‘It's where you make your reputation': County Championship bursts back into life

The Guardian

03-04-2025

The cut of the grass, the shine of a boot, the sigh of a drop, the joy of a catch, the crunch of a four, the hope of the spring. Time stealthily gouging out lines, on faces, over scars, around knees. A first season. A last.
Here, suddenly, is April, unexpectedly sunny and dry. And with it, 135 years after the first County Championship (minus one year for Covid, four for world war one and six for world war two), the 125th.
This summer is the calm before the storm. Think you've read that before? You have. The layout of domestic cricket will change again in 2026 – with it looking likely that the number of Championship games will be reduced to give a bit more breathing space to a four-competition season. What won't happen is a top-down 'imposed' solution like the ill-fated Strauss plan, which was upended by the counties in 2022. But, for now, we know what we've got: 15 rounds, 14 games, 10 Division One counties, eight Division Two counties. Two balls – the Dukes and the Kookaburra (rounds nine-12). One winner.
For 2025, as is the recent custom, Surrey start as favourites to collect what would be their fourth Championship in a row. Their squad is a well-oiled machine, deftly coached by Gareth Batty and full of players that either dip in from England duties or purr along just under the radar. A couple of quality overseas players in Kemar Roach and Nathan Smith add a pinch of spice. People also enjoy watching them. More than 65,000 people attended County Championship games at the Oval last year, with 13,706 going through the turnstiles for the midsummer game against Essex, both records for the 21st century.
Alec Stewart stepped down as director of cricket at the end of last season, after 11 years in the role. It's safe to say he's still in an adjustment period – no longer at the Oval at 6.30am, but still receiving emails every day. But after 44 years in and around senior cricket he's got a pretty good idea of how the Championship stacks up.
'Without county cricket you won't have an international set up,' he says. 'And the Hundred money will hopefully look after the domestic game for the next 25 years, so long as it is invested wisely.
'Not having all the teams in the first division play each other twice isn't ideal, but the quality is good and, though we don't have England players playing regularly, there are enough very good players coming through. Offer players the Championship or the T20 Cup and 90% would choose to win the Championship, which is a healthy sign. We just need to make sure that we are respecting it in terms of when and how we play it. Every time you play a match it should be an occasion, not here we go again.
'Red ball cricket is still where you make your reputation and where you see great players develop. The easy option is to be a white ball cricketer but that could be a short-term view – one bad franchise competition and you get left out. Whereas if you have the ability to play all formats, you've got something to come back to. I'm really pleased that [Somerset's] Will Smeed has come back to red ball cricket, it's a good example to everyone else that you don't need to make a decision at that young age.'
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Anthony McGrath, now head coach at Headingley after being tempted away from Chelmsford, agrees that the Championship hasn't lost its lustre: 'The young boys I've seen at both Essex and Yorkshire are still desperate to play red ball and Test cricket. There is a hell of a lot of money out there, but making your debut for whatever county you're at, I haven't seen that diminish.'
McGrath is not the only new coach around. Chris Silverwood replaces him at Essex, Richard Dawson goes to Glamorgan in interim charge, Ian Westwood steps into Mark Robinson's boots at Edgbaston. And two big characters arrive, Darren Lehmann at Northants and Adam Hollioake at Kent. McGrath is thrilled. 'It is brilliant for the County Championship, they're two fantastic people and coaches. Adam was my captain for England Lions when we went to Australia. He has high standards, he'll expect Kent to get going from the start.'
On the field, Jimmy Anderson continues to fight the dying of the light, right calf notwithstanding, while his old teammates' sons Rocky Flintoff (Lancashire) and Archie Vaughan (Somerset) dip their toes in the water for a second season. The overseas contingent is strong – to pick two: Kane Williamson at Middlesex and Jaydon Seales returning to promoted Sussex. Spin bowling is still difficult: Amar Virdi has been released by Surrey, while Shoaib Bashir is on loan to Glamorgan. There are Ashes tour places to play for (if England care to glance.) Careers will burst into life, others will fade. And it all starts on Friday.