Derbyshire captain Luke Sutton has hailed Azeem Rafiq’s loan spell with his side, admitting that he would love to see the Yorkshire off-spinner return to the County Ground later this summer.

Rafiq spent a month with the Peakites from the back end of April in order to get some first-team cricket under his belt.

He is now back with his parent county, with Martyn Moxon and Andrew Gale integrating him into their plans for the ongoing Friends Life t20 campaign.

But Sutton, the 34-year-old wicketkeeper in his second spell as the Derbyshire skipper, said: “I had a lot of time for him, and it would be great to have him back again.

“The conversation was that Yorkshire wanted him back for their Twenty20 campaign and that I would keep in contact with Martyn Moxon and see what the situation was towards the end of that period.”

Rafiq played three LV= County Championship matches, one first-class match and five Clydesdale Bank 40 fixtures for Sutton’s side, taking 11 wickets.

Sutton continued: “He did really well for us. I was really impressed with him. He’s a very good cricketer who’s only going to get better.

“He works extremely hard on his game and he’s very smart.

“He knows exactly what he needs to do to improve his game. I hadn’t spoken a word to him before he came here but I was genuinely very impressed.”

Rafiq’s best outing in a Derbyshire shirt was during a home match against Essex in the Championship when he took three wickets in each innings as they played out a draw.

Sutton said: “He bowled absolutely beautifully against Essex. In other games he bowled, he didn’t perhaps get the same amount of luck. His stats weren’t spectacular but he’s a young guy and a young bowler who’s learning his trade.

“His overall package was excellent.”

Rafiq had a difficult end to last season when he was suspended following an outburst at England under-19s manager John Abrahams on the social networking site Twitter, which he still uses frequently.

But he spent a successful couple of months playing grade cricket in Australia during the winter and continued his development with the Division Two county.

And Sutton, who saw no signs of previous personal problems, added: “He’s got a very, very good cricket brain and I actually think there’s a captain in there. He reads the game brilliantly and he’s very mature.”

In terms of Rafiq’s view of his experience with Sutton and company, the ex-England under-19s skipper said: “I absolutely loved my month there.

“It is a really good set-up and they made me feel really welcome. I think it was priceless in terms of my development as a cricketer as well because you can only improve by playing regularly.

“I worked hard all winter and have taken that form into the summer. I’m pretty confident in my development.”

Rafiq played ten Twenty20 matches for Yorkshire last season, taking seven wickets.

And he has recovered from a small fracture to the little finger on his left hand, suffered during his final appearance for Derby.