Law: 'County system has helped England'

Stuart Law, who played one Test for Australia and who earlier this year became a British citizen, has praised the standard of county cricket in England, and believes the county system has been the fundamental reason for England's success.

County cricket has long been lamented; indeed, in the 1990s, it was said to be the primary cause of England's poorly-performing Test side, contrasting starkly with Australia's fiercely competitive domestic system. A decade later and things are changing, according to Law.

Speaking to The Observer, he said: "The gap is definitely closing. It has certainly become more and more professional. I think a big move was sacking those guys who just wanted to pay off their mortgages and replacing them with players who want to improve themselves and, one day, play for England."

Law is in the unique position of having played in significant seasons in both Australia's and England's domestic game. He captained Queensland to their first Pura Cup title, spent time with Essex and, most recently, has continued his prolific run-scoring for Lancashire.

"The standard of cricket in England has improved dramatically since I first came here. It's that competitiveness that comes from the overseas influences and the hard grind of it all. You have to know how to fight, and that is being bred into the English system these days. It all adds up to hard-nosed cricket."

"In England these days there's so much cricket that it really plays on the body and the mind but there's no chance to let up," he added. "You might have just finished a game, driven across the country and woken up to be facing Shoaib Akhtar or Shane Warne the next day. You have to be on your game every day of the week. If you're not, some of these guys will make fools of you."

As much as England's domestic system has improved, Law concluded with a note of caution: "I wouldn't say that England are on the verge of controlling world cricket for the next 10 years just yet. But there are some very promising guys in the county ranks that, in a couple of years from now, could be very good."