10 best Essex cricketers of all time 

The England cricket team is one of the oldest in the world and throughout its history, the nation has produced some of the finest cricketers to have ever played the game. Many of those cricketers were however nurtured and developed at the different counties, which make up the robust domestic cricket structure in the country.

Among the many English counties, competition is immense and plenty of them have supplied world-class cricketers to the national team over the years. Essex, in the south of England, has been a particularly productive and has supplied the national team with plenty of excellent cricketers.

Here is a look at ten of the best.

10 Derek Pringle

The former England all-rounder, who went on to become an important member of the team in the 1992 World Cup, was primarily known as an excellent stroke player.

However, once he found his way into the England team in 1982 after good performances for Essex, Derek Pringle also showed that he was an excellent medium pace bowlers as well. Pringle's strength lay in swinging the ball and for extracting bounce, thanks to his 6 feet 4 frame.

After being a revelation for Cambridge University, Pringle played first-class cricket for Essex for close to 15 years and picked up 761 wickets in first-class cricket. In addition to that, he has 10 first class centuries to his credit.

9 James Foster

Essex's veteran wicketkeeper James Foster has been one of the pillars of the county cricket team for around 17 years now and his exceptional abilities as a 'keeper were never in much doubt.

A year after making his county cricket debut for Essex, Foster was selected by England for the tour to India but his international career never took off due to the presence of Alex Stewart and his own injury, that saw other wicketkeepers usurping his place in the side.

He ended up playing only 7 Tests and 11 one day internationals for England. Foster has played 283 first-class games in his career and is credited with 883 wicketkeeping dismissals in his career so far. Foster has also developed into a fine batsman over the past few years and helped Essex win the Country Championships in 2017.

8 John Lever

John Lever

Left-arm swing bowler John Lever was one of the greats of Essex during a first-class career that lasted around 22 years and in 1976, he made it to the England team on the back of excellent performances in the domestic circuit.

In a dream Test debut against India at Delhi, he picked up 7 wickets in a display of superb swing bowling and followed it up with 2 more wickets in India's second innings.

He picked up 26 wickets in the series but could not replicate that in later games and ended up playing only 21 Tests in his career. For Essex, he was a giant and in a long first-class career, he took 1722 wickets.

7 Ravi Bopara

Ravi Bopara's England career is likely over, but for eight years he was a regular member of the national team's limited overs set-up and also played a handful of Test matches, although with limited success.

Bopara's ability to bat at any position in the batting order made him a key member of the limited-overs sides but his record has not done justice to the talent that he possesses as a batsman.

Bopara came into prominence due to his exploits for Essex and still plays domestic cricket for the county. In 196 first-class games, he has scored 14 centuries and 55 half-centuries at an average of 51.40.

6 Neil Foster

His career is perhaps one of those classic 'what could have been?' cases of English cricket. If injuries had not hampered Neil Foster's career to the degree they did, it can be argued that he could have ended up as one of England's great modern day fast bowlers.

Having excelled for Essex in domestic cricket due to the fact that he was genuinely quick, Foster was handed his debut against New Zealand in 1983.

One of Foster's biggest attributes was that he could trouble the best batsmen with his craft and players like Miandad and Viv Richards often found him too hot to handle (both had been dismissed for ducks by Foster).

In 29 Tests, he picked up 88 wickets at an average of 32.85 and in 48 one-dayers, he took 59 wickets.

5 Johnny Douglas

All-rounder Johnny Douglas played 23 Test matches for England between 1911 and 1925 and captained the national team in 18 of them. Prior to becoming a cricketer, he was a boxer and had even won a medal in the middleweight category in the 1908 Olympics in London.

He captained England to an Ashes victory in 1911 down under.

Douglas' stubborn batting and medium pace bowling were vital to the England team of the era. Additionally, he captained the Essex team from 1911 through to 1928 and emerged as their best bowler in the post First World War.

He picked up 1893 wickets in 651 games and was famous for having clocked 100 wickets in a season seven times during his career. Douglas was, without a doubt, one of Essex's finest.

4 Trevor Bailey

Trevor Bailey was one of England's best post Second World War all-rounders and his superb medium-fast bowling, athletic fielding and often stubborn batting helped the national team to many victories.

In 61 Test matches between 1949 and 1959, he picked up 132 wickets and scored 2290 runs at a modest average of 29.74.

However, when it came to his exploits for Essex, he was a towering figure and in a first-class career spanning 21 years, he played in 682 games and captained the team for five years (1961 to 1966).

He achieved the rare feat of scoring 1000 runs and claiming 100 wickets in a season eight times in his first-class career for Essex.

3 Nasser Hussain

Former England captain Nasser Hussain was one of the national team's mainstays in the middle order during the late 1990s and early noughties, but his game was shaped during his days as one of Essex's finest batsmen.

Hussain averaged a modest 37.18 for England in 96 Tests and scored 14 centuries, but his record for Essex was far more impressive.

In addition to that, he was responsible for improving the team's results in the early noughties and is still regarded as one of England's finest captains. In his first-class career that spanned around 17 years, Hussain scored 52 centuries for Essex and is still regarded as one of the county's finest batsmen.

2 Graham Gooch

Former opening batsman Graham Gooch was an Essex and England legend, who went on to become one of the most prolific run scorers for both his county and the national team, in a stellar career that spanned around 27 years.

In an international career spanning 118 Test matches, he scored 8900 runs at an average of 42.58 and scored 20 centuries. Gooch was famous for his relentless drive and focus, that saw him become one of the best batsmen in the world in the 1980s.

However, for Essex, he remains the greatest run scorer for the county and in fact, the greatest run-scorer in first-class cricket ever. In 581 games, he scored a staggering 44846 runs and piled up 128 centuries along with 217 half-centuries.

There is absolutely no doubt that Gooch is one of the greatest players that Essex have ever produced.

1 Alastair Cook

One of the greatest ever opening batsmen to play for England was produced by Essex and even after playing international cricket for 11 years, Alastair Cook is still going strong in Test cricket for his country.

He made his debut for Essex back in 2003 and within three years, he made his memorable Test debut, in which he scored a century against India at Nagpur.

His technique, temperament and the ability to soak up pressure make him the batsman that he is and a lot of the credit must go to the Essex set up that turned his considerable talents into a run machine all those years ago.

As far as Essex's finest are concerned, there is no one who comes close to Alastair Cook.