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[Manormanic]

Having broached this subject in another topic, I thought it worth looking at the relative strength of the tems at the top of the two competitions.  Yorkshire won the Championship, and whilst I know there is a finalyet to be played I'll compare them with Victoria, who topped the Shield points table by quite some margin.  In each instance, I've picked the strongest available side for the domestic season just gone, with no international calls, and have limited each side to a single overseas (I know I've messed the batting order up for Victoria - its deliberate to try and give direct comparisons where possible.

Yorkshire                                     vs                                 Victoria:
Adam Lyth                                                                        Rob Quiney
Alex Lees                                                                        Chris Rogers
Gary Ballance                                                                  Aaron Finch
Kane Williamson                                                              David Hussey
Joe Root                                                                          Peter Handscomb/Cameron White                                                                                                       
Jonny Bairstow                                                                Matthew Wade
Adil Rashid                                                                      Fawad Ahmed
Tim Bresnan                                                                    Glenn Maxwell
Liam Plunkett                                                                   Peter Siddle
Ryan Sidebottom                                                              John Hastings
Jack Brooks                                                                    James Pattinson

Be an interesting game, but you'd have to back Yorkshire...

[Manormanic]

Similar comparison for the sixth strongest sides:

Somerset                vs               South Australia
Marcus Trescothick                     Mark Cosgrove
Craig Jones                                Phil Hughes
Alviro Peterson                          Calum Ferguson
Nick Compton                            Tom Cooper
James Hildreth                           Travis Head
Craig Kieswetter                        Tom Ludeman
Peter Trego                               Johan Botha
Lewis GregorY                           Joe Mennie
Criag Overton                           KAne Richardson
Jamie Overton                          Chadd Sayers
George Dockrell                        Adam Zampa

[Kieron_BT]

About time they made a champions league of 4 day cricket to find out!

Would be some serious games in there!

[ProCricketer1982]

what about Glos/Northants/Derbyshite/Leicestershire vs Australian counterparts?

[Manormanic]

At the very least, I'd love to see an English vs Australian game every year like they do in Rugby League!

[Manormanic]

what about Glos/Northants/Derbyshite/Leicestershire vs Australian counterparts?

those would be club sides!!!

[ProCricketer1982]

those would be club sides!!!

exactly why these counties need closing down as professional outfits.

a 'champions league' style comp might be fun

[Manormanic]

exactly why these counties need closing down as professional outfits.

Not necessarily....but probably!

[uknsaunders]

Not necessarily....but probably!

That's the problem.

Teams win promotion off the back of stuff poor county teams (compared to Div 1). They then go up and get stuffed in some cases because they weren't prepared for the real level of competition in Div 1. Getting out of Div 2 isn't a problem for a decent county side but staying out is. Without a cheque book and a good overseas, this will stay the same until the structure is changed. By this I mean less teams and more quality.