When the short form was conceived in 2002 the cricket calendar was not so crowded and the format was one club players had been enjoying for yearsA common refrain to those of us who are not hanging out the bunting at the news the Hundred will be on our screens and in our Test grounds in 2021 is that all the curmudgeons were just as negative about the advent of Twenty20 cricket in 2003.This is an easy parallel to draw and a simplistic one. Let me try to correct it. The proposal to introduce T20 cricket 18 years ago was truly radical; the ECB was introducing a new format for professional cricketers (though club players had been enjoying a similar...
After five heartbreaking exits, Shrubsole is determined to be playing in the MCG final on International Women’s DayIn 2009 a back injury forced the then-17-year-old Anya Shrubsole out of the World Twenty20. She had already been part of one World Cup-winning team – England having come back from Australia that March as champions in the 50-over format – but she was forced to watch from the sidelines as the team, as hosts, took a second title of the year. She has not missed a World Twenty20 since but England have not won again.Though in 2010 West Indies could claim joint responsibility, Australia have knocked England out of every World Twenty20 since the very first, beating them in three finals and...
He may look like he should still be playing for the colts but after bursting on to the Test scene in the summer England’s tyro has pocketed a lucrative IPL contract to crown his 2018Last year my kids went to do some holiday cricket training at Surrey’s practice ground at New Malden. When they came back I asked my wife if she’d found the right place, and she said, oh yeah, I got a bit lost but there was a very nice boy who was having his foot massaged and I asked him where to go and he got up and showed us the right place, we had a bit of a chat he was lovely, very nice, very polite.While...
A 10-team First Division is a good idea but the shires will host the most low-key games during the school holidaysViewed in isolation, the proposals for English domestic cricket from 2020 onwards from the men’s domestic playing programme (MDPP) group, which was chaired by Leicestershire’s CEO, Wasim Khan, display rare common sense. The problems arise when all the packages outlined are put together.The most striking change has the First Division of the County Championship containing 10 teams in 2020 with the Second Division reduced to eight, a reversal of the current format. This is a good idea that more fairly reflects the strength of the counties. It removes the necessity for 25% of the sides in the First Division to...
ECB directors have browbeaten and bamboozled counties into giving away their power – time for a Campaign for Real CricketHere is the squad representing English cricket at the Lord’s Test on Thursday. It may not be the one you expected. Delia Bushell, Martin Darlow, Alan Dickinson, Colin Graves, Tom Harrison, Barry O’Brien, Kamlesh Patel, Lucy Pearson, Scott Smith, Jane Stichbury, Brenda Trenowden, Jim Wood.If you think that’s not so much a Who’s Who of English cricket but a Who? Who? you would not be alone. Don’t worry: they are not taking the field. But they are, quite astonishingly, the 12 most important people in the national summer game – and now the only 12 with any power worth mentioning: the...