Professional domestic cricketers in England want to play less cricket, according to a survey conducted by the Professional Cricketers’ Association (PCA).
A staggering 87% of the 240 members of the PCA who took part in the survey believe that the current schedule – which includes a minimum of 16 four-day games, eight 50-over matches and 14 T20 games (excluding knockout rounds) – is too demanding and has a negative effect on playing standards due to the constant switching of formats and the amount of travelling that accompanies it. Also, the relatively few breaks between games left one player feeling “like a zombie”.
Another change players wanted was for the T20 competition to have its own concentrated block in the schedule – similar to the IPL and Australia’s Big Bash League – with more opportunities for overseas players to take part, as well as England Internationals.
You can see where they are coming from. On the international stage, teams don’t play a Test Match, followed by a T20, then another Test followed by another T20 or ODI. Any change is good change as long as it produces quality cricket and raises the standard.
Anyway, let’s look at the survey in greater detail:
County Championship
The PCA say that 85.2% of survey respondents believe the County Championship, which celebrates it’s 125th anniversary this year, is still the number one competition in English domestic cricket with 98% saying that Test Cricket remains the “pinnacle”.
However, the new ECB chief executive Tom Harrison said in a recent interview that they may look to reduce the number of four-day matches from sixteen to fourteen.
Maybe this could be done by changing the number of teams in Divisions One and Two to eight and 10 respectively, which would be the best way of keeping the home-and-away symmetry with the current number of first-class counties, but the PCA say changes would only be made to the competition if it fits a “significantly better overall schedule”
Natwest T20 Blast
Up to 86% of professional cricketers either disagree or “strongly disagree” that the current T20 competition, which is stretched out over much of the season, has improved standards. The counter-argument to this from county chief executives is that having T20 cricket mostly on Friday nights has been commercially successful, with crowds up 20% on last season.
But despite this, 80% of players want a block format similar to the IPL and Big Bash. One suggestion to “sex up” to T20 format is to have a league of eight to ten “city franchise” teams that would play in some of the bigger grounds in the country. The downside to this is that some of the smaller first-class grounds, such as Taunton and Chelmsford, would miss out on the revenue a competition like that would bring.
However, many respondents are in favour of having a two-tier competition under the current county structure – with promotion and relegation between the divisions – which they believe would produce a better tournament overall, even if it means reducing the international schedule to fit around it, which would allow England players to play in it.
Royal London One-Day Cup
This is considered the least prestigious of the three competitions and 30% of professionals playing it don’t even think it’s that important, despite the added incentive of a Lord’s final at the end of it.
The List A competition changed from 40 to 50 overs a side, with the majority of games played close together over the summer holidays. This hasn’t gone down well with everyone, despite the incentive of a Lord’s final at the end of it.
One change suggested for the 40/50 over competition is to have a straight knockout format similar to the old Gillette/Natwest/C&G Trophy which took place between 1963 and 2005 and also included the minor counties (teams without first-class status) as well as smaller international sides such as Denmark, Ireland, Scotland and the Netherlands. There is certainly some potential for FA-Cup-style giant-killings if those teams are allowed to participate.
Whatever changes are made to the schedule, they would have to be done in a way which would develop International-standard cricketers as well as making sure the domestic game is valuable in its own right.
