*Official* English Domestic Off Season 2011/12

[Furball]

That'll never happen .......................... will it?

More likely they'll add Scotland Ireland and Holland and split them into three divisions of 7, call it 12 games and add a bit more hit and giggle nonsense

It would be like turkeys voting for Christmas. If they're going for 14 Championship games though, 2 divisions of 8 works, I can't think of anything else that would let you play 14 games.

 

[Scaly piscine]

Yes still waiting on how exactly they would be reduced to 14 games.

Another possible way would be to cut the first division down to 8 so only the second division (10 teams) has lop-sided fixtures.

 

[Furball]

Yes still waiting on how exactly they would be reduced to 14 games.

Another possible way would be to cut the first division down to 8 so only the second division (10 teams) has lop-sided fixtures.

Good thinking.

 

[marc71178]

I saw something about 8 teams in Div 1 and 2 conferences of 5 in Div 2 - All play all in own conference twice and other conference teams once is 13 which is close enough. Maybe then a play off 1 v 1, 2 v 2, etc. for placings?

 

[Woodster]

When they talked about cutting it down to 14 games a few months back, that was one of the suggestions that the first division has eight sides, and so is fairly straight forward, but I'm not entirely sure how the fixtures were proposed to work out in the second division.

 

[Murtini]

Keep it how it is. Bring back 50 over cricket definitely.

If counties are crippled by debt, then I'd consider reducing the teams. Hopefully it doesn't come to that although it's bleak at Kent and Gloucester for sure.

 

[superkingdave]

meh. they've just cut down the T20 because it was getting to be overkill, and now they are putting it back up again? Kudos for Morgans 'and to provide preparation time for high quality four day cricket, the County Championship should be reduced to 14 matches' line though, as if the extra time won't be filled by hit and giggle

 

[Howe_zat]

Been thinking about this, and can't help but be sceptical. What they say they're doing and what they actually end up doing tend to be very different things. I'm leaving this one be until they actually put pen to paper.

In any case, I hope they don't reduce the number of Championship matches.

 

[Furball]

meh. they've just cut down the T20 because it was getting to be overkill, and now they are putting it back up again? Kudos for Morgans 'and to provide preparation time for high quality four day cricket, the County Championship should be reduced to 14 matches' line though, as if the extra time won't be filled by hit and giggle

They're cutting down the 50-over stuff, which along with a reduction in the Championship should hopefully leave players with more down time between matches to rest, recuperate and practice.

 

[Pothas]

Do not have a real problem in theory with reducing the number of games played as long as it is not to bring in more twenty20 when I thought everyone agreed that there were too many.

Idea of lop-sided fixtures really put me off though even just for division two. They could perhaps do a split division thing like they have in the SPL although not a huge fan of that either.

Never really had strong feeling either way on the 40 or 50 over thing but the current format is absoloutely ****y. Most sides have no chance of progressing after the first few weeks of the season and then have to play a whole lot more games late on in the season.

 

[Woodster]

I certainly think we need to move back to 50-over cricket asap. It has to mirror the international game, I think the counties got their way in continuing with this format as it was deemed a bigger earner for them, but I don't necessarily think it's the format as so much as the time of year the one-day competition is played.

Dropping CC games down to 14 from 16, makes a little bit of sense if it does allow the spare time for rest and enhanced preparation. Everyone wants to see the best players operating at close to 100% as is possible, e.g. the quicker bowlers, so less travelling, and more days off will only help realise this. The likelihood is of course, as some of you have already suggested, that the number of T20 games will be increased, never let it be said that the cricket comes before an opportunity to make a few extra quid.

How they structure 14 games will be interesting, I'm not too enthused about a lop-sided fixture list, in either division, but if there is a logical way of managing this, it may work.

The big thing for me is the schedule of domestic cricket. It is ridiculous that teams play a four-day game, then travel to a destination a few hours away straight after the game to begin a one-day fixture the following day. We need a far better schedule than that to enable rest and to assist players in having the time to work on deficiencies in training. If we have to lose two CC games, it may be an option worth seriously looking at, but I would much prefer to lose some of the pointless T20 or one-day fixtures.

 

[Furball]

England news: ECB secures major sponsorship deal | England Cricket News | ESPN Cricinfo

£50m deal with Investec over 10 years to cover sponsorship of home Tests. But there's no money in Test cricket these days

 

[Prince EWS]

I actually think one of the strengths of the English system is the amount of First Class games that are played; it'd be a shame to reduce them IMO.

 

[Manee]

I actually think one of the strengths of the English system is the amount of First Class games that are played; it'd be a shame to reduce them IMO.

My pretty uninformed view is to agree with this.

 

[Woodster]

I actually think one of the strengths of the English system is the amount of First Class games that are played; it'd be a shame to reduce them IMO.

My pretty uninformed view is to agree with this.

I agree that the 16 first-class games is a good thing, and ideally we need to find space from other competitions to ensure we maintain the 16 fixtures but give the players the chance to fully prepare and rest so that each game is approached with players at a decent level of fitness and readiness. If we have to reduce this to 14, as there is no possible alternative (although we all know there is), then to lose just two games to ensure the above can happen is a change worth making.

 

[Prince EWS]

I agree that the 16 first-class games is a good thing, and ideally we need to find space from other competitions to ensure we maintain the 16 fixtures but give the players the chance to fully prepare and rest so that each game is approached with players at a decent level of fitness and readiness. If we have to reduce this to 14, as there is no possible alternative (although we all know there is), then to lose just two games to ensure the above can happen is a change worth making.

Obviously just cutting back one of the other competitions would be ideal, but we know that's not going to happen. Failing that I'd still rather keep it is as than reduce the CC though. There doesn't seem to be any more injuries per match in English cricket than other systems to me despite the higher workload.

 

[superkingdave]

So there's plenty of players gone out for the T20 in Zim it seems, Hamilton-Brown, Trego, RTD and Andrew Hall lining up against Tom Smith, Chris Gayle, Paul Horton and Adam Wheater. Must be 4 overseas per side?

 

[Prince EWS]

So there's plenty of players gone out for the T20 in Zim it seems, Hamilton-Brown, Trego, RTD and Andrew Hall lining up against Tom Smith, Chris Gayle, Paul Horton and Adam Wheater. Must be 4 overseas per side?

I actually don't think there's a limit at all. Not one that I've read, anyway. Quite a few of the Zimbabwe-born players that are playing would technically count as overseas players too.

 

[Woodster]

Obviously just cutting back one of the other competitions would be ideal, but we know that's not going to happen. Failing that I'd still rather keep it is as that reduce the CC though. There doesn't seem to be any more injuries per match in English cricket than other systems to me despite the higher workload.

I don't know if statistically there are more injuries per game than other nations, maybe squad rotation is becoming more and more important. Don't suggest this to certain counties that were crippled by an ever-growing injury list last season.

Think the main point is allowing rest so that big players (well all players) can operate at something near 100%, which they inevitably will not be doing if they are playing cricket for 13 days out of 15.

 

[Woodster]

Leicestershire seem to keen on Robbie Joseph, recently released from Kent. No surprise that Leicester are the side at the front of the queue, they've lost Harry Gurney so have the room for a seamer, and cannot imagine too many other counties are willing to risk such an injury-prone bowler. Decent bowler on his day with plenty of match-time under his belt, just doesn't happen too frequently.