Some of you may I remember that several years ago, I produced a table on the old message board, comparing the number of England Test players produced by each country since 1985. Given the, in my mind, fair criticism that a club the size of Warwickshire have a mixed record in producing players who go on to enjoy successful domestic and international careers, I thought it was time to update the table, this time taking in the past 50 years (So 1973 to the end of 2023)

The table should be fairly self-explanatory; the number of individual players who have made their Test debut while at the county, the total number of Tests played by that player (Even if some appearances were made after moving counties) and the date of the last player from that county to make their England Test Debut.

Derbyshire x7 Test players, earning 152 caps, last debut 1995
Durham x10 Test players, earning 298 caps, last debut 2022
Essex x15 Test players, earning 520 caps, last debut 2017
Glamorgan x7 Test players, earning 56 caps, last debut 2002
Gloucestershire x5 Test players, earning 63 caps, last debut 2021
Hampshire x10 Test players, earning 214 caps, last debut 2018
Kent x21 Test players, earning 231 caps, last debut 2022
Lancashire x22 Test players, earning 634 caps, last debut 2022
Leicestershire x13 Test players, earning 176 caps, last debut 2022
Middlesex x24 Test players, earning 681 caps, last debut 2017
Northamptonshire x12 Test players, earning 263 caps, last debut 2016
Nottinghamshire x12 Test players, earning 178 caps, last debut 2016
Somerset x13 test players, earning 386 caps, last debut 2022
Surrey x23 Test players, earning 611 caps, last debut 2022
Sussex x10 Test players, earning 143 caps, last debut 2021
Warwickshire x14 Test players, earning 349* caps, last debut 2019
Worcestershire x11 Test players, earning 218 caps, last debut 2023
Yorkshire x29 Test players, earning 760 caps, last debut 2022

*Boyd Rankin (1 Test for England) also played 1 Test for Ireland, not included in this table.

The figures for some counties are skewed by a player making a large number of Test appearances, inflating the overall number (Examples include Gloucestershire, with 54 of their 63 Test caps being won by Jack Russell and Somerset, with Ian Botham picking up 102 of their 382 caps)

It is also worth noting that several players made their Test debut after moving from, to put it diplomatically, unfashionable counties to "bigger" counties (Graeme Swann being a good example, who debuted and subsequently won 60 Test caps after moving from Northants to Notts. (This particularly skews the figures against the smaller counties, as players with Test aspirations don't tend to move to Derbyshire or Leicestershire)

As an aside, I also compiled a list of the number of players who played fewer than 10 Tests from each decade:
11x players <10 Tests in 1973 - 1979
32x players <10 Tests in 1980s
31x players <10 Tests in 1990s
23x players <10 Tests in 2000s
19x players <10 Tests in 2010s

Looking at the tables, I feel that the view that Warwickshire have a poor record of developing players is a fair one. The fact that Derbyshire, Gloucestershire and Glamorgan have each produced such a low number of Test players in 50 years (Derbys' last Test Debut was Dominic Cork!) personally makes me question their worth in First Class cricket, particularly when their Championship performance has been so poor (1995 and 1997 apart.) Alternatively, I am realistic enough to understand that budget considerations are different for each club, certain counties (Glos, Northants) have had successful limited overs teams and some players can be considered unlucky not to have been given a chance at Test level (Kevin Dean (Derbys), James Hildreth (Somerset) and David Sales (Northants) being examples) The second table also suggests to me that England have not had a consistency of selection for a number of years, with knee jerk changes to the Test team (Often cited as the mark of England in the 1990s) being an almost constant feature.

Interested to hear your views?

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cricket/56744899

An interesting article on the BBC website. I would argue that anything that attracts people to watch Warwickshire can only be a good thing (Note I say Warwickshire and not a ridiculous Birmingham Phoenix) as a COUNTY club, we need to represent all potential cricket players and followers in our traditional boundary, whether that is people out in the shire or those in inner-city Birmingham.

Your thoughts?