BBC interview with Yorkshire chairman about Ashes test match bidding

[Sureshot]

I saw this on the BBC site and I think it's a really good interview with a good insight in to county cricket and a part of the process behind getting test matches.

I think it's completely unsustainable to expect counties to spend 1.5-2 million on an Ashes bid, that'll be bigger than quite a few counties playing staff budget and probably a couple of what some of them turnover. Madness.

BBC Sport - Cricket - Yorkshire 'no' to Ashes Test - chairman Colin Graves

There needs to be some big changes to how it all works, from county level to national level and bidding for test matches. T20 attendances have dropped since the introduction of the 16+ games per county, but that has been ignored by the schedulers.

We should cut the T20 tournament in half and maybe expand the OD schedule. In fact, I'd operate two OD tournaments.

40 over - 4 groups of 5 (if we continue to have two of Netherlands/Ireland/Scotland/Unicorns on board, which i think is great, particularly Unicorns), 8 group matches, top team goes through to semi-finals.

50 over - Knockout competition of the 18 teams, back to how it used to be with the minor counties (and possibly others mentioned above) to get to a 32-team competition.

The 2011 English county schedule is identical to the 2010 season btw.

 

[sifter132]

Yeah I don't mind those 2 ideas. I would suggest making the 50 over knockout a preseason tournament though. Make it a fun season opening event and that way counties don't have to shoehorn in games midseason depending on whether they are still in the comp or not. I'm not crazy about having different game lengths, choose an OD over length and stay with it I say. I'm a 40 over supporter, but I've got no problem with 50.

And unfortunately everything is about money these days. I guess one good thing being that if the counties are paying big bucks for the Test, then it means they are serious in getting it. Otherwise grounds would feel like they're entitled to a Test and not put in a good hosting effort.

 

[Owzat]

There needs to be some big changes to how it all works, from county level to national level and bidding for test matches. T20 attendances have dropped since the introduction of the 16+ games per county, but that has been ignored by the schedulers.

They overestimated the demand of this, there was always likely to be a lull as it was new, exciting, but then invariably when you overdo something it becomes dull and/or predictable

We should cut the T20 tournament in half and maybe expand the OD schedule. In fact, I'd operate two OD tournaments.

40 over - 4 groups of 5 (if we continue to have two of Netherlands/Ireland/Scotland/Unicorns on board, which i think is great, particularly Unicorns), 8 group matches, top team goes through to semi-finals.

50 over - Knockout competition of the 18 teams, back to how it used to be with the minor counties (and possibly others mentioned above) to get to a 32-team competition.

The 2011 English county schedule is identical to the 2010 season btw.

Agree re the knockout competition, sadly the thinking these days is groups and lots of matches and the minor counties being axed was a sadly inevitable consequence.

FOUR DAY GAMES : could go back to three day cricket, perhaps make it more interesting/exciting by limiting the overs you can bat/bowl to say 75-90 overs per innings maximum for the batting side and 15-18 per bowler - kinda like limited overs but two innings. Not sure you can really avoid home and away.

ONE DAYERS (KNOCKOUT) : Straight knockout of 50 overs to include the minor counties and possibly invitation sides (Scotland/Ireland etc)

ONE DAYERS (LEAGUE) : I'd keep it 50 overs but look to reduce the schedule somehow. Maybe switch to three leagues of 6-7 teams (include other teams to make it 19-21 teams before anyone asks) and reduce that to just 10-12 games a season. Have some kind of play-off at the end, or a triangular tournament to decide the Champions.

T20s : Maybe have the same format as suggested for the one dayers league format.


The reason I would sustain 50 overs is simply that it should in theory benefit England, it's not as if we've reached a World Cup final since 1992. All the talk of making middle overs more exciting etc annoys me a bit, why does cricket have to be action, wham bam thankyou mam all the time?!?!? Put a bit more in the pitch and have contests where sides do well to score 180-220 in some conditions and the batsmen are done up like a kipper early on instead of flaying the ball to all corners at six or so an over and tell me it's boring. Cricket is supposed to be a contest between bat and ball, not see who can score runs quickest all the time Want to watch high octane action, go watch some cruddy movie where the plot takes a hike in favour of ridiculous non-stop action.