“We are only looking at one thing and that is how we win the Championship again,” says Jamie Porter, the effervescent Essex seamer whose side begin their title defence on Friday at the construction site that is Headingley. Freshly crowned one of Wisden’s five cricketers of the year, Porter is in no mood to countenance a repeat of the fate that befell Middlesex last season, when they followed up 2016’s triumph with a harrowing (or arrowing?) relegation.
Instead the only way for Porter and Essex is replicating their unbeaten campaign of last summer, which brought the trophy to Chelmsford after 25 years. With 10 wins from 14 games, two bowlers topping 70 wickets and 13 centuries shared by eight of the batsmen, it really was some season. Professional sportspeople rarely betray a lack of confidence, of course, but in Porter’s case one only has to look at his career to date to see that when this 24-year-old from Leytonstone sets himself a goal he tends to achieve it.
Having gone from a career in recruitment four years ago to being the leading wicket-taker in the country last summer, thanks to a restorative and Essex Premier League-winning spell at Chingford Cricket Club in 2014, next on the to-do list for the right‑armer – along with more county silverware – is England honours. “If I think I’m good enough to achieve something I don’t stop until I get it. I always believed I was good enough to achieve what I have so far and I think I am good enough to play Test cricket. So I’ll just keep going until I do,” he says.
Clearly the lower-back stress fracture that scuppered much of his winter, before a tough return with the Lions in their 3-0 defeat against West Indies A, has done little to dent Porter’s determination. Whispers that his 75 championship victims at 16 had put him on the cusp of an Ashes tour before the injury helped.
That series was dominated by talk of pace – or lack of, in England’s case – but as Porter readies himself to take on a Yorkshire side who were overcome by eight wickets at Scarborough last season, and have been rocked by two late call-ups to the Indian Premier League plus Adil Rashid’s red-ball hiatus, he says it is overrated.
“I can do a lot with the ball – probably more than most bowlers. If someone can do what I do at 90mph they’d probably be more successful but I haven’t seen many. Pace is exciting to watch but the most successful bowlers in Test cricket – guys like Glenn McGrath, Shaun Pollock and Jimmy Anderson – haven’t needed it,” he says.
Indeed a bowler who keeps reminding us all of this is South Africa’s Vernon Philander, who Porter very much admires. “He is unreal. I look at him and think if I can do what he does – and I think I have half a yard on him, pace-wise – I can be more successful or just as successful. And I’d take being just as successful.” Having seen his long-term mentor Chris Silverwood move from Essex head coach to England’s bowling equivalent over the winter must surely help his case – “Spoons took everything I had to the next level,” says Porter – but county-wise the departure does add some jeopardy to a set-up that otherwise looks settled. Up steps Silverwood’s former deputy, Anthony McGrath, to the vacancy – the only man for it, in Porter’s eyes – and the popular Dimi Mascarenhas slots in beneath to take charge of the bowlers. With Australia’s Peter Siddle in as early season overseas cover before Neil Wagner returns, and the 72-wicket spinner Simon Harmer in place, it is a case of augmenting rather than overhauling.
Porter points to the rise of Sam Cook – 18 wickets at 15 – last year and the highly rated Aaron Beard as reasons to be confident about the bowling stocks, but it is the batting depth that gets him purring. “Even without Alastair Cook [rested until the third round] against Yorkshire, we will probably see one top-class player miss out.”
There is a strong contrast with the opposition, who welcome back Cheteshwar Pujara but whose batting was underwhelming last year. The attack is depleted too, with Steve Patterson breaking a finger this week, Ben Coad out with a hip problem, and David Willey and Liam Plunkett in India.
While these two sides get the season underway to the sounds of the Football Stand’s redevelopment, but without, sadly, the comforting voice of the late Dave Callaghan on commentary, newly promoted Nottinghamshire and Worcestershire start out in Division One at Lancashire and Hampshire respectively.
In Division Two, relegated Warwickshire welcome Jason Gillespie’s Sussex, with Middlesex hosting Northamptonshire and Kent at home to Gloucestershire.
