County Championship: Warwickshire and Kent can lead summer voyage (17 April 1998)

17 April 1998

Warwickshire and Kent can lead summer voyage

Christopher Martin-Jenkins

WARWICKSHIRE and Kent look the two teams with most reason for confidence as the 1998 Britannic Assurance County Championship begins this morning in weather of classic and appropriate uncertainty.

The game generally starts the season in a mood of fragile hope, like a small boat setting out to sea on a breezy April day after a winter under wraps. The navigation of the domestic game is uncertain, the crew rusty and the destination somewhat confused.

Some 11 months ago the picture seemed clearer. Alas, the roaring start against Australia early last summer and the expectations inherent in Raising The Standard could not prevent the boat being blown off course. Friction between the wealthy counties and the rest, ultimate failure in the Caribbean and the embarrassment of the foolishly uncontested case of the dismissed female employee of the England and Wales Cricket Board have combined to knock some of the confidence out of an organisation who had taken such assured steps towards the 21st century.

But good things are happening, too, from the grass roots upwards: St Margaret's at Aigburth, one of the 67 per cent of comprehensive schools who play cricket, took on Sullivan Upper School from Belfast yesterday in the middle of their Easter holidays, the start of a season in which St Margaret's seven teams of different ages will play a match a week and four of them will go on tour. Truly there is much to look forward to, and the County Championship is high on the list.

With the exception of those returning early from a winter of international cricket, not a player taking the field this morning - Leicestershire and Hampshire have games against Cambridge and Oxford so all 18 counties are involved - will not be determined to justify himself and the system which sustains him.

It will probably rain, sooner or later, on most of the eight matches with which the programme begins but it is still right that the English season should begin in April. The 'uncertain glory of an April day' reflects perfectly the manner in which the game raises hopes and dashes them but never quite allows all optimism to be snuffed out. Only one team, the fact remains, will win the Britannic Assurance cheque for £100,000.

Four teams, not nine as last year, will get prize money this time but every match is worth £2,000 to the winners, and the top eight will be rewarded with a place in the Super Cup next season. The incentive is good but there is still time for the ECB to reconsider the muddled thinking which, as things stand, will reward success in the four-day championship with participation in an extra one-day tournament. Having finally consigned the Benson and Hedges Cup to history after this season, this was a sop, illogically conceived, to the wealthy counties wanting two divisions.

The split between the weak and the strong will start in any case with the AXA League next season. The top nine in this year's league qualify for the first division next year. The programme of 40-over matches starts this Sunday but continues on various days of the week thereafter, starting with Sussex's quixotic fixture against Lancashire on Tuesday. It promises to be the coolest day-night match staged.

At Hove today there is reason for hope. Neither Wasim Akram nor Michael Bevan has finished with international business so Lancashire, the county who pioneered all-year contracts, are led by John Crawley, with a keen young opener named Michael Atherton eager to stake a claim to a Test place.

Chris Adams begins the challenge of justifying his salary and among his bowlers James Kirtley, who took a hat-trick in Sussex's only completed warm-up match, against Durham, will not have forgotten that he shattered Atherton's stumps in Zimbabwe. Jason Lewry, no less dangerous now that he has recovered from his back injury, plays his first championship match for 21 months.

His former colleague Ed Giddins makes his Warwickshire debut eager to make up for the time he lost for quite different reasons. He is still a potential England bowler and he has joined a club used to winning. There is unrest at Edgbaston about the decision to ask Brian Lara to captain in place of Tim Munton - who is in the squad for today's match against Durham - but so happily did things turn out for Lara against England that he should be able to inspire the strongest playing staff in the country.

He has arrived in time for the opening day and his belief in spin will be good for Ashley Giles, now apparently recovered from the Achilles' heel injury which kept him out of the one-day internationals in the Caribbean.

Kent, the perennial bridesmaids, have an early test of strength against another county with genuine aspirations, Middlesex, in the first match at Canterbury where Lara's deputy, Carl Hooper, is also going to risk the April chill. His gifts can only enhance a team who have match-winning capability on every sort of pitch.

Surrey take on Northamptonshire, for whom Devon Malcolm makes his first appearance on his favourite ground, needing a good start, for their own and their captain, Adam Hollioake's sake. There is every confidence that Ben will continue his upward progression and that Alex Tudor will make strides, rapid in every sense, towards a possible place on the winter tour of Australia.

Alec Stewart has been allowed to rest for two matches and Surrey will also miss Chris Lewis, who will form a powerful fast attack with Jimmy Ormond, David Millns and Alan Mullally when Leicestershire's campaign begins with every prospect of a top-three place at least.

Worcestershire, no longer a club but an Industrial and Provident Society, are led by Graeme Hick against Essex. Tom Moody's absence and an injury to Reuben Spiring gives Vikram Solanki a chance as an opening batsman. Yorkshire, pointing the way perhaps towards leaner professional staffs in future, start life without Martyn Moxon against a Somerset batting side strong enough to omit Mark Lathwell and place Marcus Trescothick at No 7.

These are all potentially intriguing matches but none more so than the one at Bristol between the champions, Glamorgan, and the side who pushed them for a long time last year, Gloucestershire. Courtney Walsh is back, Waqar Younis is not.

Good luck to all who venture on to the more or less sodden turf today, boots and flannels spotless, vests and sweaters de rigueur. Good watching, too, to all the hardy souls who travel to support them.

Source :: Electronic Telegraph (https://www.telegraph.co.uk)