More on the EPL proposals

Some interesting comments on the DET site today from "Bovril", obviously taking stock (ahem) of the situation...

I think I upset him by saying I didn't care about the England side. I should clarify that by saying I like to see them do well, but given the choice between seeing England do well or Derbyshire, I'll take the Peakites every time.

I think everyone is so obsessed with the idea of this franchised regional competition that they're missing a point. Let's have it in June and all the best players in the world will come! Well, perhaps they won't. These IPL riches will make players financially secure and there's a lot who will prefer a break rather than another hectic month in already over-populated fixture calendars.

I think he also denigrates unfairly the County game, comparing it to the very strong Australian competitions. While not denying that the Australians have some outstanding players, there's some poor ones too and no real depth to the pool of talent. Doug Bollinger, Shaun Tait, Jon Moss and Michael Dighton have all had fine careers in Oz, but none were setting the County game alight during their stays.

Success in cricket, as in all sport, goes in cycles. In the county game, Yorkshire were all-conquering in the 30's but had to wait for the 60's to be strong again. Somerset had a golden spell with Botham, Richards and Garner, while Sussex are ahead of the pack at present (largely thanks to Mushtaq). Internationally, most countries have had peaks and troughs. I'm still not convinced that stopping bowlers playing for their counties is good for their skills. Protect them, sure, but when a Test player bowls only 200 overs in a summer in which he is dropped for being erratic, Stephen Hawking doesn't need to provide the answer...

England will be strong again, despite any system that is introduced. So will Derbyshire, and I suspect our day will come first.