Former Chairman of the England and Wales Cricket Board Lord MacLaurin has recently called for the number of Counties in English domestic cricket to be reduced from 18 to 12 and for other changes. Ian MacLaurin is right, but he doesn't go anywhere nearly far enough. There is no alternative to starting with what we want the outcome to be and then working back to create the appropriate structure. Fiddling with what we have just won’t do.
So let’s start with the outcome. An England team that is competitive in all major International competitions most of the time. To have this there must be a cadre of top professionals who play high class cricket and compete for places in the England squad. For this to happen the competitions in which they play must be world class. So how are we doing? Let’s take spin bowling. Graeme Swann chucks in the towel and who is waiting eagerly and realistically to replace him? Fragile old Monty? Aging Old Boy Treaders? Untested Tyro Borthwick. Some bloke you’ve never heard of in the Warwickshire Seconds who Ashley Giles says is a fine prospect….
Or take the batsmen. Can we really say that we have replaced Strauss, or Collingwood or potentially Trott? Have we a wicket-keeper batsman waiting to take over from Prior?
Then there are the fast bowlers. If Jimmy is off song then the load falls on Broad and can we truly say that Bresnan or Tremlett or Rankin is up there with the class of these two consistently? Or anyone else?
The finding of new recruits of quality for an International team undergoing change is what our domestic system should be delivering. But it isn’t. Why? It is because our finances are spread too thinly. An 18 County system is only sustainable if you sell your soul to Sky and charge the highest prices in the world for international tickets. That is what has happened just so that eighteen historic counties can be subsidised – to do what? Offer contracts to overseas players who won’t qualify for England? Offer sunset homes for past-it old cricketers who are wending their ways to a benefit and retirement. Prop up mediocre teams, with mediocre players in mediocre competitions for no good purpose.
Every Domestic match should be competitive and of such quality that spectators will want to pay to see it. The County Championship is a farce. Poor quality, unwatched and unloved except for a few aging fans who remember how it was in the good old days (Actually it hasn’t been much cop for decades. Since the 1960s when it all started to fall away). The limited overs competitions are marginally better but there are far too many games (a consequence again of the 18 county system) and far too few that really matter.
The solution? Leave the County system as it is but make it predominately amateur with each team having maybe one or two professionals like the Leagues. Play the games at the weekends when players are available. Play on the lovely grounds that grace our countryside not in the echoing space of an empty Lord’s or Old Trafford. Use it as a place for youngsters to learn their cricket and for older players still to entertain us. Make its moderate costs largely self-supporting.
Create an eight team franchise system of new Teams based at International grounds. The Squad of each of the franchises to comprise current England players and England qualified players of real potential. Plus one or two overseas players and one or two recently retired International players as well. Market the competitions (Four Day, One Day, T20) so that each match matters because of the quality of the cricket and the fact that England players will play – let them out of their central contract ghetto to do so. They will want to of course because every match will be a trial for the top, as well as being engaging sport in its own right. Do this and we might begin to get somewhere!
No comments:
Post a Comment