Necessity, it seems, is the mother of reinvention. In the same season that county cricket reached such a low ebb that even the Wisden Almanack turned against it, the game has suddenly found itself a new role. As international cricket becomes a pressure cooker of year-long tours and tournaments, the counties have begun to use their low-key appeal to their advantage - and the main courses are queueing up to bubble along at a constant temperature. The turnstiles aren't exactly spinning off their axes yet, but, after months of doom and gloom, this week's announcements that Steve Waugh, Javagal Srinath and Mushtaq Ahmed are to pay flying visits to the Championship are a long-overdue fillip, one that has been made possible by the rule-change that allows counties to sign stand-ins for their regular players. And it doesn't finish there: Mark Waugh may soon be popping in on Essex, Jonty Rhodes has agreed terms with Gloucestershire for next year, and even Shane Warne is reputedly sniffing around the Rose Bowl. Overseas stars have received a mixed reception lately, but surely no-one can argue that the presence of some of the grandest fromages in the game is an improvement on recent years, when county attacks up and down the land were pillaged and demoralised by anonymous Aussies with little chance of ever playing Test cricket.

In the case of Steve Waugh in particular, his presence alone will intensify the competitive nature of the matches. As everyone is aware, Waugh's pride has been dented since his axing from Australia's one-day squad. Though he claims his three-week stint at Kent is a warm-up for the will-they, won't-they tour of Pakistan in September, it is quite clear that has his sights set on the World Cup in South Africa next year. The same is true of Srinath, who performed a puzzling u-turn after India's defeat in the Caribbean, retiring from Test matches to concentrate on one-dayers - a format he had not previously shown much liking for. These are two men who are keen to impress, and shock-horror, the tired old county circuit is their chosen medium.

There is an irony about this turnaround, which will not be lost on Nasser Hussain and Duncan Fletcher, who are so intent on resting their players between matches that they have begun resting them during games as well, as the selection of five seamers for Trent Bridge might suggest. England has not got the sun, sea or surf of some other, more attractive venues, but it does have an established competition that takes place in the southern hemisphere's winter. For those at the top of the tree, this is a godsend.

And, unusually for modern-day cricket, it is a godsend for the counties as well, who have been cruelly marginalised in recent years. The introduction of central contracts robbed the Championship of many of its star draws, while the Academy has, to all intents and purposes, become the feeder-system-in-chief for the England side. Though the selectors are still keen to reward excellence on the county circuit, the chief performers have tended to be the tried and tested names of Crawley, Cork, Ramprakash and Irani - names that fail to set the pulse racing.

The era when Hadlee and Rice - or Garner and Richards - brought glamour to the county season are long gone. But three weeks of Waugh, or a full season of Rhodes, and the English domestic game might just be nudged out of its slumber.

Andrew Miller is editorial assistant of Wisden.com

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