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« Previous EntriesEarly summer dupes the batsmen
By Will 6 days ago, in the late afternoon, 2 Comments »
It’s a glorious summer’s day in SW London here but, judging by the county scorecards, the batsmen aren’t yet enjoying it. Wickets have clattered and shattered all over the place. Kent, for example, bowled out Nottinghamshire for 202 but are now 16 for 4. Sidebottom has 3 for 2 from 4.
Lancashire slipped to 143 with Mark Davies storming through them with 7 for 33. In reply, Durham are 97 for 8. But the pick of the destroyers is Hampshire’s James Tomlinson who took 8 for 46 on the normally concrete Taunton pitch. Kevin Pietersen then made good Hampshire’s bowling performance with an even hundred.
I don’t really know why I’m telling you all this - you can look for yourselves.
2 Comments »Chris Lewis reaches half-century on comeback
By Will 1 month ago, 4 Comments »
Chris Lewis, the former England, Leicestershire, Nottinghamshire and Surrey allrounder, is 40-years-young and back with his old London club on a pay-as-you-play contract. He made his comeback today against mighty mighty Middlesex at The Oval and has reached fifty…but not with the bat. His six overs cost 51. Andrew Strauss went a bit bonkers with 163 from 130.
Lewis was one of a clutch of allrounders they tried in the 1990s. Ridiculously gifted, but a little bit wayward. Remember when he shaved his head and subsequently got sunstroke? No fear of that in London today, mind.
4 Comments »Do we need counties?
By Jonathan Liew 1 month ago, 22 Comments »
There are 18 counties playing first-class cricket. That’s quite a lot. There are more domestic teams in England than in any other country. Yet they’re not evenly spread around - London and its environs has an embarrassment of teams, while parts such as the south west, the far north and most of Eastern England have none at all.
Now partly, that’s due to population: cricket teams are concentrated around the biggest cities. And yet, we persist in clinging to the county apparatus, a hotchpotch of hazily-defined localities that has very little relevance to the social geography of today. Counties don’t really exist in any meaningful sense any more; in fact, for four of the 18 counties, that’s literally true. The county system is rooted in a long gone past, and it hasn’t changed, even though everything around it has. Does the idea of ‘Warwickshire’ mean anything to anyone any more? Certainly not for someone like Ian Bell, who was born in Coventry - which since 1974 has been part of the West Midlands.
If it were only a quibble about names and boundaries, we could probably let it go. But this archaic system has a more serious effect on the domestic game. With large shifts in population and wealth away from rural England and towards the towns, some counties clearly have an inherent advantage over others. A county like Lancashire, with a catchment area of Liverpool and Manchester, the surrounding towns, Cheshire and Cumbria, have far more resource to draw on than the likes of Leicestershire, which has one medium sized town and four rival cricketing counties on its borders. It may always have been this way to an extent - pre-reform Yorkshire was bloody huge - but that doesn’t necessarily make it fair.
As a result, prosperity - and thus success - is distorted by the fact that some counties will always be struggling to prosper, regardless of cricketing merit, and some will always be comfortable. Test grounds - a major source of potential revenue - are concentrated almost exclusively around big cities. Look at the list of county champions: the top four are Yorkshire, Surrey, Middlesex and Lancashire - areas with high populations and a Test ground. Then look at who has come bottom most often: Derbyshire, Somerset, Northamptonshire, Glamorgan. When Leicestershire can’t hang on to a player like Stuart Broad, who was born in the county and has played all his cricket there, it’s clear the playing field is not level. The influx of Kolpak players have counteracted population factors to an extent - but they still need to be paid, and the biggest counties will always jostle their way to the front in this respect.
It’s possible teams like Leicestershire and Derbyshire will never again reach the pinnacle of English cricket. The best they can hope for is the odd promotion or a dart at a one-day trophy here and there, but it’s equally likely they’ll wane and recede slowly into the background. That is, unless something is done about it.
If domestic cricket is ever to make proper money - and, who knows, provide a higher standard? - it needs to brand itself in more familiar terms. In short, we need fewer teams, more fairly distributed. The quickest way of doing this would be to merge counties; in short, persuading them to vote themselves out of business. That’s not going to happen. Instead, reorganisation of domestic cricket could be craftily disguised as a PR exercise.
Ironically, the IPL might be able to teach English cricket a thing or two in this respect. Moneyed franchises they may be, but the teams in the League are based in - and upon - very real localities. The players may not be sourced locally, but that will come in time. What’s important is that a bond is being forged betwen a cricket team and a town. In England, those bonds already exist in large part: Gloucestershire is by and large a Bristol team, Hampshire a Southampton-based club, Warwickshire is a Birmingham team, and so on. Towns have a far greater emotional and economic pull than counties these days, and are far more relevant in today’s society.
The idea, then, is this, although the details are less important than the diagnosis behind them. Cut the number of teams to, say, 12, and base each one around a large town. Let’s call them, for sake of argument: Newcastle, Leeds, Manchester, Bristol, Southampton, Birmingham, Nottingham, North London, South London, East London, Cardiff and Brighton. The South East has a quarter of England’s population, so it should have a quarter of the teams. The names, as I say, are largely irrelevant.
What English cricket would then have, essentially, is the Australian system in all but name. Teams would be able to draw on the emotional and financial clout of the major town, but talent-wise the spread would be far wider - and far fairer. It provides the best balance between levelling the playing field and preserving some semblance of geographical integrity. And the standard would improve.
Anyway, well done for getting through all that - any thoughts?
22 Comments »County cockroach here to stay
By Will 1 month 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.
[...]
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.
Another season
By Will 1 month ago, 3 Comments »
Hands up all those who are really very excited that the new season is here? Come on. I can still see a few lingering losers at the back. OK, so it’s only the curtain-raiser - MCC versus the champions, Sussex - but it’s the beginning of another monstrous season, and it signals the end of what has felt like an interminably arduous winter.
I say “only” the MCC, but tomorrow’s game has so much going for it. Sussex will doubtless be bounding out of the Long Room to defend their title, and MCC are comprised of a mixture of the tried and tested and the young and hopeful. Ed Joyce is captain and one of four with international experience - Ravi Bopara, Owais Shah and James Foster are the other three - but, most intriugingly of all, it’s the inclusion of a couple of young bucks which really tickles our interest.
We know all about Adil Rashid, a precociously talented legspinning allrounder; rather less is known about Steven Finn, the Middlesex fast bowler who towers above nearly everyone in the county game at 6ft 8in. I had a decent chat with him the other day - he’s a thoughtful, serious young cricketer and has a very clear idea of his path to the top. Have a read at Cricinfo tomorrow.
All to play for, then, if not in the immediate sense - this match is first-class but counts for little else - then certainly for the future. Charge your Thermos flasks and head to Lord’s.
3 Comments »Udal lured out of retirement
By Will last year, at the start of December, 6 Comments »
Jamie Dalrymple, the England allrounder, left Middlesex for Glamorgan two weeks ago. You might think that Middlesex would have cast their net to scoop a like-for-like. Instead they’ve persuaded (persistently) Shaun Udal, the 38-year-old former England and Hampshire offspinner, to join them. For two years.
Yes, quite.
6 Comments »Notes from the pavilion for October 27th
By Will last year, at the end of October, 2 Comments »
- Andrew Flintoff ‘drink disgrace’ on tour - Fletcher’s book is going to be fascinating reading for sure…
- Murali is last hope for Wallaby wannabe - A terrific piece - read it
- Rudolph considers England future - Another South African threatens to split…
- Warne says the county game is a source of England strength -
Recall for Ramps?
By Jonathan Liew last year, mid-October, 2 Comments »
There’s an interesting claim by Mike Selvey in this morning’s Guardian: apparently Mark Ramprakash is on the verge of an England recall.
There is a strong rumour doing the rounds that when the England squad to contest the Test series against Sri Lanka is announced tomorrow week, the name of Andrew Strauss will be missing and in its place will be that of Mark Ramprakash. It would, were it to happen, be another stunner in a sporting autumn that already has had more turn-ups than a Savile Row clearance sale.
Only last month, with a strict brief to ensure that selections should anticipate playing a full part in England cricket over the next year, Strauss, already jettisoned from the one-day plans, was awarded a central contract by the chairman of selectors, David Graveney, and the England coach, Peter Moores. Given that in the past year three contracted players in particular - Marcus Trescothick, Ashley Giles and Simon Jones - played little or no cricket for England while receiving sizeable salaries, there would be no shortage of flak heading their way if such an exercise in generosity were to be repeated.
It’s a fascinating suggestion, although personally I don’t think the England selectors will pick him. It’s just not worth their while. If he succeeds, there’ll be the inevitable question of why he wasn’t picked earlier (his excellent Ashes record should have been a factor last year). And the very first time he fails, the critics will come creeping out of the woodwork, accusing England of ‘taking a backwards step’ and ‘holding back’ some promising young batsman or other. And though Ramprakash himself seems less mentally fragile than before, a low score in his first knock might see all those bad memories come flooding back.
If he is picked, it would at least provide us with a definitive verdict on county cricket. If the most prolific county cricketer of his generation couldn’t translate that form into Test success, it might be time to start asking the ECB some probing questions.
2 Comments »Willis: Hick and Ramprakash ‘clogging up county cricket’
By Will last year, mid-September, 4 Comments »
Bob Willis is never short of opinions. Not all of them are conventional or even particularly thought through, but writing in the latest issue of The Wisden Cricketer he has slammed just about everyone. Ageing players such as Graeme Hick, Mark Ramprakash and Dominic Cork are wasting the money the ECB “create” through their revenue streams, thus impacting on the next generation of England stars.
I don’t have much of an issue with these three, or indeed for any ageing former England player - so long as they perform and contribute to the team. Ramprakash continues to be as prolific a batsman as any - Hick less so, but nevertheless is a reassuring face in a brittle Worcestershire line-up. If their frail frames falter, then goodnight - but so long as they’re producing the goods, their experience is invaluable to younger players.
The Kolpak issue is altogether different, and I suppose I’m contradicting myself if I can allow old English players to play rather than old non-England-qualified Greek/Australian players. But there must be some form of regulation (which, admittedly, comes into force next year) for the selection of third-grade Kolpakians. It’s out of control and impeding the progress of young English talent.
Willis is really off on one, which is always enjoyable to read rather than listen to. Cricinfo has a synopsis and we’ll have the piece up either this weekend or next. Offer your thoughts below.
4 Comments »Positive spin
By Emma last year, mid-July, 6 Comments »
Only yesterday, at Sky’s only televised County Championship match of the season, David Lloyd was to be found grumbling at the lack of positivity in modern English first-class cricket. Although the Roses match is normally a lure, I’m afraid, Bumble, you were just at the wrong game.
For most teams in the County Championship, it would be fair to say that the days of the sporting declaration have, for the most part, disappeared. This is especially so when the first 5 teams in the top division are within elbows distance of each other. The bonus system, which rewards first innings performances with bat and ball, boosts the meagre four points handed to teams who draw without an over bowled. As such, when Yorkshire were all out this morning for 320, Lancashire merely began their first innings as if there were still days to play.
Shane Warne has brough many things to the County Championship. Yet high on this list must be his forthright version of captaincy. Hampshire are not a team to draw many games, and today was no exception. In a deal that must be applauded, Warne, and Warwickshire counterpart Darren Maddy, arranged a declaration and forfeiture to set up a run chase, which was so closely contested that it took a career best 192* from Michael Carberry to secure the game in the final over for Hampshire.
Does it seem right the Warwickshire are in a worse position for playing a competitive match than either of the Roses teams are after a draw in which the only tension rested in whether Lancashire could make it to their second bowling point before they ran out of overs? Yorkshire’s former captain, Darren Lehmann, was rather vehement on the subject and but two years ago, Warne himself accused David Fulton, then captain of Kent, of handing Nottinghamshire the Championship by refusing to accept such a deal on the last day of the season.
Certainly, the Australian system is far more rewarding of results over ’score draws’, and the whole point of the extention to four day cricket was to avoid games without victors. However impressive the scorecard of Essex’s game against Nottingham these last four days, neither team showed any hunger for the win over inflated career averages and record breaking. Unfortunately for Chris Read, the two overs he bowled in a final session dedicated to over-rate improvement did not yield him his first wicket in all competitions. That, at least, might have been vaguely entertaining.
6 Comments »First-class ducks
By Ian last year, mid-July, 1 Comment »
I’ve been accused by venerable Corridor readers of being something of a duck fetishist, although I suspect there are more specialist websites for that. However, for the sake of consistency, it would be wrong to overlook the misfortune of Thomas Poynton, the new Derbyshire gloveman, who this week got a pair on his first class debut. But at the age of 17 years old, he will have better days and do one heck of a lot more in his career than me. In fact, he already has.
Hopefully he will be smashing the ball about in an England shirt before long, although with the recent form of English keepers, he has a lot of frogs to leap. Foster, Ambrose, Mustard, Read, Nixon all in the runs, putting pressure on Prior. Good to see.
1 Comment »Rebellion in the provinces
By Emma last year, mid-June, No Comments; be the first!
© AFPOver the next nine days, while international cricket may be getting a break, England’s international cricketers will not be putting their feet up. Tomorrow brings the Friend’s Provident semi finals, a much- welcomed addition to the calendar, with Durham playing at home versus Essex and Hampshire taking on Warwickshire at the Rose Bowl. All five of these counties’ players that were present at Chester-le-Street have been released back to their counties for the two fixtures.
In a curious development, however, Ian Bell has not been selected. As a member of England’s World Cup top order, he would have assumed he would walk into his county side. After all, during the 2005 Ashes series, he and Pietersen met in the then C&G Trophy final under similar circumstances. Back then, Bell was merely a fledgling in the England set-up and struggling for form. Warwickshire, however, have in this instance called into question his ability to travel so quickly from a Test match and immediately switch back into one-day mode. The county may be justified in their approach – the only match they have lost this season, while not directly caused by the fact, was against Worcestershire when Bell was selected over Jonathan Trott, and subsequently contributed with six runs and a dropped catch. What is noteworthy, however, is the signal that this sends to Peter Moores’ county releases: if we don’t want to play them, you can’t make us.
The domestic sides face an interesting dilemma. England players should be by definition among the best on the county’s books, but this leads to the need to drop someone – in a side where everyone is in form, this can seem nigh on impossible, and is unsettling to team unity. The big names also bring in the crowds, and such basic financial matters are close the heart of any chief executive, be they of Warwickshire, Worcestershire or Woolworths. However, none would wish to invite the risk, in a knockout round, of being simply a vehicle for match practice when victory is quite so important. Not that their decision can be fully independent – after all, the players, being centrally contracted, are effectively on limited loan.
Does Warwickshire have a duty to the national board to pick those players made available to them, whatever their form or preparation? Such questions never really arose under Duncan Fletcher – apparently, under Moores, counties feel more emboldened by the exponential increase in player availability over the season so far compared to those previous. Should England’s players be released for the county Twenty20s at the end of the week, or if Bell is left out of two sides in the space of a week, Warwickshire are likely to then receive him with open arms – but on their terms and conditions.
No Comments »Tom Maynard hits fifty on debut
By Will last year, mid-June, No Comments; be the first!
Tom Maynard, son of Matthew, fell 29 short of emulating his father today by hitting 71 on debut for Glamorgan. Maynard senior hit 102 against Yorkshire in 1985 and by all accounts, his 18-year-old son is a chip off the old block.
No Comments »50/8d
By Ian last year, at the end of May, 12 Comments »
No, this isn’t plea to bring back old money. That’s the total Somerset declared on earlier today. I may have missed the point, but presumably the thinking was to have a crack at Middlesex while the conditions were right and stop the opposition from getting full bowling points. It hasn’t worked in one sense, as Middx are currently 71 for 0. As far as bowling points, perhaps it was very shrewd of their skipper Justin Langer. (If this has already been discussed on The Corridor, then I apologise.)
Ordinarily, I might launch into a rant about cheating Aussies bending the rules, but I happen to be a big fan of Langer, so I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt. But it does leave a bad taste in the mouth, not least as one of my fantasy team bowlers was denied the chance of filling his boots! (I also have Langer, who got a duck…)
Is it bad sportsmanship, clever captaincy or even a missed opportunity? What if Caddick had slapped a quick-fire 40? It could have changed the momentum entirely.
Domestic parades
By Emma last year, at the end of April, 9 Comments »
There is one thing to be said of one-day tournaments. No one expects an English impression. Of course, my inner patriotic flag-waver occasionally gets over-excited by gritty half centuries and out-swingers that inevitably evade the edge, but it was evident from as early as the tentative pushes played to Dwayne Leverock’s tweakers that this World Cup was going to be little different to the last.
So back to the drawing board, and the full length game. As any revising teenager will tell you, time is short between England’s return and May 17th. Yet somehow, Peter Moores, along with a criticised selection committee and a captain under pressure, must select 11 players to take the field at Lord’s. Although it has been a long winter for many of those returning from the Caribbean, it is surely a question of how many appearances they will make for their counties, and not whether they will appear.
Whilst those in the national one-day squad have been touching up the Bajan suntan, some of the Ashes party have already started their first-class accounts for 2007 with mixed success. Pleasingly, the first round of Championship matches has not undergone a domination of rain or, indeed, of any particular discipline. Both teams failed to successfully remove the other at a high scoring game at Taunton, while Mushtaq Ahmed ran amok in the first innings at Sussex after declaring himself below full match fitness. Alastair Cook made his second century in as many games after captaining the MCC last week, Hoggard made a good second innings four-for, while Will has already flagged Harmison’s impression on return. Geraint Jones, however, compounded his disappointing winter with single figures in both innings, and Ashley Giles spent the first week of the season in Colorado undergoing exploratory hip surgery.
Difficult decisions will have to be made before England play again, not least being how much rest to give the players returning this week. Unfortunately for both Jones and Giles, their names almost certainly will not be amongst those causing concern.
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