Failing the Test

County cricket ought to be important because it provides the players for Test cricket. You won’t find your budding Strausses, Cooks and Swanns playing on village greens or even in the estimable Lancashire and Yorkshire leagues. If they are really good they will be in a county side.

The problem, however, is that when they are spotted by England they go off to become international players, and rarely seem to be anything other than special guest stars on the rare occasions they play for their counties. That is one reason why county cricket is so tedious now, and so little watched: you only ever see the also-rans, the wannabes, the has-beens and the never-weres. The real titans of the game are with the ‘squad’, engaging in ‘preparation’ or being ‘rested’.

The absence of big names is not the only reason why county cricket — there are 18 first-class clubs, from Durham in the north-east to Somerset in the south-west — is suffering a cash crisis.