English Domestic Season 2025

[Chin Music]

Yeah, there was something at the back of my mind linking it to that, makes sense.

I was mentioning Ed Joyce in another thread, he was key to bringing him over and getting him into a cricketing school near Brighton.

Yeah, I recall seeing that. Good for him that he has a stable cricketing career. A few Irish players like Josh Little are taking up t20 contracts if they can get them and bailing out of the occasional tests that Ireland play.

 

[chris.hinton]

County Championship

Division 1

Nottinghamshire 49
Sussex 49
Essex 47
Warwickshire 46
Hampshire 43
Yorkshire 40
Surrey 38
Somerset 29
===============
Durham 28
Worcestershire 15

Division 2

Leicestershire 54
Kent 52
===============
Derbyshire 48
Middlesex 35
Lancashire 34
Northamptonshire 34
Gloucestershire 34
Glamorgan 15

 

[FBU]

Leics have 13 batting points and Lancs 3

 

[LangleyburyCCPlayer]

A mate of mine who has far more inside knowledge of the county scene than I do said that Carson never wanted to play for Ireland simply because Irish players are essentially regarded as overseas in the county championship (even ones from NI!) under ECB rules and therefore he couldn't take up a county (Sussex) contract as a home player. It was a reason why Murtagh retired from international cricket earlier than he might have done. He would have essentially not been able to play for Middlesex for the last few years of his career. Of course, that law would get challenged if players were wealthy enough to bring a case, but in reality that isn't going to happen.

How much benefit has Irish cricket actually got from Test status? They barely get any Tests and their players can’t get decent gigs in the County Championship anymore, ironically, I believe the Dutch players who have settled status can still play as domestic players

 

[Yeoman]

How much benefit has Irish cricket actually got from Test status? They barely get any Tests and their players can’t get decent gigs in the County Championship anymore, ironically, I believe the Dutch players who have settled status can still play as domestic players

I think that being a full member through playing tests gets them more ICC funding. They should find it less expensive to play tests when they complete their permanent ground near Dublin, though why the economics of hosting a test were more prohibitive than those of a county outground festival was not clear to me.

 

[LangleyburyCCPlayer]

I think that being a full member through playing tests gets them more ICC funding. They should find it less expensive to play tests when they complete their permanent ground near Dublin, though why the economics of hosting a test were more prohibitive than those of a county outground festival was not clear to me.

Fair enough, though do those benefits filter down to the players? I’m guessing Irish players get more for playing for Ireland than Scottish or Dutch players get for their national teams (despite those teams probably being better right now), but is it worth it when Scots and the older generation of Dutch players can play county cricket?

 

[Hungry Llama]

I thought 1 of the qualifications for new test playing nations was an FC competition. Clearly Afghan dont have that, and i'm not sure there is 1 in ireland anymore.

 

[LangleyburyCCPlayer]

I thought 1 of the qualifications for new test playing nations was an FC competition. Clearly Afghan dont have that, and i'm not sure there is 1 in ireland anymore.

Afghanistan do have a FC comp, Ireland’s hasn’t been played since 2019…full member status seems to be as difficult to lose as it is to gain!

 

[Chin Music]

How much benefit has Irish cricket actually got from Test status? They barely get any Tests and their players can’t get decent gigs in the County Championship anymore, ironically, I believe the Dutch players who have settled status can still play as domestic players

A very fair point and it seems utterly wrong that this happens.

 

[mackembhoy]

How much benefit has Irish cricket actually got from Test status? They barely get any Tests and their players can’t get decent gigs in the County Championship anymore, ironically, I believe the Dutch players who have settled status can still play as domestic players

Yeah completely shafted. I thought Barry McCarthy was a good FC cricketer and then he had to be turfed out of Durham as not good enough as one of your two overseas slots.

Then you've got Paul Stirling from Belfast who can choose to be both Irish and British if he wants under the Good Friday Agreeement, can't play as a local player in English cricket while Bas De Leede can

Albeit Bas De Leede got in just before that loophole got closed for good. Then he repays Durham by "allegedly" not wanting to play FC cricket to optimise white ball opportunities(when so far for Durham he's been crap at the format)

 

[Molehill]

Top two meet at Trent Bridge (wasn't expecting to say that about Sussex at any point this season). Notts have put Sussex in. Duckett returns and we'll see Tongue v Haines first up.

Edit: Hutton got Haines before Tongue had a bowl!!

 

[chris.hinton]

Teams (Division 1)

Somerset vs Surrey

Surrey (Playing XI): Rory Burns(c), Dominic Sibley, Ollie Pope, Jamie Smith, Ben Foakes(w), Daniel Lawrence, Ryan Patel, Jordan Clark, Gus Atkinson, James Philip Arthur Taylor, Daniel Worrall

Somerset (Playing XI): Archie Vaughan, Sean Dickson, Tom Lammonby, Tom Abell, Tom Banton, James Rew(w), Lewis Gregory(c), Kasey Aldridge, Josh Davey, Migael Pretorius, Jack Leach

Worcestershire vs Durham

Worcestershire (Playing XI): Gareth Roderick(w), Jake Libby, Henry Nicholls, Rob Jones, Adam Hose, Brett DOliveira(c), Matthew Waite, Ethan Brookes, Tom Taylor, Ben Allison, Jacob Duffy

Durham (Playing XI): Alex Lees (c), Ben McKinney, George Drissell, Colin Ackermann, Oliver Robinson (wk), Will Rhodes, Graham Clark, Ben Raine, Codi Yusuf, Jack Blatherwick, Jake Ball

Nottinghamshire vs Sussex

Nottinghamshire (Playing XI): Haseeb Hameed(c), Ben Slater, Ben Duckett, Joe Clarke, Jack Haynes, Kyle Verreynne(w), Liam Patterson-White, Fergus O Neill, Josh Tongue, Brett Hutton, Farhan Ahmed

Sussex (Playing XI): Daniel Hughes, Tom Haines, Tom Clark, Tom Alsop, James Coles, Oliver Carter, John Simpson(w/c), Fynn Hudson-Prentice, Jack Carson, Ollie Robinson, Jayden Seale


Division Two

Derbyshire vs Middlesex

Derbyshire (Playing XI): David Lloyd, Caleb Jewell, Harry Came, Wayne Madsen(c), Brooke Guest(w), Luis Reece, Alex Thomson, Martin Andersson, Zak Chappell, Jack Morley, Blair Tickner

Middlesex (Playing XI): Nathan Fernandes, Stephen Eskinazi, Max Holden, Leus du Plooy, Ryan Higgins, Ben Geddes, Jack Davies(w), Zafar Gohar, Toby Roland-Jones(c), Blake Carlton Cullen, Dane Paterson

Leicestershire vs Gloucestershire

Leicestershire (Playing XI): Rishi Patel, Soloman Budinger, Ian Holland, Lewis Hill, Peter Handscomb(c), Rehan Ahmed, Ben Cox(w), Logan van Beek, Ben Green, Josh Hull, Roman Walker

Gloucestershire (Playing XI): Cameron Bancroft(c), Ben Charlesworth, Oliver Price, Miles Hammond, Cameron Green, James Bracey(w), Graeme van Buuren, Zaman Akhter, Josh Shaw, Dominic Goodman, Ajeet Dale

 

[chris.hinton]

Afghanistan do have a FC comp, Ireland’s hasn’t been played since 2019…full member status seems to be as difficult to lose as it is to gain!

Ireland should really work some sort of deal with England. Perhaps have 2 sides in the county championship.

 

[kevinw]

Notts bold with two spinners. I thought LPW might have been a dark horse for international selection a few years ago.

 

[Molehill]

Notts bold with two spinners. I thought LPW might have been a dark horse for international selection a few years ago.

And then opting to bowl too. It's working out ok so far though.

 

[CartyDurham]

Jake Ball takes three wickets in his first Durham spell

Worcester 27 for 3

 

[Molehill]

Sounds like Cam Green got a good one from Josh Hull - shame!!

 

[kevinw]

Surrey's bowling looks powderpuff this season so far.

 

[Yeoman]

They have certainly not had the assistance that the darkish pitch promised at the toss. Worell bowled well at the start I thought, getting some loft and movement. Towards the end of the session they did though look increasingly flat.

 

[Chin Music]

Surrey's bowling looks powderpuff this season so far.

And a few minutes after you write, Somerset lose a couple of wickets!