'A slump from an average of 615,000 viewers per match last summer to just over 500,000 this term will worry the ECB'
Those words, from Nick Hoult of The Telegraph, should be of major concern to the English Cricket Board. Their all singing, all dancing, pretty much all gimmick competition has divided the game and in only its second year looks to be of lessening appeal.
Because,whether they like it or not, the bottom line is that franchises in sport don't work. It is fairly safe to say that your average sports fan, anywhere in the world, is parochial. He or she will have been introduced to a sport by a parent, friend, or relative and loyalty will stay with them throughout their life.
From an early age, eight to be precise, I was introduced to Derby County football club. The following summer came my first game, at Chesterfield, watching Derbyshire. The rest is history. Early on I learned the rivalry with Nottingham and for cricket fans across the country, you can replicate my experience.
The crowd for the final of the new competition was disappointing. The game itself was and for all of its gimmicks, 10 ball over, weird graphics and more intrusive than ever music, I don't see it being a long-term part of the English cricketing landscape. The concern is the damage that it will do in that intervening period.
There is no need to reduce the number of first class counties. Given that 15 of those 18 counties are member owned or driven, the turkeys would be voting for Christmas should such a vote or decision be required to be made. What is required is scheduling of the English cricket summer far in advance of what we have seen in recent years.
What would have made far more sense, when you think about it, would have been a return to something equivalent to the old International Cavaliers of the 1960s. Bring in a pool of the best available overseas players to play matches around the counties. Not necessarily the best international players, given the complexity of the international cricket calendar, but overseas stars from Australia, South Africa, West Indies, Pakistan, New Zealand and others to play exhibition matches against county sides. These would have served as good entertainment, allowing supporters to see different players and would have also served as an opportunity for those players to showcase their talents for future overseas roles.
Fit such matches into the occasional vacant Sunday and watch the crowds roll in. For all the cost of bringing people into the country for one, two or a handful of games, it would still have been massively cheaper than the cost of the hundred. If it was doable in the 60s it is today.
The county championship needs to return to two two equal divisions, whether that be of nine sides each or ten, if they can bring in two more from the minor counties. How about increasing access to first class cricket by having either Devon or Cornwall in it, alongside perhaps Cumberland? I know plenty of people in Scotland who would love to attend a county game, but they have to drive to Durham for that privilege. If we want to be really radical, let's have Scotland participating, though I feel their desire to be full members of the ICC would be stronger.
As David Griffin mentioned in a recent Twitter post, the number of days cricket played by some of its biggest stars far exceeds those played by most county players. Many of them have to factor thousands of miles of travel into the equation too and while they are well rewarded, the demands on their bodies are no different.
I would think it much harder to return to the game, as Derbyshire's players will have to do shortly, after a 12-day break, than if you are playing on a regular basis. You get into a rhythm, your body gets used to the demands placed upon it, and as long as those demands are not excessive - and there is an opportunity for downtime - it is as manageable today as it always has been. People used to play for 25 years and while formats change, cricket is still cricket.
I haven't the time in my life to work out the most viable schedule for the summer, but if one notionally takes the days between the start of April and the end of September, there are 183 to play with. SURELY with 27 weekends to play with, you could arrange cricket fixtures that people could attend? If you had even half of the four day games starting on a Friday, that would still leave plenty to maximise attendance at the Vitality Blast.
It makes no sense to devote the school summer holidays to a competition that only those in eight cities can attend, none of them further north than Leeds. In my school years, most of my summer holidays were spent either at Chesterfield, Derby, Ilkeston or Buxton. The results weren't always great, but what an experience, what an exposure to some wonderful cricketers! It created memories that have lasted me a lifetime, a bond between my father and I that will always be there, an interest that is not far shy of cradle to grave.
So when the ECB try to tell me I should tear all that up and support one of eight teams that they have created, I am not interested. I want to see MY team, preferably playing at the height of summer when I am most likely to be able to attend and don't need to do so with sufficient layers of clothing to double as the sightscreen.
It isn't difficult to do this and were I paid to do so I think I could come up with a plan that would enable cricket supporters and players to enjoy the game for years to come.
But why are we downgrading the 50 over competition, one in which we are the world champions, to one of effectively second class status? Why IS there hardly any cricket at weekends? What really is the difference between a competition of 100 balls per side to one of 120 balls per side? Especially when no other country in the world has shown any interest in adopting this format.
The new competition was the creation of 'suits' and marketing professionals. You will note that cricketing experts were not necessarily part of the equation. If I sat and thought about it, the temerity of people thinking that they can reinvent a 150-year-old wheel simply staggers me.
There is no need to reinvent cricket. It simply needs to be better scheduled and better marketed. Those responsible for spending millions of ECB reserves on a whim should be ashamed and never work in the game again.
Posterity will not look kindly on their efforts. Nor give them more than a passing, scathing consideration, in the history of our great game.
