WORCESTERSHIRE have not sampled a domestic cup quarter-final for some years now. So tomorrow's contest with Leicestershire is eagerly anticipated.

It is an opportunity to lock horns with a First Division one-day side which is where, if present form continues, Worcestershire should end up next year in the National League.

It might be on its third sponsor after Gillette and NatWest have lent their names to the competition, but the Chetenham and Gloucester Trophy, as it is now known, remains the premier domestic knock-out competition.

It is no longer unique in its overs format, but the timing of the final at the end of season confers on it the same status as the FA Cup.

Leicestershire are a team of dashers and smashers currently enjoying a fine run of form. The enduring qualities of Devon Malcolm and Phil DeFreitas have sustained their bowling; Neil Burns has blossomed in a second career in county cricket as a wicketkeeper-batsman.

Their captain, Vince Wells, is another whose cricket has thrived for a move of county.

Unlike some other counties, these well-travelled players have united under Jack Birkenshaw's shrewd guidance to produce a potent team. Is it coincidental, I wonder, that Leicester also has Premiership football and rugby teams renowned for their teamwork and fighting qualities?

Having started the season with Daniel Marsh, son of Rod, as overseas player, Leicestershire have now engaged Shahid Afridi.

Kent have found themselves in a similar situation, replacing the injured Cullinan with Andrew Symonds.

Increased international fixture lists make such situations more likely to recur, but in the light of Somerset's engagement of two Pakistani stars to play against Australia, it raises again the question of our pride in our own domestic cricket.

Symonds himself once played fast and loose with the ECB's registration rules, only declaring his true colours as an Australian when selected for an England A touring party. There is a team of dual-qualified players appearing in the County Championship this season; South Africa's most successful domestic batsman last year has signed for Middlesex next year on an Italian passport.

Should we welcome the diversity and strength which this source potentially brings to our cricket (Caddick and White have been imported this way) or should we question whether it is further evidence of a diminishing commitment to our own youth and club cricket?

In a week when the ECB has launched the Pride Pack, four cartoon animal figures as another initiative to make cricket attractive to the young, these are particularly relevant questions.

The ECB Trophy final might have been played out in front of a half-empty Lord's, but Gloucestershire were on their fifth consecutive final.

Should Worcestershire progress that far it would be their first final for seven years and the county's supporters will be eager to fill those empty spaces, myself among them.