This is an interesting interview with our old friend Neil Snowball on the future of county cricket:
https://www.thecricketer.com/Topics/news/how_to_solve_problem_like_english_summer_schedule_neil_snowball_interview.html
I like most of what he has to say, especially his strong endorsement of the value of having 18 counties. I think he has a pretty impossible job of keeping everyone happy so it will be interesting to see how things pan out over the next couple of years.
Hmm... Rather a lot of "having cake and eating it" in Snowball's comments, I think. All the competitions are great; all are important; all must take place in an impossibly short window of time. I don't get the sense of any plan to smooth out the scheduling, Covid or not.
Personally I could see one of two ways out. Either ditch one of the white ball competitions or accept that red ball and white ball cricket are different games with different squads, and so could be played simultaneously. The relatively few players who are good at both would have to pick one but that might be no bad thing given the physical and mental pressures being put on the likes of Stokes and Archer.
We're actually now at the same place we were in in 2002 before T20 arrived. 4 competitions squeezed into a 5 month window. But the 100 and T20 have traction whilst the RLODC and CC have been hollowed out. Something has to give.
We've been members since 1990.We took the refund in 2020 and didn't bother this year. There's little in this interview that gives us much hope we'll be back any time soon especially as we've filled the cricket hole with other stuff - primarily golf.
We keep being told to take the positives - the 100's great, the Blast is vibrant, the RLODC showcases the youngsters etc. But seeing the CC denuded of importance and relegated to to bookend the season is heartbreaking. The 2 division CC helped propel England to number 1 in the test rankings 11 years ago. Players like IJL Trott eased into test cricket effortlessy from the grounding they received at county level. The current CC is a husk by comparison - witness the hapless re-selection of 33 year old Dawid Malan this week and the talking up of James Vince as an Ashes prospect.
I guess at age 58 and 61 respectively we're just attritional, collateral damage - the Hundred money and test match receipts mean that clubs like Warwickshire can probably wave us off with little regret. We're sad to be walking away but at the moment there's little to keep us hanging on.
I just looked at the calendar for 2022 between April 10th and September 24th
I found plenty of room for 16 county championship fixtures spread across 18 fixture weeks running Monday to Thursday
I also found plenty of slots early season for some white ball cricket at the weekend, perhaps primarily played on Friday's or Sunday's with a few counties opting to play Saturday's. I can't for the life of me see any reason why the counties couldn't play alternate red and white ball cricket throughout most of the season so there is an even balance of both formats throughout. Then you'd not get completely blank July and August like we're experiencing now.
Even with 18 county championship focused weeks there is still room in the schedule for 6 weeks of rest / other formats.
These 6 weeks of rest could be used to prioritise some white ball cricket - May 1st to 8th counties could play 3 50 over matches, then June 5th to 18th I scoped out a 2 week solid block for the T20's where counties could play 5 or 6 matches and a spare week at either the start or the end of August where they could fit in play off's or semi finals or whatever. The rest of June and July should be county championship Mon-Thurs then T20's on Friday's and Sunday's.
And with all the room I've found in the schedule for the three formats I haven't even had to start April 3rd nor had to go on to early October either. You hear a lot about how tricky it is for the fixture schedulers but if they get the players to accept switching red to white ball cricket early, middle and late season rather than having these obscene 5 or 6 week blocks of one single format then it becomes far simpler.
It is certainly NOT an impossibly short window of time when you consider they now start early April and drag it out to early October.
SC_Bear wrote:
We're actually now at the same place we were in in 2002 before T20 arrived. 4 competitions squeezed into a 5 month window. But the 100 and T20 have traction whilst the RLODC and CC have been hollowed out. Something has to give.
We've been members since 1990.We took the refund in 2020 and didn't bother this year. There's little in this interview that gives us much hope we'll be back any time soon especially as we've filled the cricket hole with other stuff - primarily golf.
We keep being told to take the positives - the 100's great, the Blast is vibrant, the RLODC showcases the youngsters etc. But seeing the CC denuded of importance and relegated to to bookend the season is heartbreaking. The 2 division CC helped propel England to number 1 in the test rankings 11 years ago. Players like IJL Trott eased into test cricket effortlessy from the grounding they received at county level. The current CC is a husk by comparison - witness the hapless re-selection of 33 year old Dawid Malan this week and the talking up of James Vince as an Ashes prospect.
I guess at age 58 and 61 respectively we're just attritional, collateral damage - the Hundred money and test match receipts mean that clubs like Warwickshire can probably wave us off with little regret. We're sad to be walking away but at the moment there's little to keep us hanging on.
I agree that Neil Snowball is pretty good at putting a positive gloss on things. I still take his assurances about the continued role of the 18 counties as important.
As for what he says about the various competitions, I hear echoes of George Orwell: "All competitions are equal - but some are more equal than others."
What is as important as anything is giving members value for money so at least we get some cricket on Saturday and Sunday at least every other week. If not, the membership will dwindle and that will mean they will probably not watch any cricket at all. What's the point if you are working all week and the weekend comes and you are twiddling your thumbs having spent £150+ to be a member. Have the ECB or counties ever wondered what might happen if The Hundred/T20 fails at some point - There will be nowhere for them to go and no members to feel the commitment to watch will mean they try and rely on the 'Short Format Brigade' but alas they will have already gone.
See they're banging on about blocks again.
https://www.espncricinfo.com/story/vitality-blast-2021-luke-wright-advocates-staging-blast-in-a-block-as-quarter-finals-loom-after-five-week-hiatus-1274451
Luke Wright cricinfo article and the ECB seem to be hinting at it next season with the T20 and Finals Day all in one block. Trouble with blocks for T20/Hundred is the more you put things in blocks the more prime time cricket season is left fallow for all but the 8 or 4 teams lucky enough to be involved. Even those lucky few have to wait their turn to get 3 hours play after the sun's gone down. Abysmal state of affairs.
Need somehow to bring back full fixture lists for the 18 counties each week and if any are involved in latter stages of cups the affected fixtures get pushed back to a catch-up week in late September.
It's comforting to know that senior ECB staff are being looked after in these hard times:
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2021/aug/23/senior-ecb-executives-to-share-21m-bonus-despite-covid-job-cuts?utm_term=841e1c59a4b3e7a06021e95c90760aaf&utm_campaign=TheSpin&utm_source=esp&utm_medium=Email&CMP=spin_email
it would be nice if, just once, the people who run these sports could take a step back from their commercial backgrounds and see our favourite sport as the rest of us see it – something to be enjoyed by whoever likes it at the time, something that doesn’t need to be loved by everyone or to be “mainstream” in every nation. A game that was invented for leisure, pleasure and recreation, not a product to be sold and marketed incessantly, to bolster a bottom line and justify its executives’ bonuses.
https://beingoutsidecricket.com/2021/08/29/lies-damn-lies-and-the-hundred/
An excellent analysis of the event I can't even remember who won it now and it's only been a week
https://www.facebook.com/1771469743071923/posts/3074160002802884/?sfnsn=scwspmo
We’ve been lobbying the ECB to give fans a voice in the planning of the 2022 County Championship season.
It's worked and they would like to know specifically what you think about a) the pro's and con's of having two divisions and b) pro's and con's on the group / divisional conference style format. If you can email us at info@cricketsupporters.com with the title: County Championship, we will compile all feedback. You can also let us know what you'd like to see in terms of scheduling. Deadline Sept 8th
From what is being said despite all the complaints its basically more of the same next year.
The elephant in the room is of course The Hundred. You can run the County Championship, RLODC and Blast concurrently as these are, at least in theory, played by the same team so you can have a white ball game sandwiched between County Championship games. But as soon as you need to block several weeks out to allow those same players to go to their franchises you've got a problem.
It works in Australia and India because they have the weather to add extra weeks to the season. Nobody is looking at the coverage of the current game at Lords and seeing shots of the crowd thinking that looks like a good day out, they look frozen!
Back to two divisions next season:
https://www.espncricinfo.com/story/county-championship-to-return-to-two-divisions-from-2022-1283141
I think it's a bit harsh on Notts after this season, but otherwise seems fair.
Not sure about the uneven split between Divisions One and Two but otherwise I think it looks ok. I am doing my best to feel sorry for Notts but haven't quite succeeded yet.
Not sure about the uneven split between Divisions One and Two but otherwise I think it looks ok. I am doing my best to feel sorry for Notts but haven't quite succeeded yet.
Uneven split goes back to 2016 when they sought to make more room in the schedule for rest/other formats so created an 8-10 split. In 2018 the counties voted to go to a 10-8 split from 2020 season onwards so only Notts were relegated and 3 promoted. 10 teams is thought to be a better representation of the fringe England talent pool than the 8 we had. I remember the Worcester chairman talking this change up as it would likely help their (at the time) yo-yo county have more chance of stabilizing in Div 1.
Equal divisions of 9 and 9 which we had from 1999 to 2015 was the best format if we have to have divisions as it meant 16 matches (8 home 8 away) but it always meant 1 team in each division had a week off every round of matches which made scheduling other formats and rest periods tricky. It'll be interesting to see the fixtures when they come out in the next few weeks and which 5 teams we end up having to play twice and which 4 teams we only play once. Will fixtures be based on seedings? If so will they take into account our 2019 standings when we finished 7th or 2021 when we won it?
Personally I quite liked the conference format that we've had as it potentially meant the chance to visit different counties/grounds each season if they stuck with it and mixed the groups up each season.
However the idea of it only being around for another season seemed trite so I'm glad they've gone straight back to 2 divisions even though 11 counties voted in favour of either continuing the conferences for 1 more season or using 2021 placings to determine the make up of the 2022 divisions.
Middlesex (not quite sure why?) and Notts (more understandable) are fuming about the decision today but personally I think it is the correct one. Northants are likely to struggle big time next season but I reckon Gloucestershire may do quite well.