Crash-bang cricket points to bigger picture

Edgbaston – There is no debating the exception al success of the Twenty20 Cup, although the debate over its format is likely to continue at least until the ECB’s management meeting in October.

Apart from a few heat stoke sufferers on a baking Saturday in Birmingham, few can have failed to enjoy a pulsating first semi-final between Lancashire and Surrey that went down to the final ball, and a final that saw Leicestershire seal their triumph in the penultimate over.

There will be immediate calls for more of this form of the game, and as long as they don’t overdo it there is no reason why there shouldn’t be a bit more. But what I hope will come out of the success of this tournament is some joined-up thinking about the future of the rest of the county game.

The off-pitch success of Twenty20 has been down in part to factors that could be
applied elsewhere:

1. There is a fixed time period where the focus is on that single competition, without consideration for other formats.
2. Matches are on at a time when people can watch them, with dates known well in advance, marketing departments hyping that fact and selling tickets ahead of time, making it more of an event.
3. The players are obviously, whole-heartedly getting into the game and playing at their best.

Contrast that with the fortnight in between the Twenty20 quarter-finals and Finals Day, when Championship and one-day matches intermingled with impunity. Even people covering matches struggled to work out which day we were on, and players could also be forgiven confusion when they were asked to follow a day/night Totesport League game with an 11am start in the Championship the next day.

Sky TV clearly like to have one-day matches scattered throughout the week but when there are four-day games to fit in as well the whole picture gets muddled.

When they finally find a review group acceptable to all involved, the ECB plans to make radical changes in time for 2006, when they also need a new TV contract and a raft of new sponsors.

Those changes need to make sure weekends and bank holidays are always filled with cricket, to supplement those county regulars the unemployed and the unemployable with other paying supporters. They need to make the schedule understandable to even the most casual fan, which means Championship matches always starting on the same day, non-floodlit matches preferably on a Saturday or Sunday and any midweek floodlit matches played on weeks when there is nothing else to get in the way.

Just as Twenty20 functions in an oasis of other cricket, why not have a gap in August – when the weather is still good but the nights a bit shorter - for the conclusion of the Totesport League?

Twenty20 has shown not just the potential for the new format but for county cricket in general. The impetus must not be lost, and the success must be capitalised upon.

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Stat of the Week

During the group stages of the Twenty20 Cup there were 11,813 runs scored at a strike rate of 129.99 per 100 balls. There were 293 sixes – Mark Ealham, Graeme Hick, Mark Ramprakash, Andy Bichel and Rob Key each hit nine in an innings - and 1,021 fours.

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Spotted

Andrew Flintoff, folk hero, downing a pint in one Bunyonesque gulp on the balcony of an Edgbaston luxury box, to the delight of the remaining Lancashire supporters below.

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Quote

“I think I’ll be watching them rather than listening to them.”
- Robert Croft on his plans for the Liberty X concert.

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Six Sense

1. It was great to see Andrew Flintoff and James Anderson in Twenty20 action but I don’t believe they should be there. County cricket’s little brother did perfectly well in its first year without big boys playing, making the most of the domestic game without needing to resort to England stars. Pull and push
centrally-contracted players into certain matches and you devalue the other games in a way that has happened with the rest of county cricket.

2. Adam Hollioake bowed out of the big time on a real low, confirming his retirement from Championship cricket early then being denied a final piece of silverware. Last week he boasted of new slower ball that had made him Twenty20’s leading wicket-taker. On Saturday, Leicestershire spotted his signal and biffed the deadly variation out of the ground. A shame it had to end that way.

3. England could have gone for the jugular when they announced their one-day squad on Friday. Instead they disappointed with only a couple of obvious changes. Anthony McGrath is still there despite failing to show his ability at either batting or bowling and the selectors are persisting with Darren Gough rather than getting on with capping Simon Jones, who is bound to come in at some time before the next World Cup. There is still no Ian Bell, either, which is beginning to look careless.

4. The debate surrounding Brian Lara’s captaincy has revved up again after two Test defeats. Lara himself brought the issue to the fore when he threatened to quit after drawing a Test with Bangladesh, but the circumstances were a bit different at that point to now, in the middle of a tour. Who is going to replace him? Ramnaresh Sarwan – partier at Sabina Park after Harmison’s 7-12? Shiv Chanderpaul, who barely speaks in public? What about Ridley Jacobs, 36 and under pressure for his place in the team? The decision to axe Carl Hooper now looks incredibly short-sighted but right now Lara is the next-best thing.

5. I saw a new side to Shoaib Akhtar last week after he spoke out in praise of the new discipline brought to the side by coach Bob Woolmer. I stopped seeing an excuse-laden primadonna and started to notice a player simply frustrated by the lack of firm leadership in a side constantly in flux.

6. Less sense that wondering really. As a streaker interrupted the Twenty20 final, Edgbaston ground authorities reminded the crowd of a £1000 fine for intrusion on the playing area. Where’s he going to find the cash?