Comments on the Domestic Cricket structures

[Teatime FatCat]

Is Craig Spearman Central District's overseas player now?

[Zainub]

I can tell you this much that the format of the domestic cricket in Pakistan has gone under a lot of chopping and changing in recent times. By and large I don’t know the exact precise details of the changes made this season are but I know for sure that the major first-class cricket tournament in Pakistan is called “The Quaid-e-Azam Trophy” – it is participated in by regional teams like Lahore, Karachi, Peshawar etc while the other major tournament “The Patrons’ Trophy” is made for departmental or association sides like Pakistan International Airlines (P.I.A.), Allied Bank (A.B.L.), Zarai Taraqiati bank (ZTBL.), Habib Bank Limited (H.B.L.), Customs, Railways, etc.]

Then we have one-day matches played in Ramadan as well - one statistic I remember reading stated there over 600 non-internation first class and non-first class matches played in Pakistan per season. Trying to just follow who scores the most runs and who is taking wickets is complicated as it - I'm not too much into debating weather we have the right type of structure or not. I let the experts debate on that. It can get confusing for me at times.

[Andy Mellon]

All the descriptions are in - you should now know how domestic cricket works in each test playing country

(see http://www.world-a-team.com/showthre...ed=1#post27015)

Now its time to comment:

(i) Which country has the best system and why?
(ii) What are the good points of some of the more unusual systems?
(iii) How could other the systems of other countries help you overhaul yours?
(iv) Which appears to be the best system?

Personally, I like the way that Zimbabwe and England help the less salubrious ICC members compete in their domestic championships and raise their own standard (c.f. Namibia and Scotland). Could this be extended to include Kenya in the Zimbabwe competition and Holland and Ireland in the UK competition.

In Sri Lanka and India, regional competitions are contested at a level between domestic and international. Could this be the solution to England's domestic woes? Could the counties be retained, but a regional competition introduced between county and international? If so, would this effectively kill off the counties? How would overseas players fit into this competition?

[Rachael]

One way or the other I think we'll see a worldwide superleague before too long.. a global version of the European Rugby thing and the Champions League in soccor. Lots of logistical problems.. not least because every home nation is likely to have to radically restructure domestic competition to accomodate the new superleague).. but I think it's the only way to go.

Then we'l see a complete relaxation of the overseas player thing so that the top clubs can (as in football) actually be STRONGER than the Test nations.

[Maranello]

For such a thing to work, there needs to be money in it - TV rights, sponsors, etc. Maybe, just maybe, there might be some interest in England in watching Lancashire play Western Australia, so there might be some cash for an England-Australia combined league. However, the sub-continent in many ways is the financial powerhouse of cricket, and there seems to be no interest whatsoever in domestic cricket there. If people do not watch Bombay when its in their backyard, why would they be interested in them playing overseas clubs? This is an interesting proposal no doubt, but without the oxygen of money and TV, it will starve globally (with some exceptions, eg England).

[Richie Benauds Love Child]

It probably will happen Rachael, buti s it a good thing ?

[Occasional Fan]

I confess I'd never really given this possibility any thought until Rachael posted it. Now my day has been ruined. I don't think that's just because it is an idea from the football world: I think I just don't like the sound of it. I'm off to be miserable for a few minutes now.

PS Thanks for improving the avatar, RBLC. I was on the point of putting you on my Ignore List, but you've got a reprieve.

[*Ben*]

Before we all set up a world league we have to improve the domestic compititions around the world greatly. I dont know a lot about the other countries, but here in New Zealand we would be luky to finish a 4 day game due to the weathet and our batters have to contend with green tops all the time, the format is a shambles I meen why have a 4 day domestic comp when tests around the world are 5 days. In new zealands demestic comp there is aslo only 6 provinces and usually 1 or 2 teams stick out above the rest eg: in last years test match format comp canterbury onli lost once in the round robin to the eventual winners of the season wellington. Im not sayin an international comp isnt a gud idea with no merits, im just sayin we need to improve national domestic comps beforehand

[Beny]

There has been a bit of talk around including some NZ teams in the Aussie set-up. Personaly I think it would be a good Idea, we already do it in basketball, soccer and rugby. A world leauge would be fantastic yet you would have to wonder how it would affect national comps. I would personaly be unhappy if Aussie state teams started to 'buy' overseas players in an attempt to out do the British.

Yet I think it would add some spice to the domestic scene and make it a bit more interesting to watch.

[*Ben*]

That has also been talked about over this side of the ditch but one of the problems with this idea that we may encounter is that we would feild a replica New Zealand national side, and if they were on tour or were being rested the main problem may be our players not being up to standerd in the domestic scene. If a NZ team was going to be included in the pura cup etc. they would need to be givin a few years to settle into trhe league as success does not happen over nite as our soccer, basketball and rugby league teams have proven over the past decade, but the problem with being pacient is that the nz public are very impacient eg: we still found faults in the all black win over france. So we need results streight away if we join the aussie domestic league otherwise there would be a public outcry which would not be good for the game her in NZ