Strongest First-Class Competition
 

Throughout the 1990's and 2000's it was rightfully claimed that the Sheffield Shield was the premier format of First-Class competition. The standard of cricket was high, it was tough to break into a state squad, and many regarded it as the perfect mix of team numbers and games played.

In recent seasons, it has become clearly obvious that the Sheffield Shield has experienced a significant decline in quality. The six state sides no longer have the depth of talent and the likes of James Faulkner (a modest left-arm seamer) can dominate the competition.

With the Sheffield Shield no longer the clear number one, which competition now holds the mantle of the strongest First-Class competition in the world? Have all competitions experienced a decline due to the decreased involvement of international players? Is a strong domestic structure still necessary to produce consistent World Class talent?

Vote away. Apologies if I have a local tournament named incorrectly.

Probably wouldn't have gone for the CC even five years ago, and even now don't seek to suggest the second division is all that strong, but the top half dozen in Division one are very competitive

The South African system seems to produce a lot of talent, so I'll go for them.

I'd be whistling in the dark, really. We very rarely get any county championship stuff shown up here (Sky carries about two non-test FC games a season, one of which is sometimes a Loins game) and never any other countries' domestic games.

I'd guess logic would say the SS or the Currie Cup (or whatever it's called now) would be close tho. Fewer FC entities means a greater concentration of talent.

Tough one this.

Do not really know what to rate the competitions against each other on.

How the hell can anyone tell without being a global groundhopper?

In the 90s and 00s it was a bit easy to say since SS was so ridiculously rich with talent. Nowadays I doubt that is still the case. Plenty of talent there but the Test team struggling leaves one to doubt it. Don't know enough about the others to honestly compare and vote.

I suppose the dear old CC has a decent case too, now I think about it.

The majority of the last two dominant test nations (Windies and Oz) have at least been partly schooled in the CC. When they weren't terrifying test batsmen yer Ambroses and yer Walshes put in full shifts with Northants and Glous.

Even now our being in the EU means anyone with a European passport can play here as a "domestic" player. The rules over Kolpaks have (thankfully) been tightened, but we're powerless to stop the likes of Pothas (Greek passport), Di Venuto (Italian) or ten Doeschate (Dutch).

Shield is probably still #1. Too many gun Saffies don't play in their domestic comp, and the Pommy one is propped up by overseas players.

Don't think there is anything much to debate over this. South African FC cricket is clearly well ahead of those in other parts of the world.

Indian stuff tbh, when they do those North Zone vs. South Zone style matches. Easily the highest quality.

The next tier down would be Saffa first divison, English first division and Aussie stuff.

Not really sure about this one. Gut says Australia so SS has my vote.

Ranji Trophy has way too many teams which dilutes the quality.

That Zonal shindig should count as a first class competition tbh.

The Duleep Trophy.

The standard is pretty good in that tournament and it is also a first class tournament,but still the primary competition is the RanjI Trophy.

It would be interesting to hear more about the impact of the IPL on the Indian first-class competition.

An expected outcome of having the best young cricketers in India exposed to some of the worlds best coaches, the wisdom of some of the worlds best cricketers and the pressure of playing in front of packed crowds would have a flow on effect into the Ranji Trophy.