The County Cricket Haves and Have Nots Over the Last Two Decades

County Cricket’s Haves and Have Nots

After the comments that I made yesterday about the split of the eighteen counties into ones deemed by popular opinion to be the sides that are habitual strugglers and those that show themselves to be a cut above them (translated: sides that, in a reduced structure, which seems to be a long-term aim, the game could do quite happily without and those that, in the popular view, deserve to survive) it seemed interesting to look at some numbers. As a supporter of one of the counties that some would quite happily see amalgamated into another side, or treated as a feeder for developing players or, quite possibly, just disappear, I have my point of view on this, but the policy-makers in the ECB are unlikely to listen to what supporters such as me have to say about the rights of historic county teams to exist.

We have had twenty full seasons of two divisions. That is enough to have a look at some trends and at which are the Division 1 royalty and the Division 2 strugglers.

My first surprise was that there is not a single side that has spent all twenty years in Division 1… or, for that matter, in Division 2.

The side that has the largest number of seasons in Division 1, if we counted the aborted 2020 season (i.e. 21 seasons, rather than 20 completed seasons), is Lancashire, with 18. But even Lancashire have been relegated three times.

The top six teams for number of seasons in Division 1 are:

Lancashire	18
Warwickshire	17
Yorkshire	17
Somerset	16
Hampshire	15
Surrey	15

 

Seven sides have spent fewer than ten seasons in Division 1 or, to put it another way, have spent at least two-thirds their time in Division 2. The sides with the fewest seasons in the top flight have been:

Derbyshire	2
Glamorgan	2
Gloucestershire	3
Northamptonshire	3
Leicestershire	4
Essex	7
Worcestershire	7

 

Six of the seven sides will surprise no one. I suspect that not too many people would expect Essex to have one of the weakest records over the last two decades. Middlesex are the only other side that, by the end of the 2021 season, will have spent more than half their seasons in Division 2.

Over the history of the two divisions, Worcestershire are perceived as a yo-yo side: too good for Division 2, not good enough for Division 1: the result a history of yo-yoing between the two divisions. Statistics bear this out. No team has avoided relegation over the history of the two-division Championship, but six sides have been relegated three or more times, with Worcestershire the head of this singular league of dishonour, only once surviving to see a second season before relegation:

	Times relegated
Worcestershire	6
Nottinghamshire	4
Essex	3
Hampshire	3
Lancashire	3
Surrey	3

 

Fortunes can change quickly in cricket. Lest we forget, have a look at the only three teams that have managed a run of at least ten consecutive years in Division 1 without relegation:

	Consecutive seasons In Division 1
Lancashire	13
Somerset	13
Durham	11

 

Their nearest rivals in this league are Kent, Nottinghamshire and Warwickshire, with 9 consecutive seasons each, although Kent have only had three seasons in Division 1 since relegation in 2008. In contrast, Yorkshire’s best run of consecutive seasons in Division 1 stands at just 8 and Surrey’s at 6 (the first six of the two-division structure). Looking at Durham’s performance over the last few seasons since executive relegation, it is easy to forget that, over the last two decades they were, for most of that time, arguably the most consistent side in the country.

At the other extreme, Derbyshire, Glamorgan and Northamptonshire have, each time, gone straight back down to Division 2 after promotion. As Northamptonshire were one of the promoted sides in 2019, they must be bankers for the drop next season.

Until their recent run of success, Essex had been relegated at the first attempt on their three previous promotions. And five of Worcestershire’s six Division one campaigns have ended after a single season (their longest run was 2 seasons in 2011 and 2012). Gloucestershire’s only previous Division 1 campaign lasted just two seasons, so history is not really on their side either in the survival stakes for 2021.

Looked at through the microscope of the County Championship, Gloucestershire are most definitely one of the five, lesser counties over the last two decades. That much is undeniable. Is that though the full story?

 

The other side of the coin

Since the early 1960s, although the County Championship is the title that all counties aspire to win, there has been another measure of cricketing success and that is the one day titles.

In one-day cricket, a team with fewer resources can complete more easily with the sides with giant cheque books. Other skills come to the fore. Tactics and resourcefulness can overcome sides that, in the longer form of the game are simply unbeatable. And a team that does not have the financial wherewithal to build up a squad of Test players and international stars who demand huge pay checks, can target success.

There have been exactly 50 domestic One Day competitions since the year 2000. Seventeen of the eighteen counties have won at least one of them, but two sides have won almost exactly a quarter of all these tournaments between them:

Gloucestershire	6
Hampshire	6
Essex	4
Surrey	4
Sussex	4
Warwickshire	4
Leicestershire	3
Nottinghamshire	3
Somerset	3
Durham	2
Glamorgan	2
Kent	2
Northamptonshire	2
Worcestershire	2
Lancashire	1
Middlesex	1
Yorkshire	1
Derbyshire	0

 

Interestingly, two of the counties that have been most successful in the four day game – Yorkshire and Lancashire – have been among the least successful in the One Day competitions. Others towards the top of the table (Hampshire, Surrey, Warwickshire, …) have had the resources to do well in both red and white-ball cricket. And poor old Derbyshire have done well in neither.

But Gloucestershire, whatever you say about their red-ball record and despite their astonishing lack of success in T20, are definitely cricketing “haves” in the white-ball game, winning nearly a fifth of all the longer format one-day tournaments since 2000, yet this is a team that is not regarded as worth a side in the 100 and a team that many who are running the game would be happy to see go under... it is a mad, mad world.