Which England players will feature on opening week? Will it be Tom Haines or Harry Brook who will next earn a Test call-up? Who are the biggest-name overseas signings? What changes have been introduced for the 2022 season? And who are favourites to be crowned champions?
Thursday 7 April 2022 06:15, UK
The English cricket season officially gets under way with the start of the LV= Insurance County Championship on Thursday, so here's our handy guide to all you need to know...
Defending champions Warwickshire will host Surrey as part of the opening round of eight matches, with plenty of England interest on show for the visitors as Surrey can call upon the centrally-contracted trio of Rory Burns, Ollie Pope and Sam Curran (the latter only available as a batter as he continues to recover from a back injury).
Kent's Zak Crawley - who opened for England on their recent Test tour of the West Indies - is the only other England player who has been made available for the opening round of fixtures, as they travel to Chelmsford to take on Essex.
Yorkshire and Lancashire are the only teams who won't feature in week one of the season. A new-look Yorkshire, re-emerging from the racism scandal that dominated the club over the winter, will play their first game under new management at Gloucestershire on Thursday, April 14.
Their big rivals, Lancashire, will also open their campaign at Kent next week, although it is not yet known whether England's leading wicket-taker James Anderson will feature as he plots his return to the Test fold after being left out of the West Indies tour.
Stuart Broad, also absent from the 1-0 series defeat in the Caribbean has confirmed he won't play in Nottinghamshire's first game of the season against Sussex.
Former Yorkshire player Azeem Rafiq first officially complained to the club in 2018, but an independent inquiry was not launched until 2020 after he accused the club of being institutionally racist.
Shortly before the end of last season, Yorkshire released a statement confirming former player Azeem Rafiq had been the the victim of "racial harassment and bullying" but a month later they then announced no one would be punished for their part in what went on.
As details of the previously unseen report into Rafiq's claims began to leak, major sponsors cut ties with the county, Headingley was temporarily banned from hosting international cricket and Rafiq was called to give evidence under parliamentary privilege in front of a DCMS committee.
Yorkshire's then director of cricket Martyn Moxon and head coach Andrew Gale were mentioned, along with others, in Rafiq's heartbreaking testimony in which he alleged an alarming dressing-room culture.
Roger Hutton was subsequently replaced as Yorkshire chair by Lord Kamlesh Patel, and the club's entire backroom staff was cleared out. Legendary fast bowler Darren Gough has since arrived as an interim director of cricket and former England bowling coach and Ottis Gibson as head coach after stints in charge of the West Indies and South Africa on the international stage.
A ban on hosting international cricket at Headingley has since been lifted by the ECB, while Yorkshire CCC members overwhelmingly voted in favour of structural changes required at an Extraordinary General Meeting (EGM) held in late March.
With England's Test team badly faltering over the past 12-18 months, there are places up for grabs for those who put their hands up this domestic summer - particularly with the bat.
Young opener Tom Haines down in Sussex did precisely that last year, topping the run-scoring charts with 1,176 at an average of 47.04 - with three hundreds and six fifties - and that's despite playing for a team which woefully underachieved, winning just one of their 14 matches played.
Josh Bohannon at Lancashire is another who is being touted for a Test call-up after averaging over 50 last year. Warwickshire opener Rob Yates was instrumental in their title push, scoring four hundreds, while Yorkshire's Harry Brook is also held in high regard and could soon be banging down the door for selection.
Of the overseas contingent arriving on these shores for 2022, Pakistan's 19-year-old tearaway fast bowler Naseem Shah promises to provide box office entertainment in his first stint in county cricket as he joins Gloucestershire. His international team-mate, the equally explosive left-arm quick, Shaheen Afridi, arrives at Middlesex.
Also, Australia's Marnus Labuschagne - the No 1 ranked batsman in Test cricket - will fulfil the role of pantomime villain at most county grounds with the exception of his Sophia Gardens as he returns to Glamorgan, where he so impressed in racking up 1,114 runs in 10 matches in 2019 to lead to an Ashes call-up.
And in terms of young talent to keep an eye on in 2021, look no further than a couple of England's under-19 World Cup squad which reached the final of the tournament for the first time in 24 years this winter.
Warwickshire all-rounder Jacob Bethell and Leicestershire leg-spinner Rehan Ahmed are two to make a note of, not least because the teenagers have both just secured big pay days in being drafted by the Welsh Fire and Southern Brave, respectively, in the 2022 Hundred Draft.
Bethell's deal comes off the back of some eye-catching displays, most notably his 88 off 42 deliveries in England's quarter-final win over South Africa, while Ahmed took 12 wickets in four matches at a stonking average of 12.58.
It is likely that both will enjoy more of an impact in the white-ball formats at this stage of their career, with Bethell only making his first-class debut late last year and Ahmed yet to make his, but remember the names.
The County Championship returns to a two-division format this summer for the first time in three years following a vote by the 18 first-class counties at the end of last season.
The 2020 Bob Willis Trophy and 2021 County Championship were played in an initial group stage of three groups comprising of six teams - a format introduced to mitigate the risk of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Last year, the top two teams from each group progressed through to Division One for the second half of the season, with the two from that league then competing in The Bob Willis Trophy final, a season-ending five-day match to determine the winner.
Warwickshire emerged triumphant last year at Lord's, beating Lancashire by an innings and 199 runs. While The Bob Willis Trophy won't be played in 2022 - the county champions crowned, as was previously the case, depending on who tops the table - the ECB have said it could return in the future.
The placement of teams in the two divisions for the 2022 season has been determined by their finishing positions in the 2019 campaign, which saw Lancashire, Gloucestershire and Northamptonshire all gain promotion to the top tier and Nottinghamshire relegated to Division Two.
This will be the first ever County Championship season to feature a 10-team first division, with the remaining eight residing the second tier. From 2017-2019 the allocation of teams had been split unevenly the other way.
Essex have been crowned county champions in three of the last five seasons and their experienced outfit should be in the mix once more at the business end of this season.
They still boast England's all-time leading run-scorer Sir Alastair Cook at the top of the order, but it is the bowling department where they are truly devastating. Seamers Sam Cook and Jamie Porter combined for 92 wickets last summer, with veteran spinner Simon Harmer pitching in with a further 53.
Warwickshire were perhaps surprising, but well worthy winners last year, showcasing a particular dogged ability to dig in with the bat, one epitomised by young opener Yates.
Though it spectacularly unravelled for Lancashire at Lord's last year - bowled out for 78 in their first innings in being beaten by an innings by the Bears - it was still a hugely impressive run to the final from the Red Rose county in the first place. Now back in the big league following their unbeaten run to the Division Two title in 2019, they should have more than survival on their mind.
Surrey, winners in 2018, will be strong again in spite of the usual pilfering of players from their admittedly very deep talent pool by England. And what about Somerset? Runners up on no fewer than four occasions since 2016, could this finally be the year they lift the trophy for the very first time?
Meanwhile, in Division Two, Nottinghamshire no doubt are favourites for promotion. Glamorgan have strengthened well and could challenge, while Durham appear to be building something special in the north east.
Also, Derbyshire could be ones to watch, with the arrival of former South Africa, Australia, Pakistan and Sri Lanka head coach Mickey Arthur a major coup as they look to emerge from decades in the doldrums.
