DIVISION ONE
Durham
Captain Paul Collingwood
Coach Jon Lewis
A slashed playing budget in recent seasons has led to recurring predictions of relegation and yet here they are, the longest standing Division One side, ready for another dart under captain Paul Collingwood. Early season form, with the England seamer Mark Wood fit again and Ben Stokes dipping in, will be key to how their campaign shapes up, as will the form of Chris Rushworth, who took 83 wickets at 20 last summer as the standout player in the country. That England appear uninterested in his talents remains to the club’s benefit.
Last season:
LV County Championship Division One: 4th
Royal London Cup Quarter-finals
NatWest T20 Blast North Group: 6th
Prediction 5th
Hampshire
Captain James Vince
Coach Dale Benkenstein
Last summer’s great escape in the championship, in which they dodged the drop by two points, should hopefully have served as a wake-up call. However the bulked up top tier suggests the upcoming campaign, in red ball cricket at least, could be another tough one. Vince stepping up to captain should provide fresh impetus, albeit the squad appears polarised between fading veterans and as-yet unfulfilled young talent. The England left-armer Reece Topley is their big signing over the winter, while the evergreen Shahid Afridi should make the Twenty20 campaign fun.
Last season:
LV County Championship Div 1: 7th
Royal London Cup Quarter-finals
NatWest T20 Blast Semi-finals
Prediction 9th
Middlesex
Captains Adam Voges (CC), James Franklin (OD), Dawid Malan (T20)
Coach Richard Scott
Last season’s campaign as the championship runners-up was impressive, especially when the plan to build a team around Adam Voges was scuppered by the Australian’s international call-up. Voges returns, with his summer largely clear this time, although the availability of Nick Compton remains to be confirmed. Can their fortunes in white-ball cricket be reversed under a new three-way captaincy split? Signing Brendon McCullum and his fellow New Zealander Mitchell McClenaghan should certainly help.
Last season:
LV County Championship Div 1: Runners-up
Royal London Cup Group B: 7th
NatWest T20 Blast South Group: 9th
Prediction 4th
Nottinghamshire
Captains Chris Read (CC & OD), Dan Christian (T20)
Coach Mick Newell
Hiring Peter Moores as a coaching consultant turned a potential relegation battle into charge up the table last season and with the former England head coach committed to two more years, and the squad littered with talent, you would expect a challenge on all three fronts. Stuart Broad is around early season, even if Alex Hales misses the first two games, and a middle order of James Taylor, Samit Patel and Riki Wessels looks strong. International call-ups will needed to be coped with however; the talk around the club is that the seamer Jake Ball could be among them.
Last season:
LV County Championship Div 1: 3rd
Royal London Cup Semi-finals
NatWest T20 Blast North Group: 5th
Prediction 3rd
Lancashire
Captain Stephen Croft
Coach Ashley Giles
Promotion and silverware made it a golden first season under Ashley Giles last year; the question must now be whether top-flight status is retained in his second, rather than anything grander. The retirement of Ashwell Prince, who topped the four-day run charts last summer, leaves a hole in the batting and increases the pressure on his fellow South African Alviro Petersen and the captain, Stephen Croft. Here’s hoping their overseas signing, the New Zealand bumper merchant Neil Wagner, pitches the ball up to complement Kyle Jarvis. Early-season use of Jimmy Anderson is a plus.
Last season:
LV County Championship Div 2: 2nd
Royal London Cup Group B: 5th
NatWest T20 Blast Winners
Prediction 7th
Somerset
Captains Chris Rogers (CC), Jim Allenby (OD & T20)
Coach Matthew Maynard
The solitary club in the top flight without a Test ground, albeit one that has undergone a makeover during the winter, Somerset welcome the gnarled old Australian Chris Rogers as overseas player and captain for the championship campaign. His expected deployment at No3 will see the talented Tom Abell retained as opener alongside Marcus Trescothick, who ploughs on into his 24th season, having passed 1,200 runs last year along with the division’s top-scorer, James Hildreth. The seam attack looks light on years but talented. Chris Gayle and Mahela Jayawardene pitch up for Twenty20 duty.
Last season:
LV County Championship Div 1: 6th
Royal London Cup Group A: 6th
NatWest T20 Blast South Group: 8th
Prediction 8th
Surrey
Captain Gareth Batty
Coach Michael di Venuto
Losing their Division Two title-winning coach, Graham Ford, in January was a blow, but in comes Michael di Venuto from the Australian set-up, taking over a squad packed with talent and sprinkled with stardust in Kumar Sangakkara. Last year saw the home-grown products Rory Burns and Tom Curran lead with the bat and ball respectively, making the late signings of the South African seamers Conor McKerr and Mathew Pillans, and the West Indian Ravi Rampaul, as non-overseas players a touch disappointing. The left-armer Mark Footitt has signed from Derbyshire after two bumper seasons – will this form, along with Surrey’s as a whole, translate to the top tier?
Last season:
LV County Championship Div 2: 1st
Royal London Cup Runners-up
NatWest T20 Blast South Group: 7th
Prediction 6th
Warwickshire
Captain Ian Bell
Coach Dougie Brown
The runs did not flow for Warwickshire batsmen in what was a middling season last year – Ian Westwood top-scored with 856, no one who played more than two games averaged more than 37 – and yet the Bears come into the campaign with fresh optimism of a title challenge under their new captain, Ian Bell, who should score heavily. The bowling attack, which did fire last year, is bolstered by the likely availability of Chris Woakes. The New Zealand off-spinner Jeetan Patel, who has taken 50-plus wickets in his past four seasons, returns as their overseas player. Should challenge.
Last season:
LV County Championship Div 1: 5th
Royal London Cup Group B: 6th
NatWest T20 Blast Semi-finals
Prediction 2nd
Yorkshire
Captains Andrew Gale (CC), Alex Lees (OD & T20)
Coach Jason Gillespie
A hat-trick of titles would be a first since the club did it under Brian Close in the 1960s and there is little doubting the current squad have the tools to replicate it – unless defeat to MCC in the Champion County fixture was a sign of things to come. England call-ups were coped with last year, although Jonny Bairstow, who went ballistic in the championship, will be around less, and Gary Ballance could also be in line for a Test recall. How Adam Lyth fares on his return to county cricket could be key. The winter signing David Willey comes in with an eye on white-ball improvement.
Last season:
LV County Championship Div 1: 1st
Royal London Cup Semi-finals
NatWest T20 Blast North Group: 8th
Prediction 1st
DIVISION TWO
Essex
Captains Ryan Ten Doeschate (CC), Ravi Bopara (OD & T20)
Coach Chris Silverwood
The Chelmsford revolution under their cricket chairman Ronnie Irani has brought with it a new head coach, two new captains and a desire to turn to the club from one of quarter-finalists to silverware contenders. Essex boast plenty of batting talent – Dan Lawrence, Tom Westley and Nick Browne chiefly – while Alastair Cook will play the first four fixtures. Jesse Ryder returns as overseas player, although whether pitches suit his bowling, given changes to the toss, remains to be seen. Two Antipodean seamers, Matt Quinn and Matt Dixon, arrive on UK passports, as does the spin-bowling all-rounder Ashar Zaidi.
Last season:
LV County Championship Div 2: 3rd
Royal London Cup Quarter-finals
NatWest T20 Blast Quarter-finals
Prediction 2nd
Derbyshire
Captains Billy Godleman (CC), Wes Durston (OD & T20)
Coach Graeme Welch
Another team under new captaincy after Wayne Madsen stepped down to focus on his batting – last season’s results were wretched too – Derbyshire’s campaign will be one of learning to live without Mark Footitt, who claimed 160 first-class wickets in his last two seasons at the club. In comes Andy Carter from Notts as his replacement, with Hamish Rutherford returning as overseas player and his fellow Kiwi batsman Neil Broom, invoking his status as a UK citizen in order to join him.
Last season:
LV County Championship Div 2: 8th
Royal London Cup Group A: 7th
NatWest T20 Blast North Group: 9th
Prediction 8th
Glamorgan
Captain Jacques Rudolph
Coach Robert Croft
Seemingly with their financial house now in order, Glamorgan are now looking to kick on from the progress last year where they finished fourth in the table after two seasons of being grateful for Leicestershire’s hopelessness. The county stalwart Robert Croft takes the reins as head coach, the promising all-rounder Craig Meschede has turned last season’s loan permanent, and the seamer Harry Podmore arrives for a six-week spell from Middlesex. Increased ruthlessness on a personal level is needed, with neither 1,000 runs nor 50 wickets passed by any of their players last year. Captain Jacques Rudolph and seamer Michael Hogan can’t do it all.
Last season
LV County Championship Div 2: 4th
Royal London Cup Group B: 8th
NatWest T20 Blast South Group: 6th
Prediction 4th
Gloucestershire
Captains Gareth Roderick (CC), Michael Klinger (OD & T20)
Coach Richard Dawson
Last season’s triumph in the Royal London Cup brought back memories of the county’s dominant limited-overs heyday and with only one promotion spot available in the championship, a more realistic target may be further white-ball success. The captaincy has now been split along these lines, with Michael Klinger, star of that campaign, returning for the limited-overs role and the inexperienced Gareth Roderick taking over in four-day cricket. In comes the left-armer Chris Liddle from Sussex and the Australian batsman Cameron Bancroft until the end of May. The pace bowler Andrew Tye, of Perth Scorchers, comes as second overseas player for Twenty20.
Last season:
LV County Championship Div 2: 6th
Royal London Cup Winners
NatWest T20 Blast South Group: 5th
Prediction 7th
Kent
Captain Sam Northeast
Coach Jimmy Adams
A promotion challenge would take a serious upsurge in form after finishing third from bottom last year, despite Sam Northeast and Joe Denly both scoring in excess of 1,000 runs, and Matt Coles and Darren Stevens going past 60 wickets. More likely is a challenge for white-ball honours, having topped the southern group in Twenty20 in 2015, only to go out to the eventual winners Lancashire in their quarter-final on fewest wickets lost. South Africa’s rising star, the fast bowler Kagiso Rabada, will spend six weeks at the club in mid-season, while Sam Billings misses the early part of the summer at the Indian Premier League.
Last season:
LV County Championship Div 2: 7th
Royal London Cup Quarter-finals
NatWest T20 Blast Quarter-finals
Prediction 5th
Leicestershire
Captains Mark Cosgrove (CC), Mark Pettini (OD & T20)
Coach Andrew McDonald
Ending a two-year run without a championship win made 2015 a small success, even if the wooden spoon followed for a third successive season. Their 50-over campaign was worse, with a washed out game at home to Surrey the only time defeat was avoided, making Twenty20 their strongest suit with four wins and a seventh place finish. The answer has been to split the captaincy and bring in a raft of 30-something county campaigners in Paul Horton, Neil Dexter, Wayne White and Mark Pettini, the latter taking over the limited-overs sides. Hmmm.
Last season:
LV County Championship Div 2: 9th
Royal London Cup Group A: 9th
NatWest T20 Blast North Group: 7th
Prediction 9th
Northamptonshire
Captain Alex Wakeley
Coach David Ripley
The exploits of the team on the field last summer surpassed financial troubles off, the highlight being a collection of runners-up medals in the NatWest T20 Blast. Turning draws in to wins in the championship looks their biggest challenge, with no side racking up more than their 10 last year. David Willey has departed for Yorkshire, although the retention of the talented wicketkeeper-batsman Ben Duckett was a boost. Monty Panesar returns to the club following mental health problems, while Olly Stone is the standout in a seam-bowling department otherwise light on resources.
Last season:
LV County Championship Div 2: 5th
Royal London Cup Group A: 5th
NatWest T20 Blast Runners-up
Prediction 6th
Sussex
Captain Luke Wright
Coach Mark Davis
A new coach and captain, following last season’s relegation, should hopefully reinvigorate a squad many believed were too good to go down, especially given the fast bowler Steve Magoffin picked up 69 wickets, and the promising Ollie Robinson 46. The club, however, are in mourning following the tragic death of the promising seamer Matt Hobden at the start of the year. Luke Wright, an upbeat character and last season’s top scorer with 1,210 championship runs, now leads in all formats. The left-armer spinner Danny Briggs has arrived from Hampshire, while the experienced New Zealand batsman Ross Taylor comes in for the first half of the season.
Last season:
LV County Championship Div 1: 8th
Royal London Cup Group B: 9th
NatWest T20 Blast Quarter-finals
Prediction 1st
Worcestershire
Captain Daryl Mitchell
Coach Steve Rhodes
Worcestershire are in many ways the model “small club”, having remained financially viable in recent years – despite New Road’s propensity to flood – and backing English talent along the way, rather than going down the Kolpak route; bar the captain Daryl Mitchell, 32, the entire squad is 28 or younger. Losing Tom Fell, last season’s top-scorer, for the first half of the season as he undergoes chemotherapy for a recurrence of testicular cancer is a blow however. The seamers Joe Leach and Jack Shantry enjoyed fine campaigns in Division One, despite relegation, and could yet power a promotion push this year.
Last season:
LV County Championship Div 1: 9th
Royal London Cup Group A: 8th
NatWest T20 Blast Quarter-finals
Prediction 3rd