A Spring Double

posted by John Winn

Yesterday was the first day of the cricket season, a season which begins with a dark cloud hanging over the English game, for with immaculate timing the ECB chose the first day of the new season to announce a change in the organisation of the game  which they describe as' a watershed moment'. Too right, for from 2020, for the first time at the highest level, the game will not be based on 'county cricket' but city based franchises to which loyalty will need to be manufactured pretty sharpish rather than grown over the generations as has been the case in the past. Counties have been bribed to accept this by promises of large sums of money and so far only one, Essex,
seems to have had the courage to speak out against it.

It is hoped, says Colin Graves, the driver of this particular gravy train, together with his chief engineer Tom Harrison, the new competition will attract 'a whole new audience' and 'create a deeper engagement with those who currently follow cricket', the latter of which includes me and many of  my friends, and I have yet to canvass one who has poured anything but derision on the new competition. As for the 'whole new audience', this presumably is a whole new audience over and above those who have ensured Yorkshire v Lancashire and Middlesex v SurreyT20 matches are already a sell out. Which means more who are largely there for the beer, more noise, more chanting and more of the sort of behaviour that we associate with football grounds. Did the ECB miss a marketing opportunity at Dortmund last week?

But enough of this, for it was not my intention when I fired up the Samsung twenty minutes ago to devote a posting to a competition my opposition to which I expressed on the blog six weeks ago. So let's start again, yesterday was the first day of the cricket season for there was first class cricket at six grounds. At one of these, Fenner's, Tony was enjoying the spring sunshine and I am sure we will read his account of that in due course. Leicester was the farthest north any of these games were being played but my journey stopped just short of Grace Road, at The Hazlegrave Ground, aka The Grave, home to the ECB Performance centre and Loughborough University. Here, what is effectively the university second XI were taking on Notts II in a three day game.

Two firsts for me, the first time I had seen cricket in March and the first time I had seen cricket in Loughborough. Needing to be back for an evening meeting I chose to drive on a murky morning the 100 or so miles down the M1 but right on cue the sun broke through as the players took the field from their separate pavilions with the home side batting. No scorecards available but I found  the Notts XI written on a board inside the performance centre.

 Notts, in the care of Andy Pick, chose to field in front of four other pcws, a number which grew to double figures as the day went on, and it soon be came clear why Hutton had taken this option for in quick time LMCCU were reduced to 9 for 3, lift and lateral movement being very apparent. There followed a very slow period of play as Rishton and Sehmi effected a recovery. To amuse myself I played 'count the coaches', Mark Robinson, Peter Such, Mick Newell and Kevin Shine all made appearances, indeed so many were there with Waitrose on their kit that with my lunch in a John Lewis bag I almost  felt part of the partnership.

No shortage of close catchers at 'The Grave'.

Lunch was taken 79 for 3 and during the interval England and Durham fast bowler Mark Wood went through his paces watched by Shine and Newell. A decent number of students swelled the crowd after lunch when wickets started to fall again, not helped by a run out. Seven were down when I left at tea*, very pleased to have seen my first cricket of the season. Next call will be Headingley on Sunday when Yorkshire entertain Leeds/Bradford MCCU. Driving home and courtesy of DAB radio I was able to listen to commentary of an exciting finish to the match between Middlesex and MCC in Abu Dhabi. Of course it should have been at Lord's, starting on Monday and followed on Saturday by a full programme of county matches, then somebody might have noticed the cricket season has started.

* The University were all out for 213 and Notts were 21 for 0 when bad light stopped play.