Champagne moment: Chris Adams and Sussex celebrate winning the 2007 County Championship

My dark horse for Division One are Somerset. I can't see them getting bowled out twice in a match too often.

Ian Ward
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As the county season is under way, Ian Ward returns to skysports.com to dicuss the latest from the domestic scene.

Read the former Surrey, Sussex and England batsman's column throughout the season, right here.

Wardy kicks-off the season with his County Championship preview.

Click here for Wardy's Division Two preview

Divison One

Sussex have a great blueprint for playing four-day cricket and certainly have a formula they like - which is evident in their success of the past two years.

They know how to structure a campaign and they know how to win.

The good news for them is that Mushtaq Ahmed is available for the season as there were doubts after he signed to play in the ICL.

Sussex have strengthened the squad bringing in Aussie all-rounder Ryan Harris who impressed in the curtain-raiser against the MCC.

But, there are doubts as to whether he will actually play after he signed a three-year deal with Queensland, so we will have to see how that turns out.

The usual suspects are still around at Hove in skipper Chris Adams, Murray Goodwin, and Matt Prior will play an integral part this season as it is unlikely he will be on England duty.

He's a big player for Sussex and will score heavily if given the chance.

And the youngsters are coming of age; Luke Wright made a big hundred against the MCC, Chris Nash has been given a go at the top of the order in place of the retired Richard Montgomerie.

I don't see why they can't go on and claim the hat-trick by winning their third Championship in a row. It's a huge ask though as Division One looks very strong again this year.

Lancashire have strength in depth. New captain Stuart Law will do a good job I'm sure as he knows how to win having skippered Queensland for so many years.

Brad Hodge is going to be around for part of the summer on the back of another great season in Australia.

And Lancashire have got to do it at some point! They have to take that final step across the line having come so close last year and running Sussex all the way to the very last session of the season.

Those two will be fighting it out again for sure.

My dark horse for Division One are Somerset. I can't see them getting bowled out twice in a match too often.

They have Justin Langer, who skippers the side, and Marcus Trescothick, who is completely focused now on playing county cricket without continued speculation about England.

He's made his decision and he has emotionally cleared the decks where he can solely concentrate on life at Taunton.

They also have the likes of James Hildreth, a very talented young cricketer, but a lot depends on Andy Caddick and how he recovers from a back injury.

A few years ago Warwickshire won the championship having not won too many games, purely on volume of runs, and at Taunton with players like Langer, Trescothick, Hildreth and Ian Blackwell, they'll be tough to beat.

In many ways it's a big season for Durham. They would have been delighted with last year and Geoff Cook has reminded them that they need to be respectable because for so long they were the whipping boys of the championship.

But that's ancient history. They have been playing decent cricket and providing players for England for a few years now - Steve Harmison, Paul Collingwood, Liam Plunkett, Phil Mustard and possiblyGraham Onions - so it's an important year up there.

Can they take that extra stride and really push for the championship?

They may have Harmison for a large chunk of the season as he doesn't play ODI's anymore and may not be recalled to the Test team this summer. If he is overlooked by England, that will only benefit Durham.

Despite losing a great player, skipper and icon in Shane Warne I don't think Hampshire will fall back. Pre-Warne Hampshire were a very nice club to go and play against if you see what I mean. They played in the right spirit but weren't that successful.

That has all changed. The legacy that Warne has left is to play competitive, hard and enterprising cricket and I think a lot of the players at the Rose Bowl have massively bought into that.

New captain Dimitri Mascarenhas has a good cricket brain and is well respected. If he can get the best out of the players that are there, with the rapid Shane Bond (if he can stay fit) as their spearhead, Hampshire will be a threat.

Bond is a very, very dangerous bowler. The current side though, will need to get past any potential hangover from the Warne era and forge their own identity, and I wish them luck.

It's also a big year for Michael Carberry as well; he has the ability to score bags of runs.

Kent are a very well-gelled unit and are my tip for one-day success this year.

They have real all-round quality and although Justin Kemp is having problems with his registration, even without him they have Yasir Arafat, Ryan McLaren, Joe Denly and they are very well led by Rob Key, a clever and relaxed captain.

I would tip them to do well in one-day cricket - FP Trophy, Pro40 and Twenty20 - this year more than in the four-day game.

Stuart Broad comes in to join the ever-impressive Ryan Sidebottom at Nottinghamshire, but they will spend a good period of time with England this summer.

Charlie Shreck is a star player for them, a player tipped to do special things and may push for an England call-up.

I spoke to Phillip Defreitas, Notts' bowling coach, and he has been pretty impressed with Charlie.

They have lost Stephen Fleming of course, but a bit like Hampshire and Warne, Fleming set a blueprint for Notts and hopefully the players will learn from that.

They've signed Aussie batter Adam Voges who will be there from the start and then Dave Hussey comes back after he plays in the IPL, and I am expecting both of those guys to score some runs.

They'll have to deal with players coming in and out of the team when Sidebottom and/or Broad are on international duty so if they can deal with that and continue to take wickets then they cannot be discounted either.

It will be fascinating for me to see how Surrey go. Mark Ramprakash is obviously the main run getter and he started the season where he left off last year with a big one against Lancashire.

If Ramps scores 2,000 runs again - for the third season on the bounce - that'll be one hell of an achievement.

He'll certainly score a bagful I'm sure, especially at the Oval which is a fantastic place to bat.

They've lost Rikki Clarke, amongst others, who has left to skipper Derbyshire but have signed Pedro Collins the West Indian left-armer.

I think this year it might be a happier dressing room - there's a good atmosphere up there and a key factor for me could be the form of my old team-mate Saqlain Mushtaq.

He has returned to Surrey and if he can recapture anything like the form he had when I played with him then they will be there or thereabouts in the longer form of the game because he is an absolute genius.

If his knees hold up there's no reason why he can't do a Mushtaq Ahmed - take bags of wickets and lead his team all the way.

I think Goughie will be pushing hard with Yorkshire this season as I'm not sure how many seasons he feels he has left in him.

And also with Matthew Hoggard at their disposal after the controversial decision for England to drop him after the first Test in New Zealand, he will be eager to remind the selectors just how good a bowler he is.

So early-season, with Hoggard firing on wickets that will have a bit in it for him, Yorkshire should get off to an absolute flyer.

It will be a case of whether they can maintain it throughout the summer and also when the pitches get a bit dryer will their spinners be good enough - we will have to wait and see.

Division Two

Derbyshire are interesting. I think it will be quite optimistic or them to be pushing for promotion as they've got a bit of foundation building to do with a brand new captain in Rikki Clarke, who has made his first move away form Surrey since he was a young lad - and it's also his first taste in captaincy.

It will be up to him to hit the ground running and get his players in place and get the respect of the dressing room early on.

Mahela Jayawardene was in line to sign up for Derbyshire but with various Sri Lanka commitments and Twenty20 commitments he has pulled out.

It's been a bit of a revolving door and doesn't seem to be settled enough for them to be pushing for promotion, but for me this season is about building the foundations for the future with new coach John Morris, new skipper Clarke and they will be hoping to bed everybody in and start making progress.

I don't think they should set their ambitions too high.

Essex have Andre Nel from the start of the season and he will give them a bit of fire and cutting edge with the ball. It sounds like Alex Tudor has had a decent winter, fitness wise and if those two are fit and bowling well early season then they can get Essex off to a good start.

Ravi Bopara is the one for me. He has got to be pushing for an England recall and he has to believe he can score 1600/1700 runs and chip in with the ball as well. He's a hugely talented and impressive cricketer and this is a big season for him.

Essex have a good young captain in Mark Pettini and some very talented all-round cricketers like of Ryan Ten Doeschate. I think they will go well and could be in with a shout of promotion.

Glamorgan traditionally, and quite rightly, have always tried to give their youngsters a chance - they haven't tried to go down the Kolpak route.

But that seems to be slightly changing now as they have brought in a few new faces in Jamie Dalrymple, Shantry from Warwickshire and Jason Gillespie.

They've got a bit to do - they have a great new stadium and I imagine that has taken away quite a little bit of the focus for the club as that has been a big project at Sofia Gardens.

Mathew Maynard is in charge and Hemp is captain so they will be testing the waters this season. They will have to improve on last year - a pretty ordinary season to put it mildly.

But they were homeless for much of last year because of the redevelopment - they didn't have anywhere to practice because the weather was so appalling and they couldn't get the covering to make it worthwhile.

The first thing for them will be to try and make Sofia Gardens their home as it's a completely different ground now.

One of their driving factors was their team camaraderie when playing at home and they'll have to try and recapture that.

Like Derby, this will be a bit of a foundation exercise this season.

With the return of Jack Russell at Gloucestershire it will be interesting to see if he can rejuvenate them, especially in one-day cricket.

Everyone is delighted to see Jack back at the club as he is such a hero down there and I think he will bring some fresh ideas to the team with a bit of the old Jack spirit and competitiveness.

He will work extremely well with Jon Lewis the captain - they're pretty good mates and played together so they know each other well.

Again, I would suggest that their better chance for silverware will be in one-day cricket but I'm willing to be proved wrong on that as I hope they go well.

I don't see Leicestershire pushing for promotion to be honest as I'm not sure that they have the quality.

I'm not sure they have the batters to rack up big runs or the bowlers to take a hatful of wickets so I can see Pal Nixon's team being more of a success in one-day cricket this season.

As captain Nixon will obviously give them huge effervescence and competitiveness - he won't die wondering - and he'll give 100 per cent and expect nothing less from his players.

Stuart Broad has moved to Nottinghamshire which is not as big a blow as some would imagine it to be as I expect him to spend a lot of the summer playing for England.

Middlesex are a decent outfit and the most interesting thing to come from Lord's has been the signing of Shaun Udal. His retirement didn't last long when he left Hampshire last season!

He has replaced Dalrymple and he may give Middlesex more of a cutting edge in the longer form of the game as he brings a lot of experience and spent a few years being led by Warne, so it will be interesting to see if Udal can inspire his new county with a bit of Shane's magic dust!

I can't see them struggling to score runs - Ed Smith always scores runs and has been one of the most consistent performers in county cricket over the last decade.

Ed Joyce is a very fine player and with Owais Shah starting the season with a ton he will be aiming to score another shedload of runs to put more pressure in the England selectors to pick him. I think he's been extremely unlucky to play as little Test cricket as he has done.

And of course Andrew Strauss will be there for the start of the season before heading for Test duty when the New Zealanders come over.

If you put runs on the board in county cricket you will be there or thereabouts and will rack up points readily, so Middlesex are my tip for promotion.

For Northants a lot depends on who will be available as they are sorting out contractual obligations with Kolpak players.

It's always hard to gauge what sort of team are gong to turn up for Northants but we do know that David Sales will always score runs - he's a big player for them.

The skipper Nicky Boje has international experience and he adds a lot in the spin department. If the pitches are dry from mid-season and we have a decent summer Monty Panesar will play the odd game, plus Boje and Jason Brown, so in the spin department they could be quite potent.

Sussex won the championship largely due to Mushtaq Ahmed, when Surrey last won it Saqlain Mushtaq and Ian Salisbury were key players so if you have quality spinners in your side and put runs on the board, then you will go far.

Warwickshire have gone through quite a transformation this winter in terms of the coaching set-up with Ashley Giles taking over, Allan Donald is back, Dougie Brown too - I think they're trying to recreate a little bit of the 90s magic they had when they were winning everything under Dermot Reeve's captaincy.

Whether or not they have the bowlers to force victory if they need to remains to be seen. Perhaps they are a little thin in the bowling department.

They will need to put runs on the board as best they can, but this is a new beginning for Warwickshire. They feel that they deserve to be in Division One and they rightfully belong there, so it's time for them to turn the corner after what was a pretty hard year last year.

And as for Worcestershire well, I just hope they get a break with the weather this year. The ground flooded again over the winter and we know what happened last summer.

Vikram Solanki is a good player and captain; Ben Smith is a good player; Steve Davies is a very talented wicketkeeper-batsman; Hick is still a fantastic batsman, so they do have the talent.

And if you throw in a bit of Simon Jones there as well, if he can recapture any sort of form in the early part of the season they could go well - and are my other tip to go up.

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