Looks like they've fixed the errors on the main website

Second eleven friendlies x3

March 27-29 Worcestershire Portland Road
July 24 SACA Portland Road (50 over match)
July 26 SACA Portland Road (50 over match)

Second eleven Championship x 10

April 10-13 Essex Billericay
April 17-20 Somerset Portland Road
April 25-28 Surrey Guildford
May 8-11 Worcestershire Kidderminster
July 3-6 Glamorgan Newport
July 17-20 Northamptonshire Portland Road
August 28-31 Gloucestershire away venue TBC
September 4-7 Durham Portland Road
September 11-14 Lancashire Portland Road
September 18-21 Nottinghamshire Portland Road

Second eleven T20 x10

May 16 Gloucestershire Portland Road
May 17 Northamptonshire Portland Road (double header)
May 22 Somerset Taunton Vale
May 23 Gloucestershire Taunton Vale
May 24 Worcestershire Barnt Green
May 26 Glamorgan Portland Road
May 31 Glamorgan Newport
June 7 Worcestershire Portland Road
June 8 Somerset Portland Road

There's also one confirmed ECB under 18 fixture so far which is Warwickshire u18 v Worcestershire in the 50 over County Cup pencilled in for July 2nd at Portland Road. This team also enters the Graham Williamson 40-over knockout trophy playing Leamington in the first round in April

Everyone's getting a bit spooked about how the game is changing but in truth how many county cricketers will actually be prepared to give up their county contracts within the first class system that has brought them through to go completely freelance???

If they go freelance unless they are loaded to begin with (which means they are likely already one of the top players in the world, Joe Root, Ben Stokes etc...) they won't be able to fund their training needs, pay for net bowlers, coaches, physio's etc..., their own cover for insurance against injury.

Test cricket (and to a lesser extent first class cricket in England) remains highly lucrative to broadcasters - it is guaranteed eyeballs on a game for 7 hours a day and the people who watch it will watch it day after day and will tend to be of an age demographic with money to spend. All things T20 doesn't have as it's audience is younger and has less cash

To save test cricket overseas they need to develop a proper league for it and sell broadcasting rights jointly or in a more structured way

Fixtures for the second eleven team have begun appearing on the Warwickshire website and on a couple of other clubs websites - Notts, Hants and Kent for example.

A few errors though on Warwicks website they are showing the second XI championship games as three day matches (should be four) and the second XI one day T20 games are also showing as three day matches

The first friendly appears to be Monday March 27th three day game Vs Worcestershire at Portland Road I suspect they will have a first team game at Edgbaston against the same opposition concurrently as they did last season

At this point in history we as cricket fans have still got - more or less (less for sure) - just about enough of the game that we cherish. I know some of the more seasoned fans among us can point towards 30-50 years previous and the 22+ game county championships, games to watch every weekend in the sun, something to occupy the kids once a fortnight on a Sunday, the glory days of Lord's finals etc... It's still recognisable today from those days previous - just about - I'd suggest. Still a game played by teams for a start.

But I think there is a limit that's now been reached. I do worry that in 5 or 10 years time there will be this yearning not from us but from those that never got to experience it for themselves, for something a bit more compelling than circus cricket played by zombies who've just flown in from half way round the world at the behest of state sponsored broadcasters and commercial 'partners'.

But it'll be too late to roll it back then so it is time to take a stand and that goes for members as well as non-members. February is a big month there are meetings they'll probably hold in secret that'll strip the identity of this game apart

Leadership at the ECB has been severely lacking. The counties are complicit too. No way should they have allowed the domestic competitions to be sidelined to such an extent. County championship was strong ten years ago and the Blast was a commercial success just 4 years ago.

We also need to look at the role of 'some' high profile players notably at the PCA and their utter failure over the racism scandals and also their seeming ongoing remit to lobby for more pay for playing less cricket.

Appointment to view and switching of formats is needed not these farty little competitions - a championship game and a limited overs game each week through the summer months you'd then have an incentive for the sponsors to sustain their interest in the game

Pre-season they play a mix of 1,2,3 day games with red and white balls but all of a sudden in the main season everything has to be in blocks. The spectator at the ground is being ignored time and again

Certainly merit in your suggestion. Why would it not be possible (just as an example) to return to 16 matches and 2 divisions of nine? The first division sides or those 8 sides with the test match grounds that need to rest their overworked squares in August and host these 100 franchises for however long that circus has remaining can play their additional two CC matches overseas UAE/Windies in March (meeting a request from the ECB that top county players and fringe England prospects) get more overseas experience. Meanwhile the second division or the ten non-test counties play their additional two CC matches in August at outgrounds. All the games remain meaningful as opposed to silly friendly games that were mooted by Strauss. These would be all nicely spaced out as apparently requested by players and coaches. Everyone's a winner especially a return of actual cricket to the prime month of August albeit members at the big counties would have to put up with being restricted to 7 home matches still

Couple of tasty looking games in May - Notts v Lancs and Notts v Essex - where I will certainly try to get along to a day of either the Thursday or the Friday

Pleased that they have struck an agreement with Leicestershire now too. Also applies to the One Day Cup although that will only be of any realistic benefit on the sole occasion Leicestershire are playing at home in August when Warwickshire are not

Excellent news on the face of it. Shame Leicestershire has dropped off but more than made up for by addition of Notts. Bit cheeky of WA still charging a tenner to get into the waca for a proper game mind 🤣

Hi

It was announced a couple of months back Warwickshire have reciprocal arrangements with Lancashire, Derbyshire and Leicestershire.

Worcestershire recently announced they have an arrangement with Nottinghamshire, Gloucestershire and Hampshire.

All of which is fine but the absence of first class cricket in August still negates much/if any of the benefit from these arrangements.

How often for instance are any members going to be enticed to visit a ground 50 miles or more away in April or September? They might get a few obviously but it ain't the big selling point it once was - reciprocal membership.

Lancs v Surrey is early April. Now if that was in a spare week (for Warks) in July or August you or I might be tempted by it but I'm not sure many Bears fans will plan on going up there in April. And that's despite the last four April's from my recollection being really nice and sunny actually. Again there may be a tiny few we all know will

Since the aspects of the Strauss review relating to the domestic structure have been summarily rejected by the counties one way the counties are seeking to meet the ECB half way is by creating an 8 team top division. 8 is closer to but not nearly as preposterous as a ridiculous 6 team top division. I'm hearing discussion is/has already taken place over the way to achieve this and the most obvious way is by promoting only 1 side and relegating 3 at the conclusion of 2023 - a cpmplete reversal of what occurred in 2019 when 1 was relegated and 3 promoted ahead of 2022

One or two county chiefs are still expressing a preference for conferences like we had in 2020/2021 or removing several counties from first class status altogether. Lancashire CEO was all about this a few months ago which strikes me as a bit rich. A county that has, in close to 90 years, only won the county championship title once shouldn't be permitted to run down the likes of Durham or Essex or Leicestershire IMHO

Would folks on here prefer 1 up 3 down in one go in 2023 or a more measured 2-season approach - 2 up 3 down for a couple of years until it's sorted and until it's time for the next shambolic overhaul?

Centuries for Rob Yates in Perth and Ethan Brookes in Melbourne overnight (both opening) and another wicket for George Garrett in a 2-day game Brisbane against the students

It is still worth asking why on earth they have 16 rounds for the championship when each team only plays 14 games? We had no suitable answer from various forums blank faces in fact Lancashire chiefs asked this themselves last year.

I'm beginning to wonder whether it is to do with the competition sponsors paid for their 16 rounds of matches?

Pleased to see that -aside from the opening round of matches - it appears to be the case that when Warwickshire are away (or have a bye week) Worcestershire are at home. This hasn't necessarily been the case in recent seasons to much frustration for many

How the counties fought back to win cricket's civil war
Sir Andrew Strauss's high-performance review wanted to shake up the County Championship but now the Hundred is set for change instead

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/cricket/2022/11/25/how-counties-fought-back-win-crickets-civil-war/

By Nick Hoult,

The high-performance review led by Sir Andrew Strauss was supposed to radically shake up the 132-year-old County Championship but it now looks like the Hundred will be the competition set for change after a fightback from the shires.

The counties have rejected out of hand recommendations to split the championship into a top division of six and cut the number of matches from 14 to 10; the idea being to slim down the competition and make it more competitive.

Strauss has recently written to all 18 counties asking to reopen the debate in an effort to salvage the plans but there is little hope of agreement until a review of the England and Wales Cricket Board’s finances, launched by new chair Richard Thompson, is completed next year.

County chairs are demanding to know the full costs of the Hundred and the financial implications of any change to the domestic structure, with many worrying that a reduction in cricket is an “existential threat” to their existence. There has also been a rebellion of county members that stiffened the resolve of clubs against change.

There is now a strong possibility, Telegraph Sport understands, that the Hundred could lose its August school holiday window and be played a few weeks earlier in June-July, which would allow Test cricket and championship matches to once again be played in August from 2024 (the schedule for next year has been decided and circulated to counties with little change).

Telegraph Sport revealed last month the competition could also be cut from four weeks to three by playing more double headers. If the championship remains at 14 matches then it has to be played in August to allow players to recover and the Hundred will need to be squeezed.

A change in leadership at the ECB, with Thompson becoming chairman in September and Richard Gould joining as chief executive in the new year, has already seen a cultural shift away from the Hundred dominating the board’s outlook.

Rebalancing the game is one of the core aims of Thompson and Gould, who were ardent critics of the Hundred when they ran Surrey and warned of the implications it would have on the domestic game. Both are good communicators with supporters and accept the division caused by the Hundred is playing out now in the debate over the county structure.

It was believed the school holiday period was essential to attract family audiences. But unlike in Australia, where the Big Bash is played in the school holiday, insiders believe more families in England go overseas for their holidays and it is believed this is going to affect Hundred attendances as life returns to normality after the pandemic.

(Interestingly this is what they found out pretty early on with the T20 Blast so Hundred before the school holidays and / or trying to avoid big summer events like World Cup's clashing. Doesn't strike me as the 100 being very confident of itself.)

The Hundred has existed in a bubble at the ECB with its own budget and staff. It costs around £40m to run, including the payments to the counties, which equals roughly the budget for England men’s cricket.

Is the Hundred justifying its cost?

The questions being asked now is whether the Hundred is giving the returns necessary to justify the cost, not necessarily financially, but how it has complicated and compacted the schedule. Audience figures for the BBC fell by up to 20 percent this summer.

“We know the source of funds at the ECB until 2028 (the Sky deal is worth around £220m annually) but is the application across all cost centres we do not know,” said one county chairman. “How much is spent on the Hundred? How much is spent on ECB overheads and what is the Hundred contributing? Greater income should mean a greater distribution but that doesn’t seem to be happening with some clubs still on the breadline.”

The game is split. In one corner, are those that back the high performance review and believe that investing in the Hundred, and making money from white-ball cricket, while streamlining the championship, will protect the long term future of the first class game. “I know, let’s ignore the best minds in the game and let a bunch of crusty old chairs who have never played cricket come up with an alternative. It makes us a laughing stock,” said one insider.

Then there are those in the other corner, who believe cutting red-ball cricket will weaken it, and worry a reduction in cricket will see clubs go out of business.

Added to this is a determined group of county members who forced their clubs to hold EGMs at the end of the season and pledge to not support any reduction in the amount of red-ball cricket without the agreement of their membership.

There are only around 70,000 members across 18 clubs – the exact figure is a closely guarded secret – and even fewer who are members of the County Cricket Members Group which has galvanised behind this issue.

'It is not the tail wagging the dog but the fleas on the tail wagging the dog'

“I think there is a very good chance that what was recommended by Strauss would have gone through if there had not been pushback from members,” said Alan Higham of the CCMG, who has campaigned for members to have more say in the running of their clubs.

“It was a big wake up call for county supporters to stand up. It jolted the bigger counties. I just hope the ECB now realises that doing things in isolated management teams, and running everything from the centre, is sub-optimal. They could achieve far more by bringing people together.”

But this resistance has frustrated those involved in the review. “It is not the tail wagging the dog but the fleas on the tail wagging the dog,” said one exasperated source. “We now have complete inertia through spineless chairmen and a handful of members. Are the chairmen going to ask their members if Christmas is still on December 25?”

(Dry your eyes)

The game is changing quickly, and the bigger threat for counties is not the changes advocated by its governing body but developments around the world.

Strauss warned the current schedule damages high performances and it will lead players choosing between the treadmill of 14 championship matches or saving themselves for franchise leagues. Will Smeed became the first young player to throw his lot in exclusively with white-ball cricket recently. Others are expected to follow.

'Those defending the status quo are killing it'

A new T20 league starts in the UAE in January and is offering salaries of £300,000 tax free. South Africa launches its T20 league at the same time creating tension in the market and a fight for English talent. Major League Cricket announced last week it will start in the United States in June 2023, offering another payday for white-ball cricketers.

“Look, those defending the status quo do not realise they are killing it,” says a county insider, (many are reluctant to go on the record because of the sensitivity of the issue).

( I call bullshit then if that's the case and anyway the status quo isn't what's being defended here, the structure since 2017 ish (and the absence of weekend/holiday fixtures well beforehand) has been a complete disgrace. What members want is change to the status quo of administrators running the game into the dirt with flawed panicky thinking)

“We are going to have third-tier players playing county cricket. The top tier are centrally contracted and you write off ever seeing them. Now we will have a second tier of players who build their schedule around T20 leagues, the Blast and the Hundred and will make themselves unavailable for most red-ball games. People just do not understand this.”

(Diddums. Let em go. When the bubble of inconsequential cricket finally bursts they'll all come crawling back and in the meantime there are squads and squads of players available to play the cricket people in England actually invest time in and want to watch)

Strauss recommended a 10-game championship split between a top tier of six and two conferences of six teams. His report also called for a reduction from 14 to 10 Blast matches but did not analyse the effect of the Hundred on the schedule.

The review argued England play too much cricket at county level leaving players little time to work on specific skills and for groundsman to prepare good quality pitches that mirror those in Test cricket.

Officials at the ECB involved in high performance are understood to be very frustrated by the reluctance of counties to embrace change but ultimately accept it is their right to decide the level of cricket they play.

Sean Jarvis, chief executive of Leicestershire, estimates the reduction in cricket would cost his club £275,000 in match-day income losses even before the wishes of members were taken into account.

“When we analysed the proposals and put it through our business model at Leicestershire it was apparent the financial impact on our club was quite severe so for us it did not make sense to back the proposals,” he said. “ It would jeopardise our existence.”

County coaches pushed back against a top division of six believing the fear of relegation would prevent them giving younger players a chance – which has always been put forward as an argument for conferences rather than divisions. Most also did not agree with the conclusion that 10 games is enough but conceded that to play 14 matches means the championship has to be held in August.

The fight over the Hundred is complex. It is the ECB’s competition to do with what they like but Sky has bankrolled it and it is part of the broadcast deal until 2028. Broadcasters are as keen to attract younger, more diverse audiences as the ECB. They see the Hundred as that opportunity.

By reducing the Hundred, the ECB would be the only governing body in cricket to prioritise red ball over its franchise competition, which will be welcomed by many but does it make long-term business sense? The competition will only attract the best players through external investment. What message does it send to potential buyers if the governing body does not believe fully in its own product? That external investment will also trickle down to the counties.

No common goal
If the Hundred cannot pay the big salaries then it will become increasingly harder to sign the best players. The game is also close to IPL owners contracting its best players for 12 months a year, seizing more control. The championship, with its roots in Victorian England, is battling very modern forces.

At the moment there is no common goal, and never will be with so many competing interests among the counties and within the ECB.

(The county members are fairly well united on this whether you are Surrey or Derbyshire and well done to them)

England’s success this year has dampened enthusiasm for change too but the goal is to create a system that works regardless of who is leading English cricket so it does not rely on a Michael Vaughan-Duncan Fletcher or Brendon McCullum-Ben Stokes combination to come along and change fortunes. Anyone who has been on an Ashes tour recognises the structure is not doing its job.

(Enthusiasm??? I'd say a realisation that the blessed Hundred draining wads and wads of ECB finance is a bigger factor than waning enthusiam for watching North v South in Abu Dhabi and other such nonsense proposed to replace a 140+ year old institution like the County Championship

“The status quo achieves nothing. This is not about playing 14 games or 10 games. It is actually about whether these counties are still here in 10 years’ time,” says a senior figure in English cricket.

(Stop knee-capping county cricket then idiots and then throwing money at vanity projects then idiots)

Both sides agree on that but are miles apart on how to achieve it.

(I'd suggest it's a major achievement in binning off the folly of the Strauss proposals)

Also worth considering Sky TV might be looking at reducing production costs. One way to do this is have two games at the same venue and thus avoid the need for cameras, equipment and staff at two different venues. They saw what Edgbaston was capable of doing for the commonwealth games and finals days and double header 100 stuff. The Premier League is still on that weekend but I guess Sky will have their two games on the Sunday. The EFL championship play offs will be in full swing but will have probably been completed before May 20th Sky might have a League One or League Two play off semi on the Saturday but little other football to show.

It could be a belting day I do hope they're both daytime matches 1pm and 4pm which would make sense from the perspective of trying to attract a 100 style crowd (more families and more diversity) as opposed to the boozy stag do Friday night crowds and also make sense from perspective of offering fans of Derbyshire and the other two visiting sides a day out at Edgbaston with ample time to get home afterwards or enjoy Brum nightlife. To mind it's also pointless even having it on a Saturday if it's just gonna be in the evening anyway. Of course times will depend on Sky.

One of the protests/suggestions members made at recent forums was about the lack of weekend cricket - so at least this is partly addressing that concern of members. It's potentially an additional day of weekend county cricket in the sunshine - what's not to like?

Club advertising 8 game blast passes for 85 quid it's not bad at all that. This will be aimed at getting a similar crowd in to what the 1oo does plus maybe a few hundred county fans on buses down from Leeds, Manchester and Derby. It's much earlier in the year though so probably looking at 15,000 crowd similar to the Worcester home games but higher than for games vs these opponents individually. They'll want to aim higher than that and if some world champions/stars are on show they might but I'm just being realistic

I had assumed they'd try double headers with two matches against the same opposition to cut down on play and travel days etc... What they're doing isn't aimed at reducing playing days as I had thought but is an interesting way to try to sell more advance tickets than would normally be sold for these fixtures particularly for the time of year. If the weather is crap Derby don't lose out on staging costs as they can stand down their match day staff. If the weather is good Warwicks will benefit from staging an event with potentially double/triple the attendance for the same (give or take some overtime) staging costs

https://edgbaston.com/news/edgbaston-to-host-first-ever-blast-off-double-header/

I actually like the ambition here. Whilst slightly inconvenience to Derbyshire fans I think it is testament to how well liked Edgbaston has become as an events stadium. It's an attempt to replicate the kind of crowds we get for the Worcester game which we never seem to get for Derby/Yorkies etc... Might attract more away fans and neutrals. I know many will balk at this but I think it's a good idea I'm open minded about it at least. Guessing other grounds will try something similar on other weekends too

Excellent tournament completed by England. Great for Warwickshire now Moeen and hopefully Woakes are made availabile for the Blast ought to help boost attendances for sure. I go back to one of the comments from a gentleman at the first HPR forum in September that as soon as he saw how England were going to prepare for the Ashes last year (+ the injuries, bubbles etc...) he immediately switched off because it was obvious to him that England would get bounced around and walloped by the Aussies.

As it turned out aside from the heat in Adelaide and to some extent Sydney the conditions were quite similar to English conditions but the poor prep did for them

Contrast with how well England have prepared for this tournament. Yes they have turned themselves into a fantastic white ball team/squad and probably by some distance the best in the world at coping with all conditions (no mean feat in a format as fickle as T20 where results are less predictable) wheras in Test cricket you get the sense there isn't much of a gap talentwise between each of the top 4-5 test playing 11's in world cricket and home advantage plays a massive part still.

Elated for Moeen and Woakesy but also for Adil Rashid now a double world cup winner and alongside Stokes probably the key player in England becoming so dominant overall in the limited overs formats

Kent Cricket’s Chair, Simon Philip, has provided an update (Nov 9th) on the two High Performance Review recommendations which concern the structure & scheduling of county cricket.

Yesterday, I attended a virtual meeting for the 18 First-Class County Chairs to discuss the High-Performance Review.

As previously stated, there are two key areas for our Club – structure & scheduling.

For any changes to be enacted to these, 12 of the 18 First-Class Counties must be in favour. As previously covered in the cricket media, it is clear that there is no requisite majority for a reduction of LV= Insurance County Championship or Vitality Blast cricket or for the One-Day Cup to be played at the start of the season.

We are committed to finding solutions that improve the performance of England Cricket – there are 14 other recommendations in the Review that are non-contentious & may well have a significant positive impact on the performance of our Men’s International teams. However, at this time, there are no proposals or votes on the table concerning the amendment of the domestic schedule & structure.

Until this changes, the status quo prevails.

If any proposals do emerge in future, they will be assessed by the Board & the impact on the Club, our Members, supporters, players and stakeholders will be considered. Members will be consulted in that eventuality.

However, in the absence of any proposals currently, there is nothing on which to consult.

Couple of wickets for Rob Yates on Saturday and he batted out a potentially tricky closing few mins to finish 0 not out as Bayswater-Morley began their reply in Perth against Claremont-Nedlands one of Dermot Reeve's old clubs. That 2-day game finishes next Saturday.

In Adelaide Dan Mouseley is 25 not out (assuming rain interrupted day) for West Torrens against Adelaide University a game which completes next Saturday. On Sunday his side lost to Glenelg in the group stages of their 50-over one day cup, Mouseley scoring 26 and taking a wicket towards the end of Glenelg's reply but alas in vain. They have two further Sunday group matches to play.

In Melbourne they finally got going and instead of playing 2-day matches have gone straight into 50-over stuff. Ethan Brookes fell cheaply but also snagged a wicket for Prahran. Jordan Bulpitt also got a wicket for Kingston-Hawthorn. Next weekend they'll play back to back 50-over games on Saturday and Sunday to try to catch up their season after all the rain they've had in Victoria.