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County cockroach here to stay
By Will 3 months ago, 2 Comments »
Some interesting pieces in the papers the last couple of days. Steve James in yesterday’s Sunday Telegraph.
2 Comments »It is balderdash. There will be changes and rightly so, but the County Championship will survive. It always has done so and always will. It is a sporting cockroach. It’s small and ugly, and many a county chief executive considers it a pest and an impediment to financial progress. But stamp on it as much as you like, it will keep coming back for more.
For decades championship crowds have been declining and media space dwindling. But the standard of late has actually improved. Players elevated to Test cricket have often thrived immediately. One-day cricket has, of course, been a different matter.
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It is still watched by far more spectators than equivalent domestic competitions anywhere else in the world. It is not always appreciated how fortunate we are in that regard. Even domestic one-day cricket is often ignored elsewhere. Walking into New Zealand’s state one-day final between Auckland and Otago, complete with their internationals, at Eden Park’s Outer Oval last winter was like stumbling upon a poorly attended benefit match. Only a few hundred spectators were there to witness an electric 170 from Otago’s Brendon McCullum. That was on a Sunday, too.
