My twenty-odd Teams of the Week consisted of more than 160 individuals, each of whom produced something special at some point, whether in a Test, County Championship, women's cricket, one-dayers or any number of T20 knockabouts. Nobody appeared five times but several were mentioned on four occasions. Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Gary Ballance owed much to their performances on the international stage, three make my Team of the Year and Luke Wright narrowly missed out.
It was a summer when number nines broke all sorts of batting records, from Kumar's two half-centuries in a Test to Jack Shantry's ten wickets and century. Alfonso Thomas claimed four wickets in four balls for Somerset against Sussex but was strangely ineffective in the short formats, traditionally his strength. Club player Richard Oliver epitomised the rags to riches story. He was plucked from Reigate Priory and Worcestershire Seconds obscurity to play T20 before striking a maiden First-class hundred and earning a contract through 2015 for good measure. September saw Derbyshire's eighteen year-old wicketkeeper Harvey Hosein take no fewer than eleven catches on his debut, a world record.
So what about those whose consistency throughout a hectic domestic season merits inclusion in the all-important Mike's Spin on Cricket County Team of 2014?
My openers are Alex Hales and Adam Lyth. Last year the Nottinghamshire batsman was earning plaudits for his T20 strokeplay but dropped by his county in first-class cricket. In 2014, he stepped up not only to the England ODI side but also to the Notts first XI. He passed 1,000 runs in the longer format and reached four figures in List A and T20 combined. He looked a more confident player but by no means a Test opener. Not yet, anyway. Adam Lyth scored more first-class runs than anybody else (1,619) including eight centuries. His partnership with Alex Lees played no small part in Yorkshire's march to the title and he also took more catches than any non-'keeper in the county game. Honourable mentions go to Varun Chopra (Warwickshire), Chris Rogers (Middlesex), Daryl Mitchell (Worcestershire) and, for their one-day exploits, Jason Roy (Surrey) and Jacques Rudolph (Glamorgan).
Like Roy, Luke Wright has a fearsome reputation in twenty-over cricket, and his 153 in 66 balls at Chelmsford in July was the highlight of the Nat West Blast. He averaged 52 in the first-class game, too, but he doesn't make my team! The Irish-English-Irish star Ed Joyce enjoyed a productive start and end to the season for Sussex, accumulating 1501 Championship runs. With Steve Magoffin's wickets, he was the main reason for Sussex's third place in Division One. Hampshire's young James Vince was also knocking on the England selectors' door with some fine knocks in all competitions and he edges out fellow contender James Taylor (Nottinghamshire), Dawid Malan (Middlesex), Sam Northeast (Kent) and Alex Gidman (Gloucestershire).
Wicketkeepers often hang around at the top for years but, boy, thhey have to work hard for it! Chris Read, Tim Ambrose and Mark Wallace are all consistent catchers and scorers, but two players stood out for me. Sam Billings seems to have finished Geraint Jones' Kent career with his batting exploits in the Royal London Cup, and he had 59 Championship victims behind the stumps, too. Nevertheless the evergreen James Foster wins my place for his glovework and vital runs for Essex which took them remarkably close to promotion.
Next time I'll review the all-rounders and bowlers who lit up the domestic season in 2014. And there were some crackers!
