The future of County Cricket
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bigbenh99

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The future of County Cricket
« on: August 29, 2012, 02:04:16 PM »
Couldn't see any discussion on this so thought I'd see what people's views are. The ECB are currently surveying fans to get their views on the future county structure, and everyone seems to have their own differing opinion.

My view:

County Championship to remain unchanged.

T20 - Friday night tournament each week to attract the 9-5ers, culminating in August Bank Holiday finals day, possibly keeping finals day to only Trent Bridge/Edgbaston/Old Trafford/Oval to reduce journey times, instead of finals day in Wales! I think a weekly tournament will attract more families too, as having 3 or 4 home games in a week currently puts people off if they have family of 5 (5 tickets at £10-15 each means that people are highly unlikely to go to multiple games in a week). I think the standard of T20 is very high, and the majority of T20 fans would rather see an exciting game, rather than putting tons of emphasis on seeing big names.

CB40 - reduced number of games, with small groups then a knockout stage, I think interest in limited overs cricket is there, but there seems to be way too many games, think a reduction in number wouldn't affect the competition or fans too much.

What are other people's views? An IPL-style T20 extravaganza? Or change the County Championship?
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Alvaro

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Re: The future of County Cricket
« Reply #1 on: August 29, 2012, 02:11:40 PM »
Quote from: bigbenh99 on August 29, 2012, 02:04:16 PM
T20 - Friday night tournament each week to attract the 9-5ers, culminating in August Bank Holiday finals day, possibly keeping finals day to only Trent Bridge/Edgbaston/Old Trafford/Oval to reduce journey times, instead of finals day in Wales! I think a weekly tournament will attract more families too, as having 3 or 4 home games in a week currently puts people off if they have family of 5 (5 tickets at £10-15 each means that people are highly unlikely to go to multiple games in a week). I think the standard of T20 is very high, and the majority of T20 fans would rather see an exciting game, rather than putting tons of emphasis on seeing big names.

What are other people's views? An IPL-style T20 extravaganza? Or change the County Championship?

If you want to see the world's best overseas players the format needs to be short and sharp
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bigbenh99

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Re: The future of County Cricket
« Reply #2 on: August 29, 2012, 02:21:03 PM »
That's my point, I personally don't think that the tournament needs to be flooded with overseas players. I don't think that there's suddenly going to be vast sums of money available from sponsors, TV, ECB or whoever, in order to fund megastars' salaries, which would mean that ticket prices would have to increase, and I don't think the market is there for more expensive T20 tickets. I think that keeping it as it is, with the majority of homegrown talent still providing an entertaining tournament, and making it accessible to more people, would be the best course of action
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Alvaro

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Re: The future of County Cricket
« Reply #3 on: August 29, 2012, 02:25:13 PM »
This is okay in theory, but there are some VERY average T20 sides in England. If there were fewer teams it could condense the English quality and give you a product that would suit the Friday night theory.

However, if T20 worldwide continues to bleed Test cricket dry, the only time you could feasibly see the best in the world regularly would be in a domestic T20 tournament.
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Manormanic

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Re: The future of County Cricket
« Reply #4 on: August 29, 2012, 03:16:53 PM »
In many ways I'd like to see a reduction by two in the number of first class teams.  It would make it so much easier to manage and would create natural windows for regional test trials and meaningful England A games.  Alternately, I think Ireland, Holland and Scotland have to be invited to form D3 of a three tier first class structure...

The key thing has to be getting away from having so much FC cricket played in bloody April!

I would personally do away with the CB40 and replace it with a knockout 50 over competition held on Sundays in May leading up to a June final before the T20 kicks off, and a much shorter 40 over comp in the school holidays.
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