Some of you may I remember that several years ago, I produced a table on the old message board, comparing the number of England Test players produced by each country since 1985. Given the, in my mind, fair criticism that a club the size of Warwickshire have a mixed record in producing players who go on to enjoy successful domestic and international careers, I thought it was time to update the table, this time taking in the past 50 years (So 1973 to the end of 2023)

The table should be fairly self-explanatory; the number of individual players who have made their Test debut while at the county, the total number of Tests played by that player (Even if some appearances were made after moving counties) and the date of the last player from that county to make their England Test Debut.

Derbyshire x7 Test players, earning 152 caps, last debut 1995
Durham x10 Test players, earning 298 caps, last debut 2022
Essex x15 Test players, earning 520 caps, last debut 2017
Glamorgan x7 Test players, earning 56 caps, last debut 2002
Gloucestershire x5 Test players, earning 63 caps, last debut 2021
Hampshire x10 Test players, earning 214 caps, last debut 2018
Kent x21 Test players, earning 231 caps, last debut 2022
Lancashire x22 Test players, earning 634 caps, last debut 2022
Leicestershire x13 Test players, earning 176 caps, last debut 2022
Middlesex x24 Test players, earning 681 caps, last debut 2017
Northamptonshire x12 Test players, earning 263 caps, last debut 2016
Nottinghamshire x12 Test players, earning 178 caps, last debut 2016
Somerset x13 test players, earning 386 caps, last debut 2022
Surrey x23 Test players, earning 611 caps, last debut 2022
Sussex x10 Test players, earning 143 caps, last debut 2021
Warwickshire x14 Test players, earning 349* caps, last debut 2019
Worcestershire x11 Test players, earning 218 caps, last debut 2023
Yorkshire x29 Test players, earning 760 caps, last debut 2022

*Boyd Rankin (1 Test for England) also played 1 Test for Ireland, not included in this table.

The figures for some counties are skewed by a player making a large number of Test appearances, inflating the overall number (Examples include Gloucestershire, with 54 of their 63 Test caps being won by Jack Russell and Somerset, with Ian Botham picking up 102 of their 382 caps)

It is also worth noting that several players made their Test debut after moving from, to put it diplomatically, unfashionable counties to "bigger" counties (Graeme Swann being a good example, who debuted and subsequently won 60 Test caps after moving from Northants to Notts. (This particularly skews the figures against the smaller counties, as players with Test aspirations don't tend to move to Derbyshire or Leicestershire)

As an aside, I also compiled a list of the number of players who played fewer than 10 Tests from each decade:
11x players <10 Tests in 1973 - 1979
32x players <10 Tests in 1980s
31x players <10 Tests in 1990s
23x players <10 Tests in 2000s
19x players <10 Tests in 2010s

Looking at the tables, I feel that the view that Warwickshire have a poor record of developing players is a fair one. The fact that Derbyshire, Gloucestershire and Glamorgan have each produced such a low number of Test players in 50 years (Derbys' last Test Debut was Dominic Cork!) personally makes me question their worth in First Class cricket, particularly when their Championship performance has been so poor (1995 and 1997 apart.) Alternatively, I am realistic enough to understand that budget considerations are different for each club, certain counties (Glos, Northants) have had successful limited overs teams and some players can be considered unlucky not to have been given a chance at Test level (Kevin Dean (Derbys), James Hildreth (Somerset) and David Sales (Northants) being examples) The second table also suggests to me that England have not had a consistency of selection for a number of years, with knee jerk changes to the Test team (Often cited as the mark of England in the 1990s) being an almost constant feature.

Interested to hear your views?

Interesting bit of work. Thanks.
My stats isn't what it was, but I am sure that analysis could be done to try to isolate what factors contribute to the variation between counties. Size of population must be important and, in that case, we aren't doing very well. With the country's second biggest city - and probably adding in South Staffordshire as well - we should produce more. Having a Test ground might be a factor but it doesn't seem to do much for the minor Test sites like Cardiff and Southampton. Proximity to Lord's has often been suggested as a factor but that may just be doubling up on population size. I wonder also if it varies between bowlers and batsmen, with the quality of pitches coming into account.
One other point of interest is that the leading counties in this table (Yorks, Middlesex, Surrey, Lancs, Kent & Essex) are the ones that have historically made most use of outgrounds. Maybe there's something there to do with community engagement?

I think players moving on is a bigger factor now, and also that the selection policy is much more skewed towards bigger counties. I know during the Bayliss period and Morgans white ball captaincy, players like Phil Salt were told they preferred players at bigger counties because it meant competing to win more but also higher expectations in terms of performance. So similar quality players didn’t get the same consideration necessarily from the selectors.
I’d also be interested in viewing white ball debuts, as that’s become far more prolific in the last 20 years. And you get a lot of white ball players coming from smaller counties. Salt, Billings, Mills, Willey, Topley, Brown, David Payne, Archer, Tongue, Buttler, all started at non-test match counties, and have had or are shaping up to have good England and franchise careers.

1 final thing I’d say is we need to be careful about wishing away first class counties. Once you start, it becomes a slippery slope, and you end up with 8-10 teams called Birmingham, London, Manchester, with no history, no loyalty, and the game contracts as those in it try to make the most money for themselves without considering the wider health of the sport.

Top post - thanks very much.
Can anybody name the 13 Warwickshire players making their test debuts in the last 50 years? I certainly couldn't.
I'm not sure I agree that the stats indicate knee jerk changes to the test team are a constant feature of selection across the 50 years. The numbers of test debuts have come down quite sharply in recent decades. If you think of a team playing the first test in a new decade you wouldn't expect many of those players to still be playing at test level by the end of the decade so natural attrition will give you 7 or 8 debutants. Then you've got injuries especially to fast bowlers and selectors need to find room for good uncapped players who can improve a team. An art rather than a science but I think 19 debutants in a decade looks bit low.

A really interesting post.
There are three categories of players from a particular county picked for England - those who have come through the county youth systems, those who didn't come through the age systems but joined without appearing for another county and those who represented another county but moved before being picked for England. Population sizes are only particularly relevant for the first category.
It would be interesting to see the figures for white ball internationals (but not suggesting that you owe us that information, Random Bear - you've done a great job already).
As for naming the 13 Warwickshire players making their Test debuts in the last 50 years, I've only managed nine so far but I'll continue to search my memory banks rather than cheat and look up the answers.

I have 13 after a few minutes of thought.

It would be interesting to know which counties the selectors were linked with, as that mat show a bias towards the selectors counties.

Excellent analysis and also agree with Bristol Bear about need to avoid wishing away other counties. Makes some Warwickshire fans seem entitled especially with Warks poor record overall in regard to producing test players.

The impact of two divisions will not have helped those counties marooned in Div 2 like Derbyshire who had we retained one overall 18 team division would almost certainly have produced more test players by now.

Also bear in mind the TCCB selection process that denied treble champion winning Bears ANY representation on the winter tour of 1994-1995 brings into question the reliability of the selection system

Also the class system in the UK. Warks will have historically drawn from a pool of Midlands based players in competition with Worcestershire and Derbyshire whilst Surrey have historically been advantaged by their first access to the constant stream of privately educated and trained players from schools down south. Lancs and Yorkshire each draw from an entire region and don't have their own Worcester or Derbyshire to compete for their players at least not until Durham gained first class status without which Ben Stokes would likely have never found his way in. The next Ben Stokes might well be at Derby now

Glad to see that my analysis was well received.

A few points in response to your responses:

Its an interesting point about population on geographic location of counties. Sussex for example are surrounded by Kent, Hampshire, Surrey and the sea; their catchment area is limited as a result as they are fighting over the same youth players. On a similar basis, Warwickshire have several neighbours, but alternatively have Birmingham, Coventry and effectively Wolverhampton as cities in their catchment area and the Birmingham League; yet we have issues developing players. I often wonder if it's a case of smaller counties having to produce players because they are unable to afford to attract more established players.

I agree, I absolutely do not want to see any reduction in the Championship or First Class cricket, in my opinion we play too little as it is.

A few of you proposed and I agree, an analysis of ODI and T20 debuts would be interesting, I will look to put this together at some point.

Mad asked if class was a factor; I honestly cannot comment without knowing the bias of the selectors in question. I am convinced however that, at least in the past, selectors favoured players at certain counties for whatever reason. As many have said, the lack of international recognition for Warwickshire's 1994 team is disgraceful; its not like England were experiencing a golden age at that point.

On a wider point regarding player development, around 5 years back I remember reading an interesting article (Cannot remember where for the life of me now) that said that the number of Afro-Caribbean First Class cricketers had declined in England compared with the 1990s (The number of British Asian cricketers had marginally increased) whilst the number of cricketers educated at non-state schools had increased. For me, the slashing of state school PE budgets, the lack of free to air TV time for cricket over a number of years until The Hundred and the sporting monoculture that has developed around football in this country are to blame. Certainly, my kid's school (In a working class, multicultural part of Wolverhampton) play football and nothing else. My son and daughter are the only kids at their school to have played rugby or hockey, basically because my wife and I got them involved in clubs outside of school.

Lots of interesting stuff in this thread.
The decline of cricket in state schools makes initiatives like Chance to Shine and the South Asian Cricket Academy (SACA) all the more important - ask the Warwickshire bowlers what they think of SACA graduate Kashif Ali.
As for Afro-Caribbean players in UK first class cricket, Sky Sports say that the numbers have declined by 75% in the last 25 years. That is partially down to the disgraceful fact that the Haringey Cricket Academy was allowed to die - see this article:
https://www.espncricinfo.com/story/remembering-haringey-cricket-college-the-charity-behind-a-generation-of-black-cricketers-1285205