Tanya Aldred.
The Guardian.
Wednesday, 13 March 2019.
PTG 2751-13737.
As Tuesday morning’s rain turned hail, turned snow and, with 30 days left until the start of the County Championship, it seemed an apt time to pull out the calendar and mull things over. This northern summer has long been highlighted on the England and Wales Cricket Board’s (ECB) five-year wall chart in best fluorescent markers as THE BIG ONE. Tom Harrison, the ECB’s chief executive, has gone as far to say he is “giddy with excitement” about the “unbelievable opportunity for English cricket”, saying, “It’s up to us to make sure we take advantage of that”.
All of which is true – there is an oozingly-ripe smorgasbord of international cricket being served up in the UK over the next six months. In the men’s game, the season starts with one-day matches against Pakistan followed by a World Cup bonanza of 48 games at 11 venues over a month and a half to mid-July, a historic Test against Ireland at Lord’s and then a five–Test Ashes series from the start of August to mid-September; while England Women take on West Indies in June, and Australia in July.
Forget for a minute the big bucks of international competition and take a long, loving look at the 2019 domestic season. Let your heart flutter at the quirks and the traditions, and then imagine it as the night before the morning after
The summer has a familiar feel: a 50-over competition, the Royal London Cup, which starts early like the old Benson and Hedges Cup, with a final in June; a Twenty20 ‘Blast' played through the summer holidays; and a County Championship first class series that this year includes seven rounds in June and July and one in August. There are festival games at the height of summer – the Isle of Wight in late May, Tunbridge Wells in mid-June, Scarborough in July and August. Weather permitting, of course weather permitting, there is more than enough for both anorak and baseball cap.
But, at the end of the season, everything changes. In the Championship, three teams will go up to Division One, making it a 10-team group, while only one team drops down as Division Two shrinks to eight. Then the following 2020 summer, the Championship gets elbowed towards the outer edges of the season to make way for 'The Hundred' – the bells-and-whistles new competition that will dominate the school holidays, centred on only seven cities – Manchester, Leeds, Birmingham, Nottingham, Cardiff, Southampton and London. The 50-over competition will also be played during the summer holidays, but will not be open to foreign players, and is expected to become a format for up-and-coming talent.
Which brings us to the current T20 competition, the ‘Blast'. That will be shifted to earlier in the season, which will give players a chance to win a spot in one of 'The Hundred' teams, but also means the competition loses its prime July and August window. The ‘Blast' has been, on the quiet, rather a success. Last year figures were again up – for at least the third year in a row – with an aggregate of 931,000 people attending matches and Finals Day again sold out at Edgbaston. Tickets went on sale in early March for this year’s competition and those for the big games – the Roses clashes and late nights at the Oval – will go fast.
A quick google brings a cornucopia of statty proof that the ‘Blast' is rather good at what it does, telling us 59 per cent of last year’s runs were scored in boundaries, a fifth of them in sixes. First-innings scores have gone up from 152 in 2013 to 173 in 2018 and, astonishingly, the scoring rate in the North and South group stages last year (8.88) was the highest of any T20 competition in the known universe.
But for fans of Worcester (2018 winners) and Sussex (2009), and Leicester (three times champions) and Somerset (2005) and Sussex (2009) and Essex (who regularly host sell-outs) and little Northamptonshire (winners in 2013 and 2016), as well as Durham, Derbyshire and Kent (2007) there will be no big-name T20 games to watch locally over the summer holidays from 2020. They will have to travel to their nearest Hundred city, or plump for the sofa.
Whether ‘The Hundred' becomes the saviour of English cricket, or whether the former Somerset chairman, Andy Nash, is right to speculate that the endgame is eight super counties, with the others going semi-pro, the geography of the game is changing. This summer will be painted in sepia tones – so potter down to Grace Road or Chelmsford, Canterbury or New Road for an open-to-all 50-over game, a mid-summer Championship match or a T20 derby on a long July night, and enjoy it while you can.
Ì wish I could argue with the content of Tanya Alred's excellent article.Sadly as any followers of Nottsview will know this is exactly what lies in store for us all.
ReplyDeleteIt would be nice to think we could change it all and keep the status quo,But as we all know what the ECB wants,It normally gets.
Assuming that's case then a little peek into the future could see Notts as one of the the few clubs still fully professional,Great if you are a Notts fan but not so much if you follow Derbyshire or Leicestershire.
We can be pretty certain that regardless of what the British public want that these foolhardy plans will go ahead, Nothing we say or do is likely to change that, Its only when reality strikes home in a few years time that the ECB might start to ask what have we done to our game...By then it could well be too late!
We are ALL weakened by the misfortunes of other Counties - greed has tempted the Counties to back the 100-ball Knockabout - but it may well be that this 'greed' is more likely to produce 'famine.' There are many foolish people who ought to know better sitting back and seeing real cricket and all that it stands for be diminshed and dumbed down. Shame on everyone who has supported the ECB - and that includes the thousands of 'ordinary' Members of the Counties throughout the UK.
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