Future of Cricket - Lord McLaurin Suggests Axeing Sussex CCC

drew · Jan 12, 2014

Don't quite understand what the problem is. Seems it wasn't that long ago we were reportedly the best Test team in the world! I would suggest that the problem with cricket is that other sports that it competes against at school age level. Obviously football is the most popular but there are a host of other sports available now. Plus there aren't many schools that play cricket. They might cobble together a team to play another school but do they have teachers that actual coach the sport. In Burgess Hill/ Haywards Heath area, I believe, apart from the independent schools, Lindfield is the only primary school that plays cricket regularly.

As to reducing the amount of games, fail to see how that will improve young players. Surely if counties have games against weaker opposition then that is a chance to blood youngsters. If every game is against a top team then the winning priority will take over and they will play their best 11 every game.

I'm no aficionado on cricket but it strikes me that it is a sport that, until the rise of 20/20 had failed to embrace changing tastes and had clung to it's traditions which led to it falling behind other sports. The three day game and subsequently the four day game whilst useful for preparing for test cricket, doesn't attract spectators in anyway near the numbers that the shorter form does, not unsurprisingly as it is mostly played when people work or are at school. It's other problem is that it is not exactly played at a high tempo so to young minds, can seem quite dull and unattractive.

BensGrandad · Jan 12, 2014

Would it prove viable to make 3 divisions of 6 on a home and away basis of 4 day games and make the 50 over games like the fa cup on a knockout basis played on a Sunday with 20/20 as day/night games.

blue-shifted · Jan 12, 2014

McLaurin, you're a ****. One series defeat and you want to get rid of 100 yo + counties. There are many reasons England got stuffed in Australia. The existence of Kent, Sussex and the others isn't one of them.

KZNSeagull · Jan 12, 2014

BensGrandad said:
Would it prove viable to make 3 divisions of 6 on a home and away basis of 4 day games and make the 50 over games like the fa cup on a knockout basis played on a Sunday with 20/20 as day/night games.

Certainly home and away for 6 teams is viable. But in order to try to break even, the counties have to play LOTS of one day and 20/20 as they bring in the revenue. Sadly, 4 day games to do not and it is only really in England where test matches are always well attended.

Postman Pat · Jan 12, 2014

Barrel of Fun said:
I seem to recall an article suggesting there was not a single school with a grass wicket within Brighton & Hove. If anything, it is opportunities to play cricket in the proper form that hampers the quality of player being produced.

Not sure how you get to The Amex, but work is currently being done to add a new grass square at BACA for use by the cricket academy there.

As a non-test county Sussex have had to rely on developing their own talent and have bought through the likes of Matt Prior, Mike Yardy, Luke Wright etc.... in the last few years, as well as having half of the Women's England team.

Luke93 · Jan 12, 2014

Didn't the game originate in Sussex and Kent? So why is this fool deciding to destroy (arguably) the most significant countries?

jakarta · Jan 12, 2014

blue-shifted said:
McLaurin, you're a ****. One series defeat and you want to get rid of 100 yo + counties. There are many reasons England got stuffed in Australia. The existence of Kent, Sussex and the others isn't one of them.

Precisely!

HAILSHAM SEAGULL · Jan 12, 2014

Postman Pat said:
Not sure how you get to The Amex, but work is currently being done to add a new grass square at BACA for use by the cricket academy there.

As a non-test county Sussex have had to rely on developing their own talent and have bought through the likes of Matt Prior, Mike Yardy, Luke Wright etc.... in the last few years, as well as having half of the Women's England team.

Luke came from Leicester

TrickyOne · Jan 12, 2014

Barrel of Fun said:
I seem to recall an article suggesting there was not a single school with a grass wicket within Brighton & Hove. If anything, it is opportunities to play cricket in the proper form that hampers the quality of player being produced.

As an aside, they should look at the scheduling of county cricket. I would revert back to Sunday League cricket perhaps with the occasional day/night game.

Twenty20 is a problem. It is a cash cow, but disrupts the season with it being stuck in the middle and a long drawn out tournament.

Bonjour BoF, hope you're well. At BACA they have laid 9 wickets one will be county standard; a pavillion is being built and when it's ready the Sussex womens team will play their home games there. Unfortunately too late for the ashes this time round!!

Barrel of Fun · Jan 12, 2014

Trevor said:
Hi Barrel, enjoy your comments. As it happens about 18 months ago, county cricket members were canvassed in their largest ever poll wrt: County Cricket scheduling and as a result have changed a fair bit from this season onwards - unfortunately not in ways that help me at all. I'm not a fan of Twenty20 so my season gets split into 2 really - also most championship cricket will now start on a Sunday (which doesn't suit me much)

Hmmm... If they want championship cricket to be watched by those who work during the week, surely it would be best to have day 2 and 3 over the weekend? Is that the idea behind moving day one to a Sunday?

Postman Pat said:
Not sure how you get to The Amex, but work is currently being done to add a new grass square at BACA for use by the cricket academy there.

As a non-test county Sussex have had to rely on developing their own talent and have bought through the likes of Matt Prior, Mike Yardy, Luke Wright etc.... in the last few years, as well as having half of the Women's England team.

TrickyOne said:
Bonjour BoF, hope you're well. At BACA they have laid 9 wickets one will be county standard; a pavillion is being built and when it's ready the Sussex womens team will play their home games there. Unfortunately too late for the ashes this time round!!

Bonjour!

Sorry, I meant at Primary school level. How many kids will be missing out on a chance in their formative years?

Good news though, about the wickets at BACA!

coagulantwolf · Jan 12, 2014

KZNSeagull said:
Really? I remember we had a game pretty much every week during 3rd term at school. Plus the village teams always had a cricket festival in the summer hols - 5 games in a week, I seem to remember - does that still happen?
Schools should use the local town/village squares anyway - they are lying there unused most of the time during the week.

Still have the cricket festival in summer yes - although I see more age groups playing 3/4 games a week rather than 5 with less teams being able to put old a colts side!

Our school used to play cricket on our astroturf if we played at home, was awful. Ball never bounced and the most ridiculous rectangular boundary ever.

e77 · Jan 12, 2014

A few months ago people were bemoaning the demise of state second XI cricket in Australia as stopping them developing young cricketers. One imagines this isn't seen as a problem now!

Problem is the national side became complacent and inward looking.

Pavilionaire · Jan 12, 2014

Interesting that he says this now but didn't push for this when he was in charge of the ECB. Instead he agreed to the 2 divisions of 9 so the 18 counties were appeased.

He was probably hoping the test- host counties would rise to the top and the rest of us would wither and die. Now that hasn't happened he's happy to see it forced upon us.

I see he mentioned Kent and Sussex merging, not Sussex and test- host Hampshire.

And anyway, how would losing a forward- thinking county like Sussex and preserving a numpty county like Surrey help English cricket?

Leekbrookgull · Jan 12, 2014

dig54 said:
Huh? He wants to lose 6 counties? From 18 to 12?

How about England just pick the best players? The selectors have cocked up big time in recent weeks.

Right,well we know who is staying. Middlesex,Warwickshire,Nottinghamshire,Hampshire,Yorkshire,Glamorgan,Durham,Surrey and Lancashire simply because as a test venue 'we are a big club' :angry:

Elvis · Jan 12, 2014

If only there was a county who had money to burn which kept poaching the talent from other counties. Spending fortunes of money on the wages of a world famous test captain only to replace him when he got injured with an ex test captain and still get relegated. Then surely we should get rid of them. If only there were such a county!!!

West Hoathly Seagull · Jan 12, 2014

The problem is asking non-cricket people to produce these reports. MacLaurin may have been a brilliant CEO at Tesco, but he doesn't seem to know much about the game. True, players wanting more money was a problem, but Giles Clarke was only interested in the monetary aspect as far as I could see. We used to have three one-day internationals at the start of a tour, then four or five test matches, depending on the visitors (or 2 x 3) if it was one of the smaller countries. Now it's five test matches and double the number of one-day internationals. You can see what the ICC's priorities are, with another home Ashes series in 2015. Frankly, I've lost interest in the international game and it's not just because of England losing - I paid very little attention to the Ashes in the summer. As for the counties, how about letting the England players actually play for them from time to time? When Andrew Strauss was out of form, he used to go and lie on an Australian beach. He would have been better off getting games for Middlesex.

Mo Gosfield · Jan 13, 2014

The County game is getting pushed to the extremities of the calendar. They are starting earlier and earlier in April and finishing later and later in September. The twenty/20 is getting the prime-time slots in mid-summer, when they can take advantage of the longest days. The shortest version of the game is a bit of commercial fun but it is no preparation for Test Cricket.
Test players are losing and forgetting the art of how to play Test Cricket. It is a contest designed to ebb and flow over five days, with players expected to play long innings and bowlers to maintain sustained tight spells. It is all about concentration and application. When did we last see an England opener not out after a full days play or England bat until tea on the second day with 450-500 on the board?
The mindset of a lot of cricket followers has changed as well. Influenced by the biff, bang wallop of one-dayers, they now want to see players racing away at 4-5 an over in Test Cricket. They seem to regard a quick cameo 40-50 as a fine innings as per Cook's 51 in the recent series, which had posters on here purring with delight.
Players will only learn how to score 150-180 in Tests by doing it in the four day game. Players have to get into the groove of bowling 20-25 overs, with control over line and length, also in the four day game.
England cricketers need to play more four day cricket and much less one day cricket. The ECB need to examine the calendar and work out a compromise but a compromise that puts the interests of the longer game first. Twenty/20 is here to stay but it mustn't be allowed to impinge on the historic fabric of the game. The history of cricket and its records are all about Test Cricket. Apart from the World Cup, all other one day results tend to be forgotten, the moment the last ball is bowled in each game. In Test Cricket, it lingers and lasts long into the memory. Most of us will never forget the result of this Ashes series and you can never replicate the drama and tension of 2005, when a fiercely contested series hung on a knife-edge all summer and gripped a nation.

Arkwright · Jan 13, 2014

MacLaurin has been involved with the EBC for years now and does have an understanding of our game. I think the point he is trying to prove is that there are far too many meaningless games in the Championship. I'm might be wrong but I don't think that two Divisions has worked as we see the likes of Carberry playing in Division Two one week opening in Tests the next week.

We need our players playing against the best players in the world week in week out, I've said on here before go back to two overseas players, in the 70's and 80's every County had a quality quick bowler and top class batsman. Currently we see players who really aren't good enough moving from County to County as there is nothing better around, Gatting to Hampshire being a classic example.

Do away with Central Contracts, get the Test players playing in the County Championship, make them hungry for success and ensure that they are playing against the best players in the world and not just twatting average bowling around the park or taking cheap wickets.

TheBlueAndWhiteStrips · Jan 13, 2014

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p01pq1w7

Here's a link to the Sportweek clip in which he talks about English Cricket, its worth a listen as a lot of what hes said has been missed because of that statement.

The Mole · Jan 13, 2014

I don't think schools cricket is the main issue. In Cheshire there's a very healthy junior environment at club level. You cannot move for kids on a junior training night at my club. The club runs teams from under 9s upwards. Any child with a real future is playing sen I or cricket by the time they are 14 which is more valuable to their development than school cricket.
I do wonder if the club is acting as a cheap crèche sometimes though!
My big concern is that by being exclusively on Sky, cricket is not reaching a large propotion of the population so will become more and more a minority sport

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Future of Cricket - Lord McLaurin Suggests Axeing Sussex CCC

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