EPL Twenty20

[BoyBrumby]

I reckon the only reason they are doing two is because non-English teams will be involved with the EPL and therefore it can't be used as a CL qualifier.

Couldn't they just use the two best English performers for the CL tho? If memory serves England A played in the Windies domestic FC comp once, but couldn't qualify for the final stages (didn't anyway as it happened).

 

[GIMH]

Dunno, just speculating tbh

 

[Woodster]

Pleased with the decision to end Pro40, pretty pointless comp with no international 40 over comp. However, it is important not to overkill this Twenty20, we may be going down this route.

I don't see a great change to the current structure, maybe there's something I'm missing.

 

[Richard]

WRT two 50 over comps, I'm pretty sure we haven't. We've done 40 overs, 60 overs, 55 overs, 50 overs, 45 overs and god knows what else, but don't think we''ve ever had two 50 over ones running simultaneously.

Yeah, the B&H and NatWest\C&G ran as 50-over comps between 1999 and 2002.

BTW agree that cricket is in danger of what was always predicted in 2003 - killing the Twenty20 Golden Goose.

 

[LA ICE-E]

Basically Andrew Miller summons up my feeling about it here

 

[Langeveldt]

Disgusted, as usual.. I don't care about the formats or the players, the slow erosion of the longer formats of the game is underway, and anyone that tries to peddle four day and test cricket being the holy grail are living in a fantasy land.. Give it ten years and there will be no cricket played in whites, save for perhaps a ceremonial Ashes series or two.. Like I've said earlier, I'd hazard a guess that this is the last SA side that will tour England and play test cricket, Sri Lanka seem to be finding that tough already.. Imagine some marketing men barging into a sport like Football saying "90 minutes is way too long for kids, we'll just play one half now".. Thats whats going on in this sport..

 

[Richard]

I hope you're not suggesting the abolition of the Pro40, which is meaningless, useless nonsense (and indeed does more damage to one-day cricket by existing than by not TBH), is anything to do with the erosion of the longer forms of the game?

 

[Langeveldt]

I hope you're not suggesting the abolition of the Pro40, which is meaningless, useless nonsense (and indeed does more damage to one-day cricket by existing than by not TBH), is anything to do with the erosion of the longer forms of the game?

Good comps or not (and all are better IMHO than anything 20 over), the "non T20" forms of the game are disappearing very quickly.. Next I imagine will be a reduction in the County Championship..

 

[aussie]

Now that i have fully understood what the ECB has done its total crap. They reckon that some supporters of i.e Lancashire & Yorkshire may find it hard to support a "Lancashire" team but really these are the older folks with boring tradition 20/20 appeals to the younger audience. The ECB have flopped big time, hopefully though between now & 2010 they can have a rethink & this wacky idea doesn't happen.

 

[steds]

Haha. What?

 

[steds]

Yeah, the B&H and NatWest\C&G ran as 50-over comps between 1999 and 2002.

Interesting. Can only remember B&H as 55.

 

[Richard]

Can't remember off t'top of ' head when it changed, but the NatWest was 60 overs until 1998.

Only the "League" (which next year will have its 40th and final season) has never been 50 overs, UIMM.

 

[TT Boy]

It’s hardly a Premier competition if the likes of Glamorgan are in it, there is at least ten teams too many.

 

[Tom Halsey]

Could argue the same of the Premier League with City Hull, tbf.

I don't mind, I'd rather more Twenty20 than that Pro40 nonsense (or 50 over nonsense, for that matter) but obviously the preservation of the longer form of the game is key, and I can see the concern that it might be the longer form of the game to be reduced next.

 

[GIMH]

Reducing the amount of FC Cricket wouldn't be a bad thing IMO. As long as they played say, 10 4-day games each a season, I'd be happy.

 

[Tom Halsey]

Yeah, fair call actually, and the possibility that reducing the amount of Test cricket would be the way to go has been discussed for a while. I suppose my problem would be if Test cricket was no longer seen as the most important version of the game. I'd always want a Test series to be seen as more important than the Twenty20 World Cup, essentially.

In and of itself I don't mind the concept of the EPL at all, in fact I quite like it, I can just see the concern of those such as Langeveldt.

 

[GIMH]

I don't think the game is in any bother in this country, though, I think the rush for Ashes tickets in October will outdo any rush that there may have been for the T20 WC tickets.

 

[zaremba]

Well I'm not sure why we need two 20:20 competitions, but otherwise I'm relieved by the agreement reached by the counties on the EPL.

I'm relieved that there will not be city franchises (the ridiculous Surrey/Hants/Lanky plan).

I'm relieved that there won't be a 2-division structure with the big clubs snugly ensconced in the top division and taking 2/3 of the cash and with no promotion for smaller clubs in the first 3 years, or ever unless they could get 18,000 spectators into their grounds (the cretinous Mike Soper plan).

I'm relieved that the 16-game 2-division county championship will remain intact.

More broadly, we all now will wait with baited breath for the 20:20 bubble to burst. The fact is, it just isn't a particularly good game.

 

[Furball]

City based franchises was the ideal way to do this.

As usual with the counties though, self preservation rules.

 

[LA ICE-E]

it didn't even have to be city based, but they should have brought it franchises at least.