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Do we need counties?
By Jonathan Liew 6 months ago, 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?
CommentsSussex v Gloucestershire: victim of Football World Cup?
By Will 2 years ago, at the end of June, Comments
Gloucestershire all out for 98 in 36 overs. In reply, Sussex were 72 for 8 before falling three runs short of the required 99, inside 18 overs! Oh dear. A victim of the Football World Cup, and England’s knock-out match against Ecuador (which is on now)?
CommentsRampaging Mark Ramprakash
By Scott 2 years ago, at the start of May, Comments
Mark Ramprakash is 276 not out, and with two full days to go, I don’t see why Surrey shouldn’t allow him to go on and get himself a triple century. So if you live in the London area, and you haven’t anything else to do tomorrow, go down to the Oval and cheer him on.
Also while you are there you can bag Ian Harvey, who plays for Gloucestershire, for having possibly the worst haircut ever.
CommentsJon Lewis - never knowingly underbowled
By Will 2 years ago, mid-April, Comments
Cripes, that’s the best headline I’ve ever come up with. I’m sure that my cavernous conscience has retrieved it from someone else but sod it. It’s mine now. In fact, anyone not living in the UK won’t even know why it’s so good. I’ll shut up now.
Moving on. Jon Lewis, the England and Gloucester wobbler. Jagadish, known here as Jag with a vague and irrelevant nod to the once great British auto manufacturer, has chosen him as his English target for the summer. Last year it was Ashley Giles who bore the brunt of his ridicule, and Giles then proceeded to bowl rather better than most people thought possible (including dismissing Australia’s top eight at least once? I think that was the stat-famouse). I’m not suggesting Lewis will have the same effect on this summer, but Jag is unfair on him.
Marcus Trescothick has just made me nearly roll on the floor laughing. He was dismissed twice in a day against Gloucestershire.
Jon Lewis, an unlikely star last year when England thrashed Australia in the Twenty20 game, trapped him in front twice!
King Cricket wonders if he is a forgotten man.
Umm, I don’t know. I didn’t even remember him!
Now, Lewis is never going to take 200 Test wickets for England, or even 100. But he’s a fine county bowler, and absolutely lethal in early season conditions. If England’s battered bowlers don’t fix themselves in the next few weeks, don’t be surprised to see him playing against Sri Lanka.
CommentsOh Boy, I am Excited!!!!
By Scott 2 years ago, mid-April, Comments
In the UK, the County Championship started last night. Lancs are giving Hampshire a hard time and Gloucestershire are doing well against Somerset. Yay for County Cricket.
All joking aside, it would seem to me that the reform of county cricket into a two-division system seems to have had a positive effect in producing tougher cricketers for England.
CommentsPietersen hits hundred
By Will 3 years ago, mid-May, Comments
I think this is his (Pietersen’s) first hundred for Hampshire - and has come from just 83 balls with 10 fours and 3 sixes. The match report in the papers tomorrow ought to be good reading! A good day, then, for him and Flintoff and Harmison, and my man Ed Joyce just fell for a brilliant 93 - what a season he’s having. 600 runs in 4 games…watch out Bell & Key, I say.
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