Posts tagged with ‘domestic cricket’

Michael Vaughan’s recent comments on the state of the County game have stirred up the debate. Here are some ideas for an organised protest movement.

There has been renewed press speculation that the 2012 Olympic stadium could be used for cricket once The Torch has begun it’s four-year crawl in the general direction of Rio. Naturally, the ECB and surrounding counties say they know nothing about it.

But, in order to keep up with the rest of the world (i.e. India) with it’s T20 finance boom, English cricket needs a modern infrastructure to match. Instead it has Old Trafford, about as modern as Alf Garnett.

Piyush Chawla will be Surrey’s overseas player for 2010, as they continue to try and hoover up the better county performers from last season.

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.

Somerset hoped to take advantage of Kieron Pollard-inflicted shell-shock when they played NSW Blues. They didn’t want a backlash, and in the end got neither. Instead they gave it away with careless batting early on, and got creamed as a result.

Rob Key has signed a new contract and will continue as Kent captain, despite rumours that he was to up for Surrey’s cricketer relocation project. This is good news.

Sussex coach Mark Robinson knows a few things about getting the best out of players. Sussex won the Twenty20 Cup and the Pro40 this season, and were runners-up in the FP Trophy. So when he publicly states that his team are having to play so much cricket during the summer that they can’t train properly, you would think that the ECB would pay attention. They won’t.

The ECB are considering whether county cricket needs a transfer system. The move of Steven Davies from Worcestershire to Surrey recently, and of Stuart Broad from Leicestershire to Nottinghamshire in 2007 highlights the problems for smaller counties who develop talented young players from an early age. This is one area where cricket could learn a valuable lesson from football.

Hype and anticipation are building for the Champions League Twenty20 tournament. The two counties involved, Sussex and Somerset, are looking forward to a pay-day. But how will they actually fare against the finest the IPL has to offer? Think of this tournament what you may, it finally gives us a chance to measure the standard of county cricket compared to the rest of the world. Believe me, that is no bad thing.

English professional cricketers via the PCA have given the ECB a public vote of no confidence over it’s running of the game. But are they serious enough to take on the closed inner-circle of self-serving administrators and their County supporters? Most importantly, how do the fans want County cricket to be structured? Let the debate begin…