Saturdays - Not Just Members That Are Sidelined

Letter to the Cricketer magazine: 11/01/19

Whatever happened to Saturday cricket?

For more than 30 years a group of around 10 friends and I have regularly attended the Saturday of the Oval Test.  For the Ashes Test next year we were disappointed to find that we’d missed out on tickets in the ballot but decided instead to arrange to meet up earlier in the summer at a county game. Given work commitments this in effect meant trying to find a Saturday fixture. Being fans of the traditional game I was given the task of selecting a four-day match, ideally at one of the county festival grounds. Cheltenham was mentioned, as was Scarborough and Chesterfield. Arundel was another option, along with Colwyn Bay and even the Isle of Wight! We were certainly willing to be flexible in pursuit of a day at the cricket in high summer.

Perhaps we should have known. With the fixtures out my planning began. April 8 and April 15 provided a number of options but… far too early in the season and in any case clashing with end-of-season football matches. May? Nothing. June? 

Nothing. July? One weekend of fixtures, all of which appear to be scheduled for Test grounds. And anyway I’m on holiday that weekend! August? Nothing. September? Nothing. I thought our choice might be limited but we have absolutely no options. 

Even the one-day game provides few opportunities – a handful of early-season 50-over games (four Saturday games scheduled but nothing after May 4) and there are a grand total of eight T20 games. Football gets some stick for moving fixtures around but there is always a large number to choose from on a Saturday afternoon. So what is it with cricket – have they given up on this day altogether? 

Roland Potts, Lymm, Cheshire

MAY WIPED-OUT BY WORLD CUP?

The void of Nottinghamshire cricket in May might be due to the World Cup which runs from the end of May through to mid July and some ECB ruling in ground-readiness etc for this, I thought. So the same must be true for other hosting grounds, I concluded, if this was indeed the case.

A quick research of the fixtures for other hosting venues largely backs-up this assumption: Cardiff and Bristol are totally void of matches during May as is Trent Bridge and both the Oval and the Rose Bowl only have one ODC game each on the 2nd of May but then this theory falls flat on its sorry face.

Taunton hosts 3 Somerset ODC games and a County Championship game during May 2019 and Edgbaston has Bears playing 2 ODC matches and Championship game too. Old Trafford, which doesn't start hosting World Cup matches until mid-June has 1 ODC game but has 2 County Championship games playing after mid-May, try and work that out. It could be a number of days thing, before a World Cup match being played but did Notts need to take any games away from Trent Bridge in May and certainly the ODC match on the 3rd May?

Either all hosting venues are being treated differently, because of requests by themselves individually perhaps, or Notts have been dealt some rubbish, imbalanced fixtures, again, members and supporters being treated as though they are of no consequence, not valued in the slightest.

Trent Bridge has the first of its allocation of World Cup matches on 31st May, so there is some cricket at Trent Bridge in May after all, just not Notts playing (West Indies and Pakistan instead). I just hope the wrecking of the Radcliffe Road stand and the associated debt was worth it.

One oversight by me that needs to be mentioned; the small matter of a ODI pre-World Cup being played at Trent Bridge on 17th May. However, Surrey play a ODC game at the Oval only a handful of days before their ODI in the same series against Pakistan during May.

A Supporter's Plea or should it be supporters'

Am I correct that in May 2019 there is NO FIRST TEAM CRICKET BY NOTTS at Trent Bridge? and in June ONLY 4 DAYS and August ONLY 4 DAYS? If so this is utterly disgraceful - what is the point in being a member when in , hopefully, the best 4 months for weather there is only 8 days of cricket? Surely someone with some passion and enthusiasm can take matters further. 

Now go look at the fixtures and you'll find that it's true. If you were in a position where you could travel to away games, there is very little cricket in May 2019 played by Notts anywhere. The myth of the grind of county cricket, looking quite ridiculous as Notts have an 8 day break in the middle on the month and an 11 break at the end of the month, going into June. A maximum of 11 days of play in the whole month, none of them at Trent Bridge.

June has Notts playing just 4 x 4 day CC1 games, a maximum of just 2 days of that month being played at Trent Bridge; Notts playing a maximum of 14 days only, anywhere.

For those that say that the modern game is all about the T20, well August at Trent Bridge has just 4 games of Blast, that month, no CC1 - a maximum of 12 hours of cricket. Where has the cricket gone? There is a women's T20 super-glued to one of those Blast games - but that isn't even Nottinghamshire women.

Cutting the championship fixtures, farming games out to remote locations; has it all resulted in Trent Bridge being under-utilised?

Defenders of Team Lisa and the ECB will point out that July (the peak of the season) has 9 days of cricket at Trent Bridge but won't mention that 3 of those are Blast games, 2 days are the backend of a June CC1 match where play is only theoretical and a whole CC1 4 day game.

Where has the cricket gone?