During the latter stages of the much-chronicled horror-tour of Australia, England announced a provisional 30-man squad for the ICC World T20 midway through last month.
The squad, which will be cut down to 15 on Thursday for the tournament that will be held in Bangladesh, included six representatives from the Nottinghamshire side that swept away all comers to win last season’s Yorkshire Bank 40 competition – thrashing Glamorgan by 87 runs in the final.
Stuart Broad will captain the side, with regular international teammates Alex Hales and Michael Lumb joined by Samit Patel, James Taylor, and the uncapped Harry Gurney.
So, with such a talented group of English players, along with the likes of Ajmal Shahzad, Chris Read and new star signing Peter Siddle, is this current team the best one-day side that Notts have ever had?
Certainly there has only been one Notts team that could rival the current side, and that was the vintage that first began to come together in the late 1970s.
Like this current side will aim to do, it was with a combination of foreign stars and home-grown talent that the Notts team of the late 1980s had their success.
Two all-rounders of great international pedigree were recruited in the form of New Zealander Richard Hadlee and South African Clive Rice, who returned to Trent Bridge as coach in 1999.
Alongside gifted England internationals such as Chris Broad, Tim Robinson and Derek Randall it was quite a team – but they had to wait until 1987 until they would win their first one-day trophy.
Notts came out on top of Northamptonshire in that year’s Natwest Trophy final with Rice and man of the match Hadlee scoring the bulk of their runs, chasing 229 to win in 50 overs.
Two years later in the Benson and Hedges trophy it was up to the English stars of the team to ensure victory – and they did so in the most dramatic of fashions.
Chasing 244 in 55 overs, Robinson, Randall and Paul Johnson had done a good job with the bat, but it was left to 40-year-old Eddie Hemmings to hit the last ball for four to seal a three-wicket win.
Both vintages of 1987 and 1989 had five international players in each line-up.
It is possible, although perhaps unlikely, that Notts could field an entire team of players who either are currently, or have recently played international one-day cricket, even with the recent retirement of Graeme Swann, who turned out for the Outlaws in last year’s Lord’s final.
So there is every chance that this current group of players could one day be described as the best one-day team that Notts have mustered, and the successes of the late 1980s could be dwarfed by a team with so much potential.
With an exciting overhaul for this season’s Natwest T20 Blast and a new 50-over competition in the Royal London One-Day Cup, visit the Trent Bridge Diary page for all the information on Nottinghamshire’s upcoming fixtures.