DERBYSHIRE took a big step towards securing their future prosperity on the field by signing four of their brightest young stars to long-term contracts this week.

In offering the security of deals which will tie Paul Borrington, Jon Clare, Jake Needham and Dan Redfern to the county until at least the end of the 2012 season, Derbyshire have effectively declared that here are four cricketers who are going to form the nucleus of their team for many years to come.

There are never any guarantees in sport that potential will be fulfilled but such commitment to players at this stage in their careers is unusual in cricket.

It is an admirable move. So too, from the other perspective, is the speed with which the four accepted what was on offer to them.

Head of cricket John Morris was the man who initiated this step and what makes that particularly poignant is that he is more aware that most of how Derbyshire have not always taken such good care of their homegrown talent.

Morris left the county in 1993 and went on to give eight more seasons of good service to Durham and Notts, during which he was part of a hypothetical ex-Derbyshire XI dotted around the first-class counties who would surely have had the beating of the actual Derbyshire side of the time.

Ian Blackwell was another member of the ones-that-got-away era of the county's history, when dressing room politics held sway over team objectives. You can also add the names of Devon Malcolm, Adrian Rollins and Andrew Harris into that mix.

Perhaps the most glaring example, however, was Chris Adams, the Whitwell-born right-handed batsman who blossomed with Derbyshire from 1988-97 but went on to give his best years to Sussex, leading them as captain to three county championships in 2003, 2006 and 2007 and averaging over 41 with the bat.

Adams (pictured) was back at the County Ground last week in his new role as cricket manager of Surrey.

The few occasions that Derbyshire have played Sussex in recent years meant visits have been rare.

"I've enjoyed coming back," he said. "I always do. I have some great memories from here.

"Sadly, this game won't provide good memories but Derbyshire deserved the result, absolutely 100%. They played the smarter cricket throughout the week.

"We showed glimpses that we are strong when we get it right. There was a lot of promise and hope from the final session but we were in day four and the challenge is to play like that from the start.

"Hopefully, it will soon be us in the position that Derbyshire found themselves in on day four."

Surrey may be cricket aristocracy but they have fallen on hard times. The money is still pouring in – they made a pre-tax profit of £583,000 in 2008 despite relegation – but results on the field betray too many years of complacency. They didn't win a single Championship match last season.

Adams is coming to grips with the size of the task ahead of him and cast a slightly envious glance to the home dressing room last week as he watched the growing impact of his old team-mate Morris.

"John had his tough year last year and he has come out of the back of it," he added. "I think he has learned a few things, by his own admission.

"The relationship between him and his coaching staff is crucial. Everybody knows what their role is and he seems to have settled on that now.

"I think Andy Brown has shown that he is one of the up-and-coming young coaches in the business. It seems, because I've known him a long time, that he's been around for ever but in terms of the world of coaching, he's just embarking on a career at the top.

"At the moment, Surrey are at a low ebb. We need to get into some good habits quickly and get some consistent performances together, otherwise it's going to be a tough year.

"We had a really good pre-season and restored some of that confidence. It's now a matter of transferring some of that confidence we show when we prepare and practice and let it out on the field.

"We showed glimpses in this game that we can do that. I thought the Newman-Brown partnership was exceptional but we didn't back it up.

"We are taking two steps forward and three steps back. For the time being, we are looking to take two steps forward and only one back before taking two forward and another two forward and start to really grow as a team."