The Cricketer tackles the issue vexing all fans – what the English calendar should look like from 2020. The magazine, in its August edition, reveals its 'A Blueprint for Cricket'
The Cricketer tackles the issue vexing all fans – what the English calendar should look like from 2020. The magazine, in its August edition, reveals its ‘A Blueprint for Cricket.’
Players, ex-players, commentators and ECB working groups are all debating how to accommodate six Tests, six ODIs, six T20Is, the County Championship, the counties’ 50-over and T20 competitions, and a new short-form tournament (provisionally The Hundred) in two summers’ time.
“Fitting more than 750 days of professional cricket into 180 days of spring and summer is the proverbial squeezing of a quart into a pint pot,” says editor Simon Hughes.
There is a consensus that the County Championship has been marginalised to the spring and autumn, and this is affecting England’s Test form, especially abroad (P14 W1 L10).
The 2017 fixture list contains anomalies. There were no Tests in June and July (albeit England need ODI practice as they host next summer’s 50-over World Cup). There is no Championship match at Headingley between April 23–August 29. There was no Championship cricket in London in June.
Our blueprint offers a schedule for men’s professional cricket from 2020.
We considered, but dismissed, a conference structure. It recognised that some counties are marooned in Division Two, but thinks the conference idea is complicated even for committed fans, and that it was a possible return to mediocrity.
It wanted to return to an even split of 9/9. However, that – if done to balance the fixture list – would result in a return to 16 matches. The fear was that a return to 64 days was too much of a grind in terms of producing pacemen, and even more difficult to factor in another competition.
So it retained 8/10, still with two up, two down. It proposes that an opening Championship round should be played in the West Indies or UAE, with pink balls.
Then the home programme should start no earlier than the third week in April. More matches should be played in the heart of the summer, to ensure spinners and fast bowlers had more opportunities, even if this means the tournament being played at the same time as The Hundred. More outground cricket should be offered.
We accept the need for a new, eight-team tournament mainly played in cities, to sell cricket to the new crowd that the ECB believes can be attracted. But it rejects the ECB’s premise for a 100-ball format. It is unnecessarily complex, gimmicky, and pandering to the imagined desires of the broadcasters, rather than building on the tried-and-tested T20 brand played around the world (most notably the IPL and Big Bash) and recognised by the ICC.
It has been suggested that there will be no geographical references to the teams in The Hundred, despite there being distinct hosting counties. The Cricketer believes there should be the freedom for the teams to include local reference in their name – for instance Solent for the Ageas Bowl-based team, or Manchester at Old Trafford.
ECB plans are for a maximum of three overseas players in each XI. However, we think this should be increased to four. The ECB has scheduled 36 games in 38 days, with eight matches per team (four at home). The magazine tweaks their plans slightly to 36 games in 31 days, with gaps of two days between the group stage and the semi-finals, and the semis and the final.
This has been a problem in the past, with players missing Tests or flying in late from the IPL. So we position two back-to-back Tests in late May, after the closing of the new IPL window in the Future Tours Programme.
The crucial decision was whether to position Tests at the same time as the City T20, given it is desirable to get many of England’s highest-profile players performing in the new tournament on free-to-air TV (the BBC).
It has positioned two Tests before the city T20 and two in the middle. This would allow all fit England players to appear in the opening weekend of the city T20 and the latter stages.
We have positioned most in a block – against both touring sides – in the middle of summer, on the basis that the warm weather is suited to white-ball cricket. Traditionally the second series has been in September, but these floodlit matches are often played on cold evenings ill-suited to white-ball cricket.
The magazine has scheduled the Ireland three-match ODI series for daytime in early September.
Fourteen games for each county is too many, given the introduction of more short-form cricket with The 100.
A reduction beyond seven home games would cut off a source of income for counties, especially those smaller ones who have made a great success of T20 (such as Sussex, Essex and Somerset) but who will not be hosting the new competition. However, that is offset by a guaranteed £1.3m a year.
We suggest five home games for each county, and 10 group fixtures overall.
We would bring back a Benson & Hedges Cup-style competition: four groups of five (18 counties, plus Scotland and AN other. It would be followed by semi-finals and a final.
You can read our blueprint and much more in the August edition of The Cricketer, available from all good newsagents for £5.50 from Friday or via our online portal
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