Yesterday the 2021 County Championship kicked off in England.  The competition was first contested in 1864, when Surrey was crowned champions.  Officially known as the Championship since 1980, the competition has seen many formats over its storied history. In 2000, the England & Wales County Board (ECB) adopted a two-divisional format for the eighteen counties contesting the Championship.  There were a few tweaks made to the structure in 2016, but it basically stayed the same until last season.  An important feature was the automatic promotion / relegation – the two bottom teams in Division One went down, and the two top teams in Division Two up. 2021 sees the first major restructuring of the Championship format since 2000.  Because of the Covid pandemic, the Championship proper was not staged in 2020.  Instead, the counties played in a revised three-group structure for the Bob Willis Trophy.  Earlier this year the eighteen… Continue reading