Friday Starts!

With no finalised fixtures released yet, stories are nevertheless circulating that at least seven rounds of Championship cricket in 2017 will start on a Friday.


Calls from some quarters were for games to be played when working spectators could watch and this move, in part, does improve that likelihood. Doubling the opportunity.

Playing on Saturday will however lessen the opportunity for club sides to field their County registered players and with clubs being in action, will reduce attendances at county grounds to a limited extent.

It remains to be seen if the season ending rounds of fixtures in September will remain mid-week games, offering zero opportunity for working supporters to watch.

Victory for fans as county matches move to Friday starts
Ivo Tennant.
The Times.
Friday, 28 October 2016.
PTG 1962-9879.
County Championship matches will be held on Fridays and Saturdays at the start of the 2017 northern summer in a victory for supporters. For the past three years most matches have begun on Sundays, resulting in complaints from fans who want more chances to watch first-class cricket at weekends.

The change follows a growing belief that fixtures should be staged when most people are free from work commitments. The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) have yet to finalise the fixture list, but seven rounds of four-day championship matches starting on a Friday have been pencilled in from April until mid-June.

The first four rounds of championship fixtures will not clash with international cricket and, after the thrilling finish to last season, the ECB is hoping for heightened interest. ECB Twenty20 matches will then be held from Thursday to Sunday, beginning in the second week of July. The 50-over competition also has to be fitted into a crowded schedule. The bulk of these group matches will be staged in May, including on certain Saturdays.

Cricket on Fridays should also attract more corporate hospitality than in the early part of the week. Late-season championship matches will start on other days. “The 2017 schedule will have a different structure with different formats played in calendar ‘blocks’ as much as possible to help players prepare better and avoid the ‘chop/change’ factor”, said an ECB spokesman. 

“In the previous schedule, a player could switch formats as many as 24 times a season and the new structure aims to bring this down to single figures. We are aiming to schedule T20 fixtures in a Thursday-Sunday window to help maximise attendance in line with the feedback we have had from counties as part of the planning process”.

The Marylebone Cricket Club which stages Twenty20 fixtures at Lord’s on Thursday evenings rather than Friday evenings, lobbied the ECB for change. It feels that the attendance at a Middlesex match in June would increase by up to 20 per cent if the fixture began on a Friday. “There is a growing consensus in the game as a whole that we need to play more matches at times when more people can attend”, the ECB spokesman said. He also indicated "there has been a positive response from counties to the plans for a day-night round of championship matches” (PTG 1951-9820, 19 October 2016). 

Derek Bowden, the Essex chief executive, said: “Our members will be pleased. Sunday starts have not been that successful as people have found other things to do”.