Dream Team
Welcome to our new, expanded, illustrated presentation with statistical summaries of the selected players
Kevin Dean, the former Derbyshire bowler, picks his top XI
1. Michael Di Venuto
Michael could square cut it harder than anybody and I don’t think he dropped any in the slips while at Derbyshire – he was a fantastic fielder. Michael is also a great bloke off the pitch and I am glad to see how well he is doing as a coach at Surrey. He was one of our best players at the time, and a great pro.
2. Kim Barnett
A lot of my team is based on who was at Derbyshire when I arrived in 1996 because there was not a better place for a young player to be. Kim is back at the club, which is great, and I have selected him because he was a great player and had such impressive longevity.
3. Chris Adams
Chris was my roommate when I arrived and we were good friends. I got to know him very well. When we played Australia in 1997, he is the only person I have ever known be given out lbw having hit it for four. He clipped a Shane Warne flipper for four and Warne started claiming and the umpire gave it!
4. Dean Jones
He was my first captain at Derbyshire in 1996 and he had very forward-thinking ideas on how to play the game, especially in one-day cricket. He was captain when we finished second in the league. As you expect, he was very brash and in your face – he got stuck into everybody but I quite liked it. He gave me an opportunity, and was a great leader.
5. Matthew Cassar
Matt played at Derbyshire for a few years before joining Northamptonshire. I still play with Matt at Ockbrook & Borrowash. He had a cycling accident in March where he broke his collarbone – but he still played Premier League cricket in Derbyshire last season. He is a top bloke and a talented player.
6. Wes Durston
It is not often we got spinners at Derbyshire but Wes was among the best. He also plays at Ockbrook & Borrowash.Wes is one of the last gentlemen of the game and plays it in the old fashioned way – he spins the ball well, has great control and obviously scores a lot of runs.
7. Karl Krikken
He was one of the best keepers of the time, along with Jack Russell. They had great hands in days when batting mattered less. Karl was a key part of our side for so long. I think keepers work a little too much on their batting. I think the true mark of a keeper is when they have to stand up behind the stumps and Karl took four stumpings off me!
8. Dominic Cork
We are going for a seam attack and Dominic is one of the best. I ran into the wind for him for years and to open the bowling with him was fantastic – a talented player and very charismatic man.
9. Graeme Welch
Graeme was a very handy batsman and a superb bowler – he would always skip the bleep test but bowl all day for you. One of his best quotes was: “You can’t pull muscles you have not got.” Graeme was always a threat whenever he played.
10. Phil DeFreitas
If Dominic taught me how to bowl then Phil taught me how to bowl swing. He was a very good thinker and knew when to bowl which deliveries and where to set his fields. He was a massive influence on me, especially in helping me work out batsman. He got an England recall while at Derbyshire which was great for the club. He claims he was a lot quicker when he was older.
11. Devon Malcolm
Simon Jones gets an honourable mention and I was keen to put him in, but if I did not pick Devon then I would be doing him a disservice. I wish I could have bowled as fast as him, he could bowl at the speed of light. I used to stand at mid-off and shine it for him, which was great. I never fielded it, but got to see it all up close.