The double-edged sword of Australian involvement in the County Championship

SHUBI ARUN: The debate around Australian players in the County Championship, especially ahead of an Ashes series on English soil, is polarising. Their participation is beneficial to English cricket yet potentially detrimental to the England team

There is a mythical element to Marnus Labuschagne's origin story. The four fifties in his first four innings of the 2019 Ashes following his introduction as the first concussion substitute in Test history have been well documented.

But, the role Glamorgan played in his breakout summer is often overlooked.

Signed as a backup for Shaun Marsh for the first half of the LV= Insurance County Championship that summer, Labuschagne thrived. He scored 1,114 runs in 10 games, including five centuries and five fifties. Coming off a middling season with Queensland in the Sheffield Shield, he utilised his time in south Wales to workshop his technique.

"The big thing in Australia is you can see the line of the ball and go towards it," said Glamorgan coach Matthew Maynard in an interview with Wisden.

"In this country, with the swinging ball, you've got to wait a little bit longer and then move quicker to that swinging ball as opposed to just seeing the line of the ball and moving and attacking that line, because it doesn't swing as much in Australia as it does here.

^{Marnus Labuschagne celebrating a century for Glamorgan ahead of the 2019 Ashes [Harry Trump/Getty Images]}

"Umpires will tend to give guys out here where they may potentially not in Australia for a similar kind of thing. You see quite a number of times the line that the lads bowl here is straighter than in Australia, where they tend to go a bit into the channel."

Fortune and fortitude did play a role in Labuschagne hitting the ground running as briskly as he did in that year's Ashes. But, it probably didn't hurt that he had half the summer to warm up for it.

England may find themselves playing an unwitting role in their own drubbing again this season, with 13 Australian players taking part in this year's County Championship.

Steve Smith's participation for Sussex this summer has created the most furore. He scored 774 runs  at 110 in the 2019 Ashes after a year out of the game. Prior to that, his last appearance in red-ball cricket on English soil had come in 2015. Imagine how many he'll get with three first-class games under his belt just a couple of weeks before the 2023 LV= Insurance Ashes series commences.

While some deemed Sussex's decision as treacherous, the reaction to Smith's extended English summer hasn't all been negative. "Great signing for our game … well done," tweeted Michael Vaughan in reaction to Sussex's announcement.

^{Australian players were commonplace in the County Championship in the early-to-mid 2000s, with Rob Key hailing their influence [Ryan Pierse/Getty Images]}

There is an argument to be made that players of the calibre of Smith and Labuschagne will raise the profile of the County Championship and spike attendance rates. And then there's the impact sharing a dressing room with players of this ilk will have on young cricketers.

It's something Rob Key referenced in a recent interview with Michael Atherton. He spoke of the presence of Australian internationals like Steve Waugh, Mike Hussey and Shane Warne in the early-to-mid 2000s in the Championship and how their mentality rubbed off on the English players.

"We started to develop a little bit of their philosophy. Vaughan (who played alongside Darren Lehmann at Yorkshire) had it; Strauss (who played alongside Justin Langer at Middlesex) had it," he said.

"That series in 2005, they lost the first Test at Lord's and then got 400 in a day in the next game. That came from the influences that we had. When people talk about Steve Smith coming to Sussex, we've all taken things from each other."

While it's an opportunity for players like Smith to prime themselves into peak performance, for the likes of Nathan McAndrew (Sussex), Matthew Kuhnemann (Durham) and Peter Handscomb (Leicestershire), the County Championship is an opportunity to further hone their skills and stake a claim into the national team.

^{Matthew Kuhnemann (right) is one of the Australians hoping to impress on English soil [Mike Hewitt/Getty Images]}

However, it's a polarising issue that's heightened by the fact English players can't participate in the Sheffield Shield.

As per Andrew Strauss' high-performance review last year, the average England Test debutant has played on average only 2.5 first-class games overseas compared with 4.4 for Australians, 4.0 for New Zealand debutants, 3.8 for Indian players and 2.9 for Sri Lanka players.

Given there are just six teams in the Sheffield Shield, the reluctance to allow foreign players to play in it is understandable. But on the other hand, New Zealand's Plunket Shield, which is also composed of six teams, permits each team to pick one foreign player.

The debate over the involvement of Australians in the County Championship, especially ahead of an Ashes series on English soil, is a contentious one.

Their participation is beneficial to English cricket yet potentially detrimental to the England team.