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County Championship Reduction For 2026?


Aidan11 said:
Looks like it will be a fait accompli

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Vile, absolutely vile.

The Blast should be 8 group games, 10 at the absolute most.

The Championship should be two divisions of 9 and everyone should play each other home and away. It’s no coincidence that the last time England were the best team in the world was when we had that format.
 
leecoo said:
Don't think I'd mind a 3 division CC with each county playing 10 games each. But not playing each other twice lessens the integrity of any comp
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Does that anyway in the blast as each club has two teams they don’t play twice

It’s always the same two as well iirc
 
With the 16.4 going nowhere I’d rather get rid of the Blast full stop tbh. What’s the point in having the Blast and the Hundred? Then we can make the One Day Cup relevant again and keep the Championship at 16 games.
 
Inside Forward said:
With the 16.4 going nowhere I’d rather get rid of the Blast full stop tbh. What’s the point in having the Blast and the Hundred? Then we can make the One Day Cup relevant again and keep the Championship at 16 games.
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They should only be one short format competition that for sure two is overkill and it should be T20 imo.

Still say it should be a peak time though and in a window with focus on it like in IPL, SA20 etc etc
 
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Inside Forward said:
With the 16.4 going nowhere I’d rather get rid of the Blast full stop tbh. What’s the point in having the Blast and the Hundred? Then we can make the One Day Cup relevant again and keep the Championship at 16 games.
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Dismantling the international formats we play domestically in favour of things that don't exist outside this country seems a ludicrous decision
 
Twisted said:
Dismantling the international formats we play domestically in favour of things that don't exist outside this country seems a ludicrous decision
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It seems that they just want to sell the franchises to the Saudis and then pay the counties to shut up.
 
Aidan11 said:
Yep. Here we go again. Not content with the fact that Strauss' High Performance Review failed to push this through, there is now a new review looking to reduce the season from 14 games to 12. (Strauss wanted 10).

The ECB are using the money the counties will get from the sale of the 16.4 as the carrot, as they will now be on a firmer financial footing. What happens though when the money runs out?

I don't buy the player burnout excuse. The players don't seem to complain about playing in the various global T20 tournaments. Constant travelling must be more wearing than playing a few gentle red ball games. Or are they playing with hernias due to having to carry those big fat wallets around the world?

Now that the counties are.getting more money, increase players salaries foe playing red ball cricket.

It still needs the county 2/3 majority vote but I've got a feeling they'll vote for it this time. We all know which way Bostock will vote. It's an insult to county cricket watchers. If this gets through everyone should refuse to renew their memberships.

Death by a thousand cuts.

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The counties want 10 but T20 of 12.

Now were getting cc of 12 and 10 T20.

They have to stop losing money somehow the T20 is now a disaster financially for them as well.

So counties struggling to survive need.a mass reduction in county championship games.

The game is really struggling and dying a slow death in the UK like elsewhere.

But still the pensioners still believe we rather our county go bankrupt, cuz where else can we spend all day in the summer saving our electricity bills.
 
Iamme said:
The counties want 10 but T20 of 12.

Now were getting cc of 12 and 10 T20.

They have to stop losing money somehow the T20 is now a disaster financially for them as well.

So counties struggling to survive need.a mass reduction in county championship games.

The game is really struggling and dying a slow death in the UK like elsewhere.

But still the pensioners still believe we rather our county go bankrupt, cuz where else can we spend all day in the summer saving our electricity bills.
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Are you trying to make valid points or trying to be satirical.
Have you calculated the gate receipts from this current test?
Are you aware that broadcasters have committed £1 billion to the current cricket broadcasting deal?
 
Parkside said:
Are you trying to make valid points or trying to be satirical.
Have you calculated the gate receipts from this current test?
Are you aware that broadcasters have committed £1 billion to the current cricket broadcasting deal?
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Don’t feed the troll. This individual has form for making things up to suit himself, and one of his favourite pastimes is insulting CC supporters. He’s a Warwickshire supporter, and in my humble opinion, should go and infest their message board instead of winding up people on here.
 
mosi said:
Don’t feed the troll. This individual has form for making things up to suit himself, and one of his favourite pastimes is insulting CC supporters. He’s a Warwickshire supporter, and in my humble opinion, should go and infest their message board instead of winding up people on here.
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Thanks, can't help having some sympathy for such like.
 
Raymondo said:
Vile, absolutely vile.

The Blast should be 8 group games, 10 at the absolute most.

The Championship should be two divisions of 9 and everyone should play each other home and away. It’s no coincidence that the last time England were the best team in the world was when we had that format.
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The issue with only 8 Blast games is that Blast home games are where a lot of counties make their money. Taking 3 away from them wouldn't be good at all.
Inside Forward said:
With the 16.4 going nowhere I’d rather get rid of the Blast full stop tbh. What’s the point in having the Blast and the Hundred? Then we can make the One Day Cup relevant again and keep the Championship at 16 games.
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So the people of Durham and the surrounding areas have no access to the form of the game best suited to getting youngsters into it?
 
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Bri said:
Maybe that is the only hope for County Cricket. The Hunnerd goes T20, which has already been mooted, and then we have 2 T20 tournaments so they merge leaving space for CC. Even so, it feels like the County Championship won't be out of danger.

Money makes the world go around, trite but true, and 1st class cricket doesn't have enough.
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The counties wanted to keep a separate 18 team Blast. Because they think they can make money out of it as well and weren’t prepared to abandon it for the franchise tournament. That’s the whole reason we have the two tournaments. It’s not an accident.

You could argue, it’s not an untenable model, as it’s the one they have in India. But India is India, and even there, the domestic T-20 makes no money, it’s just something the BCCI want to have. So when it turns out that they can’t make money out of it here it will die. I also think it is highly likely that the new owners will want to play the franchise tournament as a T-20 as soon as they can. But I can’t see how they are going to merge. Either the separate Blast works and continues or it fails and dies is the reality of the two destinations we get to from our current position.
Provider said:
So the people of Durham and the surrounding areas have no access to the form of the game best suited to getting youngsters into it?
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We already don’t give every county a team. Having 18 teams instead of 53 in the first place has already conceded that principle. You need an argument as to why 18 is better than 8 or 10.

It’s an open argument. The other two major countries have a first class structure with six teams and the first class structure with 40 odd (although they both choose eight for their franchise white ball league). But it’s one we need to make. If we think 18 is the optimum number for this country we need to say why. Is it?
 
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