County Championship shivers into life as Stokes turns up the heat on the fight for England places

It is 10am at Lord’s, an hour before the County Championship season begins, and all is quiet. Cameron Bancroft walks across the deserted pitch towards the pavilion, as rain drizzles from skies gloomy enough to still technically be considered night-time. The thermometer reads seven degrees.

It is 3 April and spring has, in fact, not sprung after all. Red-ball cricket is back, and so is winter. By the start of play an hour later, about 75 brave souls have taken their seats in the main public stand.

The Hundred sold half a million tickets last summer, but on first glance, this Division Two match between Middlesex and Gloucestershire barely meets the definition of a spectator sport. Yet despite the inauspicious start, there is a layer of excitement around this season that has been missing in recent years. After the disappointment of a dismal Ashes, the ECB has vowed to repair its link to the domestic game, a link which Rob Key admitted last month had “disintegrated” under his watch .

Brendon McCullum and Ben Stokes will be watching closely, Key insists. England’s Ashes players will be getting their hands dirty for their counties, too, in a bid to retain their places. Overseas talent remains plentiful, standards are high, and competition is fierce after Surrey’s dominance was ended by Nottinghamshire last summer .