Essex ready County Championship celebrations

Essex defeated Warwickshire by an innings at Edgbaston on Thursday
The win sees them likely to be crowned County Championship winners
It will be the county’s first championship since last winning in 1992
Former England captain Alastair Cook was in the stands to watch the win

By Laurie Whitwell for the Daily Mail

Published: 22:38 BST, 14 September 2017 | Updated: 22:38 BST, 14 September 2017

Essex sealed a thumping win by an innings over Warwickshire on Thursday and should be confirmed as champions on Friday, with second-placed Lancashire struggling to avoid defeat by Somerset at Taunton.

The Essex squad stayed in Birmingham last night and hope to get their title celebrations started today. Former England captain Alastair Cook has travelled up from his Bedfordshire home and he watched from the pavilion yesterday as his team-mates moved to the brink of winning their first County Championship title since 1992.

Coach Chris Silverwood, who won the title with Yorkshire as a player, said: ‘We will keep an eye on what’s going on at Taunton and when the time comes we will celebrate. There was nothing planned but I am not surprised we are all here, knowing the team.

Jamie Porter was on hand for Essex to go within touching distance of County Championship

‘Alastair has spoken to me about the passion he’s got. One of the things he wanted to do was try to win a Championship with Essex. Alastair loves playing for Essex and when he comes back he gives so much to the team. Not just the weight of runs, it is him as a bloke as well. The rest of them feed off that.’

Cook is eligible to play the final two games versus Hampshire and Yorkshire but this title owes more to the regular squad, with Jamie Porter, Simon Harmer and Dan Lawrence to the fore.

Porter has contributed 64 of Essex’s 127 wickets to their title challenge this season

Porter said: ‘The first three games we were thinking it might be tough just to survive in this division but we turned it round to dominate games. It would be nice to finish the season unbeaten.’

Yesterday Essex, who have won eight and drawn four of their games, dismissed relegation-bound Warwickshire for 112 before tea.

Cheers went up from the dressing room at each wicket taken by Somerset, with Lancashire finishing on 247 for eight, a lead of just 45 runs.

NASSER HUSSAIN: On being part of Essex’s last title win 25 years ago

It was great fun playing for Essex when they dominated county cricket.

In 1992 we had a dressing room of superstars such as Graham Gooch and Mark Waugh, England bowlers Derek Pringle and Neil Foster plus future or former England players like John Childs, Peter Such, John Stephenson, Mark Ilott — and me. It was often a case of ‘after the Lord Mayor’s Show’ coming in after Gooch and Waugh. My upbringing involved getting changed in between the triangle of Foster, Pringle and Don Topley arguing every day. The good thing was that out on on the field all was forgotten and we were a real team.

Essex had developed a winning culture under Keith Fletcher and then Gooch and you felt part of something that had already been created.

The current side have not tasted anything like this but are making their own history and their success has come out of the blue.

If anything, this year has shown they have underachieved. Now they have created the right environment and shown what can be done.

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