County Championship: Oh Dear! The Championship is Becoming too Popular, Let’s do Something About it… Quickly!

 

County Championship

Oh Dear! The Championship is Becoming too Popular, Let’s do Something About it… Quickly!

September 27^th  2016

Bizarre things happen within English cricket. At the very moment when the climax of the 2016 Championship produces the biggest crowd for a County Championship match since 1966 – yes, that is for forty years – we see the end of the Championship in its current, reduced state, which it has had since the year 2000, to exactly half the number of games that it had had since settling into its near final format in 1929 until the first reduction in 1969.

This is the premier competition in English cricket and one from which the future Test players who make up the lifeblood of the sport are drawn.

Since 1960 the County Championship has changed its format time and again, usually reducing the number of matches although we should remember that the high point in the early 1980s was 24, 3-day matches, or 72 days whereas, since 2000, we have played 16, 4-day games, or 64 days, so the difference is not so large, although the increasing pace of games has permitted the number of overs to reduce considerably. 111 overs per day minimum in the early 1980s meant a theoretical season of 7992 overs whereas, in 2016, it has been 6144 (a 23% reduction).

The number of changes in the number of County Championship games – increases and decreases since 1960 – is bewildering.  The first change of format since it was fixed in 1929 was actually an increase in the number of matches:

·        1929 – 1959 – all counties played 28 matches

·        1960 – 8 counties played 32 matches, the rest 28

·        1963 – all counties played 28 matches

·        1969 – reduced to 24 matches

·        1972 – reduced to 20 matches

·        1977 – increased to 22 matches

·        1983 – increased to 24 matches

·        1988 – reduced to 22 matches

·        1993 – reduced to 17 matches and Durham introduced to increase the counties to 18.

·        2000 – reduced to 16 matches and split into 2 divisions

·        2017 – reduced to 14 matches and the divisions changed to 8 and 10. For the first time since 1992, Division 2 sides play some teams home and away and others either home or away.

When we talk about “the reduction of the Championship” there have actually been seven reductions since 1963 and three increases.

Back in 1969, when the Championship was reduced from 28 to 24 matches, to a large degree it was to provide space for the Sunday League. 40 overs. Reduced run-ups. An ideal Sunday afternoon TV and family package. It was very much the precursor of T20 cricket. The games started at 2pm and ended at 6:40pm at latest. While many players hated it and the extra travel and intensity that it brought about, especially as the games were almost always played in the middle of a Championship match starting on a Saturday (!!), the fans loved it. I spent many Sunday afternoons at the County Ground in Bristol in the midst of a noisy, lively, family crowd of typically 6000-8000 who roared on their heroes. When the competition was introduced it was a very different game to anything seen previously, but also very different to anything we see today: 160-170 was regarded as a par score for 40 overs; 180 gave you a better than even chance of defending and anything around 200 was seen as a massive score.

Part of the justification for reducing the Championship was its waning appeal. It is something that is impossible to deny. In the immediate post-war years, cricket was one of the great summer entertainments for the public. It was quite normal for an office worker to do his shift in the office and then go down to The Oval, or Lord’s or Edgbaston for an hour or so to watch the game before heading home. Test cricket could boast radio audiences of up to eight million: TV hardly existed. My father, then working in de Havilland at Hatfield, talks of spending his days off at Lord’s watching Compton and Edrich in the ‘50s when an ordinary County game would bring in ten or fifteen thousand paying punters and big games, far more. By the early 1960s though, those crowds had melted away. It was this period that cemented the “one man and his dog” legend that still haunts the County Championship.

My own first experience of going to a Championship match was the last day of the 1977 season. Led by the incomparable Mike Proctor – the greatest all-rounder ever – Gloucestershire went into the final round of matches as leader, but with any one of Middlesex, Kent and Gloucestershire able to win. A school friend, who was a member, took me along to see the end of the Gloucesterhire v Hampshire game where, we hoped, we would see Gloucestershire seal the title. Sadly, by the time that we arrived from classes the game was all but over and a kindly gateman let us in free. Mike Proctor had set Hampshire around 270 to win, knowing that victory would seal the title (Middlesex and Kent were winning, so Gloucestershire had to win too). Gordon Greenidge scored a murderous century and Hampshire cruised home. In those days with no points for draws, two matches abandoned without a ball bowled were decisive for Gloucestershire.

That day Gloucestershire had asked the public to come out in force and wanted to be able to put up the “ground full” signs. Neville Road was not completely full, but there was at least 6000 people inside and a wonderful atmosphere. The bug bit and I became a member, although knowing that with school six days a week, attending games would be limited to Sundays.

I did not get to another County Championship match until five years later. Middlesex v Gloucestershire at Lord’s. Mid-week afternoon. Gloomy. Match heading for a draw. And, literally, I could count the people in the stands on the fingers of one hand. If anything brought home how the County Championship had fallen, it was that.

Of course, in those days, one day cricket was king. It was televised. It was lively. I watched games at places like Canterbury and Southampton. Even an early round of the NatWest Trophy would pull in a healthy crowd on a Wednesday morning. Who needed a Championship when clubs could rake in money with Cup matches and the Sunday League?

Going abroad to live cut me off from cricket. There was no Internet in the mid-1980s. My entire contact with cricket was from the short BBC World Service sports bulletins in the evening and Paddy Feeny and Saturday Special at the weekend, plus any books or magazines that I picked up on trips back to the UK.

The biggest single change in cricket over the last fifteen years is not T20, changes in the rules, or anything similar. It has been the development of the Internet and of Internet streaming. This seems to be the single factor that has brought about a steady revival in the fortunes of the County Championship, with the public at least. First, services such as CricInfo allowed people in their offices anywhere in the world to follow the progress of games in real time. Then BBC Local Radio harked back to the golden age of radio when the regions could opt out of national programming to bring local content: often live commentary on County matches.

It was a revolution when I discovered that Mark Church was broadcasting live ball-by-ball on Surrey’s Championship matches on BBC Radio London. What is more, it was lively, entertaining and the listeners were encouraged to participate with their feedback, wherever they were in the world. Then Ned Hall started to broadcast Middlesex games too and one had a choice of game: if one was dying a death or was halted by rain, you could go to the other. These games were wonderful entertainment. While Mark Church broadcast with the Surrey Librarian as summariser, Ned Hall did the full day alone and brought in players, guests, listener feedback and anything else to liven-up the day. Ned passed the baton to Kevin Hand who had an infectious enthusiasm.

It was hard to listen to the commentaries day after day – and many thousands did – without being caught up in the fun. One day it might be Tierry, the pastry chef at Lord’s who was brought in for a shift as summariser (he is, I believe, Belgian and knows nothing about cricket, but an awful lot about cream cakes!), another day it would be Clare Skinner, the then media manager at Lord’s, or Vinnie Codrington (Chief Executive), or one of the players, or Will Atkins (best known to fans for wearing the Pinkie the Panther costume at T20s). It did not matter how dull the game was because the chat was wonderful, the feedback from listeners, lively and they never missed a ball… except when the line went down and, on occasion, they “broadcast” a whole session, blissfully unaware that no one was able to hear them. Some of the slow days were particular fun when feedback became themed. The day when players and commentators were fitted into Star Wars personas was an all-time highlight: to this day the true identity of Darth Vader is known only to a very few and deliberately shrouded in mystery in the Middlesex commentary box (listeners are usually led to believe that it is Kevin Hand's regular side-kick, henchman and Dark Lord, "DT", but it most certainly was not)!

What Mark Church and Kevin Hand and their guests were doing was make County Championship cricket fun.

As word spread, other counties joined in. Initially some only broadcast home games, or sent a guest commentator to join the Radio London boys. Some of the commentary efforts were dire, but most were pretty good: there are some wonderful commentaries out there.

For several years now, the BBC has offered live commentary on every County Championship match, plus One Day Cup, T20, some tourist games and even, occasional Minor County matches. Unlike Test cricket, which is usually geo-locked, a Yorkshire fan or a Kent fan can hear commentary live and free anywhere in the world.

And, lo and behold, coincidence or not but, despite the newspapers scaling back their cricket coverage, the crowds were steadily increasing. I try to get to games when in the UK during the cricket season and contrast what I see with that afternoon in 1982. A cold May Sunday morning at Lord’s the stands disgorged a huge number of people at Lunch. Sat in the stands at The Oval in 2011, watching the end of a mid-season, mid-week Division 2 game, if not exactly heaving, there must have been at least 1500 people present in the areas that were open. A morning at Chester-le-Street in early August with a very healthy and lively crowd. I have not attended many days of cricket over the last five years, but the ones that I have, the only “one man and his dog” day was a game that was in its last rites and only produced about an hour of play on the third morning as the home side moved to a comfortable win.

You will usually hear the phrase parroted “no one watches County cricket”. The people who say this, inevitably, follow up with “I never go”. While that was true twenty years ago, the last ten years have seen a steady increase in both interest and attendances. Accurate attendance figures are hard to come by: only paying customers on the gate actually get counted. That means that the corporate hospitality guests – an increasing part of every club’s business – are not counted. Members – the equivalent of season ticket holders in football – are not counted. Even so, the number of paying punters has increased steadily, year on year.

Apart from the fact that radio commentary is creating a generation of new fans – as is possibly T20 but, there, it is not certain how many of the people who attend on a Friday night will turn up for the County Championship – the Championship itself has had some wonderful finishes over the last few years. Live text and interactive chats by hosts such as the BBC and CricInfo allow many thousands who cannot listen-in in the office to follow the action, with the BBC recording a huge number of page accesses for their live text reporting on the last day this season.

One can be melodramatic and fall into hyperbole, declaring that the County Championship has never been so popular. That is just plain daft! In the 1920s and ‘30s crowds filled the grounds most days of the season to watch Championship matches: that will never happen again. However, the County Championship is enjoying a surge of interest, particularly in Division 1.

Properly harnessed, the growing enthusiasm for the County game can bring benefits at all levels. Youngsters on the village green aspire to play for a club. Young club players aspire to be picked up by a county. County players want Test recognition. Cricket has always had this informal feeder system that has been threatened by the decline of cricket in schools and the steady reduction in recreational cricketers. With a healthy and popular County Championship the conveyor belt of talent keeps moving.

We often forget that the County Championship is unique in the world in having an important following. Inter-provincial, inter-state and inter-island First Class competitions exist around the world, but have been dying. The Sheffield Shield in Australia, once the premier First Class tournament, has been declining for year and has a spectator interest that has fallen away steadily until now, few attend. India used to have several wonderful First Class tournaments that are now dying and generate little interest. Pakistan First Class cricket has never attracted spectators. In the Caribbean and South Africa the First Class tournaments are struggling to survive (whatever happened to the Caribbean Shell Shield, which was for some years the toughest competition in the world?)

Only in England does it seem that First Class cricket has a real following and crowds, while not huge, remain respectable and are trending up, unlike anywhere else in the world where they are reducing still further. Where else in the world would a team, not renowned for being well supported, be able to report a total attendance of near 22 000 paying spectators over four days, plus probably another few thousand members?

County cricket is becoming popular again. That though is very inconvenient because it does not sell TV rights or seal huge sponsorship deals.

After a previous effort to reduce the Championship to 12 games was defeated after an outpouring of rage, a new proposal has come in by stealth.

In 2017 Division 1 will be reduced to 8 sides. Oh look! Eight sides means seven home and away games. Fourteen in all. More room for T20!

Just at the moment that our premier competition, which is proving to be a good breeder for the Test side, is going through a boom in popularity to levels not seen since the 1960s, we start to hack at it on the grounds of the good of the game.

The other side of the coin is that Division 2 now has 10 teams but, to keep things fair (ahem!), will also play just 14 games. After 16 years of playing every side in your Division home and away, Division 2 sides now face an existence at the mercy of the fixture computer: you play every side once, either home or away, and four sides twice. Woe betide the team that discovers that the luck of the draw gives it the two relegated sides from 2016 – Hampshire and Nottinghamshire – home and away, plus the sides the finished second and third in the table in 2016 – Kent and Northamptonshire. Another side may discover that it faces the bottom four from 2016 home and away and gets the strongest sides only at home. For the first time in many years a team will look at the fixtures when they come out and know that it is either going to be a very, very tough slog, or a fairly comfortable route to a tilt at promotion.

The ECB seems to struggle to strike a happy medium. Years ago now it took the decisions, “for the good of the game”, that led to free-to-air cricket disappearing from our homes. That decision reduced cricket awareness in the community. Take an example: show the faces of the XI players who took the field for the final Test of the summer to a group of cricket fans and see how many they can recognise. I know that I, for one, would struggle to get much more than half. Show me a picture of the 1981 Ashes team and I would probably get all eleven – the images from that summer such as Bob Willis in a near-trance at the top of his run at Headingley live with fans for ever. Now, the ECB struggles to balance a One Day Cup competition that really no one cares about these days (the number of fixtures has increased massively to accommodate television, with most games being played to near empty grounds with far fewer spectators than for your average Championship game), with a T20 tournament that has never quite gelled and a County Championship still seen by many as the main event of the summer.

The ECB would like its T20 competition to be as popular and attract as many stars and as much revenue as the IPL or the Big Bash, but has never quite hit on a formula. Fans will tell you that it is one thing going to a night game at Sydney or Mumbai, with their long, warm evenings, but quite another to go to a game at Chester-le-Street in early June when it is not properly dark until 10pm and the temperature may be below 10°C. The cool, humid evenings of the UK were not really designed for T20 cricket.

Of course, you can do things to make it better. Having regular slots for games helps. Playing games in the summer holiday and, especially, at the weekend, helps. Blocking the games in a relatively short period helps, particularly to bring in the stars. While there is something to be said for playing T20 every Friday or Saturday night (pick one) through the season so that fans know that every second weekend there will be a home game, playing T20 at night in late April or early May is unpleasant even in the warmer and drier parts of the country.

What is an unmitigated disaster is to kill your other tournaments in desperate, flailing efforts to support a competition that you just are not getting right, or to bring in a competition that no one actually particularly wants.

So, if there is too much cricket, what can you do to try to protect your crown jewels, but also make money?

It might look something like this:

·        Make the Royal London One Day Cup a straight knock-out with 32 teams in the first round. The 18 First Class counties to be joined by 14 qualifiers taken from Scotland, Ireland, Denmark, The Netherlands, the Minor Counties and the recreational cricketers of the County Board XIs and, possibly, the UCCEs (alternatively, have a representative European Associate and Affiliate Member XI). You help European cricket and give your Sunday afternoon cricketer the chance to aspire to play Middlesex at Lord’s or Yorkshire at Headingley. No seeding, to bring back the possibility of giant-killing and Cup runs.

·        Block the T20 into the second half of July and first half of August. Play most games on Friday nights and Saturdays, with Saturday local derby double-headers every weekend as a family day out (e.g. Surrey might play Middlesex and Essex one Saturday and Gloucestershire would play Glamorgan and Somerset another Saturday, while Yorkshire might host a double-header with Lancashire and Durham). Just playing Fridays with Saturday double-headers each side will play 10 games in 4 weeks or 15 games in 6 weeks, even without playing any other day of the week and TV will have a compact package that it can sell to the public.

Add the fun elements for families: bouncy castles, hot tubs (for the younger couples), side-shows, etc. so that even Mum, who is not a cricket fan, is willing to come too and spend a day with the kids, enjoying the fun inside the ground.

·        Either play three divisions of seven in the county Championship with end of season play-offs for the Championship, promotion and relegation to increase the number of games (and to introduce more "pressure games"), or return to a system of two, equal divisions with everyone playing everyone else home and away.

Play the Championship games either from Sunday to Wednesday or from Wednesday to Saturday to ensure at least one weekend day in each match, preferably a Saturday with the chances of seeing a positive finish. Start the Championship in late April or preferably early May and play through to late September when the weather is usually far better and more reliable than in April anyway. Take advantage of the last three weeks of the school holidays to play Championship cricket, hopefully attracting some fans who have been watching the T20 and are willing to try the longer form.

Is it too much to ask that we try to preserve the jewel in the Crown in an undiminished form?