Regional Cricket Anyone?

[cantplaycantalk]

Well I tried posting something like this on the Beeb county board but I think it's best to come here for intelligent discussion.

The point that I hope to make is this.
Cricket at a decent level must be accessable right across the country to gain and maintain a large enough fan base to be truely viable.
At present that is not the case. Outside of the 18 first class counties access is severely limited, (If you live in Cornwall, Cumbria or Norfolk what oportunity do you have to watch county cricket much less test cricket?)
The England team for all the rather packed itinerary that we have these days still only plays a very limited amount of cricket in any one region of the UK.
The Willis suggestion of compressing everything into the top 6 or so county sides will alienate the majority of current cricket supporters, and decrease the amount of cricket available, not to mention creating vast cricketing desert areas within the UK.

My suggestion is this.

Introduce an additional regional layer in English cricket, rather like international level this would be open only to English qualified players. As each regional team would play only a max of 10 games a year 5 home 5 away and the home games would move around the region this should not overly impact on county home attendances (not that those are huge at the best of times) It would however I believe bring in extra sponsorship and probably TV income and would bring a decent quality of cricket to areas of the country that currently do not see the national team.
In addition those supporters of the game from area's outside of the 18 Major Counties have something they can truely get behind.

At this point I believe that the current minor counties could be added to the CC as divisions 3 and 4 without the potential problem of a very good player who plays for say Norfolk or Devon having no chance of ever getting into the England side.

Some people I am sure will hate this idea but does anyone have any reasoned arguments why it would be bad for English cricket?


Introduce an extra layer of cricket into the English game at Regional level. 5 or 6 regions.

[Mike]

I support another layer of international cricket rather than another layer of regional cricket. It's why this board was named World A-Team. The world's 2nd tier players playing in a tour of their own would play attractive, competitive cricket and would acclimatise players for Test cricket better than domestic alternatives. Next alternative must be a regional one, as you suggest. The whole country must feel involved if it is going to work. Combining clubs won't work very well. New clubs have to be established with a new identity and a new fan base. Who would fund 6 new club startups, though? Do they share an existing club facilities but play at several 'home' grounds in the region? At the end of the day, I think this financial issue will dictate the structure although your idea is good in theory.

[CJ D]

I think regional cricket is a great idea - the game is still run to a large extent by the Counties who are still looking to preserve their own (mainly financial) interests and rightly so if they want to survive.

I would advocate 2 division cricket as we have now but counties only playing 8 first class games (4 home and 4 away) one dayers to remain the same, the 8 weeks freed up by no 1st class county games could accomodate the regional competition (round robin with top 4 into playoffs), the counties make their money (from the one dayers, could also organise "special" games whilst the regional teams were playing if demand were there).

Standard increases - gap to international level is reduced. As is mentioned you could get TV interested so extra revenue would also be created that way. Everyones a winner.

[Mike]

This is another good idea and may not upset the applecart as much. A shortened county season will put more emphasis on each match and then the best players are pitted against each other in a showcase regional tournament. Nice one.

[Richard Jenkins]

Yes this is a good idea, and regional cricket could be used as a template to take to non cricketing nations such as America or France. You may have problems with the county game, and if south east cricket consisted of kent, essex, sussex,
surrey combined then you'd have a super team, but would people who played for kent or sussex be eligable for south eastern regional cricket? Would counties see it as competition for spectators/tv or advertising revenue? Would "tv" be interested in the regional game,as they don't seem too bothered about the national or county game.
Rugby used the "less is more " route, and cut clubs ( in Wales lots of clubs merged and they formed a celtic league) and the Welsh team looks better.
Could this work for English cricket, is it just Infrastructure?

[cantplaycantalk]

If you look at the potential regional teams they all come out as pretty close to international level.

Yorks,Lancs,Durham can boast 4 current England bowlers.

[Richard Jenkins]

Exactly, but the stalwarts at yorkshire would NEVER merge with Lancashire !
Not in a million years.

[cantplaycantalk]

The answer is you don't merge the counties, they continue to operate as previously. At present Lancs and Yorks players already play together to represent England.
Is this really that much different from the "Welsh" team that played vs the England team last year?

The understandable reluctance of counties to merge with their neighbours is where Bob Willis and his cohorts idea falls down.
If they get thier way we will be left with half a dozen or so major counties and the rest can go hang. How many fans will pack up and walk away from cricket if that happens? Merging Lancs and Yorks would be as likely as merging Man Utd and Liverpool in football. The same goes I suspect for most if not all of the other counties.

But that if anything demonstrates my point, what is it like for cricket fans in Cornwall or Norfolk? They don't get to watch test matches without a VERY long drive, and which county do they support? A regional team loses the baggage of being defined to a single county, you can follow your regional team even if your county isn't one of the first class (or even one of the minor counties).

I want to see cricket become more inclusive, anyone know what % of the country falls outside the first class counties?

[Richard Jenkins]

No First class game:

Bedfordshire Berkshire Buckinghamshire Cambridgeshire Cheshire Cornwall County of London Cumbria Devon Dorset Gloucestershire Hampshire Herefordshire Hertfordshire Huntingdonshire Lincolnshire Middlesex Norfolk Northumberland Oxfordshire Rutland Shropshire Staffordshire Suffolk West Midlands Wiltshire are the counties with no first class game in England. I've not included unitory authorities, like Medway.

Welsh counties /unitory authorities:

Blaenau Gwent Bridgend Caerphilly Cardiff Carmarthenshire Ceredigion Conwy Denbighshire Flintshire Gwynedd Isle of Anglesey Merthyr Tydfil Monmouthshire Neath Port Talbot Newport Pembrokeshire Powys Rhondda Cynon Taff Swansea Torfaen Vale of Glamorgan Wrexham

Scottish counties?

Anyway, I think I've made the point that a cricket fan could have to travel miles to see a game; Some one in Cornwall would have to travel to Somerset to see a first class game! (a long way.)

However there are 'minor counties' and university teams (are they first class?)(does Exeter have a uni?) closer.
Leagues and clubs are also present.

[Glamorgan Wanderer]

Cardiff will have first class games (and now also ODIs) played at Sophia Gardens! There may also be a game played in Swansea (but I am not sure whether this is still on the fixture list now that Glamorgan are concentrating on Cardiff). Cardiff is also one of the university centres of excellence