By Richard Edwards

Stuck? Staffordshire were close to moving into the County Championship

WHEN talk surfaced of a conference-style County Championship back in January, one leading figure in county cricket suggested to The Cricket Paper that it would perhaps allow for the previously unthinkable – teams being promoted from Minor Counties cricket to the County Championship.
Not since 1992 has a county made the step-up from Minor County to major force and the kind of funds involved now would suggest that any team looking to do likewise would require the kind of financial backing usuall...