Hilliard gives Essex approval to structure changes

By Paul Hiscock

Essex have welcomed the ECB’s announcement concerning the structure of the domestic competitions from 2014 that includes Sunday starts for the majority of County Championship matches, an extended Twenty20 competition embracing seven home matches over a broader period with many games being staged on Friday evenings, plus a return to 50-over cricket in place of the current 40-over format.
 
The club’s chairman Nigel Hilliard, who was also involved in the ECB’s planning strategy for 2014 and beyond, said: “We’ve believed for some time that the Twenty20 competition needed to be spread out and we were not alone in suggesting it. A group of counties were all very keen on it.
 
“The alternative was to have all the t20 matches staged in a small block but that’s expensive for the fans. It won’t be possible to have every t20 match on a Friday night because of television demands - a bit like the Premier League in football where Sky want games staged on different nights - but the preference night is Friday. I would imagine that most counties will get four or five matches on a Friday and that will allow them to maximise their crowds.”

Essex are also pleased with the initiative of Sunday starts for a number of County Championship matches. “We wanted to try to have all the County Championship matches starting on the same day, which you can do for the start of the season,” Hilliard added.

“However, there has been some slight misinterpretation surrounding this. In some comments I have seen it has been wrongly stated that the first 14 games will start on a Sunday. There are 21 slots for County Championship cricket and it’s the first 14 of those that will be used for Sunday starts. After that, you are getting into quarter-finals and semi-finals of other competitions so you can’t do it.

“People seem to like to be able to go to the first day of a Championship match and so during April, May and June they will be probably have five home Championship games that start on a Sunday. But there is no silver bullet to make the schedule perfect, it’s just too difficult. Anyone who has looked at it in any depth understands that but, from 2014, it will look more balanced.”

Meanwhile the switch to 50-over matches in the one-day league format has the backing of Essex head coach Paul Grayson. “Personally I like 40-over cricket, but I do think that whatever we do at domestic level should mirror what happens at international level,” he said.



Date: 19/10/2012 17:34:44 by Paul Hiscock
In: Today | Essex |