Have your say

posted by John Winn

The return of championship cricket to Headingley today after an absence of ten weeks brought out a good attendance, despite a forecast that seemed to leave little doubt that there would not be a full  day's play. It was good to see familiar faces round my usual position in the east stand. Did I overhear someone ask a friend if they had  'midseasoned well'? Well no, but it did seem rather like the start of a new season.

If we have to have such a break, and I don't think we do, then at least the fare on offer today was about as good as could be offered, given that visitors  Derbyshire came as clear leaders of the second division and with Yorkshire just shading Hampshire and Kent for the other promotion spot. The visitors won the toss and gave Yorkshire first knock which seemed a good decision when Jacques was bowled by Gronewald for 3 but Gale and Lyth countered with aggressive batting until with about twenty minutes remaining before lunch the skipper picked out long leg with pin point accuracy which brought in Ballance who stayed with Lyth until the break, at which point Yorkshire were 123 for 2.

During the interval spots of rain were felt and after only one delivery (which went for four) a sharp shower sent the players back into the dressing rooms. After a  false start, when the rain briefly stopped and the umpires emerged, the light worsened and by half past two the steady rain which had been forecast settled in and in due course play was abandoned for the day. A look at other scores up and down the country showed the rain had worked its way up ffom the south west completely washing out play in a number of venues. Prospects for tomorrow are much better so let's hope for a full day's play and a good haul of bonus points.

A talking point today and at Todmorden yesterday was the Brophy affair. Opinions were divided as to whether the wicketkeeper should have been given another contract but there was a definite consensus across the ten or fifteen people I spoke to that Yorkshire should not have to turn to Sussex to find another 'keeper and that if Dan Hodgson was good enough to keep in the CB40 then he should have played today. Some very strong feelings were expressed, not helped I suspect by the dismal showing of the second eleven on the 'contested territory' of Todmorden yesterday.

You may be aware that the ECB is currently conducting an online survey to assess cricket entusiasts' feelings about the structure, scheduling and promotion of couny cricket. When I got home this afternoon I found an email inviting me to complete a quite lengthy and at times quite complex set of questions which took me about 20 to 25 minutes to work through. No doubt others amongst you will have an opportunity to participate. There is space at the end for 'free comment' and I used this to put across things not entirely coverd by the questions, making three points in particular. Firstly the need to try and avoid the compartmentalisation of the season so that the championship watcher is not faced with the long midsummer break, secondly the need to achieve  a more settled structure so that as far as possible, championship matches have a fixed starting day, . Linked to this would be a designated evening for T20 matches so perhaps instead of Friday night being Amami night it could become T20 night. Thirdly I would like to see a return to a straight knock out  forty or fifty overs competition.  Happy to discuss these points in the long room tomorrow!