Our chance to change County Cricket

[darren cook]

Honest . Just found this on the ECB Web site . I have filled it in . I wounder if the results will make any difference .








ECB launch important survey into domestic cricket structure



April 21, 2004





The ECB needs your help with an important survey on the structure of domestic cricket - with a chance for you to win a unique signed bat as a result.

The ECB Domestic Structure Group (DSRG) has been reviewing the structure of domestic county cricket and has produced an interim report for consultation purposes.



Click to complete our survey




And the ECB and the First Class Counties are now undertaking market research to assess the reaction of cricket followers to some of the ideas that have been developed.

The two main themes of the DSRG interim report are:

1. To reduce the quantity of county cricket played in order to provide better opportunities for players to recuperate, practice and prepare for matches. The DSRG believe that this will help players and coaches to deliver higher standards within English cricket and thereby contribute to more consistent success at international level.

While the majority of current coaches and players support the view that providing more time for preparation for matches would raise standards, there are others within the game who do not share this view.

2. To make the divisional environment in county cricket more meaningful and important by reducing promotion and relegation between divisions one and two to two-up and two-down from the current three-up and three-down and by having just one set of divisions rather than two.

One set of divisions would be created by combining the points gained from both four-day and one-day league cricket into one set of Championship tables.

The DSRG anticipate that this would concentrate talent in the first division making that level of county cricket better preparation for the international stage whilst also helping to ensure that all counties focus fully on performances in both formats of the game.

There have been some concerns raised as to whether a combined championship is a marketable proposition.

Now we want your views - so please click on the logo above to go through and take part in the survey; and put your name in the pot for the chance to win a bat signed by the England team and West Indies skipper and world record-breaking batsman Brian Lara.

[freddie flintoff 142]

jus in middle of doing it now, but do the ecb really take notice of this stuff the FANS take part in?

[freddie flintoff 142]

in fact this question is typical
7. Would you be more likely to attend matches if 4-day County Cricket was scheduled from Friday to Monday or if it was scheduled from Wednesday to Saturday?

why not so saturday and sunday ar in the middle, surly make more sence that way?

[darren cook]

Originally Posted by freddie flintoff 142

jus in middle of doing it now, but do the ecb really take notice of this stuff the FANS take part in?

No they probally don't but we can at least try . Don't forget when your filling form in less cricket is best .

[darren cook]

Originally Posted by freddie flintoff 142

in fact this question is typical
7. Would you be more likely to attend matches if 4-day County Cricket was scheduled from Friday to Monday or if it was scheduled from Wednesday to Saturday?

why not so saturday and sunday ar in the middle, surly make more sence that way?

Yes that would make more sense well to us anyway . But does SENSE and ECB ever go together .

[freddie flintoff 142]

Originally Posted by darren cook

Don't forget when your filling form in less cricket is best .

not sure that less cricket is better, agree with it in some respects but not in others, be interesting to see what other people say and what COUNTY CRICKETERS (not england players) say

[darren cook]

Originally Posted by freddie flintoff 142

not sure that less cricket is better, agree with it in some respects but not in others, be interesting to see what other people say and what COUNTY CRICKETERS (not england players) say

Well I just think Cricketers will play to a better standard if they aren't as tired and have more time to practice .

[freddie flintoff 142]

can't argue with that, think it affects the higher standard that they play, thats jus from my own experience, players 1st 3rd and u18's last year, 3rd team form was great, u 18 (which at times better that 3rds) mostly good and 1st team if i'd played and practised all week it tended to be suffering.

the more county cricket they play i guess it could affect them if they get in to team-england

[Victor Frankenstein]

Originally Posted by freddie flintoff 142

in fact this question is typical
7. Would you be more likely to attend matches if 4-day County Cricket was scheduled from Friday to Monday or if it was scheduled from Wednesday to Saturday?

why not so saturday and sunday ar in the middle, surly make more sence that way?

apologies if i've misread what you mean, but the friday to monday game would put saturday and sunday in the middle: fri, sat, sun, mon, so more like a test match. That's the way i interpreted it anyway, whereas the other one is wed, thurs, fri, sat. I voted for the former.

I'm not sure about having less games either, i think it's more important to have more high intensity games than less games specifically. For example, people always say about australia playing less games in their system, but they actually don't, the main teams, the state sides, have less games between them than our county sides, but when the state players aren't playing for the state they go off and play in grade cricket and other sides to get practice, they seem to have a much more lax contracting system over there with players coming and going from sides to get themselves into form or match practice, then they come into the state side for the one off big games, this is what we need more of.

So for arguements sake, there would be, North-East, North, Midlands, South East, South and West Country, 6 teams, all playing each other in a championship of some description, and those players when not playing could go and play county cricket for whatever side is in their area. Alternatively have the same county sides as now but have 3 or 4 divisions and a play off at the end for promotion and demotion, one off winner takes all games are what breeds competitive edge and is why the australians have such a good never say die approach to games.

[Mark Kidger]

Originally Posted by darren cook

Well I just think Cricketers will play to a better standard if they aren't as tired and have more time to practice .

I can never get this argument. Before 1969 the counties played 28 or 32 4-day fixtures and often travelled overnight to reach a fixture that started the next morning. England players usually played with the county the day before a Test. Quicks and spinners often bowled more than 1000 overs in a season (last season only I think 6 bowlers passed 500 overs). Fred Trueman was in the early '60s bowling around 800 overs a season in Tests and for Yorkshire. Touring sides like Australia played all the counties except Glamorgan twice and innumerable festival and other matches and players did not complain about tireness.

What was the difference? They played exclusively Test and county cricket with just the odd one day game each summer. Now players face a programme where they switch from 4-day, to 50 over, to 45 over, to 20 over formats at will. There is a huge programme of one-day cricket which is far more draining because of its intensity than the 4-day game.

Rather than reducing the amount of county cricket still further one needs to make the season more rational and have fewer competitions and fewer changes of format. We also need to make sure that the one day competitions are less spread out.

A second thing that could be done that the players have argued for for years is to rationalise the fixture list. What sense does it make for somerset say, to play Yorkshire at Taunton, then Lancashire at Old Trafford, followed by Kent at Canterbury? If Somerset have to play Yorkshire and Lancashire away, let them play the games consecutively so that they cut out two long journeys and, if necessary, fill in the gap between the two fixtures with the National League games. That way maybe the players will be away for two weeks, but they'll be based in the same area of the country and will have less travel between matches. Peter Roebuck tells plenty of horror stories of how when the Sunday League was played in the middle of a CC match Somerset often had to travel hundreds of miles on the Saturday night of the CC game to reach their Sunday fixture and hundreds of miles back! We don't have that now, but the fixture list is still anything but rational in its travel requirements.