The other evening on IMWT, regular contributor to this blog Master Villain came up with a well thought out scenario under which Usman Afzaal could feasibly join Derbyshire.
It made sense as there are several counties around the country who would appear to have a substantially reduced playing budget for 2011. It is all relative, of course, with Derbyshire and John Morris still having much less than the others. Yet the fact remains that we are one of only a few counties this winter who will have a little money to spend, as far as we know.
Middlesex are the early big spenders. Anthony Ireland is the latest to join the Lords revolution, suggesting that pre-season training next year may see players wearing name badges for the first few days. The signings of Rogers, Collymore and Ireland can only be good news for fans of the county and is a good illustration of where the money is in the game.
The delay (until November) in deciding the format of next season will possibly put the plans of several teams for overseas recruitment into abeyance. One school of thought was that the T20 should be played on Friday evenings throughout the season. The concept was worthy, except for meaning that counties would thus need to pay a player for several months rather than weeks. The alternative, condensing a shorter competition into a smaller timeframe, is more likely to get the nod. The only issue with this (for me) is that we’ll probably be back to the group of death with Nottinghamshire, Lancashire, Yorkshire, Durham and Leicestershire.
From a personal perspective (and I’m allowed to be selfish, it’s my blog!) I would like to see us paired with Scotland in one competition, if only to give me a match I don’t have to drive hundreds of miles to see. I’m sure people enjoyed the Netherlands experience, but I hope we have the sections shaken up for next year. If the plan is to attract crowds, and of course it is, local rivalries will do it but so too would playing someone different.
I’d also like to see the T20 played on Friday evenings and Sunday afternoons, good times for attracting crowds, while we really need to get more Championship cricket played at weekends. Those bemoaning the attendances at the ultimate test in county cricket neglect the fact that only the retired or unemployed can easily watch a game that is scheduled for some combination of Monday to Friday. Even the biggest fan has only a limited number of annual leave days that he/she can use for cricket watching, but would happily watch more if it was scheduled for the weekend.
If ten matches were to be the limit for the T20, they could be accommodated by five weekends of Friday evening/Sunday afternoon. Allowing for Sky needs, the Pro 40 could be played on perhaps another ten, leaving five for Championship matches to start on.
Give players their days off in the week and maximise the opportunity for cricket-lovers to see the games. It’s got to be worth a try?
We need to bring back the straight knockout 50 overs competition with 32 teams including the likes of Scotland, Ireland, Holland and the minor counties.
ReplyDeleteKeep 16 Twenty/20 matches as it makes money but spread them out more.
Play the 40 over competition as two leagues of just 9 with teams just playing each other once with promotion and relagation. This would actually reduce the minimum amount of one day games played by each county and might create a bit more interest!
DCCCFOREVER
It is important to play cricket when people can actually get there to see it!
ReplyDeleteHow about a 20:20 Competition played Friday nights and a 40 over competition on Sunday against teams in your CC division - top 2 or 4 go into playoff games against teams from the other division.
CC game to start on a Saturday.
Sky can schedule games around with those who don't have a CC match.
I would also advocate a truncated 20:20 tournament in high Summer with no limit on overseas "stars" and as much razmataz that we can muster.