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What is needed to fix the Blast

B

brandon

Striker
An interesting discussion on the latest Following On podcast -
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- about what is needed to improve the Blast.

Most of it is what the vast majority of us who care about county cricket have been saying for donkeys anyway, but it was very warming to hear widespread criticism and condemnation for the 16.4 and the horrific job the PR people do regarding that and with not actually promoting any other cricket.

3 groups of 6, 10 games (5 home, 5 away) was their opinion - which I agree with too. Much much easier to sell/market 5 home games and try to maximise their revenue than the slog as it is currently where fans across the country are clearly losing interest.

Scheduling needs to be much better too, makes no sense to have teams playing two games in two days (often one home and one away).

Concerted effort to get the internationals involved needs to be made but there’s a genuine belief, which I agree with, that it’s still always been of better quality and standard than the 16.4 despite the ridiculous excesses that have been wasted on that.
 

brandon said:
An interesting discussion on the latest Following On podcast -
You must be logged on to see external links
- about what is needed to improve the Blast.

Most of it is what the vast majority of us who care about county cricket have been saying for donkeys anyway, but it was very warming to hear widespread criticism and condemnation for the 16.4 and the horrific job the PR people do regarding that and with not actually promoting any other cricket.

3 groups of 6, 10 games (5 home, 5 away) was their opinion - which I agree with too. Much much easier to sell/market 5 home games and try to maximise their revenue than the slog as it is currently where fans across the country are clearly losing interest.

Scheduling needs to be much better too, makes no sense to have teams playing two games in two days (often one home and one away).

Concerted effort to get the internationals involved needs to be made but there’s a genuine belief, which I agree with, that it’s still always been of better quality and standard than the 16.4 despite the ridiculous excesses that have been wasted on that.
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Counties will be very reluctant to reduce the number of home games to 5. Thats why they have black balled the conference system of more than 2 groups.
 
This season is the first time i have been to watch T20 cricket at Durham and tbh although there have been a couple of really tight finishes i really expected a lot more entertainment. The atmosphere in the ground was also poor too imo.....not helped by low crowds though and generally bad weather
 
In my opinion:

I’d have the whole of April marked as a revised One Day Cup to start the season. 6 regional groups of 3, play each other twice home and away within 2 weeks, with 1st place going through to Quarter Finals. ( 2 of the 6 best 2nd place teams going through as well, I imagine net run rate would have to be taught if this was to happen! :lol: ) Quarter Finals and Semi Finals as well as the Final completed by the end of April.

Then, I’d have all 14 County Championship games in a row between start of May and middle of August. Ambitious I know!

Then revise the Blast to 16 games a campaign, 8 at home and 8 away, all to be played till the end of September, including the Quarter Finals, Semi Finals and the Final
 
Its still working down south sell out crowds tonight at the Oval and at Taunton. It appears its more a northern problem at both the test ground counties and the counties with standard grounds.
 
1) consistency on days it’s played on
2) ensure that cricket is on every day at the weekend, a bank holiday Monday and they’ve not got a match is barmy
3) the stupid warm up thing I mentioned in the other thread
4) £8 a pint at the Oval, get it more accessible
 
2 groups of 9, 16 games each played evenings and weekends, semi finals and finals, played over 4-5 weeks with finals played around the end of July, existing squads + 3 overseas.

Some of the £75m burned by the 16.4 to advertise it.
 
Removal of the 16.4

Games played weekends only, why not look to schedule every Sunday afternoon like the old Sunday League which attracted many families?

Greater advertising, schedule outside of England calendar where possible

2 groups of 9, not regionalised, so there’s more chance to see some variety of players. Surrey are racked with international talent but we’ve gone years without playing them.
 
danthemanSAFC said:
In my opinion:

I’d have the whole of April marked as a revised One Day Cup to start the season. 6 regional groups of 3, play each other twice home and away within 2 weeks, with 1st place going through to Quarter Finals. ( 2 of the 6 best 2nd place teams going through as well, I imagine net run rate would have to be taught if this was to happen! :lol: ) Quarter Finals and Semi Finals as well as the Final completed by the end of April.

Then, I’d have all 14 County Championship games in a row between start of May and middle of August. Ambitious I know!

Then revise the Blast to 16 games a campaign, 8 at home and 8 away, all to be played till the end of September, including the Quarter Finals, Semi Finals and the Final
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I don’t understand why they don’t start the season with the One Day Cup tbh.
 
mackembhoy said:
Too late they've let the Hundred fox in the hen house and it's killed most of the chickens.

We'll have year round IPL in different countries within the next 5 years.

Counties will play T20 as a development league for the main show.
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u
Agreed. The IPL and the Indian CB have a lot to answer for. The dumbing down of the 1st class game is disgraceful. The Hundred is just another form of T20 but not as good. The Hundred should be scrapped along with the variants throught the cricketing world. There again the Indian CB runs world cricket and that is the problem.
 
Any competition needs as much as possible to be filled with internationals and as much quality as possible.

Played in a designated window no more than 5 weeks at the most with the focus on that one competition.

One short format competition been the important factor.

That way you have a flagship competition and enough room in the calendar for other county cricket
 
Truth be told I think it's knackered. They aren't going to pull the plug on the 16.4. With regards to this year I've gone on record moaning a few times about the "behaviour" of folk this version attracts and it's spoilt it a lot for me truth be told, just outright ignorance but I guess that is what this version is aimed at. £25 for an adult on the gate isn't going to get people through the door either. It is what it is I've missed a couple of games this competition this year and truth be told I wasn't arsed at all. I fully accept the game is dying, the 50 over competition is a 2nd xi competition ow and the Blast is pretty much the League Cup of football now which is a shame. As for the County game I don't think the hierarchy at Durham give a toss about it (social media updates are very telling and also today for the 2nd xi game). I don't think there is anyway back for the "Durham brand" and it's full steam ahead to obtaining franchise cricket at Chester Le Street and the removal of the 5 year membership ticket I think was very telling.
 
Inside Forward said:
I don’t understand why they don’t start the season with the One Day Cup tbh.
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Because the sole purpose of the one day cup is to give the county squad players something to do while that which must not be named is on. So it has to be at the same time (Although it was dying on its arse long before that and indeed was sacked off altogether for a while in the 10s.)
 
I agree that the horse has bolted for the hundred it’s here to stay, but I did agree with Harmy on the podcast that maybe 5 games is the way forward, what have Durham had 3 Fridays 2 Sundays afternoon (one where englands first group game was after) and one where it pissed down all day, then 2 Wednesdays? Might be easier to market 5 weekend games, and in the summer why can’t games be on a Saturday too? Sometimes even 6.30 is a push when I’m at work on a Friday,

And some money on production value, the cameras are getting better in the ground we should be showing more replays on the big screen more graphics, and even a bit fire, the game is always a better atmosphere when it was on sky, but as someone else posted sky just don’t care anymore, they’ve shown about 3 games this season
 
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