Treat Essex As The Benchmark

Dan Whiting explains how Essex’s success this season proves the system of developing homegrown talent is working

- Dan Whiting

There are some pretty large gulfs in this world – the Grand Canyon, the distance from Perth to the nearest city, the warmth of political relations between the USA and North Korea at present, for instance. However, until recently the train of thought amongst the cricketing cognoscenti was that of the distance between Division One and Division Two of the County Championship.

As in many other sports, the fissure between the ‘haves’ and the ‘have nots’ has widened in cricket in recent years. A ten-team Division Two may have created more teams but the well documented struggles of the likes of Leicestershire, Gloucestershire, Derbyshire, Northamptonshire and Glamorgan in red ball cricket are replicated by a quick look at the table.

Yet despite the fact that these counties are thriving in T20 cricket – look at the recent successes of Northamptonshire or this season’s remarkable exploits by both Derbyshire and Glamorgan – the fact of the matter amongst those in the know is that the four-day game carries more weight when it comes to England selection.

Does a player now have to move to one of the big boys such as Surrey, Lancashire, Yorkshire or Middlesex to be at the forefront of the selectors’ minds?

When the County Championship was split into two divisions some years ago now, this was the train of thought behind it. It was designed to create an elite group, one that provided future Test players to the England side and with four-day cricket on uncovered wickets, a game that was supposed to replicate the international five-day game, albeit one which rarely goes to five days now anyway.