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Do we need counties?
By Jonathan Liew 3 months 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 »Chivalry is not dead!
By Emma 2 years ago, mid-September, 5 Comments »
The final day of Warwickshire’s season today took a slightly unorthodox turn today as Kent proved that cricket is still a game of gentlemen. With the visitors having batted through the day, securing a draw in a dead match, Rob Key declared with a few overs yet available in the final session. Opening the batting for the final time in his last championship game, Nick Knight was allowed to get the fifteen runs he needed to bring his Warwickshire first class average up to 50 before teams called a halt to play. Knight had been extremely disappointed when dismissed for 52 the previous day, so it was a nice gesture.
However, it appears none of the Kent batsmen felt quite strongly enough to hand Knight, who bowled a rare nine over spell, a second first class wicket.
5 Comments »Benning for England
By Will 2 years ago, at the end of July, 3 Comments »
Despite twisting his knee while fielding against Kent yesterday, James Benning again proved what a maverick opener he is - the new Ally Brown? - in smashing 71 from 51 balls. Kent were admittedly woefully wide with the new ball, but Benning times the ball so well and has the ability to play unorthodox shots from the off. The chant, after Surrey had completed their win, of “Benning for England” from the Surrey faithful doesn’t seem too fanciful. This guy can play; he and Trescothick opening, Strauss at No.3 and Kevin Pietersen at No.4 would make for an explosive first half of the innings, with Andrew Flintoff and Chris Read in the lower-order.
Just my thoughts.
3 Comments »Flintoff playing against Kent
By Will 2 years ago, mid-July, 7 Comments »
Andrew Flintoff makes his Championship comeback today against Kent. Live scorecard.
Update: 2 for 11 from 10 overs. Nice.
7 Comments »Busy business
By Will 2 years ago, at the end of April, No Comments; be the first!
Bit busy at the moment, no time to blog. Just got back from Lord’s covering my first live game. It was fucking good fun and a great thing to have done. I’m knackered. I’m sure Scott will keep you amused. Normal service resuming shortly.
No Comments »Elton John to play…S.t. Lawrence Ground Canterbury
By Will 3 years ago, at the start of November, 3 Comments »
Just been emailed this. Info, for what it’s worth. Tickets available here I believe. And here and here.
3 Comments »Elton John today announced he will be the first ever act to play The St Lawrence
Cricket Ground, Canterbury. The show will take place on Saturday 3rd June 2006.The concert is a major coup for Kent CCC who have been working for some time to
stage live concerts - and they don’t come much bigger than this!Elton is no stranger to Kent having previously played at both The Hop Farm and
Leeds Castle to sell-out crowds, but this will be his first ever performance in
Canterbury.Tickets for this reserved seated event are priced at £60.00 & £40.00 with a limited
number of premium tickets also available. Tickets will be limited to six per
customer.For the full details of this ‘not to be missed at any cost’ event see:
www.eltonjohn.com
www.kentccc.com
www.marshall-arts.co.uk
Kent County Cricket Club gate, Beckenham
By Will 3 years ago, mid-June, 4 Comments »
Kent County Cricket Club gate, Beckenham
Photo taken by tonyd1947 @ Flickr.com.
I’m not one of these partisan Cricket fans who ignores all other sports* - however it’s hard not to agree with this photographer’s viewpoint. Here’s his description of a gate at Kent’s Beckenham ground:
Kent actually play most of the county cricket matches in Canterbury, but this is their ground in Beckenham.
The gate is very interesting. For those they don’t know the game of cricket the gate consists of a bat, wickets and the ball/s. All elements of the game are clearly discernable on the gate. If they played football their wouldn’t be many ‘props’ to make up the gate would there? Just a football perhaps. I suppose you could use bits of kit… a boot or something? Wouldn’t be as good though would it?
* But Cricket is the greatest game ever made, ever, since atoms first parted.
4 Comments »Pietersen hits hundred
By Will 3 years ago, mid-May, No Comments; be the first!
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.
No Comments »Kevin Pietersen finding form?
By Will 3 years ago, mid-May, 16 Comments »
Kevin Pietersen has probably been given licence to go mad - Hampshire are trying to set Kent a decent total (and they have it already, really, leading by 335.) And Pietersen is on 71 from just 65 balls - we could be in for an exciting afternoon if he really gets going…
16 Comments »Warne makes his first hundred!
By Will 3 years ago, mid-May, No Comments; be the first!
He’s finally done it. One of those things that most people like to see - a number 9, awesome bowler getting a hundreds. Most people, other than the opposition - in this case, Kent. So Warne finally has a hundred under his belt.
No Comments »Ian Bell makes double hundred
By Will 3 years ago, at the end of April, 3 Comments »
Ian Bell has hit a double hundred against my team - couldn’t he have waited a week? Run Out for 231 - and, with Robert Key also making a hundred, and Pietersen looming ominously over both of them, some very, very tricky decisions have to be made. Key, Bell or Pietersen? Butcher is almost certainly out of the Bangladesh mini-series due to his injured wrist - and frankly, unless there’s a spate of injuries, this ought to be the end of his Test career. So there are potentially 2 positions available.
As much as I like Key, I feel Bell deserves the 2 Bangladesh Tests to just have a bat and aclimatise with the side. Pietersen, too, has to play…
3 Comments »Ed Joyce stands alone
By Will 3 years ago, at the end of April, No Comments; be the first!
As a Middlesex supporter, I’m obviously biased - however, my opinions of Ed Joyce are shared by far better judges than me. Today, he hit 192 out of a total of just 345 ao. The next highest score was a paltry 39 by Ed Smith, posh bloke, author and recently snatched from Kent.
I’m incredibly excited by this. Joyce, as I’ve mentioned once before, is Irish and finally qualifies to play for England in July. He is a great talent, an eye-catching player and this innings took him past 4000 runs averaging 45 in 63 matches.
Last year, when Hussain injured himself in the nets, Andrew Strauss was called upon (”plucked from obscurity”) - and we know what he’s done since. 5 hundreds, over 1200 runs, averaging 56. Whilst it’s unfair to compare the two, Joyce does have very similar and slightly better statistics. About a third fewer FC matches, but already has 12 hundreds to Strauss’ 16. This bloke can play. Don’t discount seeing him in the winter touring party if he continues to score hundreds like the one today which, incidentally, a radio journalist called “The best hundred I’ve seen for years.”
No Comments »Kent plants new lime tree
By Will 3 years ago, mid-March, No Comments; be the first!
Pleased to note Kent have replaced its fallen 290-year-old tree, which blew down in January, with a new one. There’ll probably be some photos at Kent’s website soon.
No Comments »Kent’s S.t. Lawrence ground loses its tree
By Will 3 years ago, mid-January, No Comments; be the first!
One of England’s picturesque grounds, and one of its most iconic, has lost its’ famous lime tree, as seen on the right. (below is what it looked like a few days ago before the winds battered the UK). Some info:
- The S.t. Lawrence ground in Canterbury, Kent, is one of only 2 in the world that has (sorry - had) a tree within the boundary (the other being The VRA Ground at Amstelveen, Amsterdam in The Netherlands, Holland).
- Widely regarded as one of the most beautiful cricket grounds in the world
- In 2001, the Ground was voted best cricket ground in the UK by both ‘The Times’ and ‘The Cricketer Magazine’.
- The lime tree was 290 years old
- Info on lime trees here
I was due to go to Canterbury last year for the first time, but never got round to it - wish I had found the time, now. According to a Kent County Cricket Club member, a replacement is in waiting which is great news.
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