Middlesex have parted ways with first-team coach Richard Johnson as "results have fallen below expectations".
The 50-year-old has been at the helm since the start of the 2022 season, having previously worked as assistant coach under Richard Scott and taking over the lead role on an interim basis in 2018.
Johnson guided Middlesex to promotion from Division Two of the County Championship in his first season but they were relegated at the first attempt in 2023, finished third in the second tier last season, and are sixth, five points off the bottom, after three defeats in their opening seven matches.
Middlesex have also lost three of their opening six fixtures in this season's T20 Blast to lie off the pace in seventh in a tightly fought South Group, and have failed to reach the knockout stage of either white-ball competition since Johnson's arrival.
Alan Coleman, Middlesex's director of cricket, told the club website: "Jono has put his heart and soul into the role and we thank him for all his hard work.
"Ultimately cricket is a performance business, and we do not feel that the results this season have matched the expectations that we have for the team at our disposal.
"Jono is due a lot of credit for leading the team through the most difficult off-field period that we have had and has embraced the challenge of working within the financial constraints placed upon the club during his time."
Coleman added: "We do though have high expectations for the playing group that has been assembled, and we do feel that the time is right for a change to try and maximise the talent and performances from our squad.
"Jono is a modern Middlesex cricketing great and has served the club exceptionally well during his time as a player, assistant coach and first-team coach."
As interested parties attempt to thrash out some semblance of tolerable compromise in English domestic cricket’s latest review, Alan Higham, a life-long cricket lover turned county campaigner, recalls a scene from 1980s comedy Auf Wiedersehen, Pet.
“Everybody gets what nobody wants,” laments de facto leader Dennis after a vote to determine the colour of the group’s hut results in yellow topping the polls, despite no one having it as their first preference.
“That’s democracy, Dennis,” is vote organiser Barry’s brusque response.
Over the coming weeks, the future of England’s national summer sport should become clearer. The current review – the third of its kind over the past seven years – intends to resolve a domestic calendar widely considered unfit for a rapidly evolving game. On that, there is consensus. On what comes next, Higham, the founder of the County Cricket Members Group, suggests it may well be yellow paint all over again.
The scars from the governing body’s last failed attempt to alter the domestic cricket landscape remain sore. “An almost perfect model in how to bungle change,” was Sussex chairman Jon Filby’s verdict on the Andrew Strauss-led, ECB High-Performance Review of 2022, which was thrust upon counties from on high with minimal consultation.
Mistakes have been heeded, and it is hoped a collaborative approach will result in a more successful outcome from the follow-up incarnation.
For the past few months, those who hold county purse strings – along with various other stakeholders in the domestic game – have been assembling around the country to try to concoct a schedule that might be acceptable to all. It is no simple task.
As Rob Andrew, ECB managing director of the professional game, admitted at the start of the process: “We’ve got 18 counties that agree [the schedule] is not right, but 19 different versions of what the answer is.”
With an overwhelming majority of players and coaches insisting too much domestic cricket is being played, a reduction is inevitable. The number of County Championship and T20 Blast games is anticipated to drop from 14 apiece to, most likely, 12, although a number of other options remain on the table. England’s first-class competition might also shift to a structure that culminates in knockout play-offs and finals.
It is hoped a series of meetings with county chairs and chief executives starting next week will begin a path towards a resolution, ideally without need for a vote that would require 12 of the 18 first-class counties to agree for any motion to be passed. A late July deadline has been pencilled in, and a consensus would be far more palatable than a divided vote.
But for members – whose annual fees are supposed to bestow ownership rights to 15 of the 18 counties – the question of who determines their club’s standpoint remains. At Middlesex, members have forced a special general meeting for a binding vote on whether the club must oppose any reduction of county fixtures.
Other clubs are holding members’ forums to gauge views, although how much those will be taken into consideration is a contentious subject.
“Should members be making the decisions?” wonders Higham. “I’ve come to the conclusion that no, I don’t think members should be directing the boards in what to do. But if we have to make a tough decision that we don’t agree on, don’t rush it, don’t impose it, don’t do phoney consultations or make people feel they are ignored. That’s going to build on the already broken levels of trust and disconnect among county cricket fans.”
Universality is wholly absent. While one county boss described the latest review process as “refreshing”, adding “if it doesn’t deliver the results we want then we, the counties, have only got ourselves to blame”, another suggested it has “the feel of fait accompli”.
Fewer county matches should, necessarily, prompt lower membership fees with less cricket to watch. But if membership no longer provides the desired input into a club’s future direction, might spectators choose to relinquish their member status altogether and pay on the door instead?
Higham’s suggestion is for all parties to “meet in the middle”, proposing: “We should all compromise. We should all give a little and suffer a little bit of pain to make some obvious improvements.”
Whether that means anyone will be fully content with the outcome is unlikely. So long as everyone’s voices are heard. That’s democracy, Dennis.
Gloucestershire face exodus with nine players potentially heading for exit
Surrey and Lancashire thought to be among wealthier counties circling players whose contracts expire next season
Will Macpherson
Blast champions Gloucestershire are the non-Hundred host county most vulnerable to a raid on their playing squad from bigger clubs after English cricket’s contracting window opened.
From June 1 counties have been allowed to formally approach players in the last year of their contracts about a move next season.
Gloucestershire reached June 1 with an unusually high number of players out of contract – nine. Among this group are Ajeet Singh Dale and Zaman Akhter, the exciting fast bowlers who played for England Lions this week, as well as promising all-rounder Tom Price, fast bowler Dom Goodman, and stalwart batsman Miles Hammond.
The likes of Surrey and Lancashire are thought to be interested in Singh Dale and Akhter, while Price – who, like Goodman and Marchant de Lange, is currently injured – can expect a slew of suitors too.
Gloucestershire have made contract offers to all the players, but they have chosen not to commit by June 1 in order to explore the market. It is highly unlikely that all nine will leave, and club officials are confident that a good number will sign extensions.
In addition, Price’s brother, the batting all-rounder Ollie, has another year remaining on his deal, but is thought to have a clause that could allow him to leave this year. It seems unlikely that he will, though.
Under club legend Mark Alleyne, who joined as head coach ahead of the 2024 season, Gloucestershire have defied a tricky time to build an exciting squad. Last year, they won the T20 Blast for the first time, and they are in the hunt for promotion to Division One next season, sitting fourth in the table.
Nevertheless, a chaotic couple of years off the field have resulted in players entering the final year of their contracts.
In December 2023, Telegraph Sport revealed that Gloucestershire were considering selling their historic Nevil Road Ground – their home since the days of WG Grace in 1889 – to developers and moving to a site outside Bristol.
This would allow the club to bank up to £40 million for the city centre site, then diversify their business at an out-of-town venue in the manner that Hampshire have with the Utilita Bowl, which as well as two cricket ovals has hotels, a golf course and conferencing and events facilities.
While the move is not imminent, Gloucestershire announced in April this year that they had signed a non-binding heads of terms agreement for a site at Swanmoor Stoke, which is situated between Severn Beach and Patchway in the north-west outskirts of Bristol.
Such a move would help alleviate financial concerns at the club. In the last three sets of annual accounts, Gloucestershire’s losses are £570,000 (2022), £1.2 million (2023), and £414,000 (2024).
After losing Beau Webster and Zafar Gohar to other counties this winter, Gloucestershire signed Cameron Green. That represented a real coup, but the deal was funded by a generous member.
There was major administrative churn in 2024, too. Chairman David Jones was removed by the members at the 2024 AGM, and long-standing chief executive Will Brown stepped down a few months later.
At a similar time, the local business Arron Banks – one of the “bad boys of Brexit” – launched a bid to take control of the club, which fizzled out. Eventually Neil Priscott was promoted to replace Brown, while Peter Matthews stepped in as chair and the pair appear to be bringing some welcome stability.
It is increasingly common for players to move from so-called smaller counties to wealthier Test grounds. That trend could be accelerated in the coming years, with host venues taking control of their Hundred teams, potentially widening the gap between the haves and have-nots.
Each non-host county is in line to receive a one-off payment in excess of £25 million when the Hundred deal is completed. However, there are guardrails from the England and Wales Cricket Board in place for how that money is used, such as paying down debt and improving infrastructure – Gloucestershire’s new ground could be an example of the latter. It is not designed to pay players more.
The perceived attractions of bigger counties are not only that they are able to pay players more, but also provide better facilities for training, while deeper squads mean their workloads can be managed better.
Gloucestershire are not alone in being vulnerable to a raid. Kent have three key young players out of contract: batsman Tawanda Muyeye, all-rounder Joey Evison and fast bowler Nathan Gilchrist.
It is thought that around half the counties could be interested in signing Muyeye, who was born in Zimbabwe but will qualify for England in the next couple of years.
Essex made a statement by securing Sam Cook’s signature, and it is thought that all-rounder Paul Walter, who has done well opening the batting in the County Championship this year, is close to following. Of their key players, Michael Pepper remains out of contract.
A pair of loaned-out all-rounders could leave Somerset, too. Ben Green has spent the Championship campaign on loan at Leicestershire, and could leave Taunton in search of more red-ball opportunities. England Lions all-rounder Kasey Aldridge has gone on loan to Durham for the Blast, which would appear to make them favourites to sign him if he left Somerset.
Somerset also have bowlers Jake Ball and Josh Davey out of contract, while it seems inevitable that the England off-spinner Shoaib Bashir will leave the club, where he sits behind Jack Leach. With England, that pecking order is inverted.
Lancashire are tearing themselves apart on and off the pitch
Club have no wins in seven County Championship matches, and disquiet behind the scenes has led to an unhappy membership
The crisis enveloping Lancashire has deepened, as Dale Benkenstein left the club “by mutual consent” on Wednesday, just a day before an AGM that promises to be explosive.
Lancashire are enduring a desperate season on the field. Relegated from Division One of the County Championship last season, they are winless and a single point off bottom place in the second tier as the competition takes its mid-point break for the Vitality T20 Blast.
Promotion, for which they were widely tipped, is slipping beyond their reach.
Coach and captain step down
A fortnight ago, Lancashire issued an unprecedented apology to members for the “disappointing start” to the season, bemoaning the flat pitches at Old Trafford, but crucially backing Benkenstein and his coaching team.
That statement was issued at 11.25am, but a little over three hours later in a move reminiscent of a scene from The Thick of It, another missive followed saying Keaton Jennings was resigning as captain of the County Championship team with in-form Australian Marcus Harris taking over.
After a draw against Derbyshire and a thumping defeat at leaders Leicestershire in Harris’s two games in charge, Benkenstein has now followed Jennings in leaving his post. Steven Croft, the 40-year-old who retired from playing last season, has been placed in interim charge.
The messy, muddled triptych of statements act as an emblem for the club’s start to a season in which Lancashire have been so bad that barely anyone noticed Yorkshire’s slide to the lower reaches of Division One.
South African Benkenstein, who enjoyed a fine career as a player, arrived from Gloucestershire, who finished bottom of Division Two in his last season in 2023 and had won just two Championship matches in two years.
At Lancashire, he managed just three red-ball wins, all of them in a relegation campaign last year, out of 21 matches.
It leaves the club at a low ebb; a far cry from 2022, when they finished second in all three county competitions. To compete on all three fronts is a fine achievement. All the while, a host of Lancashire products thrive elsewhere, such as Nottinghamshire captain Haseeb Hameed, Warwickshire captain Alex Davies, and Surrey’s lynchpin Jordan Clark.
It is unusual for a county coach to depart mid-season, but this one was greeted with little surprise and few complaints.
Now, attention among a restless, angry support base will turn to those who hired him just 18 months ago with such a modest record: Mark Chilton, the director of cricket, Daniel Gidney, the chief executive, and Andy Anson, the chairman.
Members in revolt
They may feel that the departure of Benkenstein will slightly quieten the music they face at the annual general meeting at 4pm on Thursday, but that seems optimistic. Many will see the coach leaving as mere window dressing.
Lancashire are as busy as any county cricket club. On the cricket side, they host men’s and women’s internationals, a Hundred franchise (which they are partnering with Indian Premier League side Lucknow Super Giants), a men’s county team, and a tier-one women’s team. They are also developing a playing and training base away from Old Trafford at Farington near Preston.
Off the field, at their headquarters they have two hotels, a successful conferencing and events business, and have hosted major concerts. This makes them, and Surrey, the envy of other counties in terms of year-round non-cricket business.
The two sides of the business should be able to coexist, but the sense among those close to the club is that the building of the off-field business has contributed to a loss of focus on cricket.
‘There is a feeling that cricket isn’t the priority’
Club legend David “Bumble” Lloyd used his column in the Daily Mail last week to opine on the club’s demise.
“There is a feeling, from both within and outside the club, that cricket isn’t the main priority,” he wrote. “Rather the balance sheet is. That is a real concern. We must get back to being a cricket club.”
Lloyd described Anson, who is also CEO of the British Olympic Association, as a “thoroughly decent bloke who is very busy doing lots of other things, so he can’t be hands-on”, adding that the well-respected board member John Abrahams is the “only one with any cricket knowledge at senior level”.
For context, Lloyd’s lifetime in and around the club has led to him becoming one of 29 vice-presidents at Lancashire, and he still works for the club in commentary and commercial roles. He knows the place like the back of his hand, and his words carry weight.
Lloyd’s words would chime with many of Lancashire’s members, who have been vocal in their dissent for some years. As one says: “Lancashire and Old Trafford have become an events business attached to an inconvenient cricket team, and an even more inconvenient membership alongside that.”
The members have a fraught relationship with the club’s leaders. Anson has been in charge since 2020, and Gidney was appointed CEO in 2012, making him one of the longest-serving officials in county cricket. He has helped transform Lancashire off the field, has been innovative in his courting of the lucrative Indian market, and has been a great champion of women’s cricket. It should be noted that Lancashire won the inaugural Vitality Women’s County Cup on Monday, so it has not all been bad on the field at the start of the season.
But he has also had a way of angering cricket fans, not least when he told a Lancashire members’ forum that some non-host counties were like “heroin addicts” in their reliance on the England and Wales Cricket Board. This matter is understood to have been raised at meeting of county leaders.
On the more extreme fringe of the Red Rose membership was the Lancashire Action Group, which was founded in 2014 and replaced by Lancashire CC Members Group last year. Earlier this month, their leader Alan Higham wrote an open letter looking ahead to the AGM, saying “the club is struggling – both on the pitch, financially and for the continued support of loyal fans”. They laid out a series of complaints, including the failure of the club to allow members to be represented on the board, and the stifling of dissent. Some of these issues can be expected to dominate proceedings at the AGM on Thursday.
But chief among their complaints was “a loss of focus on Lancashire CCC”. They accuse the club of failing to encourage attendances at Lancashire matches.
In 2019, the last season before the pandemic and the inaugural Hundred, Lancashire’s Blast attendances averaged more than 10,000. In 2024, not helped by a washed-out Roses match, that dropped to under 5,500. The highest attendance was still the Yorkshire fixture, at 7,699, with the lowest just 3,768. Blast numbers have been declining across the country since the Hundred (and will continue to do so this year, with advanced sales very poor), but Lancashire’s is an extreme example.
Membership figures have been dropping, too; in 2006, Lancashire had more than 12,000 members. Now they have just 1,400 full annual members, along with a few thousand others in lower categories that allow access to international tickets. This group clearly fluctuates year-on-year; there were a total of 8,604 members for the Ashes year of 2023, but that dropped to 5,022 in 2024.
Perilous finances
Members are always likely to grumble when a team perform as poorly as Lancashire are now. But for all that the off-field business is well set up, the club’s finances are in a tight spot. When their last accounts (for 2023) were published, Lancashire had £32.2 million of debt, which is expensive to service.
The club’s finances are tied to the England calendar, and are vulnerable to the whims of the weather. In 2023, they hosted an Ashes Test, but two days were badly affected by rain, costing them revenue. Last year, their Test against Sri Lanka was a low-key affair, while the Roses match and T20 international against Australia were both rained off – bad luck, and brutal for the balance sheet.
Next year, Old Trafford does not host a Test match of any sort, denying the club income from advance ticket sales, and in 2027 they are due to host a Test, but not in the Ashes.
Last summer, concern about the club’s cash flow rose among the playing group when there was a delay in their expenses being paid, affecting some players’ personal financial position. When contacted by Telegraph Sport about this last year, the club accepted that one payment was delayed, putting it down to a change of system.
Concerts, like Test matches, have been a sure-fire money-spinner for Lancashire in recent decades. There are currently no concerts in the diary, which the club say is because they are focusing on cricket. But reports in local and national media earlier this year revealed that Trafford Council, the local authority, had taken Lancashire CCC and mega-promoter Live Nation to court over an incident in which a member of the public was injured at a Red Hot Chili Peppers concert three years ago.
The trial will not happen until March 2027, and Lancashire are still able to host concerts while this happens, although it could be that the opening of the Co-Op Live arena in Manchester affects who performs there.
Later this year, Lancashire will be offered a route out of their financial difficulties by the Hundred sale. Gidney, Anson and former board member James Sheridan deserve credit for their work on this, which secured them the IPL partner they so desperately sought, Lucknow’s billionaire owner Sanjiv Goenka, and a good overall value of £116 million.
Lancashire were gifted 51 per cent of the franchise by the ECB, and chose to sell 21 per cent and keep 30 per cent of it, meaning Goenka is buying 70 per cent overall.
When the deal is eventually done – and it is not Lancashire or their partners dragging their feet – the club could receive upwards of £40 million and an opportunity to write off some of that debt and build the business further.
That can wait, though. The first step out of Lancashire’s crisis will be to win a few games.
Club Statement: Dale Benkenstein
Lancashire Cricket can confirm that Dale Benkenstein has left his position as Men’s Head Coach by mutual consent.
Director of Cricket Performance Mark Chilton said: “Following a difficult start to the season, we feel that now is the right time to make a change, as we look to improve our on-field performances.
“After relegation at the end of last season, results have not improved so far this year and after much consideration, both Dale and I feel the team will benefit from a change in direction.
“We would like to thank Dale for his hard work and commitment during his time at the Club. He leaves Lancashire Cricket with our best wishes for the future.”
Former captain Steven Croft has been appointed Interim Men’s Head Coach and will lead the First Team into the Vitality Blast, starting tomorrow against Worcestershire Rapids at Emirates Old Trafford.
Croft will lead training today and will be supported in the role by William Porterfield, Craig White and Karl Krikken.
Awarded his Lancashire cap in 2010, Croft was a key member of the team that won the County Championship in 2011 and captained Lancashire Lightning to T20 Blast success in 2015. He retired from all forms of cricket last year after making more than 600 appearances for the Red Rose and has been coaching the Club’s Second XI this season.
Chilton added: “Steven is a Lancashire legend, highly respected in the dressing room and has been working incredibly hard on his coaching career for several years.
“More recently, he has coached within our Second XI and Academy and has also joined a couple of England Under-19s tours, working with some of the brightest prospects in the country.
“I’d like to thank Steven, along with the other coaches, for stepping into the role at short notice ahead of our Vitality Blast opener tomorrow evening.”
Crackdown on counties criticising umpires on social media
Regulator is ‘actively looking at posts’ amid fears umpires’ confidence could be affected by online ‘pile-ons’ from fans
Will Macpherson
Counties have been warned they could face sanctions for criticising umpiring decisions on social media.
In an attempt to protect officials from pile-ons from fans, the counties were informed by the England and Wales Cricket Board this week that the Cricket Regulator was “actively looking at social media posts from clubs, specifically around dissent to umpiring decisions”.
It added that clubs should not “post negatively about officiating decisions”. The guidance applies to both men’s and women’s county action.
The 18 counties all have hundreds of thousands of followers across their men’s and women’s teams’ accounts on X, Instagram and TikTok.
During matches they use the accounts to keep fans up to date with scores, posting descriptions of wickets or showing clips of the action.
It has been felt that some posts have veered into overt criticism of the officiating, and has incited engagement from fans over the quality of the umpires, who have no access to the Decision Review System at county level.
It is understood that umpires have been hurt and frustrated by fans’ criticism, and there are concerns that it could affect their confidence.
Even describing a dismissal as “adjudged” or “given” lbw – which raises doubt over the correctness of the decision – could be considered loaded language.
It is understood that in the first case, advice would informally be offered to the club or individual over the nature of their posting. If it persisted, they could be issued a caution, or even be charged with bringing the game into disrepute.
Players are also encouraged not to criticise umpires from their personal accounts. Ben Stokes, the England Test captain, is among those who have questioned decisions before. The regulator would have the power to intervene in such cases, too.
The regulator was launched in 2023 to “ensure compliance with the game’s rules and regulations”. It is described as “ring-fenced from the rest of the ECB” and has an independent board.
International stars including Chris Woakes, Rehan Ahmed and Dan Mousley will turn out for the England Lions in two four-day games against India A
An initial 14-player squad has been selected for the England Lions’ two four-day matches against India A.
Somerset’s James Rew will captain the Lions for the first time with the opening match at the Spitfire Ground, St Lawrence in Canterbury from Friday 30 May. The second match will be staged at the County Ground in Northampton from Friday 6 June.
Both games will be live streamed exclusively on ecb.co.uk and on the England Cricket app.
Chris Woakes is selected after an ankle injury has delayed his start to the summer while brothers Farhan and Rehan Ahmed are selected in the same England representative squad for the first time.
Rehan Ahmed will be available for the opening match in Canterbury before joining the England Men’s squad for their Vitality IT20 series against West Indies.
Essex batter Jordan Cox is set to return for the second fixture after an abdominal muscle injury ruled him out of this week’s first Rothesay Test match against Zimbabwe at Trent Bridge.
ECB Performance Director for Men’s Cricket, Ed Barney, said: “This series against a strong India A side is a huge opportunity for an exciting and highly talented group of players. It will provide an opportunity both individually and collectively to excel on the international stage as we continue to succession plan for England’s future needs.”
Wilf comes from Winchester College where he was 1st XI Captain and an outstanding batsman, and where he achieved outstanding academic results.
Old boys of Winchester are known as ‘Old Wykehamists’ because the school was founded, in 1382, by Bishop William of Wykham. One of the current prominent Old Wykehamists is the UK Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak. English cricket captain, Douglas Jardine, was educated there as was the Indian captain, the Nawab of Pataudi.
18 year old Wilf has already represented Hampshire 2nd XI; he scored 112 in SUCC 2nds vs Fairfield recently and is currently the leading run scorer for the club.
Wilfred Edward James La FontaineWilfr (1877-1948), Wilf's great great grandfather and after whom he was named, was born in what was then known as Constantinople, died in the same place but by that stage it was called Istanbul. He was a contemporary of Winston Churchill at Harrow School where they were both in the same Boarding House. He played 1st XI cricket for Harrow and was awarded a silver cup for the best catch of the season. In the annual game against Eton in 1895, he batted at no8, didn’t bowl and scored 0 and 0.
A cousin of his was Percy La Fontaine (1888-1914).
In the 1906 intercelated Olympics in Athens, Percy played for Smyrna FC, one of the Greek teams, and won a silver medal.
Two others who are probably related:
Henri La Fontaine, a lawyer, won the Nobel prize for peace in 1913.
Frederick La Fontaine was an Australian Rules player who represented Fitzroy in over 100 games, 1898-1907.
Wilf appears to be in distinguished company.
James Rodgers written for Sydney Uni
The Home Office’s next big headache? English cricket
Exclusive: Counties want ECB to lobby government to change its visa rules for overseas players, which currently favour T20 experience
County cricket is being undermined by “bizarre” work permit rules leading to calls for the Home Office to change the “crazy” system.
Players who do not meet playing criteria for a work permit are restricted to a maximum of 30 days in the country, under the Permitted Paid Engagement visa scheme. It means several leading performers in this year’s County Championship have been forced to return home early as they do not meet qualification criteria.
The existing rules for overseas players, which were introduced in 2020, mean those without international experience are judged on their T20 pedigree. But counties argue it is wrong to judge players signed for the County Championship based on their prowess in the white-ball game, and want the rules to change for the 2026 domestic season.
‘We didn’t want him for T20s, we wanted him for four-day cricket’
This season, Fergus O’Neill took 21 wickets at an average of 17.9 for Nottinghamshire in Division One, the most of any player during the first five weeks of the season. Yet O’Neill was still forced to leave early. Durham’s Brendan Doggett, another Australian, was in a similar situation.
“It is crazy”, Mick Newell, the director of cricket at Notts, told Telegraph Sport. “T20 seems a bizarre format for Fergus to have had to play when we didn’t want to sign him for that form of the game – we wanted to sign him for four-day cricket.
“If you want to make these competitions the best in the world, you’ve got a really good player here that could probably have played another three games – and continue to make the competition stronger. I have raised it with the ECB [England and Wales Cricket Board], when they look at the rules and regulations for next season. Could they look at a format-by-format qualification, rather than just using T20?
“If you want to sign a player for red-ball cricket, then they should qualify through what they’ve done in red-ball cricket in their own country, not T20.”
Australians having to play through jet lag
To maximise the amount of games that O’Neill played, he only arrived from Australia 72 hours before Notts’s first Championship match of the season. Without the 30-day limit, O’Neill would have arrived several days earlier; Australian players typically arrive around a week before their opening game, to give sufficient time to recover from jet lag.
Tim Bostock, the Durham chairman, said rules need to be reformed for the good of the county game. He believes the limit of two overseas players per team per match already ensures a high level of quality control.
“It seems bizarre,” Bostock told Telegraph Sport. “We now have a qualification criteria designed around playing a minimum number of T20 games with zero recognition of those non-international players who are playing high-quality first-class cricket.
“There are some high-quality overseas players who have not played international cricket, and who do not go off and play franchise cricket, that would enhance the quality of the Championship and also help with season-long planning instead of overseas players coming back and forth. Why would you have T20 cricket as the sole qualification to be allowed to stay longer than 30 days and play in our first-class competition?
“I expect the ECB to lobby government hard on changing the criteria. It’s puzzling that there are multiple overseas players playing in the Premier League and Football League – many of whom have not played at the highest level yet we seem to be restricted, particularly when we only have 18 first-class teams.”
Home Office rules have Hundred in mind
The qualification rules for overseas players are determined by the Home Office, following consultation with the ECB. The last changes to the criteria were made before the 2020 season. The bulk of overseas players qualify for a work permit by dint of playing international cricket. For those without recent international experience, an alternative path is to have played at least 20 domestic T20 games in full member nations in the preceding three years. Players who miss these criteria are limited to a maximum of 30 days contracted to a domestic team.
There is frustration among counties that the criteria priorities short-format experience and is seemingly designed with the Hundred in mind. But players with fine first-class calibre miss out. Cricketers from Australia, where the national talent pool is particularly strong, are especially penalised, as in the case of O’Neill and Doggett.
O’Neill, 24, is considered among the most exciting Australian quick bowlers of his generation. He was named Sheffield Shield player of the season for 2024-25 and has taken 133 first-class wickets at just 20 apiece. Doggett has a fine record in the Australian domestic game and has been called up in several Test squads in recent years. Bizarrely, Doggett’s Test selection has hindered his ability to meet the criteria to play a full part as an overseas player in county cricket. While with Australia’s squad, he missed Big Bash matches that would have helped him meet the threshold of T20 matches.
Harry Conway, another Australian pace bowler, was also only eligible to join Northamptonshire on a short-term basis this year. Jordan Buckingham also signed for Yorkshire for only four weeks.
Several counties are now planning to urge the ECB to push for the criteria to be reformed to ensure high-quality overseas players are able to play a full part in the County Championship. Ideas that counties are discussing include a new qualification criteria of first-class matches played by a player, or A team internationals being counted.
Such proposals must be put forward by the end of the month. The ECB has an annual consultation period with the professional and recreational game each year, which runs until May 31. After the consultation period ends, suggestions are discussed by the ECB committee.
Should the suggestions then be deemed worthy of exploring by the committee, they will also assess whether they fall within Home Office parameters. If the suggestions do meet these criteria, they will be discussed by the Professional Game Committee. Should this group then approve of the suggestions, they will advance to the ECB board for sign-off. At this point, finally, the suggestions would then be taken to the Home Office, who ultimately decide what the qualification criteria for overseas players are.
An ambidextrous spinner is taking county cricket by storm
Bored during the Covid lockdown, Ben Kellaway taught himself to bowl left-handed and he is now using the skill at first-class level
Will Macpherson
Glamorgan were seeking the final Derbyshire wicket in the very last over of their Championship match earlier this month, after four days of hard graft.
With spinner Ben Kellaway bowling, the Glamorgan captain Sam Northeast, one of many fielders crowding the batsman Luis Reece, signalled to his bowler that he should try something different: swapping his right-arm off-spin for left-arm orthodox. Kellaway obliged – informing the umpire first, of course.
The plan did not work, with Derbyshire surviving for a draw. “There was a bit of rough outside the left-hander’s off stump and we thought we’d give it a go,” he said. “With two balls left there was nothing to lose, it might have shot through or bounced. Unfortunately I did not execute it to perfection.”
Perhaps not that delivery, but Kellaway has got a lot right. In that innings, he registered career-best bowling figures of five for 101 and a week later, he had his maiden first-class hundred, 181 not out as a resurgent Glamorgan romped to their first win of the season. To avenge the draw against Derbyshire, it was fitting that Kellaway picked up the final two wickets against Kent.
Kellaway made headlines last summer for his ambidextrous spin bowling, emerging as a cricketing curiosity. But that ball against Derbyshire is, so far, his only left-arm delivery of the new season, during which he has proved he is not a mere novelty act, but a 21-year-old all-rounder of real substance, with many arrows in his quiver. From No 6, he is averaging 64 with the bat and whether as a primary (behind Shoaib Bashir and perhaps soon the fit-again Mason Crane) or secondary spinner, 25 with the ball. With a former England spinner, Richard Dawson, now coaching Glamorgan, Kellaway has kicked on hugely.
Bowling left-arm spin was a happy byproduct of lockdown boredom for Kellaway, who was born in Newport, learnt the game at Chepstow Cricket Club, and educated at Clifton College.
“It was a complete mess about,” he explains. “Everyone obviously had so much time on their hands during Covid and my younger brother and I were both teenagers into cricket, so we just played in the backyard, messing around with swing balls and tennis balls. I then parked it for a while, and got it out occasionally in the nets at school. I never took it seriously.”
Grant Bradburn, the former Glamorgan coach, saw Kellaway bowl left-arm in the nets, and encouraged him to practise “to stand out”. Over the last 18 months, he has bowled more with his left arm in the nets, to the point that it accounts for about 30 per cent of his bowling practice.
“I’ll do my main training as right arm, then when I have some extra time practise with the left,” he says. “At first my whole left side was weaker and I got very sore. But it’s getting stronger and my action is getting better. I’ve still got loads of work to do, but it’s moving in the right direction.”
For now, Kellaway sees his party trick as primarily for white-ball cricket to nullify match-ups. Last July, he became the first bowler in county cricket to take a wicket with each arm in the same innings, since Kent’s Charles Rowe in 1980. Such skill remains very rare, with Sri Lanka’s Kamindu Mendis – now one of the world’s best batsmen – occasionally doing it, too.
“That was baffling,” he said. “I didn’t think much of it at the time. I’d just been told to give it a crack and it worked. The whole spell I bowled 50/50. To get a wicket was surreal, and the reaction in the days that followed made me realise how unusual it was. It’s different and I’m quite excited by where I can take it.
“It needs some more work to bowl longer spells in championship cricket, but I do find that when I bowl longer spells in the nets, I find it easier, and get some rhythm. Just dropping in for a ball here or there is hard.”
One of the bizarre aspects of this tale is how Kellaway can do little else with his left hand. From a family with no link to cricket, he played rugby as a child, and could “just about pass off my left hand, but nowhere near as strong as my right”.
“People find that very funny,” he says. “I am totally right-hand dominant but weirdly this comes quite naturally. I have tried throwing a cricket ball with my left hand and it’s terrible. It’s quite common to bowl with one arm and throw with another, Tymal Mills and Jack Leach do that. But that’s not me at all.”
Kellaway points out that when Glamorgan have been at their strongest, such as when they last won the championship in 1997, they had a strong core of Welsh players.
“That’s a proud thing for the club, and we are striving for more Welsh representation. The way the pathway is set up, I think we will see more coming through. My family weren’t into cricket, but some mates just took me down to the club in Chepstow and I loved it. Hopefully we can inspire more Welsh kids to get into the game.”
Kellaway is just 21, and could yet become an outstanding batsman, off-spinner and left-arm spinner, giving Glamorgan a Welsh core all on his own.
Update from John Abrahams and Mark Chilton
Lancashire Cricket Board Member, John Abrahams and Director of Cricket Performance, Mark Chilton have apologised to the Club’s members and supporters following a disappointing start to the 2025 campaign for the Red Rose.
After five games of the Rothesay County Championship season, Lancashire Men have drawn four and lost one ahead of this week’s fixture against Derbyshire at Emirates Old Trafford.
Mark Chilton said: “We are all desperately disappointed with the start to the season over the last six weeks and acknowledge that our current form has not been good enough. We apologise to our members and supporters for that.
“The coaching staff and players are working extremely hard to turn things around, and we expect to see improvement and progress in the coming weeks, starting with the game starting on Friday against Derbyshire.
“Being bottom of Division Two is not acceptable and we have critical work to do over the coming days to get back on track and we will make necessary changes to enable us to do this.” Chilton stated.
John Abrahams – who Chairs the Cricket Development Committee at Emirates Old Trafford – added: “The Lancashire Cricket Board remains fully behind the coaching group, and we want members to know that the Club will do whatever the cricket department needs to effect change quickly.
“We continually look at different ways we can improve the squad, whether that be loan or permanent additions to the squad.
“We are also working closely with the Grounds Team to look at how we can perform better at Emirates Old Trafford, having experienced the challenging conditions to bowl teams out twice.
“I’d like to thank the members for their continued support of the Club, and we all hope to see a change of fortunes for the team in the next couple of weeks in the County Championship, ahead of the Vitality Blast starting at the end of this month.”
Nottinghamshire are season’s surprise package, which is good news for English cricket
Victory over Sussex delivered encouraging signs for England with Tongue, Ahmed and Duckett all showing good form
Will Macpherson
Few predicted a title tilt for Nottinghamshire in 2025, but after four rounds of action they are setting the pace in Division One with a 10-point lead over champions Surrey.
Notts polished off promoted Sussex – who themselves made an excellent start to the season – by nine wickets, with minimal fuss, to become the first team in the top flight to win two games this season. They beat Durham, then made the running in two draws, before seeing off Sussex, despite talismanic captain John Simpson’s spirited resistance.
At the heart of their win against Sussex were very encouraging signs for England: Josh Tongue’s first-innings five for 44, which included roughing up Sussex batsmen with pace; four second-innings wickets for Farhan Ahmed, the 17-year-old brother of Leicestershire and England’s Rehan who finally claimed the vital scalp of Simpson; and the 59 from 31 balls that Ben Duckett blitzed from No 3 to chase a target of 148 inside 26 overs. Partnering Duckett was Haseeb Hameed, the captain, who made important runs in both innings and has made a fine start to the season.
It is good news, too, for the championship to have more challengers to Surrey, who are right on Notts’ tail, having won for the first time this season. They blew Somerset away, bowling them out for just 119, with the stalwarts Dan Worrall and Jordan Clark taking three wickets each. That set up a chase of just 36, which Surrey knocked off quickly, despite Ollie Pope making one for the second time in what will likely be his final match before the Test summer begins.
This season represents the end of an era at Notts, with CEO Lisa Pursehouse leaving, and long-time head coach Peter Moores expected to follow. It is possible both hoped, rather than expected, a title charge in their final year. Notts last won the title in 2010, and have been a sleeping giant ever since, spending too much time in Division Two or, as last season, underachieving towards the bottom of Division One whilst being held up as a very well-run Test venue.
On the field, in that time they have gained a reputation as a superb white-ball operation, and as poachers of talent, and it is true that many of their players were reared by so-called “smaller” counties such as Northamptonshire (Duckett, Olly Stone) or Worcestershire (Tongue, Joe Clarke and Dillon Pennington). But they are producing talent of their own now, such as Farhan, Lyndon James, and the England Lions batsman Freddie McCann.
They look strong now, having made an outstanding signing in the Victorian Fergus O’Neill, who is leading the championship wicket-taking charts with 21 at 17.9. Sadly, because the 24-year-old is yet to be capped by Australia – watch this space? – he could only secure a month-long visa, so his time at Trent Bridge is over for now.
However, Mohammad Abbas, the Pakistan veteran who has more than 200 County Championship wickets, will be a handy replacement by the time they next play a week on Friday, at home to Hampshire. Their other overseas signing, South African wicketkeeper Kyle Verreynne, has been superb, too.
In Division Two, Leicestershire are also surprise pace-setters. They won a fabulous low-scoring game at Bristol, having bowled Gloucestershire out for 152, then recovered from 42 for five to chase 143 eight wickets down.
Surrey’s rivals have found them out
Champions seeking fourth straight title but face tough task against opponents who have discovered the blueprint to take them on
Surrey’s meeting with Sussex limped to a sorry end on Monday afternoon. With the floodlights on, few still in the ground and no prospect of a result, captain Rory Burns bowled his medium-pacers, before Dan Worrall and Dom Sibley had a go at leg-spin. The players left the field at 3.25pm and did not return.
Burns and his team are seeking to become the first to win four County Championship titles in a row since the 1950s, when their Surrey predecessors won seven on the spin. The result at Hove leaves them with three draws from three matches, neither a disastrous start nor a good one.
Results elsewhere were kind to Surrey this weekend, with only Essex (against Worcestershire) winning in Division One. Because Nottinghamshire were denied by the weather at Edgbaston and Somerset stalled Hampshire, no team have won more than one game in the top flight this season. Surrey sit seventh, but draws are not to be sniffed at, now they are – ludicrously – worth eight points. They are only 11 points behind the leaders.
There has, though, been enough in these three games to worry Surrey supporters that their great run could be coming to an end. They are struggling to take 20 wickets. At this time of year, time lost to the weather is inevitable (especially with overeager umpires), making forcing results harder. But more than that, when they play away from the Kia Oval, opponents now know what conditions to roll out: in early season, slow and very flat. Later in the summer, spin.
“It’s what we expected,” said Gareth Batty, Surrey’s head coach, of flat surfaces like the one at Hove. “People started doing it to us at the end of last year. Very flat, docile, placid surfaces. We are a couple of bits of ammunition short because of injury in terms of what would help that process to take 20 wickets. But that is no excuse. We have had our opportunity. We need to play the perfect game to get that result, and we haven’t quite done that. The weather has also taken passages of play out that would have helped.”
Surrey were close to the complete county team across their three title wins: a deep batting order filled with England internationals, and a relentless seam attack that just kept coming at you. There has always been a sprinkling of overseas stardust, and each season they have added another class act from a rival: Sibley, Dan Lawrence, Matthew Fisher.
Almost every base has been covered, but if there has been one weakness, it has been the absence of specialist, high-class spin. As a player and captain, Batty was a huge proponent of providing opportunities to English spinners. As coach, he has been more pragmatic, seeking to turn hard-hitting batsmen into spinning all-rounders: Will Jacks, Cameron Steel and Lawrence. Specialist spinners Dan Moriarty and Amar Virdi have left in the last two seasons.
This has largely worked well, and meant Surrey never sacrifice batting depth. But they lost two matches last season, away at Hampshire and Somerset, pitches on which they were out-bowled by local spinners such as Liam Dawson and Jack Leach. Spotting what would happen at Taunton, Surrey even parachuted in Shakib Al Hasan, but it was not enough in a classic match.
There was the blueprint of how to take on Surrey, and others will follow in the remaining five away matches this season. It is a crying shame that, because of the Championship’s ridiculous, inelegant structure that does not allow for every team playing every other team in Division One (a consequence of 10 teams playing 14 matches), Surrey do not have to travel to Taunton this summer.
Lawrence has bowled more overs (95.4) than any other Surrey bowler this season, but his six wickets betray the fact that he is not yet threatening when conditions do not suit, and is not yet a genuine all-rounder. Batty was keen to point out that Steel would have played if he was not recovering from an ankle injury. “The fact we had a leg-spinner was a point of difference last year,” he said. “We haven’t been able to replace that.”
In Fisher, they made one excellent signing last winter, but turned down the chance to fix their most glaring issue, spin. Perhaps they will look to bring in another midsummer signing from overseas, or enter the market this winter. England’s Shoaib Bashir is out of contract at Somerset, but a three-match loan at Glamorgan, which ended with a defeat at Lord’s on Monday did not push his county credentials. He took just two wickets at 152.
Surrey’s first priority is just playing better. Their seam attack has not been at its best, while there have been minor batting lapses. With results hard to come by on the road, the temptation could be to make pitches more juicy at home, but that could backfire with low scores of their own.
The champions have time on their side, but a problem to solve.
21/04
The umpires reported Jack Davies’s conduct during Middlesex’s County Championship match against Lancashire on 4 April 2025. The matter was considered by the Match referee, Phil Whitticase, who determined that the offence was at Level 1 of the ECB Professional Conduct Regulations: 1(j) - any breach of the Head Protector Regulations.
The shambles is what franchises are doing to cricket. Yet Wisden kicks WTC, not the book it once was. No longer buy it to be honest.
ReplyDeleteIn fact haven't since tgeytok away stacks of Notts Championships, away by retrospectivrely starting CC in 1890 ! An earlier Wisden had not even quoted that year in a list of memorable dates of the competition. In 1973, Her Majesty issued a set of stamps to celebrate it's centenary.
ReplyDeleteShould read "they took away"
ReplyDeleteThe Two ECB Richards, having fought The Hundred, went totally native; once comfortable in their cushy jobs at Lord's.
ReplyDeleteThey, the people who play and run a once graat, now discredited (to me) sport, "know the price of everything and the value of nothing." I actually blame the people who play the most.
ReplyDeleteHammond leaving Gloucestersire ? Seems like blasphemy !
ReplyDeleteInteresting article I’m surprised Dr Nick Evans hasn’t sent it to all his followers seems to contradict what he’s been pedalling
ReplyDeleteWhat do you think Nick ?
M
if you let me know who you are, I'll respond to you
DeleteIt appears Alan Higham has resigned himself to the fact that there will be cuts to the amount of County Cricket, come what may, regardless of what members would like to see.
DeleteThat's how it reads, although speaking to him, he still thinks it's worth fighting for.
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