England stars will have the chance to shine early on in a County Championship season that will be punctuated by a number of international innovationsThis spring offers something special and unusual for the cricket fan. For once it will be far easier to see an England cricketer in the shires in April than a cuckoo. By a quirk of the international fixture list there will be England cricketers everywhere, the only major absentees being those engaged in the Indian Premier League. Related: Eoin Morgan convinced Twenty20 tournament will not hurt county game Related: Warwickshire plan move to bring Moeen Ali back to Edgbaston Continue reading...
Simon Harmer, Stiaan van Zyl and Hardus Viljoen have signed Kolpak deals in the past few weeks but the days are numbered for the controversial loophole that has had a big effect on cricket in two countriesIn February 2000, a butterfly flapped its wings in the small town of Östringen, just over the German border from France. And with that one flap, English cricket was changed for a generation. Maros Kolpak, a goalkeeper in the second division of the German handball league, signed a new three-year contract with his team, TSV Östringen. Because he was Slovakian, the national federation decided to register him as an overseas player. Under league rules, each team was only allowed two foreigners in its squad....
There is much sympathy for Durham following their relegation to Division Two and, having been encouraged to speculate by the governing body, it is justifiedThe majority of the cricket world has great sympathy for the plight of Durham – though there may well be a few discreet smiles in the Southampton region – and much of that sympathy is justified. They are regarded more as victims of an entrepreneurial England and Wales Cricket Board than spendthrift villains.Since Durham satisfied one of the criteria of becoming a first-class county two decades ago, which was to build a new stadium in their county, they have been an adornment to the professional game. They have won three County Championships, produced more than their...
Riverside old boy keen to provide the jolt that helps keep his final county, the three-times champions, in the public consciousnessDurham issued a statement of gratitude on Tuesday afternoon for a landslide of support from the wider cricketing family following their relegation to Division Two in exchange for a £3.8m bailout, describing the response over the previous 24 hours as “beyond comprehension”.The news that the County Championship’s most northerly club will, for reasons beyond their on-field performance, start the 2017 season at the bottom of the pile with a 48‑point deficit certainly shocked all who heard it on Monday. Football, the north-east’s first love, is well used to such scenarios. But cricket? The summer sport has never before witnessed such a...
Middlesex’s title win was so exciting because it really mattered and that must not be diminished by another T20 competitionSuddenly county cricket is sexy. The melodrama of the last round of matches was agony for the committed, fascinating for the neutral and it even captured a fresh audience, which will please everyone at the England and Wales Cricket Board since they keep stressing this goal (rather than their eagerness to generate some more quick cash). Taken in isolation the Middlesex-Yorkshire match at Lord’s was often a turgid affair on a dull surface. Yet it was mesmerising as the visitors eked out the last few runs to take them to 350; before Nick Gubbins rose to the occasion as impressively as...