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One of a trio of tyro pace bowlers being monitored by England has agreed to move the length of the country for 2026.
Archie Bailey, 20, comes from sporting stock as the son of Kim Bailey, the first race horse trainer to complete the hat-trick of saddling winners in the Champion Hurdle, Cheltenham Gold Cup and Grand National, but has been tempted away from Gloucestershire, and the family’s Thorndale Farm stables, by Durham.
Along with Hampshire duo Sonny Baker and Eddie Jack, Bailey is viewed as the future of England’s fast bowling, with head coach Brendon McCullum being a big fan after watching him perform for a county select XI against the touring Zimbabweans in May.
Durham have an impressive record of turning homegrown seamers into England internationals, stretching back to Steve Harmison and Graham Onions through to the current crop of Mark Wood, Brydon Carse and Matthew Potts – not to mention all-rounder Ben Stokes.
Now they have persuaded Bailey, a player with just five first-class appearances to his name, that theirs is the perfect environment to fulfil his goal of winning full international honours.
Another player switching from the South West to Chester-le-Street is Somerset all-rounder Kasey Aldridge, who has been on a Twenty20 loan with the club but is committing permanently from the end of the 2025 season.
Good news for Gloucestershire, at last
It has turned into a tense summer for Gloucestershire, due to having nine players on their staff in the final months of their contracts and therefore able to talk to rival clubs.
With Dominic Goodman signing for Sussex and the anticipation that other members of their attack might also flit – Ajeet Singh Dale, Zaman Akhter and Josh Shaw are all considering their options despite being offered new terms at Nevil Road – they have secured the return of Craig Miles from Warwickshire on a three-year contract.
Since claiming 47 wickets in Warwickshire’s County Championship title success in 2021, the 31-year-old Miles has claimed just a further 37 victims in 18 matches and will hope a return to Gloucestershire, where he broke the 50 mark in three of his final four seasons, will resuscitate his career.
Somerset hit by exodus
Somerset are also in the midst of a mini-exodus with the giant Aldridge set to be followed out by Ben Green and Josh Davey, both of whom are moving to promotion-chasing Leicestershire.
Although Green, 27, has remained a regular in Somerset’s Twenty20 plans, featuring in three Finals Days and winning the competition in 2023, his 15 most recent Championship appearances have come during temporary stays with the Foxes and it is understood the chance of a more senior role at Grace Road, including potential captaincy opportunities, has been significant in determining his future.
Scotland international seamer Davey, meanwhile, is relocating to the East Midlands in search of further limited-overs opportunities after becoming a red-ball specialist in recent years.
His versatility is something that fits the Leicestershire mould under Alfonso Thomas, a head coach who likes tail-enders to contribute. Davey is proficient enough with the bat to have been used as an opener by Somerset this summer.
Vultures circling cash-strapped Yorkshire
Several counties are looking to take advantage of Yorkshire’s reduced financial muscle, which has already seen them fail to lure Michael Pepper from Essex.
Twenty-seven-year-old Pepper, selected for England’s white-ball tour of the Caribbean last winter, re-signed at Chelmsford despite interest from Yorkshire, then promptly crashed an unbeaten 87 against Sussex, securing a first home Vitality Blast win in 12 months for Essex in the process.
Yorkshire have been on the lookout for a long-term successor to 35-year-old Jonny Bairstow as an aggressive wicketkeeper-batsman, and seemingly allowing another gloveman Jonny Tattersall to move on.
Yorkshire will offer Australia all-rounder Will Sutherland the chance to come back in 2026, and want New Zealand pace bowlers Will O’Rourke and Ben Sears to return, too, in a bid to establish long-term relationships with their overseas players.
They have also been in the process of finalising improved terms with Will Luxton after the former England Under 19 batter signalled his intention to stay at Headingley. But his surprise Hundred wildcard snub by the Headingley-based Northern Superchargers, following match-winning Blast displays including an unbeaten 90 in a big Roses win, won’t have helped.
They are in danger of losing seamer Matt Milnes, 30, with two of his former clubs circling. Milnes, who has managed just four Championship outings in his three seasons with Yorkshire due to recurring stress fractures of the back, has interest from Nottinghamshire, while Kent are hoping to entice him back to Canterbury on a three-year deal.
Kent trio drawing interest
Kent’s move appears to be in anticipation of Nathan Gilchrist switching to Warwickshire, with discussions advancing between the South African-raised paceman and the Bears.
Joey Evison and Tawanda Muyeye are two other Kent players attracting suitors and yet to decide their futures, with the latter understood to be of interest to Hampshire.
Across the Pennines, Paul Coughlin is a surprise target for Lancashire after Durham’s recent recruitment drive knocked the seam-bowling all-rounder down the pecking order.
Counties demand end to Kookaburra farce
County cricket is on a collision course with England boss Rob Key after categorically demanding an end to its much-maligned Kookaburra ball experiment.
Of the 18 heads of cricket around the country, all 14 to have voted so far on its future in the County Championship have called for it to be abolished and for the first-class competition to revert exclusively to its rival Dukes ball. It is a major boost for Dukes at a time when the UK manufacturer has come under fire for providing a glut of balls that have prematurely gone soft and out of shape in the Test series between England and India.
The machine-made Australian Kookaburra was first introduced for two midsummer rounds of matches in 2023, with England men’s director of cricket Key promoting the trial in a bid to encourage fast bowlers and spinners.
The theory was that the more pronounced seam of the hand-stitched Dukes made it too easy for medium-pacers to thrive, while bowlers who could be developed for overseas conditions, such as those found in Australia and India, were being overlooked.
However, the doubling of Kookaburra rounds last year saw 17 of 18 early-season matches end in draws and, although the four rounds this season have been scheduled for June and July, the first two were skewed in favour of batsmen again – Surrey scoring a club record 820 for nine declared, but failing to take a second-innings wicket after enforcing the follow on against Durham telling its own story.
So unresponsive have the Kookaburra balls been that clubs have asked groundsmen to leave excess grass on pitches in a bid to give their faster bowlers some pace to work with, or shaved the ends hoping for deterioration for their spinners to exploit.
The prevailing mood will put the ECB under pressure to act, as the directors of cricket group report to its cricket committee, who in turn make recommendations to the board.
Key has been an advocate of English players developing their skills in an environment where lateral movement is minimal, so that they can adapt in away series like this winter’s Ashes.
Chaotic schedule causing player injuries?
The Professional Cricketers’ Association have blasted the stupidity of a county schedule that is hitting players’ physical and mental wellbeing.
England cricketers Liam Livingstone and Saqib Mahmood succumbed to injuries after a fatigued Lancashire side were forced back on to the field in Manchester 11 hours after they had arrived home from an away game in Northampton.
A motorway hold-up meant the team bus did not pull into Old Trafford until 3.30am, and most were not in bed until after four o’clock. Yet they were due to report back at the ground by 1pm for a 3pm start against Derbyshire.
Both Livingstone and Mahmood suffered niggles that have kept them out of action since.
‘It’s just stupidity, isn’t it? It just makes no sense for players getting back at four o’clock in the morning to be going again the following lunchtime,’ said PCA chief executive Daryl Mitchell.
Sadly, it is not the only instance of those playing back-to-back fixtures suffering dire consequences this summer.
Sussex duo Harrison Ward and Tom Alsop were sidelined with calf injuries after playing in a Friday night T20 at Hove and Saturday match versus Glamorgan in Cardiff following a lengthy road trip.
A PCA survey last year revealed that 81 per cent of players said the current schedule caused them concern from a physical perspective, while two thirds believed a season structure without a balance of preparation and recovery is not conducive to high-performance.
The Blast is expected to be reduced to 12 group games from 2026 – from 14 this year – but even then Mitchell cannot rule out repeats of early-hours motorway drives on the day of matches.
‘In terms of guarantee, it will completely come to an end, I think it’s unlikely. Obviously, there’s a structure review going on at the minute,’ he said.
‘We are heading in the right direction. There was a reduction in the number of back-to-back fixtures in the men’s game this year compared to last year, and with the restructure of the Blast potentially that should help further.’
