AS ENGLAND plough on in foreign fields, domestic cricket appears to be reaping a rich harvest from the international and Twenty20 success of last summer. Statistical and anecdotal evidence suggests that the immediate growth in support last summer, at least in part, has been retained.

Bat sales around the country have gone through the roof and at the Oval, the Ken Barrington Cricket School is unusually full for this time of year. “Normally it’s relatively quiet at this time and packed after Christmas,” Sam Streatfield, the Surrey communications manager, said. “What we are seeing a lot of is people coming in and buying their first set of cricket equipment, sons in with the ir fathers, who don’t know about the game, who didn’t play themselves.”

At Trent Bridge, supporters were queueing outside the ticket office on the first day of public sale for the Sri Lanka Test, which starts on a Friday. There are 30 out of a 15,300 capacity left for the Friday, and Saturday is sold out, as is the one-day international against Pakistan.

“As a county we were very well-supported last season for the run-in to the championship win,” Derek Brewer, the Nottinghamshire chief executive, said. “The combination of our championship success and the Ashes win was a good cocktail. Our coaching sessions during half-term sold out quicker than normal.”

Leicestershire are planning a repeat of the international club 20-over competition they organised in September and Worcestershire are cock-a-hoop. Mark “Rocket Man” Newton, who took over as Worcestershire chief executive four years ago, has secured an Elton John concert at New Road on June 11 — the singer is playing at Canterbury, the Riverside, Durham and possibly Taunton, too — and the club are booming, as the soon-to-be published accounts will reflect.

“We might flood in the next 24 hours, but generally we’ve never been in such good shape at this time of year,” Newton said. “Although we had a disappointing season (on the field) we are far and away ahead of where we’d normally be.

“What’s happened is that in three years we’ve converted the family audience of Twenty20 into a Test audience. It took (Kerry) Packer and Australia 20 years to do that. England have done that in three years because of the Ashes. That’s the legacy of this summer, nothing else.

“If Marks & Spencer had been turned around as quickly in three years, the chairman and chief executive would be getting multimillion pound bonuses.”