mad
Member
Warwickshire must reject these rushed proposals and instigate a proper 2 year consultation process.
Change must not be rushed through
Thanks for the link
Possibly my naivity but I have slightly more confidence in the committee acting in members interests
What needs to happen is Warwickshire reject the Strauss proposals and lead calls for a proper two-year consultation timeline starting now
This would necessitate no change for season 2023 and 2024
By close of season 2023 a decision needs to be reached as nobody is satisfied with the schedule - not members with the lack of summer / weekend cricket and not players with the uncertainty
Any changes can then be instigated in time for the start of the 2025 season - this would be the right and proper timescale for anything like this not just blindly following the mood music or panicking because of IPL etc...
At least that way there will have been the necessary time and emphasis on consultation and time for the counties to properly prepare sort contracts out etc... Instead of something cack handed being rushed through
Overall I enjoyed last year's campaign in this more 4 wins 4 defeats than this year 4 wins 1 tie 3 losses.
I think some of the youngsters burst onto the scene last year whereas I think some are just a bit too young this year. I have seen quite a bit of Hamza, Amir Khan, George Maddy and Kai Smith of late in B'ham league and 2nds fixs so maybe it's that
Today felt a bit more exciting being a crunch must win game and our fielding looked sharp especially early on. I think there are certain senior players in that middle order (not that old either) that look like they're in the final stages of their Bears careers - and it's showing in their carelessness in getting out - slapping to point when we just needed to go at 4's for ten overs not really what was wanted at that stage
Garrett still raw but maybe OHD moving (if at all true) may open up a slot for him
Several around collecting them today. Ought to be pretty close to 200 now plus the ones that'll be posted to the club.
Need to smash past 250 in case of any duplicates they'll check for. Should be do-able by the time of the Somerset championship game Day 1 by lunchtime when that forum starts.
I wonder if the club will alter it's posture like Lancs were forced to. Notts members have over 400 signed up to force the issue there. Warks won't want to be left the only ones not respecting member interests although that wouldn't surprise me much the way membership no's have fallen here since Dennis Amiss used to walk round chatting to the members engaging with them canvassing opinion. Nothing like that these days just a faux forum when they have something they've been hiding to finally reveal
Thanks
Just read sales of Blast tickets this year totalled 494,828 and was 481,113 lower than was achieved in 2019.
The 16.4 with all the marketing sucked up from other areas of the sport and the advantage of free to air and its near exclusive August slot has in 2022 sold / given away for free a total reported to be 500,000
The outrageous hype around a new format that hasn't developed a new audience, doesn't fill grounds to any degree but merely consolidates an existing audience around a smaller number of more easily controlled corporate entities.
Makes the SGM request imperative. It's one way of pressuring the board to act in members interests.
If 250 is the golden number it should be achievable maybe not tomorrow but within a week or so.
An entire sport being cannibalised in front of us. I wonder the ECB/Sky even slightly appreciate how toxic this is. l'd be very surprised if critical voices on this matter get airtime. The cats cradle of conflicting interests across cricket's governance and media is truly insane.
Needs government intervention but it's as bad in that place frankly
Several familiar faces are on that committee. It is still imperative we hold the club to account even at this late stage.
I can see a number of counties responding to members "it wasn't us they made us do it" type of response but that simply will not wash.
Such an underhand sneaky deceptive way to procede by the ECB this is and it ought to be brought to the attention of criminal barristers.
On the Somerset forum a member made the following point which I feel is very pertinent;
_~~Ultimately?
There may need to be another set of votes .. a vote to put the ECB back in its box as the servant of the counties, not their bosses.
If the ECB lose the vote on the Strauss changes, they will throw an epic tantrum and threaten to cut the central grant. At that point, it would be time for the counties to take back control - by voting to remove such powers from the ECB - to make it a purely distributive body without such executive power.
The ECB is supposed to be an administrative body, empowered by the counties to do things like arrange fixtures, provide umpires, set up a framework for administering the rules etc.
Of course, before the vote on the Strauss changes the ECB Will inevitably try to offer a bribe to get the vote through. If, however, multiple counties have been bound by their members to vote against, then the bribe may fail.
Realistically, the members of the various counties have probably acted 4 or so years too late. They needed to bind their counties to have voted against the franchise garbage and, if that had succeeded? We wouldn’t be in this mess now, plus the ECB~~ would be much better off financially._
What the ECB did to Durham given who was in charge at the ECB and based on his involvement at a rival northern county for hosting test matches was nothing short of a scandal and one which needs to be investigated.
Durham without whom England never have that rare position as no 1 test nation in the world around 2010-2012
Sad to see what has become of Durham. Pale shadow of their former selves. ECB largely responsible. Used to be a right old bogey team for Warks once they found their feet in the 1990's. The Warwickshire innings looked a bit too comfortable Sibley enjoying a net basically which hopefully bodes well for his last three games hurrah in the championship for him.
I've pretty much had my fill of white ball cricket now all very formulaic albeit good to see Hamza, Kai and George come in and not look out of place also Ethan to kick on now. Might get a bit more exciting if it's a must win do or die game next
So lancs CCC cancel the SGM and commit to giving their members the final say before they meet the ECB on September 20th. Have to say I don't trust them one bit nor the ECB
When and how do we as members get an opportunity to force Warwickshire to act in our interests on this and vote this blatant power grab down???
Lancs have also now updated via twitter
'The Club can confirm that one of the options on which Members may vote will be to retain the status quo. The vote will be recorded by Lancashire Cricket’s independent auditors.'
Game 4 - The u18's finally got a championship win today. After rain affecting Days 1+2 and beginning the day declaring Warwicks overnight 151-0 score Somerset were re-inserted and made 64-5 in 10 overs setting Warwickshire 366 to win in the remaining 85 overs.
They then piled up 367-4 in 79.2 overs winning by 6 wickets. Kidderminster opener Daniyal Khan carried his bat for 144. K&D's Amir Khan ahead of his call up to the squad traveling to Radlett tomorrow hit 82 and fellow clubman George Maddy 49
They now sit 4th on 41 points with one 3-day game still to play away to Worcestershire at Barnt Green August 30th to September 1st
There is also an EPP 2-day game next week at Portland Rd expected to be a Tuesday start tbc
A lot of this is about what we want or expect of the game. And then contrast that with what a layperson might want from the game.
Watching this week's Grade Cricketer podcast quite an emotional rumination of the current discordant feel the game has and they raised a very pertinent poser.
Do we want cricket to be a game followed by millions at some surface or vague level and fed mostly by T20 franchise stuff that just washes over them?
Or do we prefer it to be a bit more niche and followed by a much smaller number of obsessives who are really into it and the sport has an idealistic and meritocratic global structure?
It's an interesting teaser.
Lots of funny comments too - bull pens made me chuckle
Saddens me that my own county Warks (alongside Lancs obviously) must be so desperate for cash to pay off debts that they are fully prepared to chuck the other counties under the bus like this.
I note Warks haven't made themselves clear on this yet hiding letting Lancs take all the flak.
And all for what?!??
My next gas bill is more appealing than watching this 16.4 shite
Talk about sweeping generalisations and assumptions. They haven't "finally found a format can entertain families" all formats of the game can and have and continue to given appropriate scheduling and support. It's a power grab pure and simple. I'm no huge T20 fan but it's just as entertaining as the blundred if not more so. I loved 40 overs cricket and am happy to let that go ditto 60 overs cricket. Were not stick in the muds we want entertainment too. The season needs mending so it's understandable to the masses. 1 proper game and 1 white ball game per week or if this 16.4 has to stay surely it should be confident enough to allow first class cricket to be played at the same time as it not just 2nd XI RLODC. Also they need to have 18 teams with promotion and relegation if they want it taking seriously. Why should Worcester not have access to these mythical new audiences? Why should the county championship not have access to August cricket lovers? I think I know why - it's because the new audience doesn't exist. All this is attempting to do is reconstituting existing fans of cricket around a smaller number of more easily controlled entities for a month plus or minus people leaving the game (dying off or giving it up) and people arriving into the game.
And do you think they'll stop at August?
The ECB (and some bigwigs at Lancs & 1/2 other counties) wants those half a million or so cricket fans watching the same small number of games instead of having a genuine choice as to what to watch and where to see it in August. This deprives the other counties of patronage. It's sinister and must be resisted.
An American general in Vietnam was once infamously quoted as saying that "in order to save the village it became necessary to destroy it"
That's what this new Eldorado format is specifically designed to do to the game. It also reminds me of classic 'Disaster Capitalism' - create a false sense of doom (some spurious stats about falling participation numbers between 2017-2018 and these past few weeks getting everyone to panic about the IPL) run existing infrastructure into the ground then sweep in with radical yet foolhardy masterplans.
Meanwhile there's the square root of bugger all else to watch which is kinda what they intended of course they want everyone to feast their eyes on the new fangled thing. I actually did that today in the pub. What a let down the thing is utter drivel. I almost fell for it last year but by god I'd rather no cricket ever again than have to stomach that garbage non stop for the rest of eternity. ECB hang your heads in shame it's an appalling way to treat women's cricket which has less history to stand up for it let alone men's cricket which has more
Which is kinda the marketing spiel. This is not for cricket fans this is for folks who get all excited about bottom lines etc...
https://watch.talk.tv/watch/replay/47451218
Nice hours discussion here between Mark Saggers, Derek Pringle and Martin Bicknell from about 2 hours in (8pm till 9)
If it's on telly/twitter/tik tok I guess anything becomes easy to follow. The lack of visibility itself makes the rest hard to follow. Not sure why counties as entities would be less appealing to mums with young kids than crisp packets with cartoonish names. Oh hang on. The lack of ethics with regards this side of it astonish me. Could just as easily attach jazzy names for the T20 teams whack it on BBC with all the attendant hoopla and that'd surely work for a few years too.
Even if it's considered a roaring success there still needs to be first class cricket in the height of summer staged at 20-30 different venues across the length and breadth of England/Wales to justify county memberships or county affiliation
And I've always thought the best v best argument pretty weak anyway. Notts were a damn good side last season after 2/3 years of struggle. They deserved to finish 8th in 2019 but did not deserve to be plonked in the bottom tier this season. They'd likely have pushed Surrey, Hants and Lancs pretty hard for the title this season had they not been dumped into Div 2. And it's the same for emerging sides or transitional sides. We could get relegated this year but the injuries magically clear up over the winter and look like a decent top 3 side again next year but be unable to show this as like Notts we'd get dumped in Div 2. The impact on membership at counties stuck for years in Div 2 cannot be underestimated either.
Checking the dates of the annual fixture v Worcestershire was a highlight of fixture release day as was scouting for seaside or festival destinations. All that has been narrowed and lost in pursuit of ever diminishing improvements in levels of performance. 17 different surfaces across the season used to help batters and bowlers hone their techniques too. Now they are limited to the same 6 or 7 surfaces season in season out unless they play for a yo-yo county.
1 division would make it easier for them to schedule some first class cricket during what I now call pantomime season which August has become.
Great points. I've often talked up going back to one division 18 counties - to general consternation. I think it would help. No stress then about finishing 9th or 10th or 13th or 14th. There was even a bit of fun associated with finishing last with the awarding of the wooden spoon.
There's no relegation in the hundred or the IPL or the Blast so why should players be under that level of pressure in the championship? Make it fun again and a proper Championship 17 games even make some of them 3-day matches to make them fun fun fun and to fit them in the schedule and to take the matches to the seaside and festival grounds and to ensure New Road and Canterbury have more than 4 measly white ball fixtures in the entire month of August. August being more fun for playing and watching cricket than early April (normally anyway)
I had a bit of a pop at David Hopps earlier this season for his comments about Bears style of play grinding out wins/mostly draws. I take it back. He was right ultimately to be concerned in this way not specifically about Bears but about the whole county championship.