Welcome to English Willow: The rebirth of county cricket?

2011 was a great year for cricket, and a terrible year for cricket, but away from the international circuit a quiet revolution is happening.

2011, the year England, on their way to the top of the test rankings, won the ashes in Australia for the first time in a quarter of a century, to the unbridled joy of a long suffering nation (trust me, I'm English). India finally got their hand on their holy grail, the World Cup, thus fulfilling the dreams of a billion people. And for the first time in 30 years of West Indian/Australian domination, we can truly say that there is a good old fashioned royal rumble going on for the title of best test team in the world, with India, Saffa and England all vying to be top dog.

But, lest we forget, this was also the year that saw fraud, backstabbing, squabbling and skullduggery tarnish the reputation of players, nations and the governing bodies alike. With these supposed guardians of this great game, dragging its name through the mud. Three players jailed for their part in spot fixing an international test match, and, it seems, this may just be the tip of a very murky iceberg. The BCCI fighting amongst itself and its T20 franchisees like spoilt children with too much money and too few morals as they look for their next contract. And the ICC and its selfish full member nations sticking the knife into the associates by banning them from the next World Cup, God forbid they might actually qualify past the group stage ahead of a test nation. This decision was then reversed a little more than 2 weeks later, talk about bad planning. What a farce.

However away from the limelight, neglected for the most part by mainstream media, barely televised, and played out in front of a crowd that would make a nerdy kid's birthday party look like the Rio carnival, a quiet rebirth has been occurring at county grounds up and down the country. This is where it all began, where this gentlemanly sport of cricket grew up. Hobbs, Sutcliffe, Lillywhite, names etched into the memory like the lines in a scorers book. Pure cricket... county cricket... and its back.

They say Twenty20 will kill the long game format, but in an ironical twist, it's the lure of riches on the subcontinent that has helped level the county playing field and increase competition by stripping the wealthy counties of high earning world stars (lets face it, you don't need to play English county cricket if you can earn double the amount in half the time at the IPL). Add to this some excellent incentivisation by the ECB encouraging counties to field homegrown talent rather than filling their ranks with journeyman Kolpakkers, and the maturation of the two division county championship format introduced in 2000 has meant the county scene has not been this healthy for years. It is now a competitive competition, rammed full of young Enlgish talent, and it's great.

The 2011 Championship season went to the wire in both division 1 and 2. The top position contested by three teams going into the final round of matches with Lancashire, who started the season without a home ground, snatching the title from Warwickshire and Durham on the final afternoon, ending 60 years of hurt. Not wishing to be outdone, division 2 was just as close with Middlesex, Surrey and Northants contesting for the two promotion slots with Middlesex coming out on top on the final afternoon and Surrey going up with them. The Pro40 was won by a very exciting Surrey outfit with an average age of 24, and Leicestershire gave stalwart keeper Paul Nixon the best retirement party possible with victory in the T20.

So why blog? Well I want to drum up more interest in the county game, challenge myself and you guys to pick out the next England star or the next Champo winner. Sorry for the big intro but now, let the blogging begin....

DrP