Nottinghamshire can be the real deal in Friends Provident Trophy

County Cricket / Andrew Hughes / 02 April 2008 / Leave a Comment

Andrew Hughes looks ahead to this year's Friends Provident and thinks Nottinghamshire are the side to watch...

The Friends Provident Trophy, a.k.a. the Cheltenham and Gloucester Trophy, the Natwest Trophy and, for the oldies amongst you, the Gillette Cup, was always the premier one day county tournament. Whereas the now defunct Benson and Hedges Cup was an early season knockabout with zonal groups, an odd number of overs and a premature climax, its older brother was a season-long slow-burner of a contest which began with the likes of Norfolk and Shropshire entertaining first class counties and came to a stately conclusion at Lords in the long evening shadows of late August.

Alas it has not been exempt from the fiddling that has characterised domestic cricket in recent years. In 2006, it acquired a group stage, ditching the minor counties and losing much of its charm in the process. This year it has changed again, the two divisions of ten chopped into four groups of five, feeding into the quarter finals. These smaller groups are regional and hence a bit of a lottery. For example, co-favourites Lancashire and Durham find themselves in the same North division that also includes a battling Yorkshire side prone to raising their game against local rivals.

As well as sizing up the strengths of the groups, you need to consider which overseas players are with which clubs. This used to be a relatively simple business, but with the Kolpak legal judgement and the advent of the ICL and IPL, it has become a minefield. This article from BBC Sport is a good attempt as any to explain the Kolpak issue and this report from Cricinfo gives a flavour of the complexity of the current situation, but you are well advised to keep checking the cricket news pages regularly.

The impact of England players has to be borne in mind too. Potentially, they will be available to their counties for the first four rounds of group matches and the latter stages. Of course, you also need to work out which individuals are likely to be required by the Test team, a tricky judgement in the case of current fringe players like Matthew Hoggard and Owais Shah.

Only once you've considered all of that, can you get down to looking at the squads. Cricinfo is useful for this analysis and the BBC Sport cricket pages usually have a county preview closer to the day that is worth looking out for. Essentially, you are looking for a squad packed with one day specialists. Hard-hitting batsmen, economical seamers and tidy spin bowlers are the order of the day and a core of all-rounders in the middle order is a big plus. With so many international players around, you are also at a disadvantage without a smattering of top level experience, particularly in the final rounds. And in a long, hard season with multiple competitions, having a large squad or the resources to add new players at short notice is a key consideration.

One team that caught my eye was Nottinghamshire, a county on the up in the one day game. They finished third in the Northern Division of this tournament last year and were runners up in the forty-over Pro 40 League. The loss of Stephen Fleming is a negative. But though their batting is light on big names, the likes of Mark Wagh, Graham Wood and young Will Jefferson are all accomplished county batsmen. Their real strength lies in their middle order. Exciting Aussie Adam Voges will be their overseas player until David Hussey completes his IPL obligations and he will be joined by the explosive Samit Patel, new captain Chris Read, old hand Mark Ealham, Graeme Swann and, for half the tournament, England bowlers Ryan Sidebottom and Stuart Broad. They have a long batting line-up, a nicely balanced attack and their only real opposition in a weak Midlands group will come from Warwickshire. You can back the men from Trent Bridge at [11.0] in the Betfair winners market.