It is welcome for me. I like my life and sport simple and three conferences always struck me as a faff, even if a necessary one in these Covidian times. I struggled with most of last season after our awful start to it, but the latter section, merely to prove who was best and worst of the worst, was pretty dull fare.
It was ironic, because those celebrating the creation of three conferences said it meant there would be no meaningless games like we used to see in three-day cricket when it was a seventeen or eighteen-team single division. I liked that and far preferred seeing every county and its players in the course of a summer, even when tenth v twelfth didn't matter all that much.
Now? Leicestershire twice in T20 and four-day, maybe in the RLODC. Same for Nottinghamshire, who must have hoped that the ECB might forget they will be in division two alongside us...
They must start massive favourites for that division next year, although if we get our Head of Cricket appointment right and recruit good overseas players, we can challenge for the second promotion berth.
But so can most teams and that is the beauty of it. Fixtures will be out in November and there is no one else in the division that, with a good, motivational coach and a sage selection policy, we can't beat.
The two divisions :
Division One
Essex, Gloucestershire, Hampshire, Kent, Lancashire, Northamptonshire, Somerset, Surrey, Warwickshire, Yorkshire
Division Two
Derbyshire, Durham, Glamorgan, Leicestershire, Middlesex, Nottinghamshire, Sussex, Worcestershire.
As always, I would love to hear your thoughts.
Indeed, if anyone wants to give me theirs on next season and the new coach (when announced) in an article, do please let me know.
Next Friday I go in to hospital for surgery on my other hand, which I was supposed to have over two years ago. I will be unable to type for two weeks, but will again use voice recognition software, as I did before, if there are breaking stories.
Do please keep your thoughts and comments coming!
I hope the surgery goes well. Steve. Your blogs are brilliant.
ReplyDeleteThanks mate, I appreciate that!
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