BBC Sport scours the stats to give you the ultimate County Championship team of the 2005 season.
Michael Hussey (Durham): The opener was Australia's best batsman in the one-day matches against England, but was never drafted into the Ashes squad, despite Matthew Hayden's problems.
Australia's loss was Durham's gain as Hussey hit three centuries and five fifties in his 10 appearances. He was a vital factor in ensuring their promotion.
Phil Jaques (Yorkshire): This accomplished player could be part of Australia's new generation if his performances in this last season for Yorkshire is anything to go by.
Jaques would have almost certainly been the leading run-scorer in Division Two had he not missed the final three matches because of Australia A duty. Still managed a tally of 1,359 runs.
Mark Ramprakash (Surrey): He is definitely approaching veteran status but, in a county that spent most of the season going downhill, his maturity stood out.
He was stand-in captain during the ball-tampering affair that rocked Surrey further, but he did not let that get to him, and will presumably score even more runs in Division Two.
Owais Shah (Middlesex): Don't ask his coach John Emburey why Shah has been ignored by England after a season which he will struggle to emulate.
Nobody matched his seven centuries in the Championship, which gave him an aggregate of more than 1,600 runs. But he would have needed England to lose the Ashes to get on the plane to Pakistan.
Ed Joyce (Middlesex): With Shah and this brilliant young Irish left-hander in their ranks, it's a wonder that Middlesex came close to relegation in 2005.
Joyce is now qualified to play for England but in a hugely productive season he also found time to help out the country of his birth in the World Cup qualifiers in Ireland.
Anthony McGrath (Yorkshire): One of two former England all-rounders to make the grade, McGrath's batting performances this term get him into the top XI.
He was involved in some brilliant partnerships with Jaques, whose free-wheeling tactics were complemented by McGrath's more studious accumulation of runs.
Nic Pothas (Hampshire): Unfortunate to be a contemporary of Mark Boucher's, Pothas left his native South Africa when he realised he had no chance of securing the job of national wicket-keeper.
He does a fine job with the gloves down at the Rose Bowl, where this season he also racked up nearly 1,000 runs at an average in excess of 50.
Mark Ealham (Nottinghamshire): The only selection from the side that won the County Championship, Ealham was just about the best of four seamers at the club to enjoy stellar seasons.
He has long been a canny customer with the bat too, this season providing nearly 500 runs at an average of more than 30 - he can go better than that.
Naved-ul-Hasan (Sussex): The big find, both for Pakistan and Sussex in the last year - a seam bowler who finds movement on the most placid surfaces with an excellent, fluid run-up.
England supporters can expect to see him more closely this winter. Barring injury, he will play in the Tests and one-day internationals against Michael Vaughan's men.
Mushtaq Ahmed (Sussex): The popular leg-spinner took 100 wickets when Sussex won their first Championship in 2003 and he also eclipsed every other bowler in the country in each of the following two seasons.
Statistics like that - he had 80 wickets in 2005 - make Mushy a no-brain pick for fans of those various fantasy cricket league competitions. Signed off the season with an innings of 90 not out.
Mark Davies (Durham): They used to say the north-east was good at producing long-distance runners, oh - and the odd footballer. Now add pace bowlers to that list.
Steve Harmison is regarded as one of the best fast bowlers in the world, and Liam Plunkett has also been called into the England squad. Davies is pretty handy too - he took 47 wickets at just 15.55 apiece this term.
An alternative XI could be: Stephen Fleming, Martin Love, Robert Key, David Hussey, Andy Flower, Chris Read, Damien Wright, Glenn Chapple, Shaun Udal, Ryan Sidebottom, Monty Panesar.
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