Anyway I fancied having a proper in-depth look at season 2008, so I did. And I mean, looking at the quality of player and where they came from. If you can be bothered to read through all of this (unlikely, I know), let me know which ones you disagree about. To avoid confusion - every player who took the field in a First-Class game is included, even if it was just once or twice. And assessments are made based on long-term performance, not purely on this season.
Key:
A-1: proven high-calibre British\Irish players - home-grown. * = played limited first-team cricket in season.
A-2: proven high-calibre British\Irish or European players - imported. * = played limited first-team cricket in season (brackets = mid-season signing).
B-1: promising young British\Irish players - home-grown.
B-2: promising young British\Irish or European players - imported (brackets = loan signing).
C-1: proven high-calibre overseas \ EU-passport \ Kolpak \ British-passport-of-convenience players. * = played limited first-team cricket in season.
C-2: lesser overseas \ EU-passport \ Kolpak \ British-passport-of-convenience players who do nothing for the game.
D-1: poor-quality British\Irish players who do nothing for the game - home-grown.
D-2: poor-quality British\Irish or European players who do nothing for the game - imports from a minor county or who never played for their home county.
D-3: poor-quality British\Irish or European players who do nothing for the game who for some reason have got contracts with second or even third counties (brackets = loan signing).
E: backup wicketkeeper.
Derbyshire:
A-1: Stephen Stubbings*, Kevin Dean*.
A-2: Daniel Birch, Rikki Clarke, James Pipe.
B-1: Paul Borrington, Daniel Redfern.
B-2: Frederik Klokker, Jonathan Clare, (Tom New).
C-1: Chris Rogers, Wavell Hinds, Charl Langeveldt.
C-2: Greg Smith, Dominic Telo.
D-1: Tom Lungley, Jake Needham, Wayne White, Ross Whiteley.
D-2: none.
D-3: John Sadler, Graham Wagg, Ian Hunter, Nayan Doshi, (Mark Lawson).
E: Tom Poynton.
Durham:
A-1: Paul Collingwood*, Stephen Harmison, Mark Davies, Neil Killeen*.
A-2: William Smith.
B-1: none.
B-2: none.
C-1: Neil McKenzie, Albie Morkel, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Michael di Venuto, Dale Benkenstein.
C-2: Garry Park, Paul Wiseman, Mitchell Claydon, Callum Thorp.
D-1: Michael Stoneman, Ben Harmison, Gordon Muchall, Kyle Koetzer, Philip Mustard, Liam Plunkett, Graham Onions.
D-2: none.
D-3: none.
Essex:
A-1: Alastair Cook*, Ravinder Bopara, Mark Pettini, James Foster.
A-2: Jason Gallian, James Middlebrook, David Masters.
B-1: Varun Chopra, Tom Westley, Jaik Mickleburgh, Antonio Palladino.
B-2: none.
C-1: Andre Nel, Danish Kaneria, Grant Flower*, Ryan ten Doeschate, (Neil Dexter).
C-2: none.
D-1: Graham Napier, Tim Phillips, Maurice Chambers, Jahid Ahmed.
D-2: none.
D-3: John Maunders, Alex Tudor, Chris Wright.
E: Adam Wheater.
Glamorgan:
A-1: Michael Powell, David Hemp, Robert Croft, Mark Wallace, Dean Cosker.
A-2: Matthew Wood, Jamie Dalrymple.
B-1: Gareth Rees, Tom Maynard, James Harris.
B-2: Adam Shantry.
C-1: Jason Gillespie.
C-2: none.
D-1: Richard Grant, Ryan Watkins, Huw Waters, David Harrison.
D-2: none.
D-3: Alex Wharf.
Gloucestershire:
A-1: Chris Taylor, Jonathan Lewis.
A-2: none.
B-1: none.
B-2: William Porterfield, Kadeer Ali, Stephen Snell, David Brown.
C-1: Marcus North, Craig Spearman*, Hamish Marshall.
C-2: Grant Hodnett.
D-1: Mark Hardinges, Alex Gidman, William Rudge, Ian Saxelby.
D-2: Matt Gitsham, Vikram Banerjee.
D-3: Ian Fisher, Richard Dawson, Stephen Kirby, Carl Greenidge, (Robert Woodman, Oliver Newby, David Wigley, Andrew Harris).
E: Stephen Adshead.
Hampshire:
A-1: Dimitri Mascarenhas, Chris Tremlett.
A-2: Michael Carberry, John Crawley*, Kevin Pietersen*.
B-1: Liam Dawson.
B-2: none.
C-1: Shane Bond, Mornantau Hayward, Rory Kleinveldt, Imran Tahir, Sean Ervine, Nic Pothas.
C-2: none.
D-1: James Adams, Christopher Benham, James Tomlinson, David Griffiths, Hamza Riazuddin.
D-2: Michael Brown, Greg Lamb, David Balcombe.
D-3: Michael Lumb.
E: Tom Burrows.
Kent:
A-1: Robert Key, Matthew Walker*, Geraint Jones, Robert Joseph.
A-2: Darren Stevens, Martin Saggers.
B-1: Joe Denly.
B-2: none.
C-1: Yasir Arafat, Martin van Jaarsveld, Neil Dexter*, Justin Kemp*, Azhar Mahmood*, Ryan McLaren.
C-2: none.
D-1: James Tredwell.
D-2: Amjad Khan.
D-3: none.
Lancashire:
A-1: Paul Horton, Mark Chilton*, Andrew Flintoff*, Glen Chapple, James Anderson*.
A-2: Iain Sutcliffe*, Mal Loye*, Luke Sutton, Dominic Cork.
B-1: Karl Brown, Steven Croft, Steven Mullaney, Kyle Hogg, Tom Smith, Simon Marshall.
B-2: none.
C-1: Brad Hodge, Mohammad Yousuf, Lou Vincent, Stuart Law, Francois du Plessis.
C-2: none.
D-1: Gary Keedy, Sajid Mahmood, Oliver Newby.
D-2: none.
D-3: none.
E: Gareth Cross.
Leicestershire:
A-1: Paul Nixon.
A-2: none.
B-1: Tom New, Matthew Boyce, Greg Smith, Joshua Cobb, (Tom Smith, Lee Daggett).
B-2: James Taylor, Johan Malcolm-Hansen.
C-1: Boeta Dippenaar, Hylton Ackerman, James Allenby, Claude Henderson, Jermaine Lawson*, Dillon du Preez, Garnett Kruger.
C-2: Jacques du Toit.
D-1: Ryan Cummins, Sam Cliff, Jigar Naik.
D-2: Daniel Rowe.
D-3: Nadeem Malik.
Middlesex:
A-1: Andrew Strauss*, Owais Shah, Nick Compton*, Ben Scott.
A-2: Ed Smith*, Ed Joyce, Shaun Udal, Chris Silverwood*, Alan Richardson.
B-1: Billy Godleman, Daniel Housego.
B-2: Eoin Morgan, Dawid Malan.
C-1: Vernon Philander, Murali Kartik.
C-2: Gareth Berg, Dirk Nannes.
D-1: Danny Evans, Steven Finn, Christopher Peploe.
D-2: David Burton.
D-3: Tim Murtagh, (Mark Lawson).
E: David Nash.
Northamptonshire:
A-1: Monty Panesar.
A-2: David Sales, Stephen Peters, Niall O'Brien.
B-1: Alex Wakeley, Ben Howgego, Mark Nelson.
B-2: none.
C-1: Johann Louw, Andrew Hall, Lance Klusener, Nico Boje, Johannes van der Wath, Riki Wessels.
C-2: Andrew Crook, Steven Crook.
D-1: Shaun Bailey, Graeme White.
D-2: Robert White.
D-3: David Lucas, David Wigley, Richard Logan.
Nottinghamshire:
A-1: Samit Patel, Chris Read, Paul Franks.
A-2: Matthew Wood, Mark Wagh, Mark Ealham, Graeme Swann, Ryan Sidebottom*.
B-1: Bilal Shafayat, Luke Fletcher.
B-2: Stuart Broad.
C-1: Adam Voges, Ashwell Prince, Andre Adams, Darren Pattinson.
C-2: none.
D-1: none.
D-2: Charles Shreck.
D-3: William Jefferson, Robert Ferley, Andrew Harris.
Somerset:
A-1: Marcus Trescothick.
A-2: Ian Blackwell, Andy Caddick.
B-1: James Hildreth.
B-2: Craig Kieswetter.
C-1: Justin Langer, Zander de Bruyn, Alfonso Thomas, Charl Willoughby.
C-2: none.
D-1: Neil Edwards, Wesley Durston, Arul Suppiah, Peter Trego, Michael Munday.
D-2: none.
D-3: John Francis, Steffan Jones, Ben Phillips, Mark Turner.
E: Carl Gazzard.
Surrey:
A-1: Mark Butcher, Scott Newman, Alastair Brown, James Benning.
A-2: Mark Ramprakash, Usman Afzaal, Jonathan Batty.
B-1: Matthew Spriegel, Chris Murtagh, Tom Jewell, Stuart Meaker.
B-2: none.
C-1: Matthew Nicholson, Abdur Razzaq, Shoaib Akhtar, Saqlain Mushtaq, Murtaza Hussain, Pedro Collins.
C-2: Stewart Walters, Chris Jordan.
D-1: Alex Tudor, Jade Dernbach.
D-2: Lee Hodgson.
D-3: Richard Clinton, James Ormond, Chris Schofield.
Sussex:
A-1: Michael Yardy, Matthew Prior, Robin Martin-Jenkins, James Kirtley, Jason Lewry.
A-2: Chris Adams.
B-1: Chris Nash, Michael Thornley, Oliver Rayner, William Beer.
B-2: Luke Wright, Rory Hamilton-Brown.
C-1: Mushtaq Ahmed*, Mohammad Sami, Murray Goodwin, Corey Collymore.
C-2: Ryan Harris, Raghab Aga.
D-1: Carl Hopkinson.
D-2: none.
D-3: Christopher Liddle.
E: Andrew Hodd.
Warwickshire:
A-1: Michael Powell, Ian Westwood, Ian Bell*, Jamie Troughton.
A-2: Darren Maddy, Jonathan Trott, Tim Ambrose*, Ian Salisbury, (Rikki Clarke).
B-1: Nicholas James, Chris Woakes, Naqqash Tahir.
B-2: Lee Daggett, Boyd Rankin, Calum MacLeod, Andrew Miller, Stuart Hole.
C-1: Monde Zondeki*, Chris Martin*, Ant Botha.
C-2: Neil Carter, Tim Groenewald.
D-1: Luke Parker.
D-2: Navdeep Poonia, James Anyon.
D-3: none.
E: Tony Frost, Richard Johnson, Michael Balac
Worcestershire:
A-1: Daryl Mitchell, Vikram Solanki, Steven Davies, Kabir Ali.
A-2: Graeme Hick, Ben Smith, Gareth Batty, Simon Jones*.
B-1: none.
B-2: Alexei Kervezee, Moeen Ali, Imran Arif.
C-1: Stephen Moore, Matthew Mason*.
C-2: Steve Magoffin, Dilhara Fernando.
D-1: Mehraj Ahmed.
D-2: none.
D-3: Gareth Andrew, Chris Whelan, (Andrew Harris).
Yorkshire:
A-1: Chris Taylor, Michael Vaughan*, Anthony McGrath, Darren Gough*, Matthew Hoggard.
A-2: Gerard Brophy.
B-1: Andrew Gale, Adam Lyth, Adil Rashid, Tim Bresnan, Ajmal Shahzad, Steven Patterson, Ben Sanderson, Oliver Hannon-Dalby.
B-2: Gary Ballance
C-1: Morne Morkel, Rana Naved-ul-Hasan*, Jacques Rudolph, Gideon Kruis.
C-2: none.
D-1: Joe Sayers, Rich Pyrah, David Wainwright.
D-2: none.
D-3: none.
