7 minute readHundreds of millions of pounds are being spent on 49% stakes in tinpot teams that play a niche format of cricket watched by hardly anyone in the host country. Everyone seems to have an opinion on this, but if there’s one group of people we’d like to hear from, it’s
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2 minute readCounty Championship first division status is crossing the Pennines from Lancashire to Yorkshire and has now made it to, ooh, let’s say Todmorden. It just passed second division status going the other way. (What we’re saying here is that Lancashire have been relegated and Yorkshire have been promoted.) How did
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2 minute readAnderson, Flintoff – it’s a strong looking Lancashire team sheet this week. Pity they couldn’t dig out a Chapple or a Fairbrother or a Wasim Akram. It’s always been reassuring for Lancashire supporters to see Anderson on the team sheet. The club therefore went out and found one. With the
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5 minute readLancashire are 15 points behind Nottinghamshire and 20 points behind Warwickshire going into the last round of matches. Those two teams will play each other and a draw plus a couple of bonus points for Notts would be enough to save both. That would be true even if Lancashire were
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2 minute readAs Somerset showed last week, there are ways to beat Surrey. But if you can’t muster the same quality of spin bowling and you aren’t in charge of the pitch, what are your options? This week at the Oval, Durham tried something different. Durham tried reversing into their second innings,
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2 minute readIf you’re in charge of a county cricket club and you want to deliver on-field success, the last thing you want to do is produce England players. If you want to do well in the County Championship, your goal should be to develop (or hire) as many Not-Quite-England-Players as you
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3 minute readOur calendar says it’s time to check back in on the County Championship. When we last reported on the first division, all the way back in May, Surrey were top, Kent were bottom and Jordan Cox was the hot topic of conversation. As we return to it now, Surrey are
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2 minute readThe County Championship enters its first hiatus with not much in it at the top after Essex won by an innings and Surrey lost by an innings. Third-placed Somerset also lost by an innings, weirdly. What happened with Surrey then? Dunno really. Despite the fact everyone in their top six
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3 minute readIt’s not so easy to narrow things down this week. Quite a lot of interesting players made important contributions in the last round of county games. Upshot is… we’re talking about a lot of things. Dans Lawrence and Worrall If anything sums up Surrey’s strength right now, it is that
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4 minute readTiming is important. Ask anyone who has sat in a long line of cars at a temporary set of traffic lights, gazing wearily at a conspicuously queue-free expanse of empty asphalt at the other end of the cones. When timing is on your side, things open up for you. When
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