The passing of Sir Garfield Sobers prompted a memory of seeing him in a Sunday League game at Dean Park: 1971, BA Richards b GS Sobers 69. A decade that started the best of times for overseas players, maybe the best of decades for county cricket, when those at the very top of the game played all formats, all summer, and in an era of dominant West Indians, some of their players most, if not all of those seasons. In the first World Cup of 1975, 10 of their victorious side were current players at their counties. 9 of the 37 overseas players that summer were among the first to be inducted into the ICC Hall of Fame.
2026? In the early part of the season Michael Atherton wrote a piece in The Times ‘Golden age of overseas stars is long gone – are they still worth the hassle?, pointing to Hampshire’s three attempts at signing a second overseas player, the general problems in attracting players. To which might be added past criticism of county cricket’s openness to Australians not helping any with regaining the Ashes, Steve Smith’s high profile time at Sussex in 2023 one instance.
There were 327 players involved In the first eight rounds of the 
Championship this year, 65 of them not eligible for England. Of those born in Australia, Jake Weatherald opened in the Test side last winter, Nathan McSweeney, Beau Webster and fitness permitting Jhye Richardson are possibles for the 2027 Ashes. A help to Australia if the ifs? The question more the extent of it.
The counterweight, most of the Australians play Sheffield Shield cricket, where their batting averages tend to be noticeably lower, bowling averages higher; in line with the idea that the standard is higher than in the Championship, but also that they have more to their game, help give their counties a lift.
Spin Bowling? Simon Harmer, 25 wickets in the April-June months but England’s difficulties with this self-inflicted, scheduling, not the numbers from overseas. In the era when the West Indians were dominant comments of a generally similar nature to these were made then, and could also be made now about the South Africans. Maybe feelings in relation to Australia are just different.
passed since the golden summer of 2005 England’s cricketers have gone from being mainly the products of state schools to being mainly not. One look at the decline and it looks like the state-educated may be nearing the end of the line, talent without the right schooling in cricket not enough.
John Arlott wrote that the purpose of watching cricket is to take pleasure from it; everything else just detail. In the 2000s Hampshire cricket moved to the Rose Bowl, and with the like-minded Burgess Hill contingent from Dean Park times, days at the cricket often became days at Hove. Given memory of a cloudless day there in the 70s it was not a difficult decision.
of how much the ground has meant to folks: theatre director Michael Simpkins leading the Harry Baldwin Occassionals, a team now coming up for its 40th anniversary, Paul Weaver when an aspiring journalist acting as John Arlott’s telephonist, which sounds like a great job to have had. As elsewhere a place for boundary chats about stuff and nonsense: how joining the EEC in 1973 had brought with it warmer continental weather. For many a childhood happy place and the emotions return visits bring; for the most part accounts of those born in the decades after WWII.
moderated by the arrival of Danny Lamb and Jack Simpson, two players now in their 30s. While it’s not obvious there is strategic shift from buildings to people coming, a glance at the chart and it is obvious it would be better if there were.
many playing days? Who knows, as to the simpler question of how much they do play: take those who play the most…the red-ballers.. add their number of Blast and ODC/100 games and the average in the 2024 season for English players was just under 40 days if you take away those lost to rain, early finishes, just over if you don’t. As stats go though the 40 figure is not especially informative, about one player in four was within +/- 10 days of it.
there’s too much of it. For every team sheet in Australia’s red-ball competition, the Sheffield Shield, there are four in the Championship, allow for the number of players, the weather and there is a noticeable difference in the playing days for individual players.
the Championship with its openess scales up pretty well, and with these numbers also reasonable to ask why isn’t domestic cricket a sizeable advantage to England? Maybe it is of course, just not obviously given a legacy of spending big on buildings and not giving enough for the playing base.
75 days to the Australians 61 in 2024(/5). No doubting either how reliant England’s Test team has been on those who play the most, almost half the names on team sheets those who had a schedule of 100 days plus. A too much problem, but £, Sky, T20 leagues and market forces; or, actually okay, England’s best in demand and just doing what they should be doing?
Some variation between the counties certainly, different numbers of players, how much white-ball they play etc, but not a concentration of smaller counties near the top of the table. Plainly other Test nations put out competitive teams with fewer domestic players, but in England, starting from here, it’s not obvious that contraction below would result in an advance above.
cricketers from an ethnic minority has risen sharply in recent seasons, predominantly players with a South Asian heritage. Samit Patel, whose career started in 2002, now the game’s 2nd senior pro, Chris Jordan and Keith Barker among the players who started before 2010, though the increase above is mainly from younger players starting out rather than careers lengthening.
an ethnic minority, those that have started in recent years included. A trend to lead to increasing numbers of state-educated, ‘working-class’ boys in the game? Going by the numbers here not by much, if at all.
news recently with the decision to extend FTA coverage of Rugby Union’s 6N for the next few years. A generation ago cricket’s governing body took the money, leaving the game’s future to take care of itself rather. Not good for getting young players interested, move on a decade or so from the decision and the reliance on public schools for county players quite unsurprisingly started rising, more push than nudge and arguably now more shunt than push.
since 2015 none found in the archives, old Harrovians three in 2024, one of whom has since retired. But no doubting the concentrations of players from some schools, 12 from King’s College, Taunton in 2024, Millfield, 9 or the connections at some counties. Or the (‘career entry’) cost, sums well in to six figures, times if siblings.
Compiled from Cricket Archive, England-qualified players.
A very conflicted schedule with player welfare at best secondary? Nick Friend’s piece in the Cricketer pointed to Glamorgan in the middle of last summer: a Championship game in Durham, then Chelmsford, then five journeys to and from South Wales; nine games in 22 days. A recipe for fatigue? Kiran Carlson and Sam Northeast played in all of them, two of nineteen players for Glams in those games. A figure fairly typical of other counties, those playing at Durham making up about half the names on the team sheets.