County coach Darren Lehmann not seen an England selector

Darren Lehmann

Northamptonshire head coach Darren Lehmann has said England players do not play enough county cricket and selectors have overlooked talent in the domestic game.

Lehmann, now in his second year at Wantage Road, is hopeful the ECB will have a better link with the first class counties this season following the humiliating Ashes series defeat this winter.

Lehmann has spoken with England managing director Rob Key and Test captain Ben Stokes after claiming he had not seen an English selector during his first year in charge.

Northamptonshire’s 27-year-old left-hander Saif Zaib was the leading run-scorer in the country last season with 1,425 at an average of just under 65, including six centuries, but was overlooked for a place on the England Lions’ winter tour.

“I think you will see a really marked improvement in that regard from the ECB,” former Australia batter Lehmann told BBC Look East.
“The [England] players don’t play enough county cricket. They should play more but that’s not my call.

“I think the ECB wants to get close to the counties, they don’t want to be that matriarch, you feel like they want to make sure all the counties are listened to and that they’re getting around to watch as much as they can.

“There’s a lot of good county players that could have been on the tour if they’d probably seen and took notice of them a little bit more.”
Of the England XI which lined up for the opening Ashes Test of a disappointing tour Down Under, which ended in a dismal 4-1 defeat, only one made more than four County Championship appearances for their club in 2025.

Opener Ben Duckett played once for champions Notts, and partner Zak Crawley appeared for Kent in four Division Two games.

(BBC sport)