County Championship/Bob Willis Trophy 2021

First topic message reminder :

Starts in eight days time on the 8th of April, so we may as well have a thread for it. It's another revised structure for this year, with two trophies up for grabs: the County Championship and the Bob Willis Trophy.

The 18 counties have been split up into three seeded groups:

Group 1: Derbyshire, Durham, Essex, Nottinghamshire, Warwickshire, Worcestershire
Group 2: Gloucestershire, Hampshire, Leicestershire, Middlesex, Somerset, Surrey
Group 3: Glamorgan, Kent, Lancashire, Northamptonshire, Sussex, Yorkshire

Counties will play every group opponent home and away - a total of ten matches. After ten matches, the top two teams in each group advance to Division One. Teams finishing 3rd and 4th go to Division Two. Teams finishing 5th and 6th go to Division Three.

In the division stage, each county will play a total of four more games. They will not, as far as I'm aware, play again against their initial group opponents. For instance, if Essex and Warwickshire make it through to Division One, they won't play each other in the division stage, just the top two from groups two and three.

After these four extra games, the team that is top of Division One will be classed as the County Championship winners. The County Championship winners will then play the team that finished second in Division One in the five-day final to determine the Bob Willis Trophy winners.

The group stage will run from April-July. The division stage will start late August and conclude in September. The final is set to be played from the 27th September-1st October (the ECB know it rains and gets dark then, right?).

I can't say I'm a fan of this format, to be honest, as the County Championship trophy has been relegated in stature, but I hope it all works out well.

With SkyBet, defending champions Essex have been installed as favourites at 5/1 to win the Bob Willis Trophy. Perennial runners-up Somerset are the second favourites at 13/2, then Yorkshire at 7/1. Lancashire, Nottinghamshire and Kent a bit further back at 9/1. Forum favourites Surrey at 12/1. No-hopers such as Durham, Glamorgan and Leicestershire way out at 66/1.

The number of games in 2022 is going to be the same (14) as 2021 so there aren't more meaningless games. The games probably have more meaning for most counties as some will be battling for the Division One title, some against relegation from Division One, and some for promotion to Division One.

A lot of the 2021 format was meaningless - Division Two and Three was completely pointless as there was no potential for promotion/relegation, plus any games in the initial ten-game stage where counties realised they had very little chance of qualifying for Division One after a poor start.

There's also going to be fewer mismatches now which is a good thing - with the possible exception of Notts in the second-tier. I agree that basing things off of 2019 results is foolish. The 2021 format did have an interesting finish, but nothing that we haven't seen before from the usual two-division format (e.g. in 2010).

It's currently unknown whether the five-day final will be retained (I hope not).

Seems a massive missed opportunity to reform the county game to something more useful for both the England test side, and the counties themselves.

The trickiest bit for next season is still to be sorted and that's the scheduling of games.

I meant to post this a wee bit back but kept forgetting.

Matt Critchley to Essex is a very good bit of business by Anthony McGrath I'd wager. Critchley will presumably slide into that lower middle order spot that ten Doeschate occupied and offer a fast improving second spinner to bowl alongside Harmer in turning wickets. His overall stats don't look great but he's got a lot of talent and has already proven he can put in match winning performances.

I think that's a signing that should suit both Critchley and Essex pretty perfectly.

king_carlos wrote:I meant to post this a wee bit back but kept forgetting.

Matt Critchley to Essex is a very good bit of business by Anthony McGrath I'd wager. Critchley will presumably slide into that lower middle order spot that ten Doeschate occupied and offer a fast improving second spinner to bowl alongside Harmer in turning wickets. His overall stats don't look great but he's got a lot of talent and has already proven he can put in match winning performances.

I think that's a signing that should suit both Critchley and Essex pretty perfectly.

Agreed.

Meantime, Surrey have signed Cameron Steel.

It was intended that next season's domestic features would be issued about now. However, finalisation has been delayed by ''the Yorkshire problem'' and it's now likely they won't be issued until after Christmas.