Essex tipped to put up a strong title defence

The teams are under starters' orders, the weather is intermittently foul. It must be the start of the 2018 County Championship season.

It's a notoriously tricky competition to second-guess - a season-long campaign, chopped into two parts in early and late summer, and subject to the vagaries of weather, international call-ups and evolving pitch conditions.

But at this early stage of the betting, the odds-setters at Bet365 aren't looking far beyond the reigning champions Essex, who stunned the top flight with a runaway victory last year, after several seasons of underachievement in red-ball cricket.

The reasons of backing Essex are myriad. For starters, they are a close-knit outfit who can expect to get away without excessive disruption from the international calendar. Aside from Alastair Cook, who will only be absent during England's Test campaigns, their players are by and large ones for the future or stars of the recent past.

Dan Lawrence, at the age of 20, will doubtless feature for England further down the line but right at this moment he's still a hugely promising work in progress. Tom Westley was called up by England last summer but failed to seize his chance; Jamie Porter, their outstanding seamer, is still a few notches away from England recognition; Simon Harmer, their game-changing spinner, is no longer available to South Africa.

Throw in the likes of Ryan ten Doeschate, James Foster and Ravi Bopara, veteran senior pros who've seen it all before, and they've got the bare bones of a squad who can challenge for the title once again.

That said, how much will be resting on their opening-round clash with the serial champions of recent years (and 4/1 contenders), Yorkshire, at Headingley? After a disappointing campaign in 2017, this is precisely the sort of match-up that could ignite either team's season.