[spireitematt]

This isn't going to get people interested in cricket in fact it might turn cricket fans off.

They should have a cricket weekend over 2-3 days at the same ground with several teams invited similar to the Rugby League weekend. The matches could be 10 overs, so 60 balls for each team.

[Ska'dForLife-WBA]

To be honest, my feelings are very mixed:

1. Part of what's strangling fresh interest in cricket among kids is television broadcasting of the sport being limited to Sky. The deal with this new comp from day one was to have a certain number of matches shown on terrestrial TV, preferably BBC or Channel Four, to gain as wide an audience as possible and explain the absolute basics of the game (including rules like LBW and the general terminology) to a new generation. I think that's absolutely the right move. Joe Clarke at Worcestershire mentioned in an interview last year that he'd never watched cricket in his life until he was ten, because his family didn't have Sky Sports; then he caught the 2005 Ashes on Channel Four, became obsessed, and within the next couple of years he may well be batting for England. In the Big Bash in Australia they've had huge success with the free broadcasting, backed up by little features like "Backyard Legends" where they invite people on social media to send in footage of themselves playing cricket in the garden or the park, taking spectacular catches, etc. Yeah, it's insanely gimmicky, but it's working, and a lot of Aussie kids are putting down the Xbox controller and picking up a cricket bat as a result. That's the positive.

2. But the negative... for the life of me, I can't see why they couldn't just stick to doing it as T20. Yeah, it's a nice thought that they're trying to protect the existing T20 Blast, which is a solid earner for smaller counties, but the whole thing reeks of some marketing bloke on a six-figure salary pointing at a chart on which the words UNIQUE SELLING POINT have been written and underlined in black marker. Newsflash: the competition doesn't need a unique selling point, because it's not going head-to-head with the IPL or Big Bash. It could quite easily stand on its own two legs if they let it, but instead they're taking the gamble of trying to fix something that ain't broke.

[Marco4]

A lot of the momentum behind it seems to come from the idea that, with 18 counties, the current format is more complicated than IPL or BBL where there's just eight or ten.

Well, maybe, but it strikes me this way.

The Sheffield Shield has six sides, so Australia actually increased the number of teams, putting another in each of their major cities.

The IPL has retained its number of franchises as it has gone along, staying in major cities all the way. At the very top level, India is divided into seven Union Territories, so there is at least some historical precedent there.

Two conferences of nine teams, or three of six (play all your five conference mates twice each year, home and away, and then five more from another and alternate which year on year)

[jjamez]

I personally think that the championship should be split into three leagues, with a couple of the minor counties included or even the likes of Scotland, Holland or from a few years ago, the unicorns. Play it at different times of the season so that there will be bowler friendly conditions, some spinner friendly conditions and of course batting friendly conditions. Introduce a rigid transfer system with a better loan system so that the talent that isnt getting a go at the better counties can go and get game time, rather than playing in the seconds or in village cricket and maybe allow two overseas players to be in a team like teams used to be allowed. But also increase the penalties for playing kolpak players.

Change the od and t20 comps into conferences leading to finals day. Scrap the idea of 100 ball cricket, if you want a shorter format, go for the t10 cricket that got trialled in uae this winter and make it city based, but play it at all the grounds, you could have two games per day at one ground and the tournament could be done and dusted in a couple of weeks. The big players would come as it isnt much of a commitment, it would be the length of a holiday

[Lord Snooty]

Too much sense spoken there, jjamez. You'll never make it as a cricket administrator.        

[jjamez]

Wouldn't say sense would prevent it, more the fact that I am 24, never played at the top level and of course not "one of the boys"

The current set up is afraid of change to the extent that to try change that view they over complicate the matter. It is difficult, I get that especially when its a very limited set of eyes looking onto it. You have business men trying to run a sport and old heads who have ultimately got so disjointed from the public and global idea that they feel obligated to go extreme, when its not required, as I put in the post, its really subtle tweaks here and there. Believe me, I reckon if I was given the chance to put my idea to current players or recent players as well as a lot of the pundits, a solution would be found that would increase crickets popularity, increase monetary gains for the game at county level etc but also and for some most importantly, it would improve the english crickets chances especially away from home

[Ska'dForLife-WBA]

To go with your proposal, one of the best suggestions I've heard is to keep the County Championship running *during* the T20 competition - which goes for both the new comp and the existing Blast - allowing clubs to play their first-class games at out-grounds and festivals, using second XI players where necessary, etc. Plenty of advantages:

1. Young players get a break playing matches that really matter (and with a fair transfer/loan system, there should be no shortage of names to fill a team-sheet in both formats even if fixtures get congested).

2. Potential to even things up between bigger and smaller counties (for instance, if teams chasing the Championship decide to keep their big guns playing first-class matches instead of T20 then it allows the minnows a better chance in the white-ball game; conversely, a club like Worcs who don't tend to prioritise T20 might pick up a crucial couple of Championship wins in that period).

3. Traditionalist fans aren't obliged to twiddle their thumbs for four to six weeks at the height of summer. Granted, there would be gripes about some of the best players chasing the money, but there has to come a point when you reach a compromise and accept that getting some of the cricket you enjoy is better than getting none.


Ultimately there are only so many summer days in this country, and you can't accommodate every ambition or keep everyone happy, but I think the more cricket that's played in July and August, the better.

[themaclad]

The trouble with the game is at the top most County Chairman or CEO's who are now in the main businessmen who are interested in making money rather than the long term future of the game.
I get literature from OT and each year they state their core ambitions which is to produce excellence on and off the field. you go to Old Trafford these days you have the Point which is basically for generating revenue, the new hotel which has beeb rebuilt and now has the name Hilton in front of it, so you can bet your life prices have gone up.
It doesn't look like a cricket ground to me these days more a coporate empire. At one time you could use all levels of the Pavilion not any more.
I'm at Blackpool this Friday for all it's faults it is a proper cricket ground you are close to the action and feel a part of the game.
As for the cricket personal view they should play all County four day games on outgrounds and play the one day stuff on the main ground however in respects of the four day game relegating it to the edges of the season isn't going to help improve the test side, although these days whacking the ball around for 20 overs seems to get you a Test place farcical.

[themaclad]

The 10 ball over idea has been dropped so it looks as if it is going to be 20 x 5 ball overs, with overs being bowled from the same end to save time, whatever they do it will still be bollocks

[Lord Snooty]

Just drop the idea you bleedin morons.