Players on the move....

There will be a lot of players moving counties over the coming weeks and it might be a good idea to have one thread to round up all those moves not involving Sussex.

First off, the  Daily Telegraph today (print edition only) confirms that Joe Denly is leaving Middx with one year still left on his contract in order to rejoin Kent.

This story first surfaced during  the Kent v Worcs  game at Tunbridge Wells  back in May (a game which several members of Denly's family attended - we were sitting next to them - so one probably didn't have to look far for its  source), although it was subsequently denied by Kent in August here: www.express.co.uk/sport/cricket/501435/Kent-will-NOT-replace-Doug-Bollinger-for-big-quarter-final.

Denly had a very poor season at Middx in 2014 with an avge of 23 and when Chris Rogers complained at the end of the season about the "soft underbelly" of Middx's batting, it was pretty obvious he was talking  about Denly above all others and wanted him gone. He's the second contracted Middx player to be encouraged to leave, as Rossington, who has joined Northants, was also  contracted until the end of the 2015 season.

But despite Denly's struggles I think it is a good signing for Kent. Although he found Div One attacks too much for him, he should make merry against the military medium dibbly-dobbers who dominate in the lower tier.

It will be a homecoming for him, too, because his family are all still in Kent (Joe's brother Sam is manager of Herne Bay FC, which is hhsussex's original home town, I seem to recall!) and it will take Kent another step closer to their stated aim of creating an all Kent XI, like the Yorkshire of old. Good luck to them - certainly can't do any worse with a homegrown XI  than the international all-stars who have delivered Kent almost zero sucess over the last three and a half decades!

www.kentonline.co.uk/kent/sport/denly-set-for-kent-return-25186/

His departure from Middx a year early is interesting as it highlights the view that Middx and Durham may possibly be the only two counties in the country with stronger depth in bowling than in batting. Finn/Murtagh/Roland-Jones/Harris are as strong a quartet of pace bowlers as anywhere in the country but after the opening pair of Rogers and Robson, the batting is as brittle as a dragonfly's wings (as Sussex proved when taking nine Middx wks before lunch on day four back in the first week of April).

Elsewhere Ned Eckersely has, perhaps surprisingly, signed a new contract at Leics, but only for another year. Seems to have become the routine at the feeder clubs that make up Div Two that the most talented players (eg Bopara) now place their counties on probation by only signing one year extensions, with the clear sub-text 'I intend to be in Div One 12 months from now, with or without you'.

Yes, Harris has not lived up to billing. I think we were all a bit shocked by how utterly inocuous he looked in that match back in April, when Finn (fresh from being sent home from the Ashes tour and perhaps liberated by being away from the bullying of Flower and the clique?) bowled like a man possessed and celebrated his dismissal of The Big Cheese like he had won the lottery.

Toby Roland-Jones, I must say, seems to be a splendid cricketer - like a Gus Fraser who can bat.

I always liked Neil Dexter and got to know him fairly well in his youth. He seemed too timid,  too modest and too unassuming to play pro-sport at the highest level; he was nicknamed 'The Mouse' in his time at Kent... I think Middx would be happy to see the back of him, too. But there is no chance of him following his former flat-mate Denly back to Kent while Graham Johnson remains chairman of cricket there. They are not good friends, to say the least, and haven't spoken in five years (although I think Johnson primarily blames Dave Fulton rather than Dexter for the toxic situation that resulted in the player being sent home from Aigburth in what was his final ever selection for a Kent team) .

Leics reported to have offered Mark Cosgrove the captaincy for next season - which is odd given that they have already announced the excellent Clint McKay as their o/s player. So if Cosgrove accepts, McKay's contract will presumably be cancelled?

Cosgrove is a fantastic player, as every Sussex supporter  who saw him smash an imperious 140-odd at Hove in August 2010 at almost a run a ball knows. But even when he's on the other side of the globe, the curse of Leics seems to have struck- since the wooden-spoonists approached him, Cosgrove has in the last three weeks turned in scores of 0,7, 1,1 and 0, giving him an average for South Australia this season of 1.80!

Cosgrove has a UK passport, which means that his availability carries even more weight than his legs.

I think the Cosgrove story has gained impetus as Mark Pettini has now signed a new one year contract at Essex. Pettini has regularly been linked to Leicester as a possible new captain in recent months.