English cricket currently stands proud on the top of the world. OK, so India may claim to be the champions of the only true World Cup but England are officially T20 kings and number one on the ICC Test rankings. Some years ago, they pulled the plug on the top national players representing their counties unless it was in the 'national interest' and in 2011 they even sanctioned the captain to play for a county to which he wasn't even contracted! They were supposed to play too much cricket and it was doing them harm and wearing them out. Even the world's oldest T20 competition was losing audiences last summer as cricket fans warmed to the traditional five-day international format, and the County Championship produced another exciting climax.
Now Strauss and co are the cream of the crop. So what does the ECB do? Recommend the reduction in first-class cricket and increase the number of T20 matches from 2014. I can't argue with the restoration of a 50-over domestic trophy, much as I like the old Sunday afternoon 40-over games, because it mirrors the ODI format. However, why tamper with the two-division Championship which guarantees each side in a division plays each of the others home and away, totalling sixteen four-day games a season? That has to mean some teams will not have to play the weakest county twice and some will. That is patently unfair. It has been mooted that Division One may be reduced to eight teams but will that mean the second tier play eighteen games? Or are the ECb banking on burying the likes of Leicestershire and Derbyshire during the next two summers? Actually, it's the big guns like Lancashire and Surrey who are in the worst financial situation so are they to be thrown to the wolves? I think not.
I know I'm a bit of a traditionalist but I do recognise the value of Twenty20 as gimmicky entertainment to attract new audiences. Of course I will cheer when Chris Gayle hits the winning six for Somerset in the 2012 final. Yeah, right! What cannot be disputed is that first-class cricket is the foundation of the sport all over the world and the Championship is the cornerstone of England's success. It's not an easy competition to win. It is full of fine players from the youngsters to the veteran pros, classy Koloak-ers and jetlagged overseas superstar signings. Cook, Broad, Anderson, Bell et al are not the products of the Big Bash. Not even Eoin Morgan, Jonny Bairstow, Craig Kieswetter or Alex Hales.
David Morgan's review purports to ease the fixture congestion but I can't see the two-match reduction in the Championship and having extra T20 games doing much for that. Mind you, the ECB have really surpassed themselves in 2012. The opening Championship games start on 5th April. That's before the Easter Eggs have been unwrapped! The counties warm up (surely an ill-chosen phrase) against the Universities in March. The sweater and finger-heating manufacturers will have trouble meeting demand of frozen players. I remember seeing the Indian players shambling on to the pitch at Taunton last July, hands in pockets. And that was mid-summer! The international fixtures here are a crazy mess. Here a West Indies, there the South Africans and for some reason a clutch of pointless ODIs against the Aussies. Of course it's all about cash, with Sky wanting to televise games every day of the summer so that nobody knows who's playing who, in which competition, when and at what time of day? It's a shambles.
I know it's not helped by the rapid expansion of the worldwide game, with many top players missing because of IPL, rival Test and ODI series and the pointless Champions League which is blatantly another money-spinner for the IPL franchises who are given a clear advantage. One rule for Somerset and another for the Mumbai Indians. Roberto Mancini's head would explode with the unfairness of it all. However, we have to persevere with the integrity of the domestic competitions. The County Championship has constantly been reduced but now seems a ridiculous time to cut it further. Apply the shears to the one-dayers instead. Have a proper knockout competition and prune the ODIs before the crowds dwindle even further. Just please, please, please allow Somerset to win all their finals this year. Just one would do....
