THE HIGHLY competitive though rather mediocre competition for the county championship, which enters its penultimate round today, could yet be decided by the forgotten factor: captaincy.
In the absence of a single outstanding team the race for the title was always likely to be decided by a number of rather extraneous sounding issues: the weather, the pitches, England calls, injuries.
Leadership qualities have been largely forgotten, and this is hardly surprising. The outstanding captain in county cricket is Mike Gatting, whose Middlesex side are just out of the running in seventh place.
At Surrey, Adam Hollioake has been even more impressive than Alec Stewart when leading a richly gifted side at Essex, Paul Prichard has made the most of his thoughtful deputy Nasser Hussain; Steve Marsh has been one of four skippers at Kent; and at Yorkshire David Byas, though an improvement on Martyn Moxon, has sometimes appeared tactically challenged, particularly during the defeat by Sussex at Eastbourne.
At Derbyshire Dean Jones, With his massive self belief, has been a huge success but his pace attack has also left him looking as well armed as one of those Mexican villains in a spaghetti western.
All this leaves us with James Whitaker, of Leicestershire, and possibly the best captain among the leading phalanx. Whitaker always coveted ambitions of becoming a captain and this sense, of destiny will be rewarded if Leicestershire lift their second county championship in 10 days time. Whitaker's ability to make the most of limited resources might even have won him the captaincy of the England A side this winter.
Leicestershire, with a lead of a single point, know that maximum points from their last two games will give them the title. Of all the leading sides they will also go into today's matches with the most enthusiasm: they play a Durham team who seem fortunate to have retained their first class status for next season.
Leicestershire's England left arm seamer Alan Mullally, who yesterday signed a new three year contract, returns to the side at Chester le Street. Their West Indian all rounder Phil Simmons has also signed a new deal, for two years.
Jack Birkenshaw, their very enthusiastic cricket manager, yesterday predicted "an historic fortnight". He added: "The target has to be to take maximum points against Durham and Middlesex."
Stuart Law, the 27 year old Australian who has not played for the club since the NatWest Trophy semi final win over Surrey returns to Chelmsford from Sri Lanka to face a Sussex side who have lost their last four championship matches. But Essex could miss seamer Neil Williams (thigh injury) for the last two matches.
Left arm spinner Min Patel, left out of both England squads by the selectors, could return for Kent who play Hampshire in their final home match. Kent have fallen to fifth after missing last week's round of matches.
