Is a marquee signing that important in the format? Especially considering you only have to finish 4th out of 9 to qualify for the QFs and then it's a bit of a lottery. Away QF might suit Bears better. I think I'd rather play more or less the Royal London squad in the T20 Blast and use it as a development comp from now on. I'm not even sure it would have that much of an effect on the crowds - we'd still get 15k versus Worcester and 10k in a couple of the other group matches/if we had a home QF. Use the money saved in that area to recruit top all round championship and one day players that can play all season

Seems to make no difference whether we sneak into the QFs in 4th place or piss the group. Not sure the format is all that great for supporters of the individual counties. A 14 match group stage followed by a straight 1 match eliminator seems overblown. Certain counties seem to peak at the right time - usual suspects all still involved. I think smaller groups with fewer games would make it easier to swallow losing in the QF every season

And counties placing lots of emphasis on this format (guides recruitment etc...) seems misplaced and frankly silly. Sure the crowds are half decent but one bad game and it's all over for another ten months.

I wish we had a proper limited overs league May thru September to sink our teeth into as county supporters and also a proper knockout cup to dream about trips to the final

Prefer if it was one game a week or straight knockout. I always look forward to watching these games but after seeing one or two they start to get a bit samey all played one after the other. Changes of the season alterations to the grass cover on the wicket and evolving conditions would make it a bit more variable if played as a season long event although they'd probably have to lop off ten overs which wouldn't be the worst idea either

Yes there's a big shelf coming at the end of this summer if we see Jimmy Broad and Woakes all retire at the same time. Curran comes back into the reckoning. How on earth England will miss that lot for home series particularly.

BristolBear wrote:

The class issue I lay purely at the feet of the ECB. They’ve left a huge gulf develop in terms of coaching and funding around the age of 13. State schools don’t have the funding, and coaches will always follow the money like any other profession. And the money is in private schools
I saw a wonderful point from someone on another site, how many dedicated cricket coaches salaries could be paid for from the wages of the players alone in the hundred. Even without the marketing and other crazy costs involved with setting it up, just the players wages could pay for hundreds of dedicated coaches to be kept in state schools and keep the game alive and a wider player pool.
But the coaches are in private schools, those same coaches are often the “pathway” coaches, and it’s easy to see how we get to where we are.
You could agree with local clubs for schools to use their nets and pitches.
Because as good as clubs are when players get to 16 upwards and adult cricket. You need to get to the players when they’re younger, and not have to make parents drive them to training at a club or to matches. Get them whilst they’re at school, they have to be there, get them into the game there. Because some parents won’t consider cricket, won’t take them to a cricket club, so you’ve got to get them into the sport at school age.

Excellent point. The elitism has just meant we have a narrower pool of players to pick from than a country with smaller population like Australia. Because in Australia it has mostly been kept on free to air and not seen as a posh boys sport so it is a viable option for hundreds of kids in all sorts of backgrounds even kids who are from non cricket families - Yugoslav and Greek and Italian communities in Australia from the 1970's onwards have clearly not faced the type of barrier to entry that working class kids of all descriptions have in the UK since the playing fields were sold off, large works were split up so there aren't the factory workplace leagues anymore - miners welfare clubs etc...and then to exacerbate that the promise of 2005 ashes series was squandered when in 2006 the sport hid itself behind a paywall. A generation lost

None of this will make a jot of difference. The very people who have run the sport for the last 15 years will say they've done better than those who ran it the previous 25. Have they???? Sky TV, BBC, ECB, county chief execs at big county clubs all will try to suggest they got a handle on the issue so trust them to come up with the plans to fix the problem. The problem they will suggest rather rudely is the existing members of cricket clubs and the very existence of 'county' cricket itself

You just know they are keen to link this to the rejection (eventually nobody thought it was a good way to reorganize the schedule not even the Warwicks chief executive seemed convinced) of the Strauss Review. We all know it is THESE administrators that allowed the sport to fester in this mess in the first place

Seems to me he's there essentially to cover for Jimmy. Think he's a real chance for Headingley especially if the Lord's test goes all 5 days and if they're still unsure over Wood's fitness. Trouble is Woakes also recovering from long term niggles so I think that explains ECB reluctance to release him to his county very much. Tongue makes sense from a balance of the attack perspective as opposed to having Jimmy Robinson and Woakes

ODI World Cup on free to air would be quite a nice achievable quick fix and show intent - that's if any terrestrial channel will have it

Have we as members been complicit in Warwickshire getting away with not really bringing through local talent?

Relegations in 2008 and again in 2017. Each occasion followed by a quick recruitment process because we as members/supporters demanded instant return to Division 1 so we could compete for the title again and again - so in comes, Barker, Wright, Rankin, Chopra etc... and then Sibley, Rhodes, Norwell, Miles - instead of Warwickshire using the resources at it's disposal to do the hard yakka and bring players through - and really develop their skill set and maybe spend a few more seasons in Division 2 while they get the hang of things. Think of the talent in the local area that's gone to waste or not reached its full potential. Instead we mine the Surrey and Hampshire public school system and cherry pick some talent from other counties and hand them to Graham Welch etc... to fashion into quality seam bowlers

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0fxl5b2

Stuart Cain is on towards the end of this BBC podcast and again sounds well meaning.
Thank god ex-umpire John Holder was on just beforehand as he corrected the BBC reporter Dan Roan who tried to suggest that the county members who opposed the Strauss Review last year would be a similar hurdle for the ECB in implementing the findings of this report. Absolutely inapproprate conflation of the two things. Tackling these issues of embedded racism and elitism is on a totally different level to opposing the dreadful half baked Strauss Review that had little to no support going for it by the end of last year

David Hopps said it better than I. Just read his tweet.

I've spent 40 years vaguely at odds with English cricket because of its lack of diversity. Now things are finally changing I'm no longer trusted because I'm a bald 64-year-old white middle-class bloke. From Yorkshire. No hope really.

Putting right the wrongs of cricket that span 50-60+ years is important and long overdue. However we ought not let club and ECB hierarchy off the hook for some of the short term decisions over specifically the last 25 years that have led to the game's invisibility within inner urban areas, schools workplaces and the culture of these islands. Sure belatedly they come up with ideas and lead on funding for diversity as Warwickshire is almost certainly ahead of most in this respect.

Let's not forget the hiding of the game behind a paywall in 2006. There are people still at the ECB and in positions at county clubs who remain culpable for this and plenty of other decisions besides
It's rather convenient for them to point the finger at an ageing, declining, out of touch membership and the volunteers - suits their agenda down to a tee that does. Playing increasingly greater proportions of the county championship in rugby season hardly helps either - you're not going to see much more than the die hards continue to hand over hard earned cash to follow that up close let alone tootle along to Portland Rd with it's wholly inadequate facilities for spectators to watch the women's teams in the freezing cold.

How about they put lots and lots of county mens and women's cricket matches on in mid-season and give diversity a bit of a chance. Just a thought like...

The fact it was on in August immediately following the pandemic partly explains the success in bringing in new attendees to the ground. The novelty factor is also surely an aspect to note. They don't seem so set on August going forwards mind, possibly because some of those factors don't exist any longer. Plus it now has to pay it's way so all the freebies will disappear and the brightly coloured shirts will look plain and boring again. The T20 Blast soon learnt that the ideal sweet spot for a chunk of season given over to slogball changed from year to year depending on weather and if there was a major football tournament that particular year.

Call me a cynic but this is all a smokescreen for a cabal of big time charlie county chief execs ransacking the rich history of the domestic game and remoulding it so it can exist going forwards without Worcestershire and Sussex and Derbyshire (or at least with the role of such entities severely diminished) thus paving the way for 8 or maybe 10 teams to share the spoils between

Strauss review by stealth. Designed by Edgbaston. It remains something which needs to be firmly resisted

He learns from this and wins us the QF against Hampshire with a brilliant spell

Both left at the end of 2018 in time for the 2019 seasons. Chris Wright signed for Leics in July 2018 Keith Barker's move to Hants wasn't confirmed until September 2018.

I get that but do feel that angle is overstated a tad. There are a couple of sides now in Div 1 with very little prospect of finishing 1st or getting relegated and a good number in Div 2 with nothing to play for already. It happens however many teams are in a league. You could ensure the intensity levels hold up by perhaps scheduling the local derby matches towards the end of the season. Warks 7th v Worcester 14th would still be a hard fought game. I think seeing the same counties year in year out gets pretty boring as does having to visit the same away venues. Used to be far better when in a 2 year cycle you got see all the counties play at your ground and only had to wait a year or two for trips to some of county crickets joys. It would massively help several counties increase their membership, profile etc... if they know they've got 2024's version of Brian Lara coming to play at their ground and 2025's version of Allan Donald. I'm frankly irritated we don't get to play at New Road once every two years, ditto Derby/Chesterfield, Northants, Colwyn Bay, Hove, Cheltenham and loads more

If test cricket is just a jolly up then county cricket should be allowed to be fun too - not reduced to the pressure of must win games to stay up and coaches unwilling to risk giving youngsters especially spinners a good run in the side. Think of how liberating T20 has been for young/unknown spinners. If T20 had relegation there's a realistic possibility we'd never have seen Jake Lintott

LeicesterExile wrote:
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I agree about the merits of the 4 day game but would prefer a 2 division of 9 teams playing home and away. However, the one day game is here to stay and will always draw the bigger crowd. The T20 has proved its popularity and should be the white ball game of choice. The trouble is the ECB have tried to cram in too many formats and keep trying to reinvent it (the Hundread being the latest with city teams). If the 18 counties played just CC and T20 both in a 2 division league structure with a T20 Finals day to end the one day season a simple fixture list would tell people when to expect games.
That makes a lot of sense. 16 CC games 16 T20 and a knockout in the 50 overs. T20 Fridays with some local variance (Thurs in London) and maybe a fortnight mid-season dedicated to it.

My proposal is just to strip away the divisions altogether go back to a time when we last used to lose home Ashes series with some regularity in the mid 1990's and where county cricket was very strong indeed. The 2 divisions came in partly to try to arrest this abysmal record in home Ashes. But if what were hearing now is it doesn't even matter whether we win the Ashes as long as we play an exciting brand of cricket then there is little point in having 2 divisions any more. I loved Norwell's heroics last season but I'd trade any prospect of that occuring again for the chance for youngsters in Derby, Canterbury, Hove and Leicester to see top level cricket in mid-summer once again and generate new county cricket aficionados in all the shires not just 7 select cities. The advantages of having one 18 team Championship far outweigh the merits of two divisions if there is no fear of failure at test level why should there be fear of failure at county level? If two divisions are retained I'd have 3 up 3 down again. more churn = more potential winning counties in future spread the joy

Also he'd probably get more opportunities if we were in Div 2 which we were. I sort of see him as the natural in-house successor to OHD but we need him to really come through now perhaps it might be at another county a bit like when OHD left Yorkshire

I'm thinking this past week has been a strong reason we should return to one single 18 team county championship. Firstly the format itself when played with no fear just kicks the crap out of any of the shorter format flotsam and jetsam.

Secondly, if and I say if the result no longer matters and it's entertainment that is THE key thing and if it's okay for England to lose 5-0 this series - so long as we've been entertaining - then I see no reason whatsoever why county cricket cannot return to the glory days of one single division 17 rounds of 4-day fixtures loads of festival grounds being used to host the matches no relegation so all youngsters can be given carte blanche to show what they can do and everyone have a similarly jolly time watching county cricket as 25,000 were able to yesterday

Grasp this opportunity while we can. County CHAMPIONSHIP CRICKET is the next best thing to what unfolded these past 5 days and must be restored to the centrepiece of the domestic season immediately.

GerryShedd wrote:

I thought that, having won the toss on that pitch and in this weather, 450 was the minimum score to settle for. But tomorrow, I may be proved totally wrong.
Think in normal pre Bazball mode you'd be right. This England team just think if they don't get that big score first innings they'll get them second innings instead and this being Edgbaston I doubt the pitch will deteriorate much so still all to play for. A lad next to us was wondering if they'd declare but I had to leave after root got his ton and was shocked when I heard they had declared

Yes we might not finish in the top two now which was always the most realistic possibility after the defeat to Surrey. I think it means we can however try some of the youngsters out a bit more so potentially might be a good thing

Exactly as I suspected on day 1.

Looking at how green the pitch was but it had been cut very short so nothing really for our seamers to work with so Notts obviously just watered it well enough in the lead up so that the pitch didn't break up in all this heat on days 3 + 4. It's what sides do who have no spin advantage. Briggs won us that game 2 years ago spinning Notts out to help us complete a double over them so they've clearly tried to neuter any advantage we have over them in that respect. High scoring draw was always likely in this instance.

It doesn't feel quite so warm here in Brum today maybe the same there but these Notts lads will be wiped out from being out on their feet all day yesterday and half of today. Greenish wicket but one I thought wouldn't provide all that much assistance to our attack I thought wrongly it seems