Matt Maher: Alan Richardson is doing sterling work at Worcestershire

Yet for an alternative selection, you might also consider the hugely impressive job done by Alan Richardson at Worcestershire.

To those who do not particularly follow cricket, the Pears’ mid-table position heading into the final round of matches in Division One of the County Championship might not immediately stand out.

But by any measure, it is a remarkable achievement in a year when the club has had to deal with huge challenges both on and off the field, not least the sudden, tragic death of young spinner Josh Baker in early May.

Promoted from Division Two last season, Worcestershire were tipped to be relegated by almost every expert having seen a series of key players depart last winter, among them England seamer Josh Tongue and Dillon Pennington, the latter also receiving an international call-up this year.

A series of winter floods – eight in total – meant the Pears were unable to use their home ground until late May. Throw in what the club website described as the “longest injury list in living memory” and the odds appeared stacked against them.

And yet they have not only stayed up, for the first time since 2010 when Richardson was still a player, yet done so with a match to spare. “Magnificent” was how Pears CEO Ashley Giles described the achievement. That is no exaggeration.

No-one at New Road will say it yet the fact Nottinghamshire, who signed both Pennington, Tongue and Jack Haynes, are still at risk of relegation is further cause for satisfaction.

So too are Warwickshire, thanks to last week’s humiliating home defeat to Essex in four-and-a-bit sessions.

These are nervy times for Mark Robinson, their head coach, who has fallen short of his top-three target for a third straight season.

Most damaging, meanwhile, was this month’s quarter-final exit in the T20 Blast, the fourth consecutive year the Bears have exited the competition at that stage.