"Essex CCC are the premier sports team in East Anglia, although Ipswich Town fans would disagree"

HUW TURBERVILL: Graham Gooch lauds Essex and their model overseas pro-Simon Harmer, who has inspired a tilt at another piece of silverware

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One of the strange things about The Hundred is its ostracising of East Anglia. With no matches at Chelmsford or Wantage Road, surely it is unlikely people are going to travel from Cambridge, Chelmsford, Ipswich, Lowestoft, and Norwich to Lord’s or The Oval. A lot of people live in the East, however – approaching 6.5m, and a lot of cricket is played.

In a non-COVID summer, plenty normally go to Chelmsford to watch Essex, and as their recent record shows, they punch consistently above their weight.

For a county with a stadium that can only hold 4,200, their County Championship titles in 2017 and 2019, and their appearance in the final of the Bob Willis Trophy against Somerset at Lord’s from September 23–27 this summer, are remarkable.

One wonders if there is a Roman Abramovich type out there who would be tempted to build a 20,000-seater stadium for this remarkable cricket county, a fitting home for Essex to continue dominating in four-day cricket and T20 Blast – they are holders in both.

I put the question to Graham Gooch, a lynchpin when Essex were previously giants of the domestic game. During his era they won the Championship in 1979, 1983, 1984, 1986, 1991 and 1992; the Sunday League in 1981, 1984 and 1985; the NatWest Trophy in 1985 and 1997; and the Benson & Hedges Cup in 1979. After a spell as a coach he is now on the club’s cricket advisory committee. 

^{Chelmsford plays host to the best team in the country}

“There is potential for a rich millionaire I suppose,” he told The Cricketer. “I think Essex CCC are the premier sports team in East Anglia, although Ipswich Town fans would disagree.

“A lot of counties look up to us as a provincial county.

"Somerset have done well too, and Sussex. I am really pleased Derbyshire have done well in the Bob Willis Trophy. It’s shown you don’t have to be a Test match ground to be successful. I don’t like the fact Leicestershire, Derbyshire, and Northants have become feeder clubs for Warwickshire and Nottinghamshire, with players like Ben Duckett and Joe Clarke leaving. We at Essex are proud of producing our own players. The more we produce the more it shows the pathway for them to go through.”

There have been attempts to move to a new ground or redevelop the existing one, and chief executive Derek Bowden always monitors developments cannily.

“We don’t want to move even though we are hemmed in,” said Gooch. “For one reason or another since 2008 ground redevelopment hasn’t happened. When the plan was hatched to build and modernise the ground to be a world-class facility the recession struck and NatWest pulled the funding.

^{Simon Harmer is on the brink of leading Essex to another piece of silverware}

“We have no aspiration of entertaining men’s internationals: the ground is too small and too close to London. We have been successful at staging women’s matches. The ground is the right size for that. We have aspirations to be the best provincial Category C in the country. Now with Covid and the financial crisis everyone is going to face in sport and entertainment that has to go on the backburner again.”

Gooch admits one player has been pivotal in their success.

Simon Harmer took 74 first-class wickets at 19.31 apiece in 2017; 86 at 18.15 in 2019, and 34 at 13.70 so far this summer ahead of the five-day final. (And in 2018 he took 57 at 24.45 when Essex finished third).

“We’ve played pretty well this year, and our success has been built on our bowlers,” says Gooch. “Simon Harmer has been, borrowing from my era, the Malcolm Marshall of county cricket. He influences games, he wins games, bowls a lot of overs, is excellent at slip, and an example to all. Along with that, we have our local young bowlers: Jamie Porter, Sam Cook, Aaron Beard, Paul Walter, Jack Plom, and Ben Allison: Peter Siddle was a great role model for them.

“The Essex model has always been that we sign overseas players who can perform to help you win matches but also to be role models – to impart knowledge to younger cricketers, how they go about their work: Andy Flower, Stuart Law, Mark Waugh, Allan Border, and Ken McEwan have all been role models. Simon and Peter have been worthy successors to them.”

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