No 25, Aug 11 - The Grumbler's County Cricket Newsletter
All the Royal London Cup previews | RL50 games well attended but final hit | Irani steps down | Capel remembered | Behind-the-scenes at Notts | Chesterfield's 5-year deal | Sangakkara's Surrey class
We have reached the final round of Royal London Cup group matches. I hope your team qualifies for the latter stages or made it through in the Blast because, if they did not, you will probably have no cricket to watch from August 12 to 30. That’s 18 blank days during the height of the summer holiday period. After a gruelling treadmill of Championship games at the start of the season, a crammed in Blast and diluted Royal London Cup, now there is a break at a key time. It is incompetent scheduling that harms every aspect of the county game. Judge the actions not the words, the ECB’s priorities are clearer than ever.
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Final round of Royal London group games
Click on each team for a different preview, except for Northants. I could not find theirs.
Derbyshire v Surrey (Derby)
Durham v Hampshire (Riverside)
Glamorgan v Yorkshire (Cardiff)
Kent v Gloucestershire (Beckenham) This game is on despite a Covid outbreak in the Gloucestershire squad
Lancashire v Essex (Old Trafford)
Northamptonshire v Leicestershire (Northampton)
Warwickshire v Somerset (Edgbaston)
The tables going into last round of games
County cricket: knockout places in the One-Day Cup still up for grabs (Guardian)
Tim David 140* guides Surrey home to keep knockout hopes alive (Cricinfo)
A Singapore gunslinger stars for Surrey.
Covid outbreak causes cancellation of Gloucestershire visit to Middlesex (Cricinfo)
What did you expect? Traditionally, the strength of a one-day final at Lord's was the atmosphere created between two sets of committed supporters who had travelled up early on a Saturday morning to see their team play in cricket’s FA Cup final. But this year, the Royal London Cup semi-final only finishes around 40 hours before the final is due to start Trent Bridge, not the hallowed ground of Lord’s. In that time, fans will have to book time off work and secure tickets. Honestly, this is how you kill an event.
News, views and interviews
Wonderful to see Derbyshire CCC (a smaller county) agree a longish deal (five years) to play at an out ground (Chesterfield). While there is so much talk of the game 'reaching new audiences', in reality the audience outside the big cities now has to travel to reach the game. Festival cricket always sought to bring the game to the fans.
Ronnie Irani steps down as Essex Cricket Committee chair (Cricinfo)
The Essex revival started as soon as Irani became the chair of the Essex Cricket Committee. He changed the coach and the captain, won promotion then three titles and the Blast with an XI normally consisting of eight youth products. In the midst of that he had to change the coach again when Chris Silverwood went off to England. The team is in transition now but the talent continues to fly off the academy conveyor belt and the culture is still all about blooding them early. Before the pandemic hit, Essex were in a very strong financial position which allowed the club to openly oppose the tournament-that-shall-not-be-named. Irani has been fundamental to the second-best period of a county going back almost 150 years. His influence will be sorely missed.
ICC to push for cricket's inclusion in the 2028 Olympics (Cricinfo)
This is huge news for the worldwide development of cricket. It globalises and publicises the game while providing a platform for smaller nations to grow. Then there is the participation angle. The recent success of TeamGB cycling has inspired millions of wannabees and keep-fitters onto our roads. Often four-a-breast... in front of me... when I am in a hurry.
More seriously, what would the Olympic format be? I saw quotes from Joe Root suggesting it will be you-know-what. He would do, wouldn’t he? I can't see how when someone will have to pay a licensing fee to use it and the world has been playing T20 for almost two decades. The women are playing the latter format at the Commonwealth Games next year. For T20 and you-know-what, the length of these games are a scheduling nightmare anyway. It would not surprise me if they went for T10, which is played in the UAE and is the length of a football match.
Ravi Bopara signs new T20 deal with Sussex Sharks (Brighton Argus)
There were rumours of a return to Essex but Bopara has signed for Sussex as a T20 player. Almost certainly, he will never play red-ball cricket again.
Kevin Pietersen Slams The Level Of English County Cricket; Terms It ‘Rubbish’ (Cricket Addictor)
I give scant regard to Pietersen's views on anything. His legacy is that of a taker not a giver to the game of cricket. His dismissiveness of anything or anyone he considers ‘beneath him’ and self-serving mentality eventually undermined his international prospects. Now as a broadcaster he is backing his paymasters and bashing a institution that he used to further his career while giving little back. Unfortunately we live in a world where the opinion of players and executives who care little for anything other than their own betterment carry all the weight. And the views of paying fans carry none.
‘Twenty20 cricket was stagnating – it needed The Hundred’ (iNews)
On the flip side, the opinion of Stuart Robertson, the inventor of T20, is much more worthy of your time despite his ECB affiliations. I take his point that a big change was necessary because they could not get a small change through. While the ECB’s mismanagement of the game over the past 20 years is clear, the counties have often been intransigent. However, the record sales of Blast tickets in 2019 and huge upturn in the last few years does not tally with a stagnating tournament. (And just this week, Somerset sold 3,000 full-priced tickets in two hours without the BBC providing free primetime ads). The Blast could not get the star players, especially the Indians, either. But if, as the article suggests, the tournament-that-shall-not-be-named is a success then this cannot be an issue. It is choc-full of exactly the ‘average’ county players it was designed to rise above. In my opinion, price has always been the crucial factor here. I have bought my family tickets to two games in the women's Euros next summer - one England game and the final. These eight seats have cost me £135 in total. The price, not the product, was the clincher. It is a cheap night out and we have decent, if not avid, interest. We all know the traditional beery T20 crowd has taken advantage of cut-price tickets in the new event and imported many of their problems.
The H*ndred propaganda highlights the responsibility that comes with free speech (Cricketer)
Please read this while humming the North Korean national anthem.
John McIntear: Cricket umpire was 'inspiration to many' (BBC)
Well batted, John.
Cricket needs diversity from all sides (Cricket Paper)
My piece from the Cricket Paper this week. We need diversity of background in addition to the other well-known areas.
Tweet of the Week 1
We interrupt this newsletter for a game of county cricket
Kumar Sangakkara was a class act. This was not an innings, it was a work of art.
Links I like…
Join the Cricket Supporters Association, it’s free
County Cricket Matters - Buy the magazine direct or on Kindle
County Cricket Natters podcast on the Royal London Cup in conjunction with The Cricketer
Tweet of the Week 2
There were 3,000 at Gosforth and around 4,000 at Essex this week. Remember they are paying full-priced tickets to watch a diluted competition despite almost zero marketing. What might the crowds have been with a little support?
Finally….
Nice fly-on-the-wall video about Nottinghamshire a couple of years ago. Might be worth further examination as they had a stinker of a season in the Championship in 2019.
Finally, finally…
Yes, I am still plugging my book on county cricket and midlife.
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