Derbyshire place faith in Poynton

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Derbyshire have confirmed Tom Poynton will be given the opportunity to establish himself as the club’s first-choice wicketkeeper in 2012.

The unexpected retirement of Luke Sutton has left the club with a big gap to fill next summer, but head coach Karl Krikken, a former keeper himself, has confirmed there are no plans to sign a replacement.

Instead, the 22-year-old Poynton, who has featured in 17 first-team games to date, is to take over as Derbyshire’s preferred choice behind the stumps, having impressed since graduating from the club’s academy.

Krikken said: “Tom has been earmarked as a Derbyshire wicketkeeper of the future for several years and he is now ready to become our number one for the position.

“He has demonstrated smooth glovework since his time on the academy and – following a stint on the Darren Lehmann Academy last winter – his batting improved significantly during the 2011 season.

“Chris Durham, meanwhile, demonstrated his emerging talent as a wicketkeeper-batsman and – after some impressive cameo appearances – now is his time to step into the Second XI consistently.

“It is also worthy of mention that a member of our recent academy intake, Harvey Hosein, has been selected for the ECB’s England Development programme at Under-16 level, so we have plenty of wicketkeeping talent coming through the ranks.”

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