Solution to England?s Woes?

[Griffo]

One of the main reasons that Australia is such a force on the international cricket scene is that our domestic competition is so strong the problem with the English competition is that there is to many teams so the players do not always play top class cricket each and every week, Even though it would annoy many board members and so on the English competition should be reduced back to the original 8 teams

Gloucestershire
Kent
Lancashire
Middlesex
Nottinghamshire
Surrey
Sussex
Yorkshire

This would make every game a contest. If this was the ECBs course of action they should pay the English cricketers a contract on top of their existing county contract for more motivation. Their would be many players floating about with no contracts for county cricket but those players are also around in Australia for England to be consistently competitive they must make some major changes. A suggestion of how to sort the players would be for the 8 counties to chose which 5 players they wish to keep and then to have some sort of draft system so one team doesn?t become dominant. A salary cap would be a good idea also as well as a limit to 1 overseas player and 2 kolpak players to make sure the English talent is developing

 

[MUFC1987]

So your solution is to leave even less players for the England team to choose from?

Incidently, Somerset were one of the lower ranked county teams last year, yet we've developed the likes of Caddick, Trescothick and Blackwell amongst others. So why should a county such as Gloucestershire, who produced Lewis, exist in stead of a team that produces players for England. Just an example. There is enough money in the English game to sustain this many teams.

 

[Kev]

I fail to see how cutting the numbers of teams will help. There is already a divisional setup which has improved the quality of the teams (in div1 anyway). The selectors largely ignore County Pro's anyway.

 

[m_vaughan]

I had seen an article on BBC which said that the kids in the UK were amongst the laziest in the world and very few were actually training well enough to become athletes. As a result they dont have as many sportstars as some of the other countries.

 

[Kev]

I had seen an article on BBC which said that the kids in the UK were amongst the laziest in the world and very few were actually training well enough to become athletes. As a result they dont have as many sportstars as some of the other countries.

Thats probably true.

Schools are selling off their playing fields so houses can be built on them and I certainly went through my entire school years without being encouraged to play any sport at all (apart from the compulsary lessons). We didnt even have school teams for any sport. This was mostly due to a teachers dispute so no after school activities were taking place.

Add to this that cricket is low down the pecking order of popluar sports in the UK and its no surprise we dont develop as many good cricketers as other countries. There are probably some very good cricketers (or at least people with great potential) who dont play cricket at all.

 

[langerrox]

make the english grounds bigger so the fools dont think they can reverse sweep every ball for four or six, possibly even shorten the twenty20 cup?

 

[puddleduck]

Another factor Kev is of course the climate. In places like India, Australia, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, almost all year round you can play cricket and are encouraged to be outside enjoying the weather. In England even our summer has a tendency to be wet and difficult to play cricket in.

 

[Griffo]

I only chose those teams for traditions sake even in Div 1 there are bad players and in Div 2 there are good players by making them have to work a batsmen out and work hard for their runs the step up from county cricket to test cricket will be less i have no doubt cricket isnt as popular as other sports in England but the same occurs in Australia and with your population as high as it is it evens out

 

[Kev]

Good point Jeremy, I think we played cricket for about 2 weeks a year at school. (OK it may have been a little loneger than that but not much).

 

[Iron-Haggis]

Griffo your idea is very flawed. Just reverting back to the original 8 counties does not benefit anyone. You're willing to leave a city the size of Birmingham without a team within close proximity, but let Gloucestershire have a team?

A draft system and salary cap would hardly work in English county cricket. Someone please correct me if I'm wrong but a draft and a salary cap would be illegal under EU laws. Just like limiting the amount of Kolpak players a county can have.

 

[Griffo]

Is there a minister for sport and recreation in your parliament

I dont know where each county is in regards to geographically I dont study England all im saying is that for an australia to make the test team they must prove their worth in a few years not like in England where they pick players due to a few good performances or the ability to bat and bowl ok such as Dalrymple

 

[Kev]

A draft system and salary cap would hardly work in English county cricket. Someone please correct me if I'm wrong but a draft and a salary cap would be illegal under EU laws. Just like limiting the amount of Kolpak players a county can have.

You are not wrong. The very reason Kolpak exists is because restriction of movement was challenged by a volleyball player called Kolpak

 

[andrew_nixon]

Not sure about a draft system, but a salary cap would be no problem as several sports have one already.

It's interesting that basketball limits the amount of EU/Kolpak players in the starting line-up and this is completely legal.

Kolpak was a handball player by the way.

 

[Kev]

that was it

handball - volleyball

meh

 

[cricketmad09]

So your solution is to leave even less players for the England team to choose from?

Incidently, Somerset were one of the lower ranked county teams last year, yet we've developed the likes of Caddick, Trescothick and Blackwell amongst others. So why should a county such as Gloucestershire, who produced Lewis, exist in stead of a team that produces players for England. Just an example. There is enough money in the English game to sustain this many teams.

The Aussie domestic competition only has 6.