After the success of hosting the Pakistan touring squad at Derby in recent weeks, Derbyshire announced today that the England Ladies squad will be based at Derby in the weeks ahead, with all of their summer cricket played at the Incora County Ground.
It makes sense, of course. With a hotel on site, the environment is as bio-secure as it could be and the importance of top level cricket, to safeguard funding for the professional and recreational game is obvious.
It means of course that any cricket played by Derbyshire this summer will be away from home, something that the players and coaching staff are OK with. So too should be supporters and members, because we wouldn't have been able to attend matches anyway.
The club will be making very useful money from both of these ventures, which when one considers the loss to its off-field income in recent and coming months is of paramount importance. County finances will be very tricky this season and Ryan Duckett and his team are to be congratulated in securing two such prestigious 'gigs' for the club.
Hopefully we weather the financial storm and things can return to a semblance of normality for the 2021 season. That would be the 150th playing anniversary of its first match and for me more important than that of its creation. Any merchandise produced to mark it will be equally relevant next year and I will be sure to buy my share to plough cash back into the club coffers.
I am sure that Dave Houghton has been looking at the squad and is already planning for next summer, regardless of what cricket is played this year. With uncertainty over international travel and fixtures, he will need to plan for various eventualities. In the coming weeks the retained lists will be published and I feel for those who have had no opportunity to impress in the final year of deals across the country.
Some will have their final year honoured, perhaps, but for others it will represent opportunity lost, which is a real shame.
Why does cricket have to be played in a bio secure environment?when other sports appear not to be if next season cricket is still played in this environment in my opinion it’s the end of county cricket as we know it allowing the ECB to bring forward their leaked idea of restructuring first class cricket in England and merging several counties including Derbyshire
ReplyDelete