just An Idea..>

[Ernest]

I wonder if there would be any interest in a new International competition?.

Take the winners of the top international domestic leagues, and put them into to groups, then the winner of each group would could play each other.

The winner would be the World champion county/state side.

It would be not unlike the European champions Cup, the winners of this competition, plays the winner of the South America counterpart in soccer..

I know such an idea is not in the pipeline, but would it make people take more interests in their domestic competitions?.

Just a thought.

Would any of us support such a competition?.

[Beny]

The Idea was noted breifly in another thread. I think it would be fantastic, not only for improving the standards and interest of domestic cricket but also for just a bit of fun. Problems would be numerous though. Mostly the fact that, if we were to start the compatiton it would be unfair to have it run during the Aussie summer whilst the English teams will all be out of practice.

[Ernest]

Originally Posted by Beny

Problems would be numerous though. Mostly the fact that, if we were to start the compatiton it would be unfair to have it run during the Aussie summer whilst the English teams will all be out of practice.

Hi Beny,
it is not that much different to the England players who go and play in Aussie ciricket, after the England season has ended, or Warne playing over here at Hampshire.

Whatever the problems I would love such a competition, I would bet administerators have never even thought about it.

[Occasional Fan]

The situation in European football (that's soccer to you, Beny) is, however, very different from that in world cricket. In the former, the cash is all at the bottom of the professional game, by which I mean it is at professional club level. Enormous riches are to be made by players who turn out for the top clubs in, for example, England, Spain or Germany, and it seems to me that the most important goal for most footballers now is to win the European Champions' League. Winning the Premiership means a lot less in itself than it did twenty years ago, and winning the FA Cup is viewed almost as a bagatelle (Man United didn't even enter the competition a couple of years ago): both of these formerly great prizes are now seen more as something which you pick up on the way to qualifying for Europe. International football in Europe has, as far as I see it (and I'm not a close follower) become something of secondary importance to the players, an irritation to the club managers who pay the international players' outrageous wages and a real attraction only for followers of teams which tend not to provide manpower to the international squads. Again, how many times have we heard Ferguson, Wenger et al complaining about having to send players to international duty during the season (something previously considered an honour for player and club and now an inconvenience to both)?

Compare that to cricket where the cash is at the top of the game - i.e. at international level. The result is that that is where the best players actually want to be, which is a structure of the game that I would like to see continue. Although I can see some positives in a "World Champions' League" or similar, I would be concerned that this might actually tie up some of the leading contenders for international duty, either through them being loyal on their own account to their clubs or through club management becoming reluctant to release players from WCL commitments in order to play for their countries.

I don't by any means discard the idea, but I would want a lot of care to go into its implementation to ensure that the test teams, which presently represent the pinnacle of the world game, continue to do so.

[Zainub]

I've thought about that my self a few times too, definately it would help increase the interest in domestic cricket everywhere and improve its standards as well, but there were be many logistical problems. What will the format? Which part of the year would such a competetion get underway in? And may be even as OF points out the problem of clubs/states/etc participating in such tournaments becoming reluctant to release players for international duty.

In short, the intent is a good one, application would be a major challenge.

[Andy Mellon]

Originally Posted by Occasional Fan

Although I can see some positives in a "World Champions' League" or similar, I would be concerned that this might actually tie up some of the leading contenders for international duty, either through them being loyal on their own account to their clubs or through club management becoming reluctant to release players from WCL commitments in order to play for their countries.

I don't think this is necessarily a problem. I think to make it work, it would have to be a one-day format as fixtures would be easier to slot in. This would make it easier for fixtures to be arranged round internationals and as a result, international teams would not mind releasing the player for a day. As an example, when Worcestershire played Lancashire in the C&G Cup semi-final in 2003, Andrew Hall had been called up by South Africa during the summer to effectively replace Kallis (at home to see his dying father). Hall had been playing all summer for Worcs up until this point. Although Hall should have been training with South Africa for the next international, Worcs made a request to SA, backed up by the player - that the C&G Cup semi was very important. As a result, SA let Hall be released for 2 days to compete in the match and then return to international training. Therefore, this could be used as an example in the tournament.

However, as already stated, the problem would be where and when to play fixtures and players competing in the off-season. The only way to balance this out would be to have home and away fixtures.

The other problem is at which level do you take the teams? In Australia, India, South Africa, Sri Lanka and Pakistani domestic cricket, there are two tiers - effectively State and County - for want of a better word. Which level of team should compete in this competition? I would argue that it wouldn't be a fair competition if the 'State' teams were playing the Counties - so it would have to be a second tier competition to allow worldwide competition. This might lose some of the spectators and prevent it being a success.

[David G]

In terms of where to play the games, I dunno if this idea was previously mentioned in the aforementioned thread, but you could have a situation, where you were to play some games in the Windies, some in Europe, Asia, Africa and then Australiasia, that way the whole world is involved in that aspect.

As for what level of competition, IMO it should be the highest level of competition each country has at it's first class level. Although this might slightly dstort the competition, players of a 'lesser' ability to others, would be able to learn from the compeition, and thus be able to raise there overall game!!!

[Paoli]

It was tried a few years ago in the ODI format. Western Australia played Kwa-Zulu Natal i think and a side from Pakistan and New Zealand.

I propose a bit like the Toyota Cup as they call it in football. The winner of the Copa Liberatores plays the winner of the champions league. Good concept, big class difference.

How would a Victoria vs. Glamorgan (for example) go. Vics won last years state comp im wondering who won Englands sorry for my understanding, or lack thereof.

[Ernest]

http://www.thebears.co.uk/news/latest/article.shtml?iSerial=670&sBack=%2Fnews%2Flatest%2 F%3FiOffset%3D10%26iType%3D3
Could you find an Ausssie team to match and play the England 2004 County Championship winners Paoli?.

WARWICKSHIRE Vs ?

[Essex Eagle]

In 92' Essex played Victoria as respective winners of each countries FC Cricket.....

in the one day game played the Vics won by 50 odd runs but Essex had the better of Victoria in a rained out draw

Victoria were 56 for 8 when rained came and saved them

if interested, you can see the scorecard here........

http://usa.cricinfo.com/db/ARCHIVE/1...26SEP1991.html