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One could summarise this
evening’s forum with:
Lisa made a slick, rehearsed presentation, aided by bulletted points displayed on half a dozen TV screens
·
8 teams is the
preferred option, but that’s not final.
·
Grounds to be
used isn’t decided yet
·
All counties to
hold a stake in the new competition which has the mission to raise awareness of
the sport, attract a new audience and attract new participants in recreational
cricket.
·
T20 Blast to
continue in current form but to be pushed earlier in the season to make way for
Blast 2.0
·
ODC to run parallel
to new competition with no FCC being played during that period
·
Commitment to
show some of the new competition on terrestrial TV
perhaps
CBBC will reach the target demographic!
If you’re a member and you
are unhappy about the prospect of the whole structure of the County game in
England being mutilated to accommodate a razzmatazz Disney extravaganza – never
fear it’s not for you, it’s for some little girls (and boys) who don’t like
sport and might be persuaded to go once but probably no more than twice, one
day, perhaps to watch.
If you’re unhappy that Trent
Bridge being used by some soulless experimental side, drafted from here and
there and Derbyshire – it doesn’t matter because you can always go to Welbeck
and watch Notts second XI in the One day Cup on a Wednesday.
If you think the decline in
numbers participating in cricket is partly due to the lack of exposure of the
sport on free to view TV, don’t worry this new competition, designed to widen
the appeal, will sort that out, but they’re selling it to the highest bidder –
Mr Sky probably.
If Lisa is correct in saying
that the new competition should reflect the country’s centres of population
then we ought to have 8 teams, 3 around London, 1 in the West Midlands, 1 in
the South and 3 in the Trans-Pennine region, the so called Northern Powerhouse.
Trent Bridge, regardless of the success it has in staging Blast games, shouldn’t
get a look in – so it doesn’t matter, Notts supply the players and we pay our
Sky subscriptions, everyone’s a ……. Winner?
The Radcliffe Road stand is a mess at the moment btw
Notice that she left it late in the evening to state that 8 teams didn't necessarily mean 8 grounds.
ReplyDeleteI took it to mean that non- cricket venues would be used-City of London stadium, Twickenham, Millennium, maybe even the Kingpower
She's part of the steering group. 100% committed to new comp. - George Dobell on Lisa P
ReplyDeleteHolistic plan needed
ReplyDeleteCurrent approach : must have new competition, force it in, and push around rest of programme to fit = a over crowded mess.
ReplyDeleteNew approach, start from scratch, map out as near as possible ideal programme for 2020 (yr). Does new comp fit in ?
DeleteHave written to Rob Andrew, Sussex CEO. Because he is anti new comp & has vast experience attracting new people to sport.
DeleteL.Pursehouse at T20 Format, 2 bloopers. Admitted could be 4 years before new comp makes money & unaware of good crowds at recent Tests /ODIs
DeleteThere will be a franchise playing at Trent Bridge. The fact that TB gets the biggest crowds outside London and Lisa being a main player in the discussions will ensure this. When the dust settles I expect nine teams;
ReplyDeleteLondon (Lord’s, Oval, West Ham)
South West (playing out at Bristol/London)
Wales (Sophia Gardens, Millennium Stadium)
West Midlands (Edgbaston)
East Midlands (TB)
Yorkshire (Headingley)
Lancashire (Old Trafford)
North East + Scotland (?)
Wessex (Rose Bowl)
This will ensure 8 games (4 home; 4 away)
The key driver is get plenty of coverage on terrestrial TV
MAG
Correction: South West playing at Bristol and TAUNTON
DeleteMost of those venues don't match-up to Lisa's dreamed expectations of 30k average, as per BBL.
DeleteOnly one London team? The Kingdom of Wessex did cover Hampshire but also spread west to Bristol and beyond.
What is the point of County Cricket?
ReplyDeleteDoes it have to compete with the Indian premier League? Of course it doesn’t.
So why the financial crisis at many counties, when the ECB is awash with cash, dished-out from Sky TV? Is it that they feel the need to pay players overly competitive salaries to compete with other competitions around the world; of course it is.
Surely if you applied normal business sense to the whole County structure, you would pay players according to what you could afford.
If contracts were cheaper, then the counties wouldn’t need to hand the begging bowl out to the ECB and in turn the ECB wouldn’t have to put the tighteners on the counties to force through the ludicrous T20 City / Region BS, because it wouldn’t be needed.
Yes the profile of the game needs to be raised to somewhere close to where it was 30 or 40 years ago, when players got paid far more modestly in comparison to the agent driven six figure salaries. No matter how much money you have in a sport, how you have a recreational level of the game without taking up too much time from busy working players’ lives is always going to be a difficult circle to square-up. Shorter formats as gateway competitions is perhaps the only way in the future, but to raise awareness, to dent the wall to wall EPL football from the country’s mind’s eye can only be done with exposure on terrestrial TV and perhaps only on the BBC /ITV or Ch 4 over various platforms. To the casual observer, the one’s the ECB wants to attract to being fans, mono-exposure on Sky makes cricket almost invisible, you need a much wider audience to succeed than just Sky Sports subscribers.
So where are the future players going to come from, only the Public Schools?
DeleteSouth Africa?
No change there then.