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Post by hhsussex on Nov 14, 2015 13:39:36 GMT
Dobell still banging the drum for English domestic w50 overs tournament to be played overseas in March:www.espncricinfo.com/england/content/story/940377.htmlInteresting comments from Strauss about the need to rest players by allowing them to miss tournaments, or even entire formats, and the value to England of encouraging top players to improve their white ball skills in the IPL. He seems to be admitting that KP was right all along - although I'm sure he would splutter with indignation if it was put to him like that!!! I think he just wants a nice trip on exes to the Gulf.
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Post by flashblade on Nov 14, 2015 13:56:41 GMT
Dobell still banging the drum for English domestic w50 overs tournament to be played overseas in March: www.espncricinfo.com/england/content/story/940377.htmlInteresting comments from Strauss about the need to rest players by allowing them to miss tournaments, or even entire formats, and the value to England of encouraging top players to improve their white ball skills in the IPL. He seems to be admitting that KP was right all along - although I'm sure he would splutter with indignation if it was put to him like that!!! I don't think many fans will shed tears over the prospect of the 50 over comp being played overseas in March - it gets it out of the way, and it won't clog up the English summer with unpopular cricket. However, if the domestic T20 is played in a block, there's going to be an awful lot of room for championship cricket from April to September - will there still be a need to reduce the existing 16 matches?
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Post by theleopard on Nov 15, 2015 11:39:45 GMT
I don't think many fans will shed tears over the prospect of the 50 over comp being played overseas in March - it gets it out of the way, and it won't clog up the English summer with unpopular cricket. However, if the domestic T20 is played in a block, there's going to be an awful lot of room for championship cricket from April to September - will there still be a need to reduce the existing 16 matches? Unfortunately I don't think it's that simple. Firstly, it isn't as "unpopular" as is often made out on the county message boards - when played at the right time and in the right place it can attract good crowds. Somerset pulled in 5,500 for their game against Surrey at Taunton in August, while the two one-day games allocated to Scarborough every year are absolutely vital to the club's survival as a county venue. I'm also sure that the two finalists didn't do too badly out of a 17,000 crowd at Lord's and the prize money. On top of that it's a staple for Sky's domestic TV coverage. How would this be solved? As you say, it leaves a lot of "room", and would leave clubs wondering how they were going to make up the loss of revenue. The answer, I suspect, would be more t20 cricket.
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Post by flashblade on Nov 16, 2015 8:43:10 GMT
I don't think many fans will shed tears over the prospect of the 50 over comp being played overseas in March - it gets it out of the way, and it won't clog up the English summer with unpopular cricket. However, if the domestic T20 is played in a block, there's going to be an awful lot of room for championship cricket from April to September - will there still be a need to reduce the existing 16 matches? Unfortunately I don't think it's that simple. Firstly, it isn't as "unpopular" as is often made out on the county message boards - when played at the right time and in the right place it can attract good crowds. Somerset pulled in 5,500 for their game against Surrey at Taunton in August, while the two one-day games allocated to Scarborough every year are absolutely vital to the club's survival as a county venue. I'm also sure that the two finalists didn't do too badly out of a 17,000 crowd at Lord's and the prize money. On top of that it's a staple for Sky's domestic TV coverage. How would this be solved? As you say, it leaves a lot of "room", and would leave clubs wondering how they were going to make up the loss of revenue. The answer, I suspect, would be more t20 cricket. That's a good point. Played on a Sunday, it can be a very attractive prospect. Playing from 2:00 to 10:00 on a weekday is a perverse choice of scheduling. IMO.
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Post by hhsussex on Nov 16, 2015 10:17:22 GMT
Unfortunately I don't think it's that simple. Firstly, it isn't as "unpopular" as is often made out on the county message boards - when played at the right time and in the right place it can attract good crowds. Somerset pulled in 5,500 for their game against Surrey at Taunton in August, while the two one-day games allocated to Scarborough every year are absolutely vital to the club's survival as a county venue. I'm also sure that the two finalists didn't do too badly out of a 17,000 crowd at Lord's and the prize money. On top of that it's a staple for Sky's domestic TV coverage. How would this be solved? As you say, it leaves a lot of "room", and would leave clubs wondering how they were going to make up the loss of revenue. The answer, I suspect, would be more t20 cricket. That's a good point. Played on a Sunday, it can be a very attractive prospect. Playing from 2:00 to 10:00 on a weekday is a perverse choice of scheduling. IMO. But then if played on Sundays the ECB would have to abandon the fiction of the Sunday-Wednesday scheduling for championship matches. In fact this one-time article of faith was largely abandoned by the time of the RL games. Answering theleopard's points, surely Scarborough could be allocated 2 at least of a new block T20 schedule, which could be played during the daytime in the high summer: ideal for a populous seaside resort? Other grounds would also benefit from a better arranged T20 schedule and a 50 over knock out could be played throughout the season which would still provide schedule spots for Sky and a Lord's final. What isn't popular with the majority of players and with very many spectators is another league that is plonked down in the middle of the summer and destroys the continuity of the programme.
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Post by leedsgull on Nov 29, 2015 10:42:37 GMT
Great news that the fixtures will finally emerge this week but when will the "structure" of next seasons championship be decided? Will only one team be promoted or only one relegated to allow for an 8 team division one in 2017? Does anybody know what discussions are on going on this topic? Can Mr May update please? The teams must know before the season starts what the criteria for promotion are. It would also influence recruitment policy. If there was to be only one promotion slot it might encourage a gamble on signings.
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Post by hhsussex on Nov 29, 2015 11:17:12 GMT
Great news that the fixtures will finally emerge this week but when will the "structure" of next seasons championship be decided? Will only one team be promoted or only one relegated to allow for an 8 team division one in 2017? Does anybody know what discussions are on going on this topic? Can Mr May update please? The teams must know before the season starts what the criteria for promotion are. It would also influence recruitment policy. If there was to be only one promotion slot it might encourage a gamble on signings. It would also have an effect on the tactics teams adopted, and therefore it seems odd to unanimously (?) adopt one major change to the Playing Conditions that will have a profound effect on tactics in the matter of the toss, without considering repercussions elsewhere. As I have suggested, there is some evidence from the Div Two pitches that where opposition sides won the toss and elected to bowl first there was a much higher likelihood of drawn games. I think this behaviour will be intensified as counties go to the other extreme and prepare pitches that offer the least possible encouragement to bowlers - any bowlers - and in turn, as the number of draws increases then the promotion/relegation issues are more likely to be settled by one or two dramatic encounters than by a season's consistent performance. If there is only one promotion place it might be resolved as a result of a side who visited opponents on a couple of humid, overcast days and took their mandatory option to bowl first and emerged with maximum points from these encounters whilst playing out draws for most of the rest of their season. Equally the relegatees might be the side who have made the greatest investment in seam bowlers, only to find that the balance of the game has shifted and most of the tracks they bat on are unresponsive.
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Post by leedsgull on Feb 10, 2016 20:35:25 GMT
The season looms ever closer and the questions as to the county structure remain unanswered. Does anyone know if discussions are taking place? What is the timescale on the implementation of any changes? Surely somebody can shed some light?
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Post by hhsussex on Feb 10, 2016 21:37:10 GMT
The season looms ever closer and the questions as to the county structure remain unanswered. Does anyone know if discussions are taking place? What is the timescale on the implementation of any changes? Surely somebody can shed some light?
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Feb 10, 2016 22:10:01 GMT
Don't think they have even announced a sponsor for the CC yet!
Didn't a sizeable chunk of the ECB board have an expenses paid holiday hard-working study trip to the BBL, working out what lessons Engish cricket could learn ?
Whatever they propose will be vetoed by the tiny, shire-shaped minds at Sussex and Kent, so not really sure why they bothered.
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jimbon
2nd XI player
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Post by jimbon on Feb 11, 2016 3:26:51 GMT
Having left any changes this late does it mean that there will almost certainly be two up from CC Div 2 next season or is a re-organise and amended structure for 2017, in terms of number balance in the CC divisions, still a possibility.
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Post by leedsgull on Feb 11, 2016 7:59:13 GMT
jimbon That is precisely what I have been bleating on about these past months. With the AGM season almost upon us hopefully some news will filter out from one of the counties or does anyone have a hotline to George Dobell?
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Post by hhsussex on Feb 11, 2016 15:19:28 GMT
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Post by leedsgull on Feb 11, 2016 17:30:58 GMT
Excellent research hh but awful outcome. It seems the worst of all options to me.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Feb 11, 2016 21:49:18 GMT
This is a very cunning plan by Graves and Harrison, which by a process of ‘slowly slowly catchy monkey’ will give the ECB not only everything they initially wanted but far more, as they divide the 18 counties across every format into an elite TMG premier league and a second tier of also-rans.
The ultimate triumph of the Graves/Harrison sting is that they have apparently sold it to the more parochial counties that stamped their tiny feet last time. In their insular, self-regarding opposition to the initial proposal, all the likes of Sussex and Kent have achieved is to pave the way to an even greater divide between the haves and have-nots.
First, the county championship. It’s the perfect time to change the promotion/relegation rules and create an elite division. Graves is delighted that he now has a Div One consisting of eight TMG counties, Yorks, Middx, Warwicks, Surrey, Durham, Lancs, Notts and Hants, plus Somerset - who are certain to be relegated next season.
Hence, there will only be one team promoted from Div Two (hopefully Sussex)- and it will be then be announced that the ‘one up’ format will not only be for the transitional year of 2016 (and remember when the two divisions started it was three up and three down), but will become the rule in subsequent seasons, with the result that the likes of Kent, Leics, Derbys, Northants, Glos, Worcs and Essex will never again appear in the premier league.
These clubs will effectively become the new ‘minor counties’ - and it won’t be long before one or two of them are forced to give up professional four day cricket entirely, and concentrate exclusively on the T20 league. I predict that Northants will be the first casualty, and by 2019 the county will only be playing professional cricket as a white-ball side and will have dropped out of the two division CC. Others will probably follow.
Glamorgan are the one anomaly as a TMG county marooned in Div Two. But they hardly matter and Graves and Harrison don't really care. Glam is merely a fig-leaf so the powers-that-be can maintain the politically-correct fiction that it is the England and Wales Cricket Board.
The idea of two divisions in the T20 is an even cleverer ruse - the obvious half-way house to an English Super League, which the more parochial counties will otherwise never accept.
The ECB will be praying that the eight quarter-finalists in 2016 are Yorks, Lancs, Surrey, Middx, Notts, Warwicks, Durham and Hants, and once they’ve got the line-up they want, they will follow the reformed CC model and make sure it is not two divs of nine and nine, but eight and ten, with only one team going down and one up. Thus the EPL will have de facto come to pass, and the 'minor counties' who will never be a part of it , will have been conned into voting it into existence.
When Kent and Sussex and their ilk blocked the first Graves/Harrison plan last year, I wrote on this forum that they would live to regret it. It seems I was right. This new plan will relegate the likes of Hove and Canterbury to a far more minor role than was originally on offer if they had accepted the ECB's proposals l last season.It will also ensure that the second tier counties will have no chance of retaining players like Jordan and Billings.
Well done, Zac Toumasi and Jim May. Congratulations,Jamie Clifford and George Kennedy. Did you honestly think you could out-manouevre Graves and Harrison and the ECB hierarchy and get away with it?
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