Hi I'll update next week.
Hi I'll update next week.
GerryShedd wrote:
To be fair, I don't think that OH-D is doing favours for his county bosses. As Chair of the PCA, he is expressing the views of his members, with which he may or may not agree.
But not representing them fully and with the requisite nuance that is required and that is a decision he's made for whatever reason
Players need to remember cricket is a game to be enjoyed when it is on. It is not about PB's it isn't golf or the 100 yards dash it is a tactical game best enjoyed when it is just played played played. All this fitness work in November they do and they can't manage 75 days (many of them just 3 hours duration) on the field in a six month span is ridiculous. I agree about the blast driving back overnight stuff maybe the groups need to be smaller and more localised no-one aside from Lancs or Yorkshire should be sent to Durham unless they're up there for a tour of the northern counties
mad wrote:
GerryShedd wrote:
To be fair, I don't think that OH-D is doing favours for his county bosses. As Chair of the PCA, he is expressing the views of his members, with which he may or may not agree.
But not representing them fully and with the requisite nuance that is required and that is a decision he's made for whatever reason
Players need to remember cricket is a game to be enjoyed when it is on. It is not about PB's it isn't golf or the 100 yards dash it is a tactical game best enjoyed when it is just played played played. All this fitness work in November they do and they can't manage 75 days (many of them just 3 hours duration) on the field in a six month span is ridiculous. I agree about the blast driving back overnight stuff maybe the groups need to be smaller and more localised no-one aside from Lancs or Yorkshire should be sent to Durham unless they're up there for a tour of the northern counties
Re your last sentence - if the c/c and Blast were played throughout the season then there would not need for over night driving. The Blast could be played on the 5th Day of a long distance trip. Simple if only there was a will.
It's called having their cake and eat it.
Spurious complaints about switching formats so they came up with these blocks we've been saddled with for what seems an eternity now. Of course we had blocks when the original T20 cup was introduced in 2003 but it was a mercifully small block of matches and actually quite refreshing at that scale I wasn't totally averse to it. The Blast is such a chore for both players and cricket fans now.
So the players got their way with this (though I suspect they were being leaned on by the broadcaster, and the switching formats complaint was all just a ruse)
And now the players don't like the bed they've made for themselves. They've become intractable and are leading the county game to ruin - when the obvious solution is to play a bit of everything all through the summer.
Anyone go to Derby last night? Does the following sound accurate?
I am at Derby v Birmingham/ Warwickshire tonight for our golden money maker. There is less than a 1000 here.
The hospitality is full loads of 30 year old single men on a freebie getting drunk on 3 pints of carling..
It's horrific. This format is dead. It's done it's time.
Every county now losing money on this format.
So where do we take it???
Who cares or even knows about a 10 hour day 50 hing this ribbishover tournament??
Nobody can be bothered to spend 4 hours watching this dross.
The game is dead. It's failed. T20 was great 22 years ago quid to get in bit of hit and giggle.
Now well I am more content to watch staplegrove v Taunton deane tomorrow for free on you tube than have to suffer a load of drunken hipster virgins than watch this.
The sport is dead.
I see that Warwickshire return to 4-day Real Cricket on Tuesday and the same again next week down at Essex. Like this week end next weekend is the same - no cricket at a time when the average supporter is off work and able to attend.
Further proof, if proof was ever needed, that those running the game are doing what they can to kill the 4 day format. As for the players they seem to do whatever they can to avoid "unsociable" hours. In 5 years time I can see cricket facing serious questions. The 4 day game killed off by those in the game and the one day stuff killed off by spectators getting bored with its repetitive format.
The players peddle this myth that there is too much cricket. Of course they want to be paid more for doing less. As long as they have enough time to play golf.
I think I'm normally one of the least pessimistic posters on here. But I have to say that I am very depressed about the future of the county game that I have loved and followed for so many years.
I was reminded recently that, all of six and a half years ago, I wrote an article setting out three alternative scenarios for the future of county cricket. In the most gloomy scenario, I said that "county cricket, as we have known it, will slowly die over the next five years." I concluded: "Just like Blockbuster Video Hire shops, steam trains, red telephone boxes and Woolworth’s Pick ‘n’ Mix, county cricket’s time will have come and gone."
Sadly, I think that I was not far wrong.
Gerry when people like you write what you have just written then this sport really does have a serious chance of dying.
What we can hope for is that support for the Hundread drops off quickly to the point that sponsors reduce the money they are prepared to pay and TV likewise or even give up allocating time for it. At the same time if "climate change" gives us a few warm springs and autumns resulting in an increase in attendance then perhaps all is not lost. Above all it needs someone at the ECB to see that change and for the players to realise that without spectators their employment is at risk. All that is an enormous ask but if sports writers, especially in the nationals, write about the demise of the game and start telling the ECB and the PCA they have to change their attitude then all may not be lost.
Totally agree with all the points raised above. These days, the modern county cricketer seems to be playing less cricket than most of us can ever remember. Not saying the 70s, 80s or 90s were flawless, but at least the structure made sense and gave us something we could actually follow.
Apologies for repeating myself, but it’s worth restating: after 34 years of continuous membership, we called it a day after 2023. Once it became obvious that the block scheduling wasn’t going anywhere, the decision more or less made itself.
We’re just not interested in watching most of our four-day cricket outside high summer. The one-day cup feels so watered down now that it barely seems worth the time or money. The T20 schedule is all over the place — even without factoring in the joys of travel and parking — and The Hundred doesn’t interest us at all. We’ve hit our seventh decade, and frankly, it feels like we’re no longer part of the plan. Our £375 joint membership? Likely more than made up for by Knightshead’s cash injection.
That said, one thing that keeps getting overlooked in all the excitement around The Hundred is that these investment groups aren’t in it out of the goodness of their hearts. Knightshead have reportedly put in £28 million — if that’s over five years, that’s over £1 million per Phoenix home game. Unless ticket sales are defying gravity, they’re going to want a return. And if that doesn’t come easily, expect calls for expansion.
The idea that The Hundred will stay neatly tucked into three or four weeks in August feels pretty hopeful. What happens when it starts in late July and eats up the whole of August? Suddenly the reduced Blast, 12 County Championship matches, and what’s left of the one-day cup are all at risk. At that point, we’re not just tweaking formats — we’re changing the shape of the English domestic game entirely.
Hard to shake the feeling that some decisions being made now might come back to bite — and it won’t just be the so-called traditionalists feeling the impact.
Just to add to SC Bear's 3rd paragraph - the T20 Final will end around 10pm on 13th September. Not like when the final was held in August with the chance of a warm evening it will now be quite cold but then who cares about the paying public.
Just to add to SC Bear's 3rd paragraph - the T20 Final will end around 10pm on 13th September. Not like when the final was held in August with the chance of a warm evening it will now be quite cold but then who cares about the paying public.
Cricket earned the nation’s attention that summer. There was no need to buy it, like now.
But in a week or so, a bright, expensive month-long distraction will be presented as a panacea.
Of course, it is the opposite.
The same leadership class that blew ‘2005’ have also created this car crash. And the institutional memory of that colossal cock up has helped to make this latest gamble so large it is ‘too big to fail’.
Whatever that means.
But I do know that failures in the leadership of English cricket rarely lead to a REAL change in the type of people in charge.
Until that happens, expect the game to create opportunities only for the few, not the many
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Yorkshire, after consultation with its members, want to keep 14 County Championship games. They had a vote.