The first round of County Championship matches profiles Cricketer Cup players

Research by Christopher Horne and Charles Fellows-Smith shows that the first round of County Championship matches just finished included at least 25 players eligible to play in the Cricketer Cup this season. At least a dozen of these have actually played in the competition in recent years including England players in Zak Crawley (Old Tonbridgians and Kent) and Olly Pope (Old Cranleighans and Surrey). Tom Kohler-Cadmore (Old Malvernians and Yorkshire), Ben Curran (Old Wellingtonians and Northants) and Michael Burgess (Old Cranleighans and Warwicks) have all helped their teams to win the Cricketer Cup in the last five years. Others who have appeared in the Cricketer Cup include Joe Leach (Shrewsbury Saracens and Worcestershire), Ryan Higgins (Bradfield Waifs and Gloucestershire) and Emilio Gay (Old Bedfordians and Northants).

The appearance of current first-class cricketers in the Cricketer Cup was commonplace in the early years but is clearly harder to accomplish today. There is still hope that Tom and Sam Curran (Old Wellingtonians), who are currently playing in the IPL, may be added to the list, but the biggest coup would be if Old Bedfordians could persuade Alistair Cook to turn out for them in the first round at Malvern - on a par with the appearances of Peter May, Colin Cowdrey and Ted Dexter in days of yore.