Sta£e of the Nation - County Cricket Finances

I highlighted this earlier on another thread. But whatever! As far as I can see, Sussex are the only county out of the eighteen without an international fixture next year. Why,? It was only 15 months ago when Zac gave an interview saying he wanted to increase the number of international fixtures we hold. This year we have a single T20. No women's internationals, nor Under 19s. Next year, none of the prime games.

A far less optimistic view of the prospects for the T20 Blast from Scyld Berry in the Telegraph today:

www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/cricket/twenty20/10833162/NatWest-Blast-to-relaunch-T20-all-well-and-good-but-quality-of-cricket-will-still-be-same-and-missing-star-names.html

Typical drivel from Scyld - a diehard dinosaur of Championship cricket only who believes we are
still living in the 1950s.

Suggesting franchise cricket in England... is rip van Scyld still asleep from Spring 2011? The window of
opportunity vanished after the ridicule and contempt of 'Project Victoria'. Everyone and I mean
everyone one talks to says the opportunity for an EPL has gone.

I applaud the ECB. At least, they are trying to make T20 work via the BLAST. Ok, it's another
relaunch but this is the best opportunity to date. The counties have to make this work - last
chance saloon - and as the standard of business acumen improves throughout the clubs, there
is every chance.

But if this latest revamp fails, then it's potentially goodbye to Yorkshire, Glamorgan, Durham and
Warwickshire. Only a highly successful and lucrative BLAST will help such TMGs to pay off their
debt - nothing else will. They need full houses at every home game. That is their challenge over
the next four years.

I'm a big fan of GD.

Scyld is a lovely chap but his views can be somewhat archaic and out of touch. In the past, he dressed
like a 1950s public school history teacher. A favourite story is the time when he forgot his media pass
and wasn't allowed into a county press box because they thought he was one of the groundsmen.

Now CMJ has passed, Scyld is endearingly one of the few left of the old school.

You make me feel very old, s&f! I've always liked Scyld Berry, ever since he burst onto the scene 35 years ago as The Observer's young tyro and was such  a breath of fresh air in the face of Swanton's unbearable pomposity and the dry conservative orthodoxy of Woodcock. To see him described as a dinosaur and 'Rip Van Scyld' is an unwelcome reminder of how time moves on so inexorably!!!

As in music, our preferences in cricket writing are a matter of  personal taste, I suppose. Some prefer classical and some like heavy metal. I like the calm authority of the traditional broadsheet print media writers such as Berry, Selvey, Marks, Atherton and Pringle (whom I seem to recall also came in  for several ferocious pastings from you on the old board!)

But yes, I suppose you are right and they now represent the stuffy old guard, as the young and brash website turks like Dobell with their internet blogs and podcasts  seek to overthrow the values of  Berry's generation, just as Scyld himself  and his good friend Matthew Engel were  once the shiny young alternative to the stuffy establishment school of Swanton/Woodcock.

I confess that the excitable style of the modern internet reporters isn't for me. I find the headline-chasing and instant blogosphere judgements  of the cricinfo  crowd and Michael Vaughan and their ilk not only over-sensational,  but also lacking in depth, a poor subsititute for the considered analysis of the 'old guard' and - dare I say it - slightly vulgar. To use an old-fashioned analogy drawn from  the pre-digital  era when Fleet Street still ruled, it's as if tabloid  ethics have won the war and the traditional virtues of authoritative and meticulously double-checked  reporting  espoused by The Times (and the BBC) have been banished forever.

Perhaps I've turned into the thing I once most despised when I was young and become the  21st century equivlent of E.W.Swanton. But I'm glad that the likes of Berry are still around to remind us of the old values. (But then I also prefer four day cricket to the one day variety, so obviously there is no hope for me!)

      I agree with you on that one BM. I still subscribe to Wisden monthly/The Cricketer or whatever it's called now. I hardly ever read it as it contains blog type material and "stuff" that does not interest me. Thecoverage of county cricket is found near the back before the ads and it does not cover very much in the way of county cricket. Buy hey ho that's my opinion.
      I. like you, prefer the 4 day Championship variety and am finding pretty difficult this season to see very much of it! Family commitments last Sunday meant I missed Sunday at Hove. Can only make 1 day of T.Wells week(which could be the last one due to council cuts). So am looking to get the maximum number of visits to T20 blast!
S&F your comment about 4 TMg's brings it all home really. I have to be honest and admit if I was given the choice of watching T20 blast or BBL(Aussie version), I would go for the latter. As the article by Scyld Berry says England's top centrally contracted players will not play very much of the T20 blast due to international commitments and the ECB have not manged to encourage "top overseas players" as they regard it as not as important as the BBL, IPL or Carribean league!
I maybe proved wrong, but the counties really market this if it is seen as the golden goose for county cricket. If it doesn't we could see even more gounds having retirement flats built on the outfield!