WHEN Rikki Clarke arrived as Derbyshire's new captain in October last year, it was meant to herald the beginning of a new era.

He was the right age and had the ability, the ambition and the motivation to make his decision to move to the County Ground a defining moment in his career and for the club.

Less than a year later, Clarke has played his last match for Derbyshire.

He requested and has been granted release from his contract, which had another year to run.

To say it has all gone horribly wrong for Clarke and Derbyshire is to state the obvious but the fact that it has come to this is sad nevertheless.

You would also have to say it is not entirely out of the blue.

Since being left out of the side at Northampton in mid-July, ostensibly at his own request, he has increasingly given the impression of being a man in search of the exit.

Clarke declined all invitations to talk about his future when he resigned the captaincy three weeks ago, which is his prerogative, of course, though his reluctance to make the right noises publicly raised suspicions that he did not consider he had a future with Derbyshire.

There was also the need for caution while there was still the possibility that he had decided to let his cricket do the talking. If that was the case, I'm afraid the message was loud and clear.

This has been a wretched season for the former England all-rounder.

Though the players responded well to his captaincy for much of this season, his personal form with bat and ball has been poor, with only one half-century in the Championship to contribute to a lame average of 19.81 and one more half-century in limited-overs competitions.

His contributions as a bowler have been negligible – 11 Championship wickets at 47.45 and five in limited-overs matches at 28.80 – though he has had a broken thumb and an ankle injury in that time.

Clarke has proved to be a terrific fielder but his success there has been nothing like enough to make up for his deficiencies in other areas.

The negative effect that captaincy has had on his personal form was cited as the main reason Clarke resigned from the job but his fortunes have not been transformed by releasing himself from the burden of leadership.

A score of 29 against Yorkshire in the Pro40 League and two wickets against Leicestershire in the same competition have not been sufficient to appease the critics but that has been as good as it gets since Clarke quit.

A second-ball duck on a flat batting track and match figures of 0-98 in 23 overs against Warwickshire last week suggested a man who had hit rock bottom.

By then, so too had his relationship with head of cricket John Morris.

On form alone, it was no surprise to see that Clarke had been left out of the side to play against Glamorgan but, before then, it was hard not to wonder if we were seeing him in a Derbyshire shirt for the last time as the players left the field at Edgbaston last Saturday.

There will be those among Derbyshire followers who will be glad to see Clarke go but this is a short-sighted view.

It is cruel to suggest his diminishing returns were because he did not care, because that would suggest the player has no pride.

I believe his poor performances have hurt Clarke deeply.

It would also have been much better for Derbyshire if the move had worked out because they signed him to be a major player for years to come and we should remember the genuine excitement his arrival from Surrey in the winter caused around the county.

England all-rounders do not become available very often and come to Derby even less frequently.

But the situation was at the stage where all concerned had to concede that there is no alternative but for Clarke and Derbyshire to part company.

If Clarke feels that it is not going to happen for him at the County Ground, for whatever reason, it would do Derbyshire no good to seek to keep him.

Nor does it make sense to have him soaking up a large portion of their wage budget when he is producing returns which can be described as average at best.

From his point of view, Clarke's career has arrived at a critical state.

Lining up for a third county in as many years means he will have to prove himself from scratch again and quickly put the memory of a couple of lean years behind him.

That will be a considerable test of character but the alternative is that he quickly becomes consigned to the bin of great unfulfilled talents.

It is already a pity that he will not live up to his potential with Derbyshire, no-one would benefit from a further deterioration.