When I created the 'Wheels have come off' thread the other day I intended it to be more an observation than a criticism.
An observation of how our season is tailing off into nothingness following such a promising start - it's been a feature of previous seasons that we tend to come good as a team as the season wears on, the trophy cabinet of the past decade is an obvious sign of that.
This term however I think the 'hard yakka' of the county season has caught up with us. I've no idea whether anything will be done in the immediate future with regards altering things, but I know it definitely should.
It's been highlighted in recent weeks by the media that it's nigh on impossible for bowlers to be coming in constantly over 90mph due to the sheer workload they have to get through. Personally I feel there's some truth in that, although we've produced genuine fast bowlers before - with often just as much hard work in place.
Burnout is another word that's been used to describe cricketers wellbeing. I think that's just as important if not more important an issue than the speed capabilities of bowlers.
The county season needs tweaking. That's for sure. Yet it's remarkable that this years format has been 'agreed' upon. We've been told that players/coaches/management have all had their input into the scheduling. Whether or not they were listened to is another matter.
I've got my own opinion on the subject, it may not be what you would have in place and I don't imagine anyone in a position of power will ever care about my views on it but I'm bored and thought I'd share it -
I'll start with the Championship, because that is the gold standard. I hate this suggestion that it should be reduced. I also think a three tier system would end the existence of a number of clubs. I'd be more inclined to go back to one division than I would to three. For now I think it's fine at two. To spice things up I'd consider a playoff between 7th place (D1) and 3rd (D2) in the last game in September to determine whether a third team is relegated/promoted but I wouldn't be bringing that in straight off the bat.
On the subject of fixtures I think the spacing is pretty good as it is, I love the variety of conditions and the natural wearing of pitches throughout the summer so I'm all for having 2/3 games a month from April to September. I also think the CC should be the mainstay of the season and that no matter what month there's always a game on the horizon.
The One Day competition isn't right IMO, nor is it scheduled very well. In fact, the current format is frankly, f***ing awful. The whole group phase of the tournament is going to be shoe horned into about 3 weeks in the school holidays. Personally I think we should go back to how it used to be, with that lasting throughout the season. I think the best plan for it is actually to go back to the days of Sunday League. Not necessarily on the Sunday, but with a one day fixture following a four day game. I'd make the competition into two groups, identical to the CC Divisions so that clubs could take a mountain of travelling out of their seasons. For example you'd only make one trip to Somerset a season, one trip to Hampshire, etc. Then you could take the top 4 from each group and have your knockout format.
It's more one day games than currently, but I believe the cutting down of travel time would allow for more rest days on the whole. This week for example is a disgrace for Durham. I'd imagine Monday was traveling to Bristol, game today, travel to Leicester tomorrow, game Thursday, then straight up to Scarborough to start a four day game on Friday. Utter carnage.
The T20 has been a joke this year too. The best slot for this has to be July, middle of the season/summer, if clubs want to put money into household names they can do it much easier IMO on a short term basis. It's got to be easier logistically. I'm not sure I'll ever be a massive fan of T20 but it doesn't take a clever bloke to see that we need to follow the Indian/Australian model of having it altogether in one go.
I'd also like to see a return of a 50 over knockout competition, I'd make it as inclusive as possible too, all minor counties and Universities in the early rounds, Scotland, Ireland, Netherlands etc. 28 teams of non-first class status competing the first round with counties coming in at the second round stage with a seeded draw.
All just a personal fantasy I admit, I just can't get to kip .
If anyone knows the ECB fixture secretary - give him a copy of this .
An observation of how our season is tailing off into nothingness following such a promising start - it's been a feature of previous seasons that we tend to come good as a team as the season wears on, the trophy cabinet of the past decade is an obvious sign of that.
This term however I think the 'hard yakka' of the county season has caught up with us. I've no idea whether anything will be done in the immediate future with regards altering things, but I know it definitely should.
It's been highlighted in recent weeks by the media that it's nigh on impossible for bowlers to be coming in constantly over 90mph due to the sheer workload they have to get through. Personally I feel there's some truth in that, although we've produced genuine fast bowlers before - with often just as much hard work in place.
Burnout is another word that's been used to describe cricketers wellbeing. I think that's just as important if not more important an issue than the speed capabilities of bowlers.
The county season needs tweaking. That's for sure. Yet it's remarkable that this years format has been 'agreed' upon. We've been told that players/coaches/management have all had their input into the scheduling. Whether or not they were listened to is another matter.
I've got my own opinion on the subject, it may not be what you would have in place and I don't imagine anyone in a position of power will ever care about my views on it but I'm bored and thought I'd share it -
I'll start with the Championship, because that is the gold standard. I hate this suggestion that it should be reduced. I also think a three tier system would end the existence of a number of clubs. I'd be more inclined to go back to one division than I would to three. For now I think it's fine at two. To spice things up I'd consider a playoff between 7th place (D1) and 3rd (D2) in the last game in September to determine whether a third team is relegated/promoted but I wouldn't be bringing that in straight off the bat.
On the subject of fixtures I think the spacing is pretty good as it is, I love the variety of conditions and the natural wearing of pitches throughout the summer so I'm all for having 2/3 games a month from April to September. I also think the CC should be the mainstay of the season and that no matter what month there's always a game on the horizon.
The One Day competition isn't right IMO, nor is it scheduled very well. In fact, the current format is frankly, f***ing awful. The whole group phase of the tournament is going to be shoe horned into about 3 weeks in the school holidays. Personally I think we should go back to how it used to be, with that lasting throughout the season. I think the best plan for it is actually to go back to the days of Sunday League. Not necessarily on the Sunday, but with a one day fixture following a four day game. I'd make the competition into two groups, identical to the CC Divisions so that clubs could take a mountain of travelling out of their seasons. For example you'd only make one trip to Somerset a season, one trip to Hampshire, etc. Then you could take the top 4 from each group and have your knockout format.
It's more one day games than currently, but I believe the cutting down of travel time would allow for more rest days on the whole. This week for example is a disgrace for Durham. I'd imagine Monday was traveling to Bristol, game today, travel to Leicester tomorrow, game Thursday, then straight up to Scarborough to start a four day game on Friday. Utter carnage.
The T20 has been a joke this year too. The best slot for this has to be July, middle of the season/summer, if clubs want to put money into household names they can do it much easier IMO on a short term basis. It's got to be easier logistically. I'm not sure I'll ever be a massive fan of T20 but it doesn't take a clever bloke to see that we need to follow the Indian/Australian model of having it altogether in one go.
I'd also like to see a return of a 50 over knockout competition, I'd make it as inclusive as possible too, all minor counties and Universities in the early rounds, Scotland, Ireland, Netherlands etc. 28 teams of non-first class status competing the first round with counties coming in at the second round stage with a seeded draw.
All just a personal fantasy I admit, I just can't get to kip .
If anyone knows the ECB fixture secretary - give him a copy of this .