Boyd Rankin Signs

The news hot off the press this morning is that Boyd Rankin has joined Warwickshire from Derbyshire.

He is probably one for the future rather than someone who is going to come in and do well from the off, but it is certainly more raw material for Donald to work with. Injury and form restricted him to just three championship apperances for Derbyshire last season, which in a county which did not have a wealth of fast bowling talent is not a promising sign. However he showed in the World Cup what he is capable of and he certianly seems to have a lot of potential. It will be another test for Donald to see whether he came mould Rankin into a top class bowler.

It will take a long time to get the grass roots of Warwickshire bowling up to scratch, by this I mean the age-group scouting and coaching, but it is certainly the right move in my opinion in the short to medium-term to recruit young promising bowlers and work with them, rather than go for much older short-term fixes.

This is the first signing of the Giles/Donald era and although not the big overseas signing many would have been hoping for, it shows the club is aiming in the right direction.

Meanwhile Nayan Doshi has sort of moved the other way, signing for Derbyshire (although in the Warwickshire squad for the championship game against Sussex he never played). It was largely expected that he wouldn't represent Warwickshire in 2008 after they signed Botha from Derbyshire.