There isn't a huge amount of overlap any more is there. There used to be lots of overlap when Warwickshire had a full set of weekend fixtures with a Championship fixture (Day 3 of 4) on the Saturday and a Sunday League fixture and football didn't have any international breaks so football ran pretty much Saturday to Saturday regularly with the odd one or two midweek games (a few more if your team went on a cup run) and one game selected for live showing on Sunday. Be nice to have more weekend cricket to watch so as to have the dilema of whether to watch cricket or footy in May or August but it's become so rare of late particularly and ruinously for August

Premier League teams season's run deeper into May than used to be the case so I guess being aware of the fixtures when scheduling any Bears T20 games for Saturday/Sunday but the trouble is the cricket fixtures come out in a fortnights time or so and then in March or April Sky will decide to move fixtures so you end up with Bears and Blues/Villa home fixtures in May clashing unintentionally anyway

As regards August. Stuart Cain should focus on getting Warwickshire playing top level cricket in August again. Or does he want these local footy fans filling the ECB coffers by rallying behind franchises?

I'd say it's not a great look for the sport rather than not a great look for Warks. This is where county cricket is in 2023. Far too many professional players emerging into the county pathway system from far too small a pool of schools. It's all rather slightly incestuous and if any of this extra funding and free to air 'dosh' from the otherwise nonsensical '4th format' comp is all it's cracked up to be - barriers should start to be beaten back by a tidal wave of state school educated players thriving in the pathway system from Sandwell and Coventry and inner city Brum. Not holding my breath however. Notts have been hammered for years about poaching players and now Warks are getting the same daggers. But it's merely a symptom of where the game is at. Worcestershire or Kent beating us next year with George or Ethan having good games IMHO would represent a real wake up call mind

Very best of luck to him. He 'knows the division' he'd be a great signing for a newly promoted county I reckon (Kent maybe still finding their feet post COVID???) and especially a county that hasn't already got OHD and Rushworth on their books. I genuinely think he can be at that level. Lots of work for him to do mind. Just hope he doesn't do it to us... although I'd probably forgive him if he did

Yes very fair assessment if I was being mean I'd probably go 6.5 out of 10 overall but I think after the issues last season 7 is very fair indeed.

Their departures were more or less confirmed by Robinson in that after play forum in the Dollery bar last Wednesday

Hain is available yes. It's not a must win game for Warwicks however so we might not bring him in.

I would though based on the fact we've not batted yet

Pleased were not an overly noisy side remember the Hampshire sides with Shane Warne. Can't think of a particularly noisy side these days maybe a couple of counties that play with two spinners. Most are very professional and performance oriented these days

No fan of the comp but so long as they keep it to three and a bit weeks then I can tolerate it. I do think they should allow non hosting counties the opportunity to play some CC cricket while it's on though and release more players to play for their counties whilst it is on. Glad your daughter is enjoying the atmosphere at Edgbaston it really is a terrific stadium for events such as that and the ground staff really do try their best and are to be credited each and every time I go there for the county stuff even when there's below 1,000 there like today

Ecb reporters network well boo hoo.

Bit out of order them not being able to put the floodlights on this morning but presumably they're on for the day now so could be batting in murky twilight for a while here

Alec Stewart was speaking on 5 live sports extra at lunchtime and one of the things he suggested was;
"all the chat is that 2025-2028 will be the same as 2024"
Whilst we will welcome a period of relative calm lets hope they get it right or at least don't mess things up too much more for 2024

Blast groups June and July and the knockout games in September I think is the main change that appears to be baked in till 2028

I think the last time Warwickshire won a county championship game without Sam Hain was June 2018 when we beat Durham in division two

Well played Chrissy Wright and Leicestershire

Keith Barker on fire again

Looking at the less than quarter full Trent Bridge just shows what utter contempt the ECB has for the counties.

What we need is a proper one day league so fans can follow their counties home and away and a proper one day knockout cup so fans can dream of a trip to Lord's for the final.

This halfway house with silly groups then even sillier play-offs then a random final very few appear to give a monkeys about just so they can shoehorn this format into a three week block is completely ridiculous scheduling

The idea does seem fanciful but I like the vision of growing the game rather than shrinking it as happened when the 100 was thought up.

So long as the games are May to August and fall mostly at weekends which is when the National Counties currently play I don't see an issue with the logistics perhaps best if regionalised. Some of the NCs would require lots of help from the first class county grounds for a short duration while their own playing and spectator facilities are upgraded but I see no reason why for example Staffordshire couldn't play a game or two at Derby or Edgbaston as part of double headers with the host county. I'd quite like in twenty years time for the result of all this to be we've grown from 18 to 24 first class counties

From the latest county cricket matters magazine Graham Coster writes

"Trees make cricket grounds, but cricket grounds are becoming stadiums. They're becoming stadiums because these days they're really there for just the big showdowns which apart from test matches, never see a red ball."

I have to confess my heart sinks whenever I attend New Road these days and there are black sightscreens in use and seats taken up by a temporary black comms box.

I do think there should be more greenery within the actual stadium we use. Edgbaston (fitting as it is for putting on great test matches and the Blast Finals Day and I'm led to believe the 100 aswell) never has been the most aesthetically pleasing ground when empty (looks stunning when full mind) but at least back in the day with the old pavilion you had the trees within Cannon Hill Park to enhance the view from the City End and the flower baskets added a nice touch

Also;

"Is draping a glorified bedsheet over a bank of seats really the best we can do for sightscreens?"

I think this is something that needs addressing at Edgbaston amongst several venues the ground needs to improve the way it is turned out the way for instance Trent Bridge is able to. I don't think Trent Bridge is necessarily a nicer ground (odd shaped outfield for one and some of their new stands are downright weird) but they do seem to make more of an effort on the aesthetic front IMHO

According to reports from a members forum at Surrey 2 weeks ago it was confirmed there will be Championship cricket in early July and late August and rumours of none are incorrect

Still not ideal but better than had feared based on The Cricketer/Torygraph reports

The Blast group stage ends July 15th and is more appointment to view in 2024

An excellent day for the all rounder today. A tidy spell of seam up and then an excellent steering of a chase all while giving his gloves a day off

You'd have thought a better way to set this target might've been we smash 50 in about 8 overs this morning just to get the blood pumping then allow them to knock 130 in what was left of the session.

Instead of which we've dawdled this morning I don't think Kraigg Braithwaite moved more than 5 yards from his sweeper position in front of the Hollies and that mindset has crept into the batting after lunch.
Still a chance but I'd take a draw now from here

176 off 60 overs as lunch was taken no further overs are lost