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Post by coverpoint on Sept 17, 2015 4:57:09 GMT
A proper decision which is most welcome. This will allow further thought and a clearer structure to come through for 2017. I applaud their common sense. I think it will be eight team first division and ten team second division in 2017 with two down and one up next year followed by one up one down thereafter. It is yet another move towards eight city franchise to which Sussex are opposed against.
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Post by invicta1977 on Sept 17, 2015 6:56:06 GMT
A proper decision which is most welcome. This will allow further thought and a clearer structure to come through for 2017. I applaud their common sense. I think it will be eight team first division and ten team second division in 2017 with two down and one up next year followed by one up one down thereafter. It is yet another move towards eight city franchise to which Sussex are opposed against. For years, I've been banging on about the ECB's desire to create an elite premier league of big city clubs and they've been gradually getting their by stealth. The scenario you describe fits in very nicely with this goal. Reducing the number of promoted and relegated teams will effectively prevent any upstart smaller club joining the top league. It'll also dampen the season-long competitive spirit that promotion and relegation were supposed to engender in Two Divisions, as those issues will more than likely be settled well before the closing month of the season.
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Post by Wicked Cricket on Sept 17, 2015 9:20:58 GMT
invicta,
I cannot agree that the proposed 8 division 1 counties is some conspiracy by the ECB to form a super league of City Franchises. This notion has been created by certain county Chairmen as a way of gaining support from cricket traditionalists to agree with their anti 14 Championship stance and then jumped upon on by cricket journos like George Dobell who see a good story.
I have said all along that much of what Graves and Harrison have allegedly discussed has been driven by the media and the media alone. I am not at all surprised by the so-called ECB backdown. There was never a back to down. Journos like GD have created a mountain out of a molehill with great success and people like us on cricket Forums around the land have written thousands of words and many hours discussing evil notions that may never materialise. It's been fun, agreed, but the reality is the county game is still run by people with traditional views, supported by people with traditional views, who would rather have red hot pokers probed up their backsides than change. Cricket keeps changing, agreed, but the Championship is sacred, the tribal loyalty to county clubs is sacred, so at some point a stand must be made.
The cynics may argue that Graves and Harrison are playing the long game where shrewd politics rule and perhaps by 2018 the traditionalists will be worn down and finally kowtow to their wishes.
We shall see.
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Post by invicta1977 on Sept 18, 2015 11:26:43 GMT
invicta, I cannot agree that the proposed 8 division 1 counties is some conspiracy by the ECB to form a super league of City Franchises. This notion has been created by certain county Chairmen as a way of gaining support from cricket traditionalists to agree with their anti 14 Championship stance and then jumped upon on by cricket journos like George Dobell who see a good story. No, not for city franchises but for first-class reasons. It's been a desire for some time to distill the cream of cricketing talent into a smaller number of teams and I've been advancing this argument since the turn of the century. Lord Tesco realised that the counties were never going to agree to sides being culled or merged, so the only realistic way of creating a smaller number of powerful teams would be to divide the Championship and allow 'natural selection' to do its work. Originally, three sides from each division changed places but after 5 years, that changed to 2, to further protect the strength of the top tier. It hasn't all worked according to plan, as upstarts such as Somerset and Sussex have enjoyed long stays in Div One. Thus, the next step will be to reduce the number of Div One placed to eight, and then the finishing move will be to allow only one side to be relegated and one promoted.
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Post by flashblade on Sept 18, 2015 14:05:36 GMT
There have been suggestions that the proposal for an 8 county 1st division is a subtle (?!) attempt to keep the non test match grounds out of the 1st division.
Are there not 9 counties with test match 'status'?
Middlesex, Surrey, Yorkshire, Warks, Notts, Lancs, Glamorgan, Hampshire and Durham.
I think the 8 county suggestion is driven mainly by the desire to have 14 CC matches in division 1.
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Post by deepfineleg on Sept 18, 2015 16:11:08 GMT
Would a 9 team CC Div 2 also play only 14 games? Otherwise it doesn't address the'too much cricket' narrative. Especially as Div 2 teams seem to qualify for knock out stages of T20 and 50 over comps.
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Post by flashblade on Sept 18, 2015 16:56:12 GMT
Would a 9 team CC Div 2 also play only 14 games? Otherwise it doesn't address the'too much cricket' narrative. Especially as Div 2 teams seem to qualify for knock out stages of T20 and 50 over comps. It would be a 10 team Div 2. I suspect the so called "integrity" of Div 2 isn't very high on the ECB's agenda at the moment, and that they would play however many games the ECB decided!
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Post by fraudster on Sept 23, 2015 16:15:36 GMT
Sorry if I've missed the bleedin' obvious old beans but would some considerate chap tell me if we're keeping the same schedule, like scattered T20s?
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Post by hhsussex on Sept 23, 2015 16:42:21 GMT
Sorry if I've missed the bleedin' obvious old beans but would some considerate chap tell me if we're keeping the same schedule, like scattered T20s? We don't know yet because nobody has said, but I suspect that it will be scattered T20s for 2016.
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Post by fraudster on Sept 23, 2015 17:43:39 GMT
Cheers HH, ignorance is bliss. They should surely change that at least though. I'd go as far to say that's the only thing that really needs changing, as in really.
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Post by theleopard on Sept 24, 2015 17:29:52 GMT
t20 finals day is already fixed for August 20, so presumably it will be the same. With that date there certainly won't be any scope for moving more matches into the summer holidays
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Post by philh on Sept 29, 2015 10:41:53 GMT
I suspect that the programme each season will change more than once over the next 10 years as a 'perfect solution' is sought. The fact of the matter is that the County Championship and T20 are a mile apart in terms of money, audiences and playing staff - and, the summer is short. I don't have a problem with the T20 being sprinkled through the first two-thirds of the season on a Friday night. To my mind, this works well. And, it seems, games remain fairly competitive for the supporters of this format. This is for two reasons - firstly, each game seems to stand alone more than 'dead' 50 over games and, secondly, league tables tend to become bunched as there is a fair amount of luck involved.
The thorn in the side is the 50 over tournament. This has become a bit turgid, in my view. It's presumably got to stay in the calendar as it is the format for international cricket's premier tournament. However, the format seems wrong. Maybe, there should be a league with three divisions of 6, playing each team once and a straight knock out cup for 50 overs. At least, this would make it more competitive - promotion/relegation even in a small league can make things more exciting.
A further problem with the 50 over format is that I suspect few people would say that 50 overs is their preferred format. There are clearly plenty of four day fans and T20 fans as well as some that like both, but I suspect 50 overs is low on most people's list. Maybe, I'm wrong, of course!
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Post by hhsussex on Oct 2, 2015 8:14:38 GMT
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Post by invicta1977 on Oct 2, 2015 8:54:06 GMT
I got as far as "It was part of the ECB plan to win the 2019 World Cup". and couldn't continue because of the tears of laughter blurring my vision. I'll return to it later.
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Post by theleopard on Oct 3, 2015 13:21:27 GMT
The problem is that while it's a sensible discussion their conclusions for the fixture list - as is often the case with people expressing opinions on the fixture list without having to compile one - are full of holes. One contributor says to start with 50 overs and then begin the Championship in June and then begin t20 in the school holidays. So, nothing but RL 50 for the first 9 weeks of the season and then somehow all the Championship and t20 has to be fitted into three and a third months? A couple more suggest a 50 over knockout which would "reduce the amount of games throughout the season, giving players a break". Not so much for the teams that reach the final! Surely the glaring issue here is that teams knocked out at the beginning would end up playing just one 50 over game all season.
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