Second Team cricket

An interesting question from Essex fan last night, asking my opinion of second team cricket at county level, whether it was worthwhile and if the standard was especially good. 

I think that the answer is yes. It gives a natural conduit to senior county cricket and gives players an opportunity to get an idea of the demands of the game at that level. To go straight from league cricket to county first eleven would be a big jump, the biggest of all. 

I won't pretend that it is a very close replication of first team cricket. Quite often you will find senior bowlers looking for rhythm at that level but not necessarily bowling flat out. To risk injury in doing so would be silly, unless of course the county fitness staff want to test an injury under an appropriate workload. 

Much will depend on the size of staff that the county carries. With the current discussions on the workload of professionals, you aren't going to see players in contention for the senior team playing in the seconds too often. If you consider a staff of twenty, with perhaps three people injured, 12 or 13 might be involved in the senior squad and the balance will play in the second team to keep their eye in, or maintain rhythm. 

A look at the Derbyshire side that played and beat Durham yesterday is interesting. There were four who you would consider established senior players, a couple of trialists and the rest academy players. But in the previous game, against Nottinghamshire, the side was primarily made up of trialists. It was a massive mismatch against a fairly strong Nottinghamshire side, most of them players on the staff at the county. 

It depends who is on trial, of course. I am old enough to remember when Derbyshire fielded Peter Kirsten, Allan Lamb and Garth Le Roux in their second eleven. Eventual international players all and they would have represented a challenge for those tasked in bowling to them or batting against them!

So the standard can vary. Yet it offers an early glimpse of real talent and it is possible to see the wheat that will rise from the chaff. Two of the most memorable centuries I have seen were in second team games. I remember seeing Ian Blackwell at Chesterfield score an incredible century against Yorkshire that marked him as a serious talent. Likewise an innings by Aneurin Donald at Belper, when he hit the Derbyshire attack to distant lands. 

The second question was whether it should be regionalised to save on money. In the case of Derbyshire, it is. The furthest they go this summer are away games in Sussex and Gloucestershire, but most of them are fixtures against other northern counties. T20s are often played at two a day to save costs and it is unrealistic if the side is likely to feature a number of trialists to do otherwise. 

In short? I like county second team fixtures and I love the grounds that they are normally played on. I have met some lovely people wandering around the boundary and had an opportunity to chat to others where that might not ordinarily be possible.

They are an important and necessary stepping stone on the way to first class cricket. Some will fall by the wayside at that hurdle, but others will take it in their stride, perhaps after a period of transition. 

Long may it continue!