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RNZ News
4 days ago
- Business
- RNZ News
King's Birthday Honours: 'Wild' how far women's cricket has come
White Ferns captain Sophie Devine. Photo: Marty Melville White Ferns captain Sophie Devine has witnessed the dramatic increase in opportunities afforded to female cricketers, but has also seen the downsides of a packed schedule. Devine has been reflecting on her career since being recognised in the King's Birthday Honours for services to cricket , which she describes as a huge honour. Devine was selected for the White Ferns in 2006 at age 17 and has become one of the sports most dominant players. Last year she led the White Ferns to their maiden T20 World Cup title in the United Arab Emirates. The 35-year-old holds a number of records including becoming the first cricketer to score five consecutive 50-plus scores in T20's in the 2019/2020 season. The gains that female cricketers have made over the last decade have been extraordinary, given that back in 2014 the most a White Fern could earn was around $25,000 a year. The highest-ranked White Fern, who also plays a full domestic season, has the potential now to earn around $180,000. By the time New Zealand's best female cricketer Amelia Kerr gets paid to play in leagues around the world, including the lucrative WPL in India, she's pulling in half a million dollars a year. Devine said when she started out, she could never have imagined the opportunities which are now on offer in women's cricket. Sophie Devine playing for the White Ferns in 2006. Photo: PHOTOSPORT "It's been unbelievable, even the last five or six years it's gone to a completely another level. I always wished that we would be able to be full-time professionals but to see the money that's available now through some of these franchise competitions and the way that cricket boards around the world are starting to really invest in the women's game. I guess I'm most excited for what the future holds in terms of these youngsters coming through," Devine said. "When I first started playing for the White Ferns in 2006 I thought it was pretty cool that I got a bit of lunch money and things paid for in terms of flights and accommodation. "It's still got a long way to go ...it's part of the journey I think in terms of equal pay and things like that but it's been pretty wild to think about how far it has come." Since the start of the franchise cricket era, top players like Devine have also been sought after in competitions like Australia's Big Bash League and India's WPL. Increased opportunities have led to heavy workloads. "Last year after winning the T20 World Cup, less than 48 hours later we were on a plane to India and playing in a series a couple of days later and the Australian men were in a similar position a couple of years ago as well. "We know that's part of the job and why you get paid what you do ...it's a serious conversation that needs to be had in terms of the scheduling because it's only going to get busier. Hopefully we can manage it so that there are opportunities to allow players to get breaks, particularly young ones. I think of Melie Kerr, who could have another 10-15 year international career and you don't want to see her end her career early because she's burnt out. "Important that players take the opportunity to step away when they need to and not get sucked into the vacuum that can be not just international cricket but franchise cricket as well. You don't want to feel like you're missing out but your mind and body are your tools of your trade so it's a really important conversation that needs to be had." Devine took a two-month break from cricket earlier this year to give her own mind and body a rest, the second time she's taken a break in her career to prioritise her well-being. Amelia Kerr and Sophie Devine celebrate last year's World Cup win. Photo: PHOTOSPORT She is excited about joining up with the White Ferns in camp in Christchurch this week, as the side starts its journey towards another pinnacle event, the ICC Women's Cricket World Cup in India later this year. Pinnacle events excite her as much as they did when she first joined the White Ferns. "Absolutely they do, I guess being a little bit older and wiser it's how do you manage those emotions and energy going into that because those pinnacle events are so big and they seem to roll around every year. I think for me it's about how do I manage my expectations and my energy levels." Sport has been a huge part of Devine's life and admits the thought of retirement scares her a little. "Yes, in all honesty, that's probably something I've been toying with for the last 12 months or so and what does that look like, trying to make that transition as smooth as possible. It's a pretty scary concept for a lot of athletes but I've had fantastic support. It's going to be very different to what I've done for over half of my life, which is travelling the world playing cricket, which I've been very fortunate to do." Devine knows that in retirement she wants to stay involved in sport. "There's so many more opportunities opening up in the women's game whether that's coaching, commentating, being involved in the media side of things. Fingers crossed I can stay involved in some way, I certainly feel I've got a lot to give back."
BBC News
28-05-2025
- Entertainment
- BBC News
Revamped T20 Blast ready to ignite
History will be made in the 2025 T20 Blast as women's teams have officially become "fully aligned" with the men's game for the first season will include 52 double bills of men's and women's matches played back-to-back, of which all 18 first-class counties will host at least one and nearly 30 venues in total will see 20-over Off weekend will kick off the new-look competition, beginning on Thursday in Manchester, where 2015 winners Lancashire Lightning host 2018 winners Worcestershire Rapids, and Lord's, where Middlesex and Sussex Sharks meet in a double men's champions Gloucestershire begin with a home game against Kent at Bristol on women's side will continue to play as The Blaze, having beaten South East Stars to win the Charlotte Edwards Cup final last June before the women's domestic game changed for this also start on Friday against the Bears, who have dropped Birmingham from their name, as part of a double header at Trent Oval will stage the first Women's Finals Day on Sunday, 27 July, while Men's Finals Day will be on Saturday, 13 September - again at Edgbaston, for the 17th time in the 23 years of T20 and the 13th straight year. How the teams are divided Blast Men's Competition:North Group: Bears, Derbyshire Falcons, Durham, Lancashire Lightning, Leicestershire Foxes, Northamptonshire Steelbacks, Notts Outlaws, Worcestershire Rapids, Yorkshire Group: Essex, Glamorgan, Gloucestershire, Hampshire Hawks, Kent Spitfires, Middlesex, Somerset, Sussex Sharks, Women's Competition:Bears, Durham, Essex, Hampshire Hawks, Lancashire Thunder, Somerset, Surrey, The Women's League 2:North Group: Derbyshire Falcons, Leicestershire Foxes, Northamptonshire Steelbacks, Worcestershire Rapids, Group: Glamorgan, Gloucestershire, Kent, Middlesex, Sussex here for the full fixture list What happened in 2024? Gloucestershire won their maiden T20 Blast title in glorious style last September as they beat holders Somerset, comprehensively outplaying their West Country rivals to claim their first trophy in nine Cameron Bancroft, up against his former county, and Miles Hammond both hit half-centuries at Edgbaston as they won by eight wickets with 31 balls to winning just one of their opening five matches, Gloucestershire came from nowhere to squeeze through in fourth in the Southern Group and then followed it up by beating North Group winners Birmingham Bears in the quarter-final, the third straight season the Bears had fallen in the last eight, on their way to claiming their first knockout trophy since beating Surrey in the One-Day Cup at Lord's in became the 14th side to win the T20 - leaving Yorkshire, Durham, Derbyshire and Glamorgan as the only four sides not to have done so in its 22 coach Anthony McGrath hopes the start of this year's T20 Blast, with Northants first up at Headingley on Friday, can bring a change of fortune after a torrid start to their campaign in Division One of the County Championship."It's a new competition, and it is about starting well," he told BBC Radio Leeds. "We have done a lot of planning, but again, that counts for nothing; it is the performances. I'm looking forward to seeing how we react on Friday evening."This group is dying to do well, but you need more than that. At the highest levels of sport, it is not about skill; it is about what's in your head."It is a competition we know we have to get better at, but it is about us going out there and getting momentum and improving." Ashes reunions in women's competition A number of international stars are set to line up in the women's batter Laura Harris will play for Bears, who have lost Amy Jones to The Blaze and Eve Jones to Thunder this season, but the spin of captain Georgia Davis might again prove crucial to their have signed New Zealand international Suzie Bates to complement a line-up featuring England players Mady Villiers, skipper Hollie Armitage, Lauren Filer and Bess have brought in Australian all-rounder Maddie Penna and evergreen keeper Lauren Winfield-Hill from Yorkshire for the Blast and can rely upon captain Grace Scrivens but will miss strike-bowler Sophie Munro through Hawks have seen a number of players depart this season, but skipper Georgia Adams has Australia international Charli Knott and England's Maia Bouchier at her disposal, while Ellyse Perry is set to arrive in July for the final six games of the campaign and Finals Day, should the Hawks get Thunder became the first winners of the new Vitality T20 Women's County Cup with a 32-run victory over Surrey in the final at Taunton on Sunday, with England's Sophie Ecclestone claiming 4-12 to smother the Surrey Ellie Threlkeld has brought in batter Eve Jones, quick bowler Grace Potts and spinner Darcey Carter to bolster her ranks, while Australian batter Katie Mack will play the first three games of the campaign before being replaced by compatriot, superstar leg-spinner Alana King, for the remainder of the Luff bolstered her Somerset line-up with the addition of England all-rounder Charlie Dean before the season, and Australian leg-spinner Amanda-Jade Wellington is also back, having played last season under their old Western Storm identity, boosting a squad which already boasts former England skipper Heather Smith might have seen her Surrey side – formerly South East Stars – fall short in the County Cup final, but with England's Danni Wyatt-Hodge, Sophia Dunkley and Alice Davidson-Richards in her squad and Australian bat Grace Harris arriving in June, hopes will be high of challenging for a fourth final in five years in this year's Charlotte Edwards Cup winners, The Blaze, might just be the team to beat, with skipper Kirstie Gordon able to call upon Maddy Green of New Zealand in the opening four matches before Australia's Heather Graham arrives for the final 10, with Gordon's Scotland team-mates, sisters Kathryn and Sarah Bryce, back for another tilt at silverware. Global stars jet in for Blast A host of global white-ball talent will be jetting over to take part in the men's GroupBears were dealt a blow on the eve of the tournament as Beau Webster will now miss out after being called up by Australia for the World Test Championship, while Hasan Ali will be unavailable for the first three games after being given a central contract by have signed Australian leg-spinner Lloyd Pope after countryman Ashton Agar was ruled out through injury. Pope was named in the team of the tournament in the Big Bash earlier this year, while South Africa batter Matthew Breetzke is also have signed New Zealand all-rounder Jimmy Neesham. The left-hander is a veteran of 83 T20 internationals and 76 ODI games for the Black who also bowls right-arm seam, will play for his sixth county after previous stints with Derbyshire, Essex, Kent, Leicestershire and have also signed New Zealand seamer Zak Foulkes, who was with Bears last summer, for the group stages, still have South Africans David Bedingham and Codi Yusuf around and taken Somerset bowling all-rounder Kasey Aldridge on loan for a paceman Ben Dwarshuis has returned to Worcestershire Rapids, having taken 15 wickets in 2021, and will be joined by Kiwi seamer Jacob Duffy for the first eight games, while Leicestershire can call on Dutch all-rounder Logan van Beek and will welcome Pakistan's Shan Masood, formerly of Yorkshire and Derbyshire, for the have signed Australian all-rounder Ashton Turner, previously of Durham, to join compatriot Chris Green, while Notts Outlaws have brought in their compatriot Daniel Sams, who has spent the last three domestic seasons with Essex, scoring more than 2,000 runs and taking 214 wickets in T20 cricket, and veteran Aussie all-rounder Moises Henriques, who has previously played for Surrey and batter Alex Hales will not, however, feature this 36-year-old is the club's all-time T20 run-scorer with 4,285, and he has won five titles across different formats, having made his debut in the format 17 years will instead represent the Knight Riders franchise in both Major League Cricket and the Caribbean Premier have signed New Zealand quick Will O'Rourke and Australian all-rounder Will Sutherland for the group stage while Derbyshire can call on Australian batter Caleb Jewell and teenage Afghan spinner Allah Mohammad Ghazanfar, while Kiwi quick Blair Tickner is also around for the group GroupAustralia batter D'Arcy Short has joined defending champions left-hander, who can also bowl spin, has played for his country in both white-ball formats and has twice been named 'Player of the Tournament' in Australia's Big Bash. Short joins fellow countryman Cameron Bancroft with The have brought back Australian seamer Riley Meredith, who took 14 wickets at an average of 22.78 as Somerset reached the final last season, and welcome back New Zealand's Matt Henry, who was the leading wicket-taker in the 2023 Blast with 31 and was player of the match in the final as Somerset went on to win the have re-signed Pakistan pace bowler Mohammad Amir. The 33-year-old, who previously played for the club from 2017 to 2019, has taken 371 wickets in 322 T20 games around the world and will join South African Simon Harmer in the Essex Hawks have young South African batters Lhuan-dre Pretorius and Dewald Brevis to call on, along with the return of James Vince to look forward have signed Kiwi white-ball skipper Mitchell Santner for the campaign, where he will link up with fellow New Zealander Nathan Smith, while neighbours Middlesex can boast Kane Williamson in their ranks for 10 group stage games and also have Ireland quick Josh Little to call have signed Australian all-rounder Hayden Kerr, who played for Derbyshire in 2022, until the end of July and can call upon the evergreen South African Colin Ingram, while Sussex Sharks have Australians Daniel Hughes and Nathan McAndrew among their ranks and might also opt to utilise their compatriot seamer Gurinder Sandhu, who will remain with the club for red-ball cricket after the paceman Wes Agar and bowling all-rounder Tom Rogers are back with Kent Spitfires after impressive turns in 2024, while Sam Billings will skipper the side and Fred Klaassen is also available.
Telegraph
28-05-2025
- Politics
- Telegraph
Revealed: English women's cricket becomes match-fixing target
There are growing fears that English women's cricket is becoming a soft target for corruption, with hundreds of thousands of pounds worth of bets placed on matches. Corruption in men's cricket has been a longstanding issue for the sport, with numerous high-profile examples coming to light. A Telegraph Sport investigation can reveal a crackdown taking place in the women's game after uncovering: A total of £300,000 bet on one domestic match Players approached for team information via social media Anti-corruption officials sent to matches as part of crackdown Players forced to hand in mobile phones to officials during games Minimal security at venues during matches Akhter case highlights threat to women's game The men's game has been embroiled in plenty of infamous match-fixing scandals from the Hansie Cronje affair to three Pakistan players being banned and jailed for spot-fixing against England in 2010. It was only in February of this year, however, that the first female player was banned for corruption by the International Cricket Council. Former Bangladesh international Shohely Akhter, who played two ODIs and 13 T20Is, was found guilty of attempting to fix matches, offering a bribe, failing to disclose full details of an approach to the ICC's Anti-Corruption Code and obstructing the organisation's investigation. In one instance, she even tried to convince a fellow player to get out hit wicket in a match against Australia during the 2023 T20 World Cup, promising to pay 2 million Bangladeshi Takas (£12,000) for the fix. Akhter formally admitted breaching five provisions of the anti-corruption code and was banned from all cricket for five years. Players at lower levels of the women's game have been asked to report approaches made to them and Telegraph Sport understands that there have been some made via anonymous accounts on social media by those looking for team information about a particular match. There is also evidence of high sums being bet on domestic women's matches. As part of a wider restructure of the domestic women's game, the T20 County Cup has been launched as a FA Cup-style knockout including all minor counties as well as the 18 first-class ones across tiers one, two and three. A number of games have been taking place at grounds rarely used for first-class cricket like Exmouth, Brecon and Fenner's. These venues come with far less security, facilities and monitoring of those in attendance. Just a few days ago, the quarter-final match between Kent, a tier-two county side, and the Blaze, who represent Nottinghamshire, had a total of more than £296,000 placed on it via the Betfair exchange, which is just one betting platform. The match was also viewed by more than 77,000 people on YouTube. At the same point on the same day, the total bet across all nine men's county fixtures totalled just £8,535 on that website. In the women's domestic game, there is no suggestion, at present, that any matches have been fixed. But one of the initial concerns was caused by the number of wides being bowled, especially in tier-two competition. Across the first 60 matches of the domestic women's season, there were 1,888, at an average of 31.46 a match. There were 15 matches with 40 or more wides. In one innings, a side conceded 72 extras of which 61 were wides, while the other team conceded 26 extras, making the match total 98. However, as a non-professional league where the players receive no compensation for playing cricket, the standards can often vary, which could be the cause of the high numbers of extras. Anti-corruption officers are now expected to look for patterns when it comes to extras as it is not a market often offered by legal betting companies. Some women's streams on YouTube can draw thousands of viewers, with the majority of remarks in the comments section referencing what people need for bets to come in and how much they have placed, rather than the action. During one Women's One-Day Cup match, viewers in the comments openly posted about their bets in Hindi and, of the 2,000 who watched the stream, the majority are believed to be based overseas. There was even one comment referencing a Raja Bets website, which is not licensed for operations in the UK. Some users have posted their bets on social media with links to websites of which almost all finish in '.in', the country code for India. Anti-corruption officials focused on games further down pyramid In light of examples like these, the England and Wales Cricket Board has been sending anti-corruption officers to women's matches with a particular focus on those further down the pyramid in the T20 County Cup and in tier two. By the midway point of the first innings of one such match, a total of almost £20,000 had been bet on the Betfair exchange. While it is not an exceptional amount compared to the millions that are sometimes bet on overseas T20 franchise tournaments, it is a considerable sum given the crowd in attendance was fewer than 50 people. Another game in the same competition was also brought to the attention of the ECB's anti-corruption officials for the sums bet on it. It is understood that the ECB is looking to increase education programmes attended by all players at the start of the season. Extra measures have been put in place, too. Players have to hand in their phones at the start of the match, a practice that has long existed in international cricket and televised men's county games, with only a select few in the dressing room, including media officers and medical staff, allowed their devices. But that is not yet uniform across the women's county set-up. For some tier-two matches players are allowed to keep their phones, but not in games that are part of double-headers alongside the men's team or any matches against a tier-one side. Although some counties apply designated players and match official areas, which unaccredited people cannot access, it is not a uniform rule across the divisions. At the smaller grounds, Telegraph Sport discovered first-hand it can be far too easy for those without accreditation to wander into areas which should be reserved for umpires and players without being stopped by any security. Some matches have also had free entry, with no one checking tickets or any monitoring of who is watching the match. 'Courtsiding' becoming big concern In cricket, because of the nature of the game, there is almost no limit to the number of bets that can be placed on a particular match. The markets go far beyond simply who will score the most runs, take the most wickets or which side will win. It can go as detailed as specific scores by players, economy rates of bowlers, what score a team will have at a particular point in the game or even whether both teams hit a boundary in their first over. The case involving Pakistan, from the Lord's Test in 2010, related to the deliberate bowling of no balls. But the bigger concern is the relaying of data from the ground overseas to tell someone what is going to happen prior to the betting market being closed known as 'courtsiding'. This relies on speed, but the delay of betting markets being closed can take longer than someone passing on a message to another individual. Betting sites are often banned for those in the ground to try to prevent that, but that does not necessarily stop it. Anti-corruption officials are keen to make the point that their presence does not imply players are doing anything improper. 'The presence of an anti-corruption official is not indicative of the players doing something wrong,' Steve Richardson, who was investigations coordinator for the ICC's anti-corruption unit for seven years until 2023, said. 'It's indicative of the level of risk that the ECB perceives the women's game to be at, and the women's game is now more professional than it's ever been. With that comes betting markets and with that comes a risk of corruption.'
Telegraph
27-05-2025
- Sport
- Telegraph
Women's cricket is becoming reliant on private schools but never used to be
England's leading private schools are well established as mini academies when it comes to men's cricket and that battle to secure the next generation's most coveted talent has now spread into the women's game. As of October 2024, just 29 per cent of players in the women's professional game came from a private school background, compared with 50 per cent of male cricketers, but further down the pathway the numbers become more skewed towards those from fee-paying establishments 42 per cent at county age group. Of the 19 women's players currently centrally-contracted by England, 12 went to private schools or 63 per cent. The figure for the men's players with a central contract is almost identical, standing at 64 per cent, of those educated in the United Kingdom. But when England Women won the World Cup in front of a sold-out Lord's in 2017, just three of the starting XI had attended a fee-paying school. Three years ago Telegraph Sport revealed that agents, parents and school directors of cricket were offering bespoke scholarships and 110 per cent-off fees to talented players. More recently, those same schools have turned their attention to women's cricket. Private school pathway Directors of cricket from leading private schools have spoken to Telegraph Sport about the rise in the girls' game over the past decade, to the extent that at one school highly-rated players can drop an academic subject to take cricket instead. Bede's in Brighton, which charges full boarders up to £51,075 a year, has a scholarship for players from Barbados, established in conjunction with the Barbados Cricket Association. It is a pathway trodden by the likes of Shai Hope, who now plays for the West Indies men's team, but one of the current scholars is NaiJanni Cumberbatch, who represents women's franchise side Barbados Pride and the West Indies Under-19s. At Bede's, Cumberbatch will play boys' cricket, likely in the second XI, the same team that England international Ryana MacDonald-Gay captained during her time at the school. Students from South Africa have also been in contact with the school, such is its reputation for producing cricketers. 'We've had three girls playing for England at the same time which is quite unique,' Bede's director of cricket, Alan Wells, explains to Telegraph Sport. 'I can't imagine that's happened for any other school. We had Alice Capsey, Freya Kemp and Ryana MacDonald-Gay all playing for England at the same time in the Ashes and it's a rich heritage of girls' cricket that we have here. For those three to be representing England, all coming through our system here, is very special for us obviously.' Cricket might once have been considered a summer sport, but at the majority of these schools it has become a year-round programme, starting at Bede's as early as September. The goal for the schools is not just to perform against others, but establish themselves as pathways for professional cricketers. Eight years ago, Wells started an academy at Bede's, offering cricket lessons instead of a subject, with students selecting the sport as part of their curriculum. 'As long as they're of a certain standard they can choose cricket as part of their timetable and then beyond that going into Years 10 and 11 and GCSE years, in consultation with their parents, if we feel that a young girl cricketer or boy has the potential to have a career, they're on a career pathway, then they can drop a GCSE and do cricket instead,' Wells explains. 'So the better cricketers at the school will be getting up to eight hours of contact time with our coaches here. That gives us the ability to have the contact time with the students that's needed if they're on a career pathway.' Roedean was one of the earliest schools to adopt cricket. The girls' school has played cricket from as early as the 1890s, long before there was any option of a professional career or even women's international cricket. Today it has a wealth of cricketing talent, although not as many scholarships as some of the others, with more given to those from netball, hockey or swimming backgrounds. Mike Smethurst, the school's director of cricket, says: 'We've got girls in county cricket. We've got girls who play for Hampshire and we've got a lot of girls below that who play at club level as well.' The likes of Shrewsbury and Millfield were earlier supporters of women's cricket, with Issy Wong having attended the former, while Sedbergh and Repton, who have won three national titles in the last two years for cricket, have adopted the sport in the last decade. Players join the schools on means-tested bursaries with typical scholarships capped at just 10 per cent of fees, but for exceptional sporting talent, exemptions are common. At Repton, where Martin Speight is the director of cricket, there are a number of boys and girls involved in county cricket. He says: 'There's a lot of academy and even players that are playing county second XI or county first-team cricket now. Someone like Harry Moore, we won't see much of this year because he'll be playing for Derbyshire or England Lions, and I think the girls is moving that way.' Growing elitism in women's game In women's cricket there are still far more players who attended state schools compared with private than in the men's game. Warwickshire for example have just four players out of 15 in the senior squad from fee-paying schools and five of 13 in the academy. The Lancashire Academy is a similar picture, with just three private school attendees of the 13 in their development group. Yet there are a growing number of female players coming through the private schools pathway – and it is easy to see the appeal. Smethurst, who works in the boys' cricket pathway at Sussex explains how boys attending state schools are offered an extra coaching session per week by the county, to try to close the gap with private school students, but it is hard to contend with the eight hours of cricket time some can receive. The facilities at certain schools are enough to make some counties, if not the smaller Test-playing nations, jealous. In fact, Millfield has been used by international travelling sides as a base because of the quality of its facilities. In 2020, Millfield finished a £2.6 million investment in its golf and cricket centres. The cricket one includes five nets, specialist technology and a 4G fielding area – to complement its existing six pitches and eight outdoor nets. Richard Gould, the chief executive of the England and Wales Cricket Board, has stated his intention and desire for cricket to become the country's most inclusive sport, with the governing body having a clear vision, and an action plan, to do this. The ECB wants to invest millions and train hundreds, partly in association with programmes like ACE, Chance to Shine and the MCC Foundation to introduce and expand cricket in state schools, which may draw more to the game at grass-roots level. However, there is no way for a state school, particularly one in an inner city, to compete on an even playing field against a school like Millfield, say, that has nets specifically designed to replicate the bounce found in Australia and the spin of India. The opportunity to develop skills at one of these elite schools that almost double as academies would be almost impossible for a burgeoning cricketer, or their parents, to turn down.
Times
22-05-2025
- Sport
- Times
Charlotte Edwards portrait a far cry from Long Room ban for women
When Charlotte Edwards started playing cricket in the mid-1990s women were not allowed in the Lord's Long Room. On Thursday the former England captain, who was appointed head coach of England Women earlier this month, was in attendance as her portrait was unveiled in that very same space. It felt fitting in this of all weeks, which marked the latest giant stride forward in the women's game. Project Darwin may sound a slightly sinister name but it has, for the first time, put in place a proper pyramid for women's cricket, with three tiers of teams, which include the 18 first-class counties and minor counties. The eight top-tier teams — Durham, Essex, Hampshire, Lancashire, Nottinghamshire, Somerset, Surrey and Warwickshire — have fully professional squads. That
