Warwickshire Members' Forums - Conclusions

 

Warwickshire are another county that sought out members' views by having multiple forums, in contrast to the Nottinghamshire approach...

WCCC 

More than 100 Members joined Mark McCafferty (Chair), Mark Robinson (Head Coach) and Stuart Cain (Chief Executive) to discuss the ECB’s Men’s High Performance Review recommendations at a second Members' Forum last week.

Conversation focused on the domestic schedule and competition formats and the opinions expressed will help inform the Club’s views when discussing proposals further with other Counties and with the ECB. 

The meeting followed an earlier forum held during the LV= Insurance County Championship game against Somerset when approximately 300 people attended.

Following the forum Mark McCafferty, said: “Both sessions were tremendously helpful with a range of views expressed, demonstrating how difficult it is to reach a consensus which satisfies the Counties, the Members, our players and coaches, and those who created the proposals through their high-performance lens.

“That said, there are emerging themes which we will take to the ECB. Firstly, we are supportive of the need to create a winning England team and believe Counties should do what they can to develop players for the global stage. 

“So, we support the principle of ‘best v best’, and the need to create matchday atmospheres and conditions that regularly come closest to replicating the challenges of the international arena in both red ball and white ball formats. Speaking to our players, we also agree that a minority do play too much cricket if they’re involved in England teams, overseas franchises, the Hundred and a full domestic season. For the majority though, it’s not volume that’s the issue. It’s the intensity of matches, particularly if there are multiple transition points involving different formats at the same time.

“With this in mind, the view supported by the Forum was that we believe the County Championship should stay at fourteen games for now, with a two-division structure. Eight Counties in the First Division would provide more ‘best v best’ opportunities, with ten Counties in the Second Division. This would allow each team in the First Division to play home and away. The Championship should be played through as much of the summer as possible, and we should work with the other Counties and the ECB to try and find the best way of scheduling this.

“On the Blast, we understand why some Counties want to retain a fourteen-game group stage, but we would support a slight reduction in games. 

“This would give more time to the County Championship, allow for more Blast games on a Friday/Saturday, and allow more time for rest, recovery and practice among players, coaches and support staff. It would also allow the tournament to be played more effectively in a block from May to July. We would support a merit-based league structure, with the best playing the best, as long as there is retention of key local rivalries, but acknowledge the difficulty in combining these two things.

“Taking on board the views of Members, we would consider the One-Day Cup moving to April/May as a showcase for the new season, allowing more of the best players to compete against each other, and those on the fringes of T20 selection to stake their claim for a place in the Vitality Blast. However, we recognise that this would potentially mean Championship matches in the same timeframe as the Hundred, raising integrity issues.

“We don’t see a need for festival red-ball cricket in August and whilst we support the Hundred because of the many benefits it brings to the game and to the Club, the ECB should look at whether it can be truncated slightly to give the Blast and County Championship more space.”