New South Wales

New South Wales go into most Sheffield Shield seasons as a dominant force, and the record backs that up: 47 titles, the most recent of them completed in 2019–20 without a final after the pandemic wiped out the fixture. Brad Haddin took over as head coach.

The Blues trace back to 1856, decades before the Sheffield Shield itself existed, and they have used that head start to build a list of Test players that reads like the spine of Australian cricket — Don Bradman, Steve Waugh, Mark Taylor, Glenn McGrath, and more recently Steve Smith, Pat Cummins and Mitchell Starc all came through the state side before the baggy green. Phil Emery still holds the New South Wales record for first-class runs, while Greg Matthews played more matches and took more wickets for the state than anyone else.

Their oldest quarrel is with Victoria, the Bushrangers, a rivalry that goes back to the first Sheffield Shield match in 1892–93 and now also plays out over the Dean Jones Trophy in the one-day competition; South Australia's Redbacks provide the other fixture NSW supporters mark on the calendar. Home games are split between the Sydney Cricket Ground and the smaller Cricket Central at Sydney Olympic Park, though it is the SCG crowd that turns up for the games that matter.

A six-year wait for the Shield ended in 2013–14, and the one-day side has since strung together its own good run, winning the 50-over title in three of six seasons between 2015–16 and 2020–21.

Forty-seven Shield titles sit in the cabinet — no other state side comes close.