Somerset get the benefit of Champions League

Do me a favour, and take a look out of the nearest window.  There may well be a winged hog somewhere in the vicinity.  Meanwhile, in the cricket world, a county chairman has been heard saying the things that Giles Clarke gets paid to sweep under the carpet:  English cricket is as anachronistic as the crew of USS Enterprise strolling around the Wild West.

Andy Nash is the chairman of Clarke’s former paymasters Somerset, and he spent a week at the Champions League Twenty20.  His conclusion?  England are miles behind India:

If you compare the match we played against the Deccan Chargers the spectator experience was like an Elvis Presley concert…I think back to Twenty20 finals day at Edgbaston and it was like watching Des O’Connor. It was very flat and very uninspiring [source]

So far, so obvious.  But then he says something which nearly made me fall off my chair:

We have been slow to move but we are trying to move a juggernaut which is the England and Wales cricket set-up. A lot of members are still on smelling salts that we are playing with a white ball.

The thing that surprises me is that not once did he call on the ECB to supply more smelling salts.  He actually seems to get it.  This is the same Andy Nash who tried to tell us that the ECB weren’t to blame for the decision to jump into bed with Stanford backfiring on them.

In addition to reviewing their approach to the business side of Twenty20, Somerset will be trying to sign Graeme Smith and Cameron White to add quality to their T20 squad for next year.  They will be aiming to make it back to the CLT20 again and better their efforts this time around.

This doesn’t mean that we should expect cheerleaders and fireworks at all of the county T20 games next season, but it does highlight the benefit of a competition like the Champions League.

Suddenly the counties have a direct incentive to want to keep up with the rest of the world.  It might not please the Pipe & Slippers Brigade, but it could just lead to a raising of standards in county cricket.