How do you feel about the team for your area being the Manchester Originals, I asked in Southport, Liverpool and at Old Trafford. Somewhat unsurprisingly, given the parochial nature of sports support, there were very few in favour. None in the first two places, which should have come as a surprise to no one, given the long rivalry between the football teams of Liverpool and those in Manchester. More surprisingly, there weren't that many people in favour in the large audience at Old Trafford. Manchester doesn't represent Stockport or Salford either, to give a couple of examples.
So it was no surprise to see Warwickshire this week deciding to do away with the moniker of Birmingham Bears, for the Vitality Blast. Plenty of people in that county are not Brummies and a few will have voted with their feet when the name was changed.
It is why people around God's Own County get annoyed when commentators (and an occasional player) refer to 'Derby'. Had we opted at any point to go down that route, I would have had plenty to say about it. I am from Ripley, from the county of Derbyshire, but not from the city. There are many more in the same situation, plenty in the north of the county, a good few from the south. Sports teams depend on supporters and it is not the wisest of moves to antagonise a large section of the fan base. It is different for football, when there are more teams and many major towns and cities have their own that people can get behind. Whenever I hear anyone refer to 'my' cricket team as 'Derby', I feel the hackles going up and my teeth clenching...
A similar thing happened this week, when Nottinghamshire announced that they would be playing one of their 50 over games at Chesterfield. They cited Queen's Park hosting The Blaze as the rationale, but looking around social media, the move to play Northamptonshire there on August 7 has not been well received. Lancashire fans are never happy when they play an occasional game at Sedbergh, outwith the county boundaries in Cumbria. Even less so when it usually rains there on the day of the game..
Maybe the Chesterfield game will be a great success, but I do think administrators need to take greater cognisance of the views, real or anticipated, of supporters. Sometimes the wiser choice is to go with what you know will work and will be the path of least resistance. Surely they could have played a second game at Welbeck? Equally there has to be a second club ground within their own county borders that would have been suitable. What about Lady Bay, where they play a lot of second team cricket?
I have got to a certain stage in life where I realise problems will come and find you, without necessarily having to look too far. I just think these examples are classic ones of shooting oneself in the foot.
I hope that Derbyshire are never sufficiently naive to think supporters would accept such actions.
I certainly wouldn't. While I understood the rationale of moving a T20 game to Edgbaston for a couple of years for the so-called 'Blast Off' (which it wasn't, last year) I would certainly struggle to accept playing a home game outside of my county in the normal run of things.
What do you think?
No county should play a game in another county and class it as a home match. Warwickshire reverting back to their proper name and not Birmingham is very good news. The whole essence of county cricket is obviously the teams are named after the whole county they represent. That’s what makes it so special. The franchise thing is so gimmicky and with different owners the names will change quite a bit. You would have to be about 8 years old to want to support the Manchester flamingos or London space rockets or any other crap name they think of
ReplyDeleteA strange line to take. In my time I can recall Derbyshire playing "home" matches at Knypersley, Leek, Checkley and Burton on Trent - all in Staffordshire - not surprising as some of Derbyshire's best players seem to come from there: Bob Taylor, Dominic Cork, Kim Barnett, David Steele, Rob Bailey, Alan Richardson, Tom Taylor, Alex Thomson and from the current crop Rory Haydon, Anuj Dal, Joe Hawkins.
ReplyDeleteBut Staffordshire aren't a first class county. And for many years were seen as our richest source of players, as you say.
Delete"Best" players? Well, I would agree with the first 3..
DeleteI distinctly remember when The H was first talked about, it was stated that the team names would not involve the ground they play at, or the city (or country?) they play in. Clearly this was dropped at some point. They will probably have IPL names eventually.
ReplyDeleteMichael
I wonder what would happen to the Chesterfield festival, if it wasn't for the Yorkshire T20? It seems the club favours Repton over Chesterfield for 50 over cricket, so can you really blame Notts and Queens Park for utilising the transport links and venue? What we don't want happening is for Derbyshire to be based in Derby and Repton and those in the north of the county becoming Notts fans, because they play at Queen's park in future... Kris
ReplyDeleteThe reason Derbyshire used to play one game a season in the Staffordshire Moorelands was because the match was was sponsored by the local authority
ReplyDeleteIt’s more likely that Yorkshire would try and claim Queens Park a lot of their members who live in South Yorkshire would prefer to attend Chesterfield rather than travel to Leeds
ReplyDeleteIt's use it or lose it, when it comes to Queens Park it seems, at least in August. I think they'll be plenty of takers. Leics, Notts and Yorks, maybe. Kris
ReplyDelete