Leicestershire

In 2023 Leicestershire lifted the One-Day Cup, and by 2025 they were back in that division's Division Two, winning it to earn promotion. The gap between those two moments says more about the club than either result alone.

Grace Road has been the county's home since the nineteenth century, a ground that holds barely 6,000 for cricket but stretches to nearly 20,000 when it hosts concerts instead. Leicestershire, known to their supporters as the Foxes, took first-class status in 1894 and joined the County Championship the following year: the Championship itself in 1975, 1996 and 1998, the Benson & Hedges Cup three times between 1972 and 1985, and the old Sunday League twice in the mid-1970s. The Twenty20 era added three more titles, in 2004, 2006 and 2011.

Among those who came through the club, Stuart Broad's early years at Grace Road sit alongside a longer list of England players who started there.

Nottinghamshire and Northamptonshire remain the fixtures that matter most.