Divisions that forced Derbyshire to the brink

They are bottom of the Second Division and are struggling to overcome financial problems and dressing-room unrest – the Scorpions typify county cricket

For those who boast the names of both Derbyshire and England on their curriculum vitae, it has been a fruitful summer. Devon Malcolm is the country's leading wicket-taker, John Morris and Kim Barnett have been averaging more than 50 with the bat while Chris Adams has been playing one and four-day innings of savage brutality. These kind of statistics would be welcome in a club that has the smallest membership (around 1,500) and, traditionally, the slenderest resources of any of the first-class counties were it not for the fact that they long ago left Derby.

Few clubs in the Championship could have afforded the loss of cricketers who between them have scored more than 100 centuries and taken 1,000 wickets. But Derbyshire had so little in reserve that it is not a surprise they have performed so badly – they are bottom of the Second Division in the Championship – but that they should until recently have done relatively well.

They reached the NatWest final in 1998 and won promotion to the First Division the following year, an elevation that was simply unsustainable, especially when it was crowned by the departure of further players, including Phil DeFreitas and two highly promising young cricketers, the batsman Robin Weston and the pace bowler Andrew Harris. It seemed in some ways appropriate that the club should have named their Sunday League side, the Scorpions, after an animal famed for committing suicide.

For a man hemmed in by some quite appalling statistics, the club's chief executive, John Smedley, seems remarkably upbeat, perhaps because of his youth. He was 27 when he took over three years ago and is younger than a significant number of his players.

"It is too early to say whether we will be cast adrift by a two-division championship," he said. "But we can still compete because Derbyshire have never been in this strong a financial position.

"We were one of the very few non- Test match grounds to make a profit last season and compared to some, like Northants, who made whopping losses, we are doing well. Some of our neighbours are making losses of hundreds of thousands of pounds. Look across at Trent Bridge and see the money Notts have spent to not very great effect."

Now, he laughs, he feels more like a property developer than a cricket executive. The County Ground at Derby is one of the game's unloveliest venues. The pavilion looks as if it should be on a 1960s housing estate, one stand seems to have been removed from beside the football pitch at Ilkeston Town and, overshadowing everything, is the rotting remnants of the old Grandstand which hosted horse racing until the track was closed through lack of support in 1939.

Not only are Derbyshire bottom of the Championship, their ground was placed last in a recent newspaper survey of amenities at domestic cricket venues. Though it may be lacking in charm, the County Ground is not short of space and bits of it have been sold off piecemeal to keep finances afloat.

A health club has already risen up, a hotel, which Derby badly needs, is also planned and this, together with the redevelopment of the Grandstand, which has been stripped of its distinctive dome, will raise most of the £1m the club needs to fund an indoor school.

"The Grandstand was a thorn in our side," Smedley said. "It was owned by Wolverhampton and Dudley Breweries, who also owned some 25 per cent of the playing surface. We were told to pick up the bill for the place, which came to some £400,000 or find a Sainsbury's or an Asda jutting out on to our pitch."

The indoor school might help nurture the stream of young cricketers the club appears to lack badly. Three of the top four in Derbyshire's bowling averages are Rob Bailey, Tim Munton and Richard Illingworth, the youngest of whom is 37. The fourth is Kevin Dean, who is under 30 both in terms of age and average number of runs per wicket.

Typically, because struggling teams receive no concessions, Dean has spent most of the summer injured. Dominic Cork, his captain and nominal new-ball partner, has played three Championship matches because of central contracts and a dodgy hamstring. Half a dozen of the squad is more than 30 and most have been brought in from elsewhere.

"Two or three years ago, the world blew up. It seemed 99 per cent of our players wanted to leave and we were suddenly working from a blank sheet of paper," Smedley said. "We have not been able to afford to bring in top-quality replacements, so we have had to go for those who are rather past their best. But despite the 'Dad's Army' quips, Rob Bailey, Tim Munton and Richard Illingworth have all performed."

Illingworth and the rest have been drafted in because so many who would have provided the backbone of potentially one of the finest sides in the club's history chose to leave, mostly citing poison in the dressing-room.

In 1996, under the captaincy of Dean Jones and his Australian coach, Les Stilman, Derbyshire finished second in the Championship, their highest placing since winning the title 60 years before. However, Jones is an abrasive character and on 8 June 1997, the dressing-room mutinied with Barnett, his predecessor as captain, carrying out the role of Fletcher Christian. Jones resigned and Stilman was frozen out. He was moved to coach the second team and then took himself off to Venice.

Last month, Stilman paid a visit to Derby, ironically watching John Morris, the first to leave back in 1993, putting Cork's bowling to the sword in a century of sumptuous majesty. Morris scored 306 in the match. Few Derbyshire exiles seem to need firing up to face their former county. Earlier in the summer, Adams, now captain of Sussex, hammered 192 against them.

Those who supported Jones followed. Adams was so upset that, despite being one of the finest slip fielders in the country, he was reduced to patrolling the third-man boundary. Malcolm claimed he received no support for his benefit season, alleging that DeFreitas tried deliberately to sabotage a match in the Channel Islands. More recently, Weston was believed to be unhappy at the slipshod way practice facilities were organised.

All who left enjoyed higher incomes. Adams went to Sussex for a salary widely reported to be £80,000 a year while Middlesex could offer Weston more than the "washers" friends say he was paid at Derby.

"Money is 75-80 per cent of it," Smedley said. "Money talks and and they've needed a reason to get away, so they've sometimes cited dressing-room unrest. You know the tapping up that goes on in this game. When players get together on England duty, they talk about money and how much each gets paid and in the past we haven't been able to compete."

Some might disagree. "The reason most of us left was Kim Barnett," said one former player. "Derby ought to look at where they are now, rather than in the past."

Cork, who is close to Barnett, might be the next to leave and some among the tiny but rebellious membership might not be sorry to see him go. He has been offered an extension to his term as club captain but, according to Smedley, "he didn't say yes and he didn't say no".

He threatened to go after the 1998 NatWest final, claiming he was not in full control of the side and that unless the playing staff was slashed to pay for quality imports, Derbyshire would keep struggling. "I see no prospect of a reasonable relationship with the players and in the long run that can only mean one thing, Minor Counties cricket," Cork said at the time.

There are at least five counties, including Surrey, Lancashire and Nottinghamshire, who would offer him terms. As a contracted England cricketer, he is paid around £50,000 by the England and Wales Cricket Board, but that status is likely to change and almost everyone has more money than Derbyshire.