Derbyshire CCC chief outlines approach for 2015 campaign

Speaking soon after the launch of the club’s 2015 Membership campaign, Derbyshire’s elite performance director is promising to reward those that join with a team to be proud of.

He said: “The Derbyshire brand of cricket in 2015 will be disciplined, organised, attritional and skilful.

“We’ve got a nucleus of home-grown local talent we can develop over the next two or three years which the Derbyshire public can identify with. Last year we changed the culture, changed the environment and changed the training methods.

“Players came and went and a lot of people took more-and-more responsibility as the year went on.

“They showed that they trusted the strategy and trusted the methods. It all came together in the end and it has laid the foundations for the future.”

After a second half of 2014 that brought six wins from seven LV= County Championship matches - and qualification for the quarter-finals of the Royal London One-Day Cup - Welch is targeting a year-on-year improvement from his ambitious young side.

He added: “We don’t want to pinpoint tournaments, but we’ll play a brand of cricket that’s sustainable for the next two or three years while these lads are learning. How we improve from year-to-year is what we’re looking at as a management team.”