Mickey Arthur: Derbyshire head of cricket juggles Pakistan role with county side
- Published
Derbyshire making strides - Arthur
Derbyshire head of cricket Mickey Arthur says he accepted to work as a consultant with Pakistan after refusing to leave his "four-year project" with the County Championship side.
The South African, 54, turned down the chance to of a second spell as Pakistan coach in January.
Instead he will work with the national team as a consultant, while working full time at Derbyshire.
"Derbyshire has grown very close to me," Arthur said.
"It is a project we are nowhere near the competition of. It is a four-year project and I really want to make it a success."
The former Australia and Sri Lanka coach signed a contract extension, which runs until the end of the 2025 season, before Pakistan made their approach.
In his first campaign at the Incora County Ground, Arthur guided Derbyshire to a fifth-placed finish in Division Two of the County Championship last season.
They also achieved a club record nine wins in the group stage of the T20 Blast, before going out of the competition against Somerset in the quarter-finals.
Arthur said the addition of Pakistan batter Haider Ali and signing Matt Lamb from Warwickshire and pace bowler Zak Chappell from Nottinghamshire will make Derbyshire "a lot stronger".
"One of the reasons we got players of that ilk in is to bring that sort of hardnose, winning edge to the squad because we dominated a lot of games last season but couldn't get over the line," Arthur told BBC East Midlands Today.
Wayne Madsen, Derbyshire's longest-serving player and Division Two's top scorer last season, said "high goals" would be set this season.
"Realistically promotion is one of those," he said.
"We took strides last year in improving four-day cricket and now it's about turning draws into wins and promotion is then realistically possible."