field, but also support to the younger players as they continued their developments.
He added: “We have obviously been working hard and I think the Chief Executive should take a lot of credit in all this because we have been moving quickly towards targeting signings.
“He has to do the hard yards in terms of getting the signings over the lines after I have determined a few targets. I think we are close to getting some of the players and skills that we need to add to this squad.
“Those skills have been selected specifically to enhance what we have and not to have a detrimental effect on the development of our younger players.
“Everyone will say that we have been short of at least a bowler in four-day cricket so that is what we have been looking for. Everything has a strategy, we have targeted people and we hope to get them over the line – in addition to the signings of Reece and Wilson which we have already secured.
“We need to get some skills into the squad in the form of experienced players. Wilson has already come in to compliment Harvey Hosein and we now have two very fine wicketkeepers.
“One of the reasons we wanted Gary in is that we know he has commitments with Ireland so Harvey is still a very real long-term prospect at this Club. He is a fantastic young cricketer and we will make sure he gets enough cricket to continue his development.
“We are also looking at specific skills to bring from overseas to enhance what we have got.
“Once we have that on board, we will make sure everybody is fit and ready through the winter. The pre-season will be a gradual build up to the season. We also need to make sure that our batsmen will be able to cope with the type of pitches that we will be asking our groundstaff to prepare in order to win four-day matches. There is a lot to do during the winter in general.
“But I am expecting an improvement in results next season. I don’t think that success is that far away because the players are good enough and we’re confident that they’ll show it next year.”
