Steak Pie
Striker
No proper cricket at all during the summer. It's supposed to be the nation's summer sport FFS.
It's farcical, but it has been coming ever since the inception of the 16.4.
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County Championship Reduction For 2026?
- Thread starter Aidan11
- Start date
It's farcical, but it has been coming ever since the inception of the 16.4.
The 16.4 will be very short term-they can't even agree over the allocation of TV monies. Wouldn't be surprised if these sales aren"t even signed off.
Steak Pie
Striker
I don't think so, getting the host counties to invest was the tipping point. Previous to that, the franchises could be stopped at amy time by simply removing access to the stadiums. Not now.
They will continue to throw bad money after bad to the detriment of the sport, until the sport is bankrupt.
My hope still holds.The parties still can't agree on how Tv monies will be shared.I'm assuming that if they're still negotiating on such a major selling point that the sales haven't been signed off.
The Breen Machine
Striker
One interesting point to note on the 16.4 is that despite how brilliant we are told it is, it is approaching it's 5 year and not one other country in the world has adopted it. That suggests to me it's shelf life may be limited.
Aidan11
Striker
The private owners will just send them to T20 overseas tounaments and just let them play the Mickey Mouse Trophy here evey August until it stops making money.
Struts
Winger
Except for The Oval & Lords it looks like crowds have dropped off a cliff too.
Personally i’d go for…
12 CC games,12 games in The Blast & 8 ODC games. Two divisions of 9 in the CC & Blast & a return to North & South groups in the ODC.
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12 CC games means you play only half the teams twice. A sensible tweak would be to adopt the Scottish football arrangement. After 8 games split the divisions into top and bottom halves and play the 4 other teams in your half.
The county championship was first reduced in the 1960s mainly to accommodate what was then 65 over cricket. There has been a progressive reduction over that period to accommodate more one-day cricket from 28 games to 14 although the introduction of four day cricket means it’s reduced less dramatically from 84 days to 56.
The balancing act we have to strike is that however loss making it is in its own right, the championship remains the goose that lays English cricket’s golden egg. We can’t afford to kill it entirely.
I think playing each other twice is an obsession that has been imported from another sport here. We think it’s normal because we do it in football. English cricket has done this in the Championship only briefly when it had two divisions of nine and played 16 games. But they quite quickly dropped that to move to 2 divisions both with even numbers in. And for almost all of its history, the Championship hasn’t bothered. The end of season split format tried in 2021 didn’t go down well for any of the counties who got dumped in the making up the numbers divisions in the second phase.
You are trying to build the season around a principle that has no traditional place in English cricket.
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Fairness and equality should be an aim and if you regard that as an obsession fair dos. If some teams play stronger opponents twice yet others play the weakest ones twice that's not equality and should be avoided. If not possible then the midseason split upper and lower makes things fairer.
3 divisions of 6 was muted but whether this remains on the table appears not so.
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Aidan11
Striker
3 divisions of 6 would definitely be the final straw for English cricket. Whether it has a promotion/relegation system or the 3 conference system they are both disasters waiting to happen. Oddly Bostock was all for this when it was mooted post-covid.
Not only would it mean 10 games a season, weather permitting, but it would also likely kill off the weaker counties stuck in division 3 for years.
I really hope the counties see sense and look beyond the short-term financial gain from the sale of the 16.4, and realise the future could be very bleak once the money runs out by voting agsinst their stupid ideas.
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Voice of fair play
Striker
It will stay in the same franchise format but change to T20.
It should have been T20 in the first place
The maximum number of 11st class games in all other countries is 10 and while the elephant in the room,the 16.4, remains, to give red ball,1 day and T20 fixture equal prominence a reduction in CC games is unavoidable. It also gives 1 day cricket a return to a meaningful competition.The alternate of the status quo and playing 4 or 5 CC games in April was/is unsatisfactory so the reduction to me is the lesser of 2 evils.
Can't blame the players being attracted to the 16.4 with the easy bucks in the short term but the fact that some supposed cricket lovers can't see the inherent dangers of Franchise cricket to all levels of cricket is disappointing.
The Breen Machine
Striker
I agree they should have focused on improving The Blast to compete with the IPL and Big Bash.
Aidan11
Striker
I disagree. Just because other countries play less redball games doesn't mean we have to. Red ball is more popular here than any other cricket nation and there is a lot if anger from those cricket lovers. I accept the game has moved on since WG Grace or Ian Botham or even Alastair Cook picked up a bat, but there is no need to put it into an induced coma
I have an alternative which I accept won't be popular. Make the 50 over competition a straight knockout competition like the Gillette/Nat West cup used to be. Or alternatively a B&H style competition where the early games were part of 4-team groups in a round robin where the top 2 in each group proceed to the knockout stage.
If it was a choice between 50 overs and the CC I would pick the latter every time.
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Yeh but to be fair they have to cater for all tastes. Many state 4 day cricket itself is an induced coma. I'm not not one of them but 4 day devotees like ourselves are an ever decreasing population. Sad fact of today's society.
Voice of fair play
Striker
Either way making it 100 balls was a terrible idea.
The fact they have sold the teams for 520 million for half a share in most of them suggests just suggests they have made a lot of money and it may have not been the worst idea in the world
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Have they made a lot of money? The fact that they're still negotiating after several months the share of tv rights suggests the deals haven't been signed off.And who are they? - A handfull of counties! Why isn't this influx shared equally with other counties and grass routes? Elitism and dictatorial.
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Voice of fair play
Striker
520 million will benefit all.
Even if some benefit a lot more than others if it goes through.
I think to sell something for 520 million for teams that are just five years old and have them valued at 975 million is a bit of a masterstroke personally
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Out of interest, how does it benefit all?
