Be careful what you wish for

posted by John Winn

In a posting I made in August (Have your say) I made reference to an on line survey by the ecb which gave cricket followers the opportunity to comment on the structure of the first class game and partly in response to the more than 25000 who completed the questionnaire, yesterday they announced a revamp of the county game for 2014. I suspect that by now most readers of this post will have seen the recommendations so I will spare you the details.

In the  August posting I outlined suggestions I had made in the free comment space at the end of the survey and it would appear that two of the points I  made were shared by others. These were that as far as possible championship matches  should have a fixed starting day and linked to this T20 games should be identified with a particular night of the week. From 2014 until the closing stages of the season the four day game (and there will still be sixteen of these) will begin on Sundays and most T20s will be on Fridays. So you would think I would be happy with the revamp, well to a degree but what I had not reckoned with was that the start day would be Sunday, or if I had, had I had not thought through the consequences. I can see that this will suit many, especially those unable to see championship cricket on weekdays and that it might increase attendances and even attract a new audience.

I have, however just deleted two paragraphs which on reading were little more than a whinge about the logistics of getting from The Lower Ure valley to Chester le Street on Sundays by public transport, which although not inconsiderable are not insurmountable and although Sunday would not be my preferred day for the start of four day matches things could have been a lot worse. For example counties resisted pressure to reduce by two the number of championship matches  and with Sundays and Fridays as fixed points for most of the season, it will at least have a recognisable and in time, familiar structure which I think will be of benefit to the game.