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2020 County Championship season set for latest ever finish with last round of fixtures scheduled to be completed just hours shy of October
- The Hundred is likely to disrupt the 2020 County Championship season
- Final round of County Championship fixtures is carded for September 27-30
- The new 100-ball tournament is provisionally listed from July 17 to August 16
- Seven rounds of the county season are scheduled to be completed by May 25 with a further four rounds held in the final 23 days of September
Richard Gibson - The Mail 29/10/19
The County Championship title could be decided just hours shy of October next year under an ECB draft fixture schedule complicated by the introduction of the Hundred.
A provisional list of match days seen by Sportsmail has the final round carded for September 27-30, meaning that the destination of the pennant could be confirmed four days later in 2020 than this year when Essex rather unsatisfactorily pipped Somerset for top spot via a rain-ravaged draw in Taunton.
An even more unseasonable finish would represent the latest conclusion to an English county summer; a full week behind the dramatic finale in 2016 when Middlesex defeated Yorkshire in a title showdown on the final evening in front of a five-figure crowd at Lord’s.
The new 100-ball tournament’s presence - provisionally listed from July 17-August 16 - means that seven rounds of Championship cricket are set to be completed by May 25 with a further four held in the final 23 days of September. In contrast, just three of the 16 four-day blocks put aside for 14 rounds of matches are between May 26 and August 22.
Although the county calendar remains subject to review, ahead of publication next month, that kind of itinerary will do nothing to appease those increasingly concerned that production of Test match players - namely top-order players able to bat time, genuinely fast bowlers and spinners - has been stymied by such a large proportion of the 129-year-old competition being shifted into the margins of the summer when conditions favour seam bowlers.
The proposed April 13 start date - eight days later than in 2019 - enables English players to feature for longer at the Indian Premier League next spring without conflict occurring with their county employers but there are other compromises necessary due to four formats being shoehorned into less than six months of action.
The gap between the end of the 14-game Twenty20 Blast group stage and its quarter-finals is set to be more than five weeks, book-ending the Hundred, which faces its only challenge in the peak period of the season from the downgraded 50-over competition - the final of which is on September 19 at its new home of Trent Bridge, a fortnight after T20 finals day at Edgbaston.
Graves "Blames" Counties For Fixtures 2020
The Cricketer 24/10/2019
Colin Graves, the ECB chairman, claims the 18 counties have shaped the schedule for the 2020 season.
Partly due to the World Cup and the increasing prominence of the Blast, less than a quarter of the red-ball campaign was played between June and August this year.
Next year sees The Hundred join the fixture list, alongside the Championship, the downgraded One-Day Cup and the T20 Blast.
But to assist in delivering a calendar which suits everyone, the ECB have handed some of the responsibility for shaping the schedule over to the clubs.
"This year was an odd exception with the World Cup year," Graves told the Digital, Culture, Media, and Sport select committee.
"It was very difficult fitting all schedules in to fit the World Cup around everything else that we were doing in English cricket.
"Next year, from 2020 onwards, the schedule has been put together by the stakeholders - by the counties. They got together between them, we didn't impose anything on them.
"We said 'you go away and you come back with a schedule which you want to have running the game of cricket, which is what you do'.
"So the schedule for 2020 is what the counties have put together themselves."
The full fixture list for all four competitions is due to be confirmed in November.
Some details over next year's domestic schedule are already known, with the first edition of The Hundred taking place from July 17 to August 16.
The Blast group stage will therefore be moved away from the middle of the summer, with the final set for September 5 at Edgbaston.
The One-Day Cup will be played behind The Hundred in July and August, with the final penned in for September 19 at Trent Bridge.
So there you have it - the Counties fault!!! Nothing to do with the good old ECB - they just leave things for the Counties to osrt out. IF SO, what part did the Notts Committee play in all of this?
ReplyDeleteHow bad are they going to be?
DeleteJust how keen are the Counties to play loss making County cricket during the 'peak' playing months .Although many clubs profess that winning the County Championship title is the seasons main aim - I just wonder how true that is these days . I would not be at all surprised to discover that half the County Club Chairmen would be quite happy for their to be only half a dozen 4 day games played each season per team .
ReplyDeleteI think thats the way cricket is going .
Everything points to instant gratification within one days play -with minimal expenses and maximum income via gate revenue- franchise income /catering and of course heavily featured and encouraged alcohol sales . This has happened in horse racing within the past year or two . The racing appears almost secondary to everything else on offer .
I've just emailed Ms.Pursestrings to suggest they provide the following option as a membership from 2020 onwards. Namely one where a lot of the red ball fixtures are played midweek early and late in the season. Also one where the prestigious 50over comp is played at outgrounds with our team being shorn of 8 players and one where a new fangled format played at the height of the summer(with the best county players)will not be included in it as these games will be priced separately. Hang on.......why send the email.....it's what we've already got
ReplyDeleteI'm sure Her Highness is currently tweaking the fixtures to eliminate all play from weekends, apart from The Hundred, and to avoid play that clashes with school holidays or bank holidays again apart from The Hundred. We wouldn't want to offer the punters value for money and give people an opportunity to turn-up and watch.
DeleteThe ECB seem to be already doing that on her behalf - the proposed start date of April 13 is Easter Monday; why can the season not start on April 10 that coincides with Good Friday allowing the first round of matches to be played over the Easter weekend.
DeleteBecause that would be the logical thing to do but it would mean we left our homes with its TV and so didn't watch the heavily hyped football bonanza on dear old Sky. We all know that Sky owns cricket.
DeleteThe late finish suggested for the County Championship next year could be not unlike the weather in recent days We are still in October, not long since we finished in the rain at The Oval. We have had torrential rain at times, which can happen in most months, but the bright, pleasant but cold days this week not so different from better late September cricket days. Nice to walk around in, but not to sit watching cricket !
ReplyDeleteHow long before the cricket season proper starts in early March and finishes mid October ?. Perhaps Trent Bridge could install heated seats for the faithfull who turn out in all weathers .
ReplyDeleteOur dire management of cricket locally and nationally seem to hate tradition, including our precious and special County Championship. I do not think we put enough planning into regaining the Ashes either, not respecting it enough. Why we did we not try to work out a way to combat Smith ? Other sports use tradition as a great asset. Look at Wimbledon, The Open Golf, The Masters, Rugby 6 Nations, and biggest of all The Olympic Games. They continually promote their history and how special they are, how success means so much more because of that tradition. Is cricket missing out on this big time ?
ReplyDeleteThe news that IPL is introducing substitutes system and 15 men "groups" for matches make me shudder. Why bother with cricket, just have some sort of bloody pantomime with painted faced while stuffing burgers down each others' mouths. At some point we have to eat together throughout the World those people who want real cricket and preserve some if it. Leave the big grounds, let the pig players wallow in money. Sorry I am not a happy bunny. Play real Cricket as a amateur sport that people love wherever they and we maybe. In the village and in council parks. Red ball, white kit, 6 ball overs, no bloody DRS and lovely trade. Will try to stop swearing from now on, pig players was what I meant
ReplyDeleteLovely teas I meant. I regret something now, 41 years later. In the Trent Bridge pavilion corridor a member confronted a player who had signed for Packer saying "You bloody traitot" (swear word here being a quote). I ushered the furious member away, I should have let him have his say, maybe joined in. The game gives them so much, then they turn on it. The thought of our 2 white ball only players makes me want to throw up tbh
ReplyDeleteRICH - I know exactly how you feel . Our beloved long form red ball game seems to be going out of fashion .The genie is out of the bottle and cannot be put back ( well not for quite a while anyway).
ReplyDeleteCricket is following football . Money is everything . Cricket players of yesteryear must wonder what on earth is going on.
But as they keep telling us - ITS PROGRESS !
The Cricketer magazine gives another confirmation of how the County Championship is to be shunted into the sidings for 2020, a side issue mainly played out of Summer. They claim that ECB want to reduce it to 10 matches a side in 2021. We have to fight now in county and country. There is zero trust. No more quiet, polite AGMs. "Cry mutiny"
ReplyDeleteI recall at a forum Lisa Pursehouse giving a promise that the number of County Championship matches for each team would not fall below 14. Does anyone else remember this and precisely when it was ? If the Cricketer Magazine and other sources are correct and there is an ECB plan to reduce it to ten, and my memory is not flawed on her promise, how could she then stay in her job ?
ReplyDelete