English Domestic Cricket: The Way Forward?

It has been said for many years and by many commentators of the English game that the structure of domestic cricket in England has been holding the England cricket team back. This viewpoint has gained a significant amount of support over the ‘wilderness years’ of English test cricket of the 1990s. The complaints most often levelled at the County game is that there are too many teams competing which means that it is too easy for sub-standard crickets to end up playing in first class cricket. The question is, have those voicing these criticisms taken any time to look at the alternatives available, and what would the effect on the English game be if the ECB were to implement these changes. The first thing to look at is what the differences are between the various models used throughout the cricketing world.

The Australian Model

The Australian model is often cited as the zenith of domestic cricket. Virtually every player in the first XI of an Australian state side is a household name and decent crowds are assured for important matches. The Australian model succeeds in maintaining supporter loyalty to their favoured team whilst only having a small number of teams which compete. This has been achieved as a result of the happy coincidence that there are only a small number of states in Australia. Effectively, the Australian Model is like that of the English county game, but with each ‘county’ being much more sizeable. As the Australian state is analogous to an English county, this allows the Australian states to retain support from residents of their locality.

In terms of details, in Australia, 2 main domestic competitions are fought for. These are the Pura Cup (first class competition) and the ING Cup (1-day competition). These trophies are contested by the 6 major Australian state sides- namely, Queensland, New South Wales, Western Australia, Victoria, Tasmania and South Australia. Below this level, a keenly fought 2nd XI championship exists, which is entitled the Cricket Australia Cup. This also includes a team from the Australian Capital Territory which is based in Canberra

Below this level is effectively club competition which is called Grade Cricket. Due to the limited spaces in the first class state sides, Grade Cricket is highly competitive as a result. To many Australian players, grade cricket acts as a shop window for your talents to be seen by a state. Only the most successful grade cricketers will be able to compete with the household names for a place in their local state side. The fact that grade cricket is so well respected is illustrated by the number of English cricketers that come over to Australia to ply their trade at this level during the off season.

Hence, the Australian Model is successful as it maintains the type of support garnered by being named after the local state, but have a much higher level of competition for places than seen in England first class cricket. This means that by the time an Australian reaches the fringes of the test team, he will already have had to face very stiff competition to get into his state side; which prepares him for the toughness required for county cricket. The Australian Model has also been applied in South Africa and Sri Lanka.

So, what would the effect of an Australian Model be on the English game? Thankfully, the answer has already been provided by South Africa. In 2002/03, the South African cricket board took the tough decision to introduce the Australian Model to South Africa. Previously, South African cricket had been contested by the provincial sides in a structure similar to county cricket. The South African cricket hierarchy had noted that this led to a lack of competition places in first class cricket; which prompted their bold move. Hence, 6 regional teams were introduced to sit above the provincial cricket competitions. The problem that hit the game was soon noticeable. Whereas it is fairly easy for local cricket fans to identify with a team associated with their province, meaning that support was relatively strong for teams such as Gauteng or Griqualand West; it is much harder to identify with a team such as ‘The Lions’ or ‘The Titans’ – at least initially. As a result, it has been found that support has been difficult to transfer from the old provinces to the new regional teams. In addition to this, the enhanced competition for places seen as a result of the changes has been somewhat overshadowed by discussion of the Quota system and the loss of good state players to English cricket. This indicates some of the problems that would be associated with bringing the Australian model to England.


Currently, it is easy enough for a cricket fan to identify the county in which they live and were brought up and support their county. Whilst support in county cricket is far from overwhelming, existing counties can rely on a solid foundation of support from which annual membership subscriptions will come. It is quite difficult to see how English county fans would fare if they were forced to support a region. The picture of a Lancastrian and a Yorkshireman sitting down together to discuss how the ‘Northerns’ were going to fare in this week’s fixture against the ‘Westerners’ does not sit easy with many cricket fans. Also, would such an introduction see the death of some of cricket’s less grand stadiums? Would a team competing for the South of England play at Hove, Canterbury or Chelmsford when Lord’s, the Oval and the Rose Bowl are available? Having witnessed the slow and sad demise of festival grounds throughout the counties, how difficult would it be to say goodbye to Canterbury just after the new lime tree has been planted?

As a result of these perceived problems, the ECB would find it difficult to garner support from many county fans for any plans to introduce an Australian Model of domestic cricket. Even more difficult than this would be the need to obtain approval for any such change from the First Class Forum – a committee containing key members of the first class county management. For this reason, an Australian Model is unlikely to succeed.