Regional Cricket Anyone?

[cantplaycantalk]

Perhaps Glamorgan should trade in the County name and become Wales, there is precident. Yorkshire thinks it is a completely seperate country as well .

[Richard Jenkins]

That could be intersting.Scotland went this route to gain acess to the English county system. Can players who play for Scotland play for England? I think Gavin Hamilton did but I 'm not 100% sure.Is the scotland team at first class level different to the ODI team. Could ( or should) Ireland do the same? If this is a way to develop teams, could Holland or Denmark do the same? Imagine the counties playing them.
If this happened I think regional cricket could follow. Rugby with its celtic league has partly done this, but there is still a strong English game.

[Richard Jenkins]

Yorkshire IS a different country!

[cantplaycantalk]

I would actually like to see the minor countries introduced, perhaps open the NL up to minor counties and minor countries and have 4 or 5 divisions with 2 up 2 down as a start.

Which would be the first 1st Class county to drop out of the top 2 divisions and not bounce back at the first go?

[Richard Jenkins]

Originally Posted by cantplaycantalk

I would actually like to see the minor countries introduced, perhaps open the NL up to minor counties and minor countries and have 4 or 5 divisions with 2 up 2 down as a start.

Which would be the first 1st Class county to drop out of the top 2 divisions and not bounce back at the first go?

Yes, i think that could be a good idea. I reckon counties with present financial problems could not bounce back first go.
If there were divisions like football it could be fun/more interesting. At the moment minor counties almost never become ist class counties.
Not to bounce back? if Hampshire keep picking duff bowlers (Like last season) then perhaps. But the Rose bowl will save them.
To go up? I'd guess at a northern county, say Northumberland?

[Richard Jenkins]

County chiefs back change in structure

Wisden Cricinfo staff

April 16, 2004

The majority of county chiefs are in favour of making changes to the current promotion and relegation system, according to a poll in the latest edition of The Wisden Cricketer magazine. The survey confirmed that 13 of the 18 counties wanted to see two teams go up and down from each season rather than three.

A change to this structure is expected to form part of the recommendations of the ECB's Domestic Structure Review Group (DSRG), which is due to publish a report this July. However, any changes would be unlikely to come into effect until 2006.

"Three sides going down is the equivalent of seven teams in football's Premiership and that's too many," Jim Cumbes, Lancashire's chief executive told the magazine. John Scopes, Northamptonshire's chairman, agreed, saying, "It's a bit of a lottery. It only takes a couple of injuries and a bit of bad luck with the weather to finish seventh." Paul Sheldon at Surrey added: "Three-up, three-down is too many. More important is that we listen to current players rather than former players about playing too much – and a unified voice says we do."

Another who had his say was Tom Richardson, Gloucestershire's chief executive, who said the two-up, two-down was the way ahead: "I don't think we should be cautious about change, but we need to look at it in the round. Two divisions works. It adds to the focus, the competitive nature." Gloucestershire were one of the three teams to have been promoted to Division One last season, meaning that every county has been in the top division at some stage.

Restructuring the system has been high on English cricket's agenda since the end of last season with numerous plans being put forward. The Cricket Reformation Group, headed by Bob Willis, a former England captain, believes 12 of the 18 counties should go part-time, with the national side being drawn from 120 professionals divided up between the six full-time clubs. While Matthew Engel, editor of the Wisden Cricketers' Alamanack, proposed a merger of the Championship and the National League into a single competition.

© Wisden Cricinfo Ltd

[cantplaycantalk]

The CRG idea stinks. You are effectively taking 1st class status off 2/3rds of the counties. So the idea is to completely alienate 2/3rds of the current fan base.

My guess would be that the "big 6" would be Surrey, Sussex, Middlesex, Lancs, Yorks and Warwickshire?
If you thought a fan from Cornwall had a long drive to see 1st class cricket before...

Either make all 18 part time or none. The CRG would exclude the vast majority of the country from watching 1st class cricket.
Cricket would die on its feet, membership of the 12 "part time" counties would fall drastically and they would probably fold.

[Richard Jenkins]

You couldn't pick an england squad from six full time counties could you?