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It's that time of the year again where the English Domestic has started. The Counties are a couple of games into the 4-day format, but on Sunday sees the return of the Clydesdale Bank 40 competition.

Last season saw Warwickshire upset the odds as they beat favourites Somerset where England International Ian Bell made a fantastic century off 95 balls to lead Warwickshire to victory in a relatively low scoring affair. You can see Warwickshire in action on the opening day of the season as they start their campaign off with a tough game v Hampshire, which sees the CB40 Champions meet the T20 Champions. (Live on Sky Sports, Sunday from 1pm)

Somerset are favourites to win the trophy and they so nearly did last season. You can pick up a best price of 8/1 (Victor Chandler + Stan James). Stan are currently offering 4 places on the each way terms at 1/5 of the odds. Somerset have the players to win this competition with the likes of the experienced Marcus Trescothick in their ranks.

Trescothick a former international, is a powerful striker of a cricket ball and makes runs in all forms of the game. They also have the talented player James Hildreth who was the second leading run scorer in the competition last season and had a very impressive season last year in all forms of the game and isn't far off an International call-up. Another player to watch out for is young Jos Butler, who impressed last season in his break through season.

Warwickshire are currently 12/1 with (Coral and William Hill), however, they are likely to be missing the likes Jonathan Trott and Ian Bell through England duty for most of the seaso but should they progress it is likely these two key players will part take in their campaign and they may play the opening few before the England Test Series with Sri Lanka starts in May. Warwickshire have a fairly difficult group, which sees them drawn with Hampshire, Surrey and Durham, which are main threats and it will be fairly difficult for them to progress.

Sussex and Essex are usually there or there about when it comes to one-day competitions, they are both 9/1 + 10/1 respectively. Essex have the impressive all rounder Ryan Ten Doeschate who has just come back from an impressive World Cup competition with the Netherlands and talented England hopeful Ravi Bopara. Essex have been drawn in the 'Group of Death' with the likes of Somerset, Nottinghamshire and Lancashire, who are all good sides. Whereas Sussex have a fairly straight forward group.

Other teams to look out for are Hampshire, Durham (16/1 SkyBet) and Nottinghamshire (14/1 Coral). Hampshire are current T20 Champions and have the impressive Jimmy Adams opening the batting. Whereas free scoring Durham have had a great start to their County Championship campaign, hitting big scores and they will be hoping to carry that form into the CB40.

However both Hampshire and Durham have both been drawn together in the group stages so they will be battling it out Warwickshire and Durham and only two can progress. Nottingham have a fairly difficult hence why their odds are fairly long, but I wouldn't right them off as they have up and coming players such as Alex Hales and the talented all round Samit Patel.

My pick for the competition has to be Yorkshire (12/1 Blue Square); they have avoided the big teams such as Somerset, Surrey, Nottinghamshire, Lancashire and Essex. The only real competition in the group is Sussex, however I would expect both to qualify from the group with the only competition being each other.

Despite losing the influence Jacques Rudolph who scored over 850 runs last campaign, which was almost 250 runs more than Hildreth in second place, they still have quality throughout the side. Leading the side is Andrew Gale, they also have young talented players in the side such as opening batsman Adam Lyth and middle order wicket keeper batsman Jonathan Bairstow.

Not to mention the talented leg spinner Adil Rashid. Yorkshire may also occasionally get England international pace men Tim Bresnan and Ajmal Shahzad to join them when not on International duty.

Yorkshire were unlucky to miss out last season as they lost out to Warwickshire in a rain affected game, but expect them to be a stronger outfit this year, which sees the return of left arm seamer Ryan Sidebottom return to the side.

Recommendations:

Outright: Yorkshire @ 12/1 Blue Square

Top Batsman: Andrew Gale EW @ (Stan James 14/1 (only the 18 listed players count for the bet, great value ¼ odds on 4 places.)

Unfortunately, no other bookmakers aren't pricing up on Top Batsman markets, which is very strange. I would've gone for Hildreth and Adams as top scorers in the competition if I could've got odds and they aren't on the Stan James picks of one player from each team.

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