Derbyshire have issued a 28-day approach for Worcestershire’s opening batsman Stephen Moore.
The 27-year-old has been enjoying a prolific season for Worcestershire. He has made three first-class centuries in five games and averages more than 70. His career average in first-class cricket (41.6) also puts him near the top of the list of the best players not to have represented England.
He has struggled to break into Worcestershire’s limited-overs side, however, and could be lured to Derby by the prospect of greater opportunities in that format of the game.
“We have identified about half-a-dozen players we feel could take us forward and Stephen is one of those,” Derbyshire’s chief executive, Tom Sears told The Birmingham Post.
“We can see him strengthening our top order and he’s young enough to be part of our team for some time. I know him well from my time at Worcestershire [as commercial director] and know that he’s the sort of character we would want.”
Moore is one of eight out of contract players at New Road this September. The others are Graeme Hick, Ben Smith, Chris Whelan, Matt Mason, Richard Jones, Alexei Kervezee and Mehraj Ahmed. The club hope to hold talks with them all by the end of July.
While officials at Worcestershire were eager not to talk about Moore, they did say confirm that they had received an approach for one player.
The club have not made any approaches of their own, however. “We strongly believe that we have a good squad and that we have several exciting young players coming through,” the club’s chief executive, Mark Newton, said.
“We have talked about some players, but we will only make approaches if we really want to sign them. We will not be making approaches for the sake of it or just to test the market.”
