Forget the IPL, the English Twenty20 Cup is the groundbreaking tournament which spawned the devil just ten years ago. Adam Hollioake's Surrey were the original masters of the format but since then there have been numerous excellent outfits. Sussex and Warwickshire have often looked good. Some have perhaps punched above their weight (Leicestershire, Hampshire?) while poor Somerset are Finals Day regulars but with just the single success to their name. But what about the individuals who have illuminated the tournament over the past decade?
Luke Wright, Graham Napier and Darren Maddy made their careers out of their all-round performances, and destructive batting in particular. However, none make my all-time XI. Adam Hollioake was certainly an innovative captain in the first few years but wasn't an enduring figure in the English game. Andrew Symonds' monster strike rate of 180 for three different counties and Mushtaq Ahmed's miserly economy rate of 5.88 also fail to make it because they played under thirty games apiece. Brilliant flares but burned out relatively quickly.
A number of my team have opened the innings, some as pinch-hitters. However I shall go for the mighty Marcus Trescothick and Jonathan Trott. Marcus has almost 2000 T20 Cup runs to his name for Somerset and, at 37 years old, hopefully he has a few more up his sleeve. His strike rate of 161 is one of the best of any player still going. Before England came beckoning with a central contract, Trott was a highly effective anchor for Warwickshire, averaging more than 40 with the bat. In 2009, he aggregated 525 runs.
To be honest, any of my Eleven could bat anywhere in this line-up. I'd have Matt Prior next. He has scored 1572 runs in the competition, with a strike rate of more than 150. He didn't always keep wicket in T20 and Essex's James Foster has three times his number of catches, but the England Test star just shades it in my view, and also wears the gloves. Azhar Mahmood has been a vteran for a long time now, be it in England, the IPL or anywhere else. As a clever all-rounder, he has few peers, especially in the 2000s, and was an integral part of Surrey's early successes. His tally of 104 wickets is unsurpassed, and taken alongside 1795 runs at a strike rate of 142, he is probably the most effective all-rounder of them all. Right behind him is Leicestershire and Kent's Darren Stevens. Even approaching 40, he remains a superb cricketer in all forms of the game without ever making the England team. He has the highest runs aggregate (2209) and has played more matches than anyone else in the domestic game (103). 46 wickets at under seven an over illustrate his worth as a medium-pace bowler, too.
Aussie Ian Harvey trotted around the globe and the English counties but in T20 he was a great finisher and scored three hundreds, more than anyone else. Like Stevens, his seam and swing often brought him wickets, too. Next up is Mike Yardy. ALthough a fine batsman in his own right, it is as a miserly spin bowler and canny captain that he earns his place in my T20 Cup team of the decade. In his spell as skipper, Sussex won more than 70% of their fixtures, which is quite an achievement!
Alfonso Thomas and Dmitri Mascarenhas are another two men who have sought the T20 dollar around the world, but some of their best performances have come in the English game. Primarily bowlers, they have 157 wickets between them and while the 'Fons' is famous for his superb 'death' bowling', the Hampshire all-rounder has been an excellent one for strangling batsmen in mid-innings. He was instrumental in his county's triumph last season. The Somerset evergreen's 33 wickets in 2010 remains a competition record. My final two are Warwickshire's Neil Carter and Glamorgan's spin wizard Robert Croft. Both played as pinch-hitters in their latter days and Carter in particular averaged a strike rate of 139 over a period of 91 matches. Before departing in 2012, each snared more than 80 T20 Cup victims, too.
Others who came close to selection include Ali Brown, David Hussey, Brad Hodge, Jimmy Adams, Yasir Arafat and Samit Patel but I reckon the above eleven have contributed more than most during the period of the Twenty20 Cup in all of its sponsored guises. If one gets slogged, bring on another. Six wickets down after ten overs, or fifty ruins to get in the last three? Never fear, this lot bat all the way down to eleven. Even if Murali, Kohli, Gayle and co had seen more or indeed any action in this tournament, they may have struggled to displace the likes of Crofty, Stevens or Tres.
