Its all relative. Club cricket is strong for the overwhelming majority of players, but yes the step up from club to County 2nds to County and then Internationals gets progressively more massive.ZIMDOGGY wrote: ↑Sat Sep 25, 2021 8:49 amIf Sloan is right then it would be as a result of strength in numbers being a big cricketing nation with alto of imports.
But I question it too from the outside. County isn’t that strong. A lot of 40 yr old plodders about.
Yes they are all good players but I guess it’s relative to what you expect of a first class standard.
So I’m thinking of county is county and county seconds is the big drop we know it is, how can club be that strong?
Another way to think of it:
Imagine all the males aged 15+ in England who sign up to play serious cricket...big number right? Probably a few hundred thousand. Maybe just 1% are good enough for high end club cricket, meaning 99% aren't. So lets assume that leaves 3000 club cricketers. What percentage of them would be good enough for County 2s? Maybe 5% if we are being generous. Then perhaps 10% of them would good enough for County Firsts, and then 5-10% of the remaining would ever get an England cap.