NICK HOWSON: The Derbyshire head coach gears up for the quarter-finals within his captain and premier batter Shan Masood absent but in the knowledge many of their rivals hit by England call-ups
The England and Wales Cricket Board are showing "disrespect" towards the T20 Blast with swathes of England players unavailable for the latter stages of the competition, according to Derbyshire head coach Mickey Arthur.
T20 international and ODI series against India means counties are denied access to their England stars for the knockout stages of premier summer county competition.
Seven missed Yorkshire's dramatic victory over Surrey at the Kia Oval and more are expected to sit out the remaining quarter-finals.
Ollie Pope, not in England's white-ball plans but coming off the back of the fifth India Test, and David Willey were released to play.
But Dawid Malan, Harry Brook, Jonny Bairstow, Sam Curran, Chris Jordan, Jason Roy and Reece Topley were missing while Joe Root was rested.
Jos Buttler, Liam Livingstone, Phil Salt, Matt Parkinson and Richard Gleeson are expected to be missing for Lancashire against Essex Eagles on Friday (July 8).
Though Arthur's Derbyshire or last eight opponents Somerset are not impacted by England call-ups, the former Australia and Pakistan coach feels the clash is a slap in the face of the counties.
"One hundred per cent (Blast knockout matches should be ring-fenced," he said. "Surrey-Yorkshire and no international cricketers because there is an England series on at the same time - for me that is unacceptable.
Phil Salt and Liam Livingstone will be absent for Lancashire (Stu Forster/Getty Images)
"It is a showpiece for our players and domestic cricketers of the summer. Take The Hundred out of it. This is the showpiece for the counties and to be given so much disrespect for me is not great and I am quite strong on that."
The trip to Taunton this weekend comes ahead of the LV= Insurance County Championship match against Durham at Chester-le-Street starting on Monday (July 11). Indeed, should a reserve day be required Falcons would be faced with a daunting 327-mile trip to the north east just hours before play is scheduled to begin.
Arthur admits the schedule is "taxing" on players and while being a fan of competition blocks he has called for a rethink to the August schedule, which sees countiues play just eight One-Day Cup group matches as The Hundred takes priority.
"It challenges the players without a doubt," he said. "I've often sat with the coaching staff and when we've been talking and planning, particularly with the strength and conditioning guys a lot, is 'how are you feeling?' And he says 'I'm slightly tired'. Imagine then how the players are feeling?
"It has been a very taxing programme. I don't know what happens if we get rain in Taunton on Saturday because we start a four-day game on Durham on Monday morning. That highlights the difficult schedule that we have.
"It has been taxing, make no mistake about it, but we've had to get on with it. One thing we have been very strong within our dressing room is we can never use that as an excuse. We have to be ready for the next game and prepare well enough to make it our next best game.
"What has been good has been playing in blocks. We've had a couple of four-day games intermingled which has made it more difficult for us as coaches and players to switch formats as quickly as we have.
"I think the block format works and I would certainly try and keep that going for as long as possible.
Shan Masood has starred for Derbyshire but will miss the sharp end of the Blast (Tony Marshall/Getty Images)
"The one thing we do is in August we play eight times - hopefully, it is (10 or) 11 for us because that means we've got to a One-Day Cup final. You're playing so much cricket and in August we sit and as a county, we play eight days.
"I understand that is because The Hundred is on - I get all that. But it seems like we have to contest and whole Vitality Blast, a whole Championship into effectively five months which is tough."
Derbyshire's attempts to book just a second Finals Day appearance has suffered a blow after Shan Masood's call-up for Pakistan's Test tour of Sri Lanka.
Masood captained the team, opened the batting and is the second-highest run-scorer in the Blast, with 547 runs at 45.58.
Harry Came, Wayne Madsen and Hayden Kerr are among the candidates to open alongside Luis Reece, but Arthur is confident that whoever steps into the breach will be ready.
"We'll cope," he added. "Shan has been a colossus for us and outstanding with his weight of runs and his presence in the dressing room has been exceptional.
"We have carried a squad with us where everyone knows where and how they fit in. We lose Shan and the next man comes in because he has been primed for that position.
Wayne Madsen is fresh off the back of a maiden T20 century (Ross Kinnaird/Getty Images)
"This didn't happen right now and we weren't taken by surprise by it. We knew Shan was going to be gone around this period of time.
"We'd planned for this. It presents an opportunity for someone to come in and make a real mark for themselves."
Leicestershire Foxes missed out on the knock-out stage after being hit with a points deduction following two fixed penalties for incidents during the one-run victory over Northamptonshire Steelbacks.
The remaining knockout matches promise to be equally as tight and tense - Yorkshire beat Surrey by a single run thanks to Jordan Thompson's final over heroics - and Madsen is confident his teammates won't step over the line when the pressure ratchets up.
"We want to play tough hard cricket and you are flirting with that line at times and it can be challenging," the 38-year-old, who has played 139 T20s, said.
"As a group, we owe to ourselves to make sure that we try and keep our discipline in the heat of the moment.
"Yes, it can be challenging at times when you're out there as we've seen with the Leicestershire guys, it is a tough lesson they have had to learn from what has happened."
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