Wither the Counties?

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It’s Summertime! We know this because the weather has taken a turn for the worse, it’s cold and windy – but not very wet. We’re having a drought. But there has been a flurry of snow, and it’s been a few showers here and there.

That means it’s cricket season in England. Players standing around on the outfield blowing on frozen fingers and dodging showers and playing that catch doesn’t come to them because it’s going to hurt if you catch it – we all know how painful a hard ball and cold hands can be.

Now, here’s a thing: County cricket is desperately exciting at the moment. Last season’s LV County Championship was decided virtually on the final ball of the final day of the competition – an amazing result that on the last day could have literally ended with one of three teams claiming the trophy.

The first rounds of County Championship matches were played last week and let’s just take a look at those for a moment. Middlesex and Surrey fought a bitter battle and the result was as close as any you care to mention – a mere three runs between defeat and victory. Warwickshire and Somerset also turned into a nail biter – a game that started as a low scoring bowler-friendly wicket tumbler see-sawed – and right until the last day all four results were possible (although a draw was never the most likely.)

What’s odd to me is that several pundits are calling for a reduced county system – and personally I think that would be not just problematic, but also a huge mistake that isn’t justified by the facts. A classic case of this is the debate on Cricinfo between Mark Nicholas and George Dobell (you can listen to it here) and I have to say I’m firmly in George’s camp. Here’s why:

  • History: What goes around comes around and it wasn’t so long ago that Surrey ruled the roost in almost all formats of the game and now they have just managed to sneak back into the First Division. The County System’s run for generations and teams have come and gone and all the first class teams have had varying degrees of success: Somerset for example haven’t ever won the Championship in it’s 120 odd year history and yet would anyone dare advocate them being removed from the First Class system? (If you do, please send a note to Sir Ian & Sir Viv… I’m sure they’ll put you straight.)
  • Mark Nicholas made the point that since the end of WWII the County System hasn’t played it’s part in making the England team the best in the world. I’d disagree. Len Hutton might too. But here’s the thing: England ARE the top team in the Test and T20 Arenas. England is the World’s benchmark. But the County System produced those players – but I do believe it’s no coincidence that England have grown in strength in large part due to the two division structure put in place in the late 1990s (’98 if I remember correctly but I’m working from memory so don’t be too surprised if I’m a year or two off.) From there on, England have gone from strength to strength. Not always smoothly I admit and often despite the efforts of the ECB rather than because of them – but that’s another story.
  • As the International game expands – and there’s no sign of that trend declining – squads need to be bigger and more flexible. Some teams will opt for specialists in one format of the game – they already do but that may become more pronounced. Even the “minnows” of our county system can stun far “bigger” teams – Leicestershire Foxes pulled off some blinders to win the Twenty20 comp last summer – and with respect to them – few would have backed them to do that at the start of the season. Take them out of the equation and you lose real value to the competition.

Cricket’s different because the same game is played in different formats – the long version spanning several days, the shortest an evening and the middle version an entire day. This means it gives versatility to its fans (and sponsors.) Everyman can enjoy their own favourite brand of cricket at their leisure. But that’s not to say that domestic cricket is flawless – far from it and frequent mismanagement by the ECB certainly doesn’t help. The Morgan review is a prime example of failing to serve the best interests of the game.

So how to fix it? The biggest issue is “bums on seats” – get the fans going to matches and you you solve many of domestic cricket’s biggest problems. Yet, paradoxically, that’s one of the biggest hurdles and still hasn’t been overcome. Yet it’s not so far back that even relatively minor matches were well attended. Life has changed of course and the ECB and the Counties themselves haven’t been up to the task of keeping abreast of the changes – but it’s not rocket surgery to suggest some fundamentals that would make life a lot easier for cricket fans to enjoy cricket at the grounds.

Here’s a few of my own suggestions for you to peruse:

  • Marketing: Get the word out that there’s some good cricket to be seen and when it’s being played. I know some counties offer some incentives, such as free tickets to the odd T20 match etc but get the word out. Make it easy for people to get to the ground by doing things like laying on transport.
  • Play in the regional grounds at least once per month and at the same time. It’s all very well going to a game if it’s on my doorstep, but if it’s across the county and I’m pushed for time, I can’t make it. However if there’s a local small ground and it’s made easy for me to get there and I know when it’ll be happening I can look to attend.
  • Giveaways, competition, local press & media can all help. Get the local media involved and generate interest in schools etc. That’s not something that happens currently of if it does, it doesn’t happen on anything like the scale it does. Doesn’t take a fortune but imagine a chance to have a net with Graeme Onions or bowl to Ravi Bopara? That may happen sometimes but not often enough and isn’t encouraging the next generation of fan to come through.
  • Three Division Championship. This is maybe my most controversial suggestion but here’s how I’d see it working: Three Divisions of 8 teams apiece – the top two divisions from the existing 2 – with the third being the “lowest” two of the existing first class set up, plus the best 6 of the nations regional teams. The regional teams then have something to play for and a stake in the county game – good players, even part timers can pit their skills against professionals and the less well off teams can pick from the best part-timers too. The best thing is it allows smaller teams to compete at the highest level without diluting the Championship brand.

There are other things that can be done but the Counties and ECB seem unwilling to make it happen. If people can be persuaded to come, then they will spend money – but the scheduling needs to be right and this years cricket schedule’s a complete lash-up. Surrey have three games in four days and the bright spark that dreamed that up should be sacked, frankly. That hurts the club, the fan and the sport all in one fell swoop.

Change is needed, but reducing the counties isn’t the answer.

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Room at the Top

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So England have crashed, and crashed hard since becoming the Worlds Premier Ranked Test Team last summer. Since beating India at home, England have disappointed hugely – but almost exclusively with the bat. The bowlers have continued to do an excellent job but the batsmen have almost universally failed to achieve. England’s fielding has also deteriorated.

So what’s gone wrong? Most pundits seem at a loss to explain England’s sudden and unexpected decline. Let’s try and unravel things here a bit in an attempt to understand better.

Over the last decade or so, England have excelled at setting and achieving targets – but they’ve also got a record at failing to maintain them. We saw that in their rapid rise from the worst test team in 1999, to winning the Ashes in 2005. There was a general upwards trend, but they never made it easy for themselves. They still don’t. So we won the Ashes back in 2005 with a new, young team, and against a lot of expectation… but who remembers what happened immediately after? The following 18 months were an unmitigated disaster. England struggled to win against every team they played and went on to lose five nil against Aus down under in the 06/07 Ashes. It was a shocker – and checked England’s progress dead in its tracks.

Inevitably that meant change – Peter Moores came in for Duncan Fletcher and KP took over from Flintoff. And we all know what happened then. But from that ugly episode, England were resurgent under Andrew Flower and Andrew Strauss – but since then, often the batting has often shown signs of being brittle. Cardiff 2009 anyone? All too often the tail’s saved the batsmens bacon. We saw that in South Africa and beyond…

Of course the Gabbatoir made memories short. England’s 512/1 in the second innings to save the game, and the following 3/1 Ashes drubbing they gave the Aussies on their home turf papered over an awful lot of cracks. England has one of the finest bowling attacks in world cricket currently. With the notable exception of Cook & Trott, their batting is brittle, with Strauss, KP and Bell notable for their inability to occupy the crease consistently. Bell and KP have had the odd good score recently… and their averages are all high-forties or low 50s, but both of them have not shown their full potential. Pietersen might deny it but it’s very difficult to say he doesn’t have an issue with left arm spin. Strauss hasn’t had a century in a long time – but consistently gets in, then gets out.

Bell is a slightly different case that I’ll address quickly. He’s often been criticised for inconsistency, for failing to show his mettle. Technically, he’s brilliant and I am a huge fan, but I cannot help but feel he’s not as mentally tough as he needs to be. His last innings against India in 2011 was 235. Since then, he’s completely failed against Pakistan and against Sri Lanka. I have a bit of a theory here – but it’s possibly too soon to see if I’m right, but I’ll run it past you and we’ll see if time can tell. Let me take you back to that extraordinary incident at Trent Bridge in the same series against India. Bell was batting beautifully and had already scored a very fine century, then he was “run out” on the point of tea. That appeal was withdrawn by India – sportingly so – but I think the damage had been done. After tea, Bell returned to the crease but he didn’t stick around for long, getting out to a poor shot after only adding a few extra runs. Now let’s look at what happened afterwards: At Edgbaston, Bell came in after Cook had already piled on a massive total – and he tried to boss the Indian bowlers without playing himself in. He got in, and got out. The Oval was slightly different – he scored one of his highest scores – but that was against an opposition that was shot to bits, broken and demoralized. Since then. he’s scored one fifty in eight innings, with only two scores in those eight above 25. I suggest that something about that run out at Trent Bridge messed with his head a bit, and it’s only the fact that the Indians were in a worse mental state allowed him to score that 235.

So what’s the solution to this problem? Actually I don’t believe things are as serious as some claim. Here’s the thing: In modern cricket, only two teams have ever stood head and shoulders above one another – the West Indian team of the late 70s and early 80s, and the Australian team of the late 90s to mid-noughties. Currently England are right up there but there’s a far smaller gap between the top teams – and holding on to that Number One spot is pretty tough, just ask India. Getting there is one thing, staying there is something else entirely. I wouldn’t be remotely surprised if we see South Africa claim that top spot very soon, only to lose it very soon after – especially if they don’t do well against England later this summer, which is a fair bet. England too, have shown that they are great at setting goals and achieving them, but they struggle to keep up the momentum once they’ve achieved it.

The selectors have to shoulder a little bit of the blame here – because they’ve been very loathe to change the batting order. It took too long for them to ditch Morgan, and I suspect they will be reluctant to do more than tinker round the edges even now. Actually, sweeping changes is the last thing they should do. Personally, I suspect that what we need is a larger squad of batsmen, and a bit more rotation. I’d like to see Bell and KP rested with some of the A Squad drafted in. But unlike previous regimes, they can rotate in and out as necessary… as can all the batsmen. Gone shouldn’t mean forgotten in this instance.

Strauss is a slightly different case – he’s the captain and needs runs. I suspect he might hang in for the visit of the West Indies, but he may well choose to depart of his own volition after that series if he doesn’t do well. I am slightly second-guessing him, perhaps – but he’s sure to have one eye on his excellent record as captain and will want to go out on his own terms. We already know he’ll leave the team in the capable hands of Alistair Cook whenever that happens which in one sense will give him confidence.

The tl;dr version: no wholesale changes but blood a couple of new players and give them a break.

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Little Master

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Well I’ve not had a chance to blog about this until now but glad that finally Sachin Tendulkar got his 100th 100. One hundred international centuries. That’s… well that’s awesome however you look at it and proves Tendulkar is truly one of the greats.

That said, it was a long time coming and it was against Bangladesh, one of the weakest full member cricket nations, and in a losing cause, to boot. It rather overshadowed the match, but that’s to be expected but I strongly suspect it was the pressure of it being such a landmark that caused the wait.

now it’s done, I’m sure we’ll see the Little Master wield his bat to get a few more international centuries.

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The Devil is in the Detail

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Sadly I don’t often get to test matches, but I’ve been fortunate in always managing to see something special when I have.

Here’s a pic I took during Alistair Cook’s wonderful knock at Edgbaston in July 2011 in the England vs India series. It just had such a synergy I had to grab a pic when I saw it. There was a lot more to come of course, as the scorecard now shows, but I wanted to share this. Enjoy!

The Number of the Best!

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And Welcome

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It’s actually a really interesting time to be relaunching Crucial Cricket – 2012 is proving already to be an important year in the long history of the game.

I’ve dealt with the retirement of Rahul Dravid in the previous post so I won’t dwell on the departure of one of the game’s greats. Other than that of course, we have to ask will Sachin Tendulkar get his 100th 100?

Who’s going to be the World #1 Test team at the end of 2012? South Africa are strong challengers, given Pakistan’s whitewash of England in the UAE, and if the Proteas can match that performance against the Kiwis, they go top.That remains a huge headline – England, Cricket’s World #1 Test team, not just beaten, but abjectly humiliated by a team that was playing on its “home from home” ground, and not expected to do well. But credit to the Pakistan team, they did what they needed to do against an England that was a bit ring rusty. But England fought back with a good ODI and T20 decider so the score might be considered to run Pakistand 1 – 2 England.

India seem to have gone off the boil over their last few series. Can they turn it around in the remainder of 2012 and challenge again for the top spot?

The libel action between Chris Cairns and Lalit Modi unfolds in London. Corruption within cricket, allegations of match fixing and spot fixing is only going to get worse I fear and whilst I have no inside knowledge of any kind, it is difficult to believe it’s limited to just a few individuals, given the problems of policing by various boards and the ICC. It took the News of the World to uncover a story that should have been discovered by the ICC’s own Anti-Corruption unit. That it wasn’t is perhaps indicative of how few tools the ICC actually has to stamp it out – and that’s a problem. Let’s hope 2012 brings us some reassurance.

So, welcome to my newly relaunched cricket blog, and please do forgive the slightly unfinished appearance. I’m struggling with the graphical presentation a little but we’ll get there! Check back often

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Goodbye

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It seems strange to be relaunching Crucial Cricket with a farewell, but what kind of cricket blog would it be if we failed to bid adieu to one of the finest sportsman in any context, and undoubtedly the worlds top scoring Number Three batsman, a gentleman by the name of Rahul Dravid.

Dravid was more than an exceptional talent – he’s seen as one of the game’s true gentlemen, modest, self-effacing even on occasion but a truly outstanding player, who’s nickname “The Wall” spoke volumes about his ability and determination to do the best job possible out in the middle.

A lot’s been written about him recently as he announced his retirement last Friday but even then that was done with a quiet dignity and a glowing tribute to his friends and family. Cricket is much poorer for his departure, but his long career, some 16 years has enriched the great game and made us all appreciate an outstanding talent.

I cannot speak too highly of this man – he played to the highest standard, and conducted himself wonderfully – even walking when few others knew he was gone – as happened in England in 2011; a feathered edge and he took himself off – the spirit of the game being paramount, far outweighing a potential result.

It’s hard to come up with superlatives, so I will stop trying, and simply link to his record here. It’s outstanding and needs no further comment from me. I’m just glad to have seen the great man play live.

Rahul Dravid Stats

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