Despite plenty of misgivings about the new competition – even from those voting in favour – the promise of £1.3m for each county has stifled measured debateThe panacea of English cricket, the new T20 competition scheduled to start in 2020, will be significantly advanced at the start of this week with the representatives of the counties meeting in London in advance of their Article 50 moment. At Lord’s they are poised to wave through a change in the constitution that will allow the England and Wales Cricket Board to create a tournament that does not include all the counties. Thus the way will be open for the promised T20 extravaganza.There is no indication at this late stage that things will fail...
Captain Charlotte Edwards left and Tammy Beaumont seized her chance, with the emergence of new faces leading nicely into the Kia Super LeagueYou may have seen them on your commute to work: vibrant posters of five stars of international women’s cricket. Flanked by Suzie Bates (New Zealand), Dan van Niekerk (South Africa), Stafanie Taylor (West Indies) and Ellyse Perry (Australia) stands the England captain, Heather Knight, in the foreground. “It was actually a bit of a shock when I saw a larger-than-life version of myself,” Knight admits. While scattered sparsely around London’s 270 tube stations, there happens to be one at Knight’s local stop, providing a constant test of the limits of her ingrained humility. Eventually, when out in London with...
There is much sympathy for Durham following their relegation to Division Two and, having been encouraged to speculate by the governing body, it is justifiedThe majority of the cricket world has great sympathy for the plight of Durham – though there may well be a few discreet smiles in the Southampton region – and much of that sympathy is justified. They are regarded more as victims of an entrepreneurial England and Wales Cricket Board than spendthrift villains.Since Durham satisfied one of the criteria of becoming a first-class county two decades ago, which was to build a new stadium in their county, they have been an adornment to the professional game. They have won three County Championships, produced more than their...
Riverside old boy keen to provide the jolt that helps keep his final county, the three-times champions, in the public consciousnessDurham issued a statement of gratitude on Tuesday afternoon for a landslide of support from the wider cricketing family following their relegation to Division Two in exchange for a £3.8m bailout, describing the response over the previous 24 hours as “beyond comprehension”.The news that the County Championship’s most northerly club will, for reasons beyond their on-field performance, start the 2017 season at the bottom of the pile with a 48‑point deficit certainly shocked all who heard it on Monday. Football, the north-east’s first love, is well used to such scenarios. But cricket? The summer sport has never before witnessed such a...
Middlesex’s title win was so exciting because it really mattered and that must not be diminished by another T20 competitionSuddenly county cricket is sexy. The melodrama of the last round of matches was agony for the committed, fascinating for the neutral and it even captured a fresh audience, which will please everyone at the England and Wales Cricket Board since they keep stressing this goal (rather than their eagerness to generate some more quick cash). Taken in isolation the Middlesex-Yorkshire match at Lord’s was often a turgid affair on a dull surface. Yet it was mesmerising as the visitors eked out the last few runs to take them to 350; before Nick Gubbins rose to the occasion as impressively as...