As the county season beds in for the summer, Benny Howell and Adam Rossington speak to Katya Witney, reflecting on franchise cricket’s busiest winter yet.

Set against the backdrop of a sun-tinged Easter weekend, the early April start to the English domestic summer bore little hint of the carnage that unfolded across the winter months.

Scoring rates more or less reverted to the mean, despite rumblings of the Bazball effect, and the fireworks of the PSL were replaced by the gentle hum of county crowds.

No winter has been busier or more evidential of a capitalised cricket market than 2022/23. A raft of new franchise competitions broadcast across endless streaming services meant that more players than ever before could spend their winter in the sun. Since its inception, franchise cricket has evolved to the point where it’s no longer the preserve of the most famous names in the game, but is reliant on a steady flow of domestic players from around the world.

This is especially true of England’s county cricketers, humble shire-dwellers by summer elevated to new heights from autumn onwards. At least 70 county players were signed to at least one T20 league this winter. With reports that a Saudi Arabia T20 competition could top all of them in terms of wages on offer, that number is sure to rise in future.

For the players themselves, this means helter-skelter months spent hopping from plane to plane, often on short notice, and squeezing in time to see friends and family in between airport check-ins.

“I think I’ve only had a couple of weeks at home all winter,” says Adam Rossington. “I left in mid-November to go to Abu Dhabi for the T10 and then I had 12 hours at home before going to Miami. After I got back, I had a holiday planned with my fiance so I got straight out there, then I had nine days at home over Christmas before I went straight out to South Africa. From there, I had four or five days in England before going to Pakistan.

“A lot of them were last-minute deals. I knew I was playing in the US Open, but I was a replacement in the T10. I knew South Africa was coming up, then Pakistan was off the back of the South Africa comp.”

On brand for the theme of the interview, Rossington was once again on the move when he spoke to Wisden.com – although this time on his way home after Essex’s preseason media day. Having joined the county full-time last year after losing the Northamptonshire captaincy, their hands-off approach has not only facilitated a winter on the franchise circuit but instilled a sense of loyalty to his new home.

“They’ve been brilliant with me,” he says. “You just check in that they’re happy for you to go and if you need anything you just pick up the phone. They’re happy just to let you go and do what you need to do.”

While Rossington was playing his first proper season on the franchise trawl, Hampshire’s Benny Howell was enjoying another season in the Bangladesh Premier League. Howell has played in every edition of the BPL since 2016 when the franchise boom was just beginning to explode. But this year, his appearance in the tournament was somewhat unexpected.

“I got a call from Rangpur Riders who I played for in 2018,” says Howell. “They wanted me to play for them this year but I said no because I was already confirmed to play in the ILT20. But they said we want you for a couple of games before you go out there.

“I was like, great I’m flying out to Dubai anyway so I might as well go and play some games there beforehand. So I did that and then I left. It’s mad how it works. Sam Billings played for Rangpur as well but in the playoffs. Before that, he’d gone over to Dubai just to play one game.

“This was last year but it’s a crazy story, I was on a flight that the Bangladesh team paid for back from England to Dhaka, and the first leg was via Doha. I knew Peshawar Zalmi wanted me for the PSL semi-finals but I was waiting for the visa. When I got off the plane in Doha I checked my messages, and it had come through. So I went to the desk to change my flight to go to Lahore rather than back to the UK and tell people to move my bags to the other flight. Then I had to quarantine for four days in Pakistan before playing the game. I bowled the last over, got hit for six by Liam Dawson, lost them the game and went home.”

The seemingly arbitrary wheel of fortune that determines the hierarchy of the player market has been spinning in overdrive over the last few months. Players are commodities to be bought and carted all over the world, of course, paid handsomely to do so. That’s the overarching spectacle.

“Some of it is madness,” says Howell. “I’m not complaining because you get paid to play and experience things like this. But people get excited by players they see overseas and I think they forget the human element. You have to get used to things pretty quickly with different captains, different coaches and how they run things. You might not be bowling in the same role as you usually are, and you can shy away from it.

“But you never know what’s talk, what’s legit and what’s actually going to happen. I probably didn’t think it would get to the stage where you could fly in for one game and fly out. I don’t know if they’re going to carry on letting them do that or not and I don’t know whether it’s good for the game. But you’ve got to take the opportunity when it arises and I’m going to take as much opportunity as I can.”

“For some of the well-established guys there’s obviously an element of picking and choosing,” says Rossington. “But with franchise cricket, you’re probably only ever one or two bad tournaments away from being out of it. If you’re not putting your name into the hat for a lot of them and performing, it’s very easy to be left out. Then it’s hard to force your way back in.

“If you throw that into the mix all the internationals playing around the world, it becomes tough to get into these things. So once you’re in you want to stay in as long as possible.”

While Rossington finished his winter with Karachi Kings playing in Rawalpindi – “Now that’s a wicket you want to roll up and take wherever you can!” – Howell missed out on an IPL contract. With no more white-ball cricket until the start of the T20 Blast in May, he’s turned his attention back to red-ball, despite his single format contract.

“I’m going to start playing some second-team cricket and then see how it goes and see what happens from there,” he says. “Now I’m not in India, I have a lot of time to not really do anything, and it made me realise that I actually enjoy cricket whether it’s red ball or white ball. I don’t have to be there if I don’t want to, but if I want to play four-day cricket Hampshire are happy for me to do so. I get paid on a game-by-game basis if they want to pick me.”

Above all, the competition between the vast sums players can earn from franchise leagues compared to what those like Howell are paid for Championship games has taken all rigidity out of the system. Flexibility and individualistic approaches are no longer something players demand; they’re baked into the domestic infrastructure.

A challenge to that flexibility is on the horizon, however, as the inaugural season of Major League Cricket looms. With IPL-owned franchises and a purpose-built new stadium in Texas, the financial and experiential appeal is clear. But, how quickly could it force a confrontation with county commitments?

The dates for the 2023 MLC slightly overlap with the end of the T20 Blast. Those players not involved in the County Championship matches at the end of July could, in theory, be free to fly straight over if given a US contract. The competition in America even ends two days before The Hundred starts – neat. A continuation of the frenetic jigsaw of leagues the winter threw up.

“For me, county cricket is still where your bread’s buttered,” says Rossington. “That’s my main job. It’s what gives me a platform to do my thing. And especially if you’re getting the freedom in the winter to play as many tournaments as you want – for me personally, I see myself wanting to play four-day cricket for Essex. It’s very hard to be picking and choosing and saying I just want to nip off here for three weeks and miss three Championship games because it suits you.”

“Essex looked after me really well when I moved down from Northampton, and they’ve been brilliant for me. Yes, if Major League didn’t fall in the season I’d love to put my name in it. But I think for now I owe it to Essex to be available for those Championship games in July rather than putting my name in the hat to go and play in America.”

For Howell, the conversation around prioritising county cricket is more hypothetical.

“Let’s say I play four-day cricket, and I’m performing really well… I manage to get into the first team, let’s say,” he says. “Then it’s up to me to decide whether to carry on with Hampshire or go over to Major League. Part of my deal is very flexible for me to go away and play, as long as it doesn’t affect the Blast or other Hampshire stuff.

“But I would like to think that if Hampshire are going well and we’re competing for a Championship, then I would stay and play in that, even if I was getting paid a lot more money in the Major League.”

For now, the question of the Major League and what the second winter of mayhem will bring can wait. County cricket is back and a collective breath can be taken, even if the IPL is on in the background. Mohammad Abbas is cleaning up, Cheteshwar Pujara has scored his first century of the season and normality has resumed. Time for the cycle to reset itself.