County Championship to return to two divisions in 2022

There will be 10 teams in Division One and eight in Division Two, as per the initial plan for the 2020 campaign before it was scuppered by the coronavirus pandemic

The LV= Insurance County Championship will return to a two-division structure in 2022.

There will be 10 teams in Division One and eight in Division Two, as per the initial plan for the 2020 campaign before it was scuppered by the coronavirus pandemic.

The counties will play in the divisions for which they qualified at the end of the 2019 season, meaning that Lancashire, Northamptonshire and Gloucestershire – who were promoted – will take their place in Division One. Nottinghamshire – the single relegated team two years ago – will be in Division Two despite finishing third in the 2021 standings.

The decision to return to two divisions – something that had been the intention of the ECB and the first-class counties at the earliest opportunity, with the last two years viewed as a necessary stopgap amid the complications of the pandemic – followed a vote by the first-class counties. While sticking with the three-conference structure for a further year was considered, it did not garner enough support, with a two-thirds majority required under ECB Articles.

With a switch back to the previous structure after two Covid-affected seasons, promotion and relegation also return; two teams will come up and down at the end of the summer after 14 games each.

Speaking to The Cricketer in August, Neil Snowball – the ECB managing director for county cricket – admitted that he would be keen to see “how the 10/8 [system] worked, and to see how that plays out”.

Speculating on its potential impact, he said: “You could argue that moving to a 10/8 structure, with the Kolpak era behind us, might balance things out a little bit more. But I still think the divisional structure with the threat of the drop doesn’t necessarily encourage longer-term thinking.”

^{Essex won the County Championship in 2019}

One of the major benefits of the conference system’s first stage was the quality of cricket on show, with counties unworried by the threat of relegation. There was a genuine race towards the landmark of 1,000 runs before the end of May, while leg-spinners Matt Parkinson, Mason Crane and Matt Critchley all impressed at a time in the year when they had rarely been utilised in the past.

But after the divisional split following the tenth round of matches, the limitations of the structure were laid bare, with only six teams truly playing for something tangible. Essex and Kent posed with their trophies for winning the second and third sub-divisions, but neither were particularly enamoured by the prospect. And while the final throes in Division One offered up a thrilling climax, with Hampshire, Lancashire and Warwickshire all in the running going into the penultimate day of the campaign, it papered over the cracks of an otherwise-confused situation.

For Northamptonshire and Gloucestershire, who shook hands on a rain-ruined draw in the last round of the 2019 season, this result means their hard-earned promotions will be belatedly rewarded with a spot in the top division. Northamptonshire had been bottom of the second tier in June, before launching a remarkable recovery. For Gloucestershire, it will be the first time they have played in Division One since 2005.

Nottinghamshire, on the other hand, will feel mightily hard done by: they went 1,043 days without a win between June 2018 and May 2021 but recovered to win a group that included then-champions Essex.

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“We had hoped that the proposal put forward to play another year of first-class cricket in conferences, with the finishing positions to determine the divisional structure for 2023, would gain sufficient support,” said Nottinghamshire director of cricket Mick Newell.

“However, following the vote, that was not the outcome and consequently we will play our cricket in Division Two next year. 

“This is, of course, disappointing, but it in no way takes away from the achievements of our squad in the first-class game over the past two years, which culminated in a top-three finish in Division One in 2021.

“We expect some very competitive cricket to be played in the second division in 2022, the challenge of achieving promotion is significant and that will be a key focus for us heading into the new season.”

Other options were discussed that might have produced two divisions better reflective of the current state of play rather than that in September 2019, but it was ultimately decided that, while both 2020 and 2021 seasons had been designed as one-off campaigns to help the game through Covid times, 2019 was the last time that counties had known the exact consequences of what they were playing for, and so those promotions and relegations should be carried forward.

There remains a desire to keep the Bob Willis Trophy in circulation in some way, but it is highly unlikely that the idea of an end-of-season playoff is reprised, even if some have advocated a winner-takes-all final.

“I think we’ve got to make County Championship cricket more exciting,” one county chief executive told The Cricketer in September of his dream for a Sheffield Shield-like finale.

“I would put everything on Bob Willis Finals Day,” he said. “For me, that’s a no-brainer, but I know I’m probably in a minority in thinking that. We have a big Blast final, we’ve got a big Hundred final, we have to work out where the 50-over final fits.

“It would give massive profile to red-ball cricket, to county members, to sponsors. Imagine if every year was built to that crescendo, and two teams in red-ball cricket were getting a five-day match at Lord’s. I think you could market that and get 20,000 people every day at Lord’s.”

Willis’ widow, Lauren Clark, told The Cricketer last month that she only wanted the trophy preserved if it had enough meaning to provide a fitting tribute to her late husband.

2022 LV= Insurance County Championship - Division One

Essex, Gloucestershire, Hampshire, Kent, Lancashire, Northamptonshire, Somerset, Surrey, Warwickshire, Yorkshire

2022 LV= Insurance County Championship - Division Two

Durham, Derbyshire, Glamorgan, Leicestershire, Middlesex, Nottinghamshire, Sussex, Worcestershire