The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) confirmed today that it was looking at ways to avoid a repeat of a summer schedule that saw the County Championship take a six-week-plus break to make way for the The Hundred this summer. The ECB seems to have realised belatedly that putting the emphasis on comedy cricket in the main part of the summer has damaged England's test side. Not only that but the County 50-over competition, played at the same time as The Hundred, has been downgraded to become a vehicle mainly for youngsters, most of whom would not normally be in the first team at that stage of their career, and older professionals not required by The Hundred or England.

The ECB chief executive acknowledges the problem but says finding a solution will not be easy.

That organisation must live a sheltered existence. When the summer schedule for this year was announced, former players, cricket journalists and many ordinary supporters of the game pointed out the pitfalls which the ECB has now discovered for itself.

Will Carlings 'old f*rts' come to mind.
 
Finding a solution ' not easy'? Goodness, scrap it. Is that easy enough?

Not a path favoured by the ECB CEO I suspect.

It's been widely reported in the press that The Hundred is his 'baby' and he is loath to see it harmed, let alone euthanised.

At least one newspaper reports today that a £2.1 million bonus is to be paid to senior ECB executives including the CEO of the organisation and the managing director of The Hundred. ECB staff are said to be 'dismayed' at this. They took pay cuts last year because of the pandemic and 62 colleagues were made redundant. The bonus is said to be for delivering The Hundred.

So perhaps if they'd merely copied the Indian Premier League or Australia's Big Bash, both 20:20 franchise competitions, there might have been no bonus. Puts The Hundred in another perspective.
 
It's now official with immediate effect the term batsman has been abolished by the Marleybone Cricket Club (MCC) and now were all officially batters.

Personally I can't see anything wrong with a bloke with a bat being a batsman and a lady with abat being a batswomen.

Next on the agenda is the term nightwatchman suggested to be a nightwatcher according to ex England women batperson Alex Hartley.

Next up according to the Society of the Vertically Challenged (previously known as dwarfs)will be the abolishment of short leg although I might have made the last bit up but no doubt third man is in danger.

Suppose it progress of a kind.
 
It's now official with immediate effect the term batsman has been abolished by the Marleybone Cricket Club (MCC) and now were all officially batters.

Personally I can't see anything wrong with a bloke with a bat being a batsman and a lady with abat being a batswomen.

Next on the agenda is the term nightwatchman suggested to be a nightwatcher according to ex England women batperson Alex Hartley.

Next up according to the Society of the Vertically Challenged (previously known as dwarfs)will be the abolishment of short leg although I might have made the last bit up but no doubt third man is in danger.

Suppose it progress of a kind.
What about 'to bowl a maiden over'? - that's always been one of my priorities!

And as for 'middle stump'? :wideyed:

Kevin
 
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What about 'to bowl a maiden over'? - that's always been one of my priorities!

And as for 'middle stump'? :wideyed:

Kevin

A really good bowler can manage three maidens in a row, think I'll declare now before I get my bails dislodged.

However before I do toddle off Warwickshire are in with a great chance of winning the much neglected county championship needing maximum bowling points then winning the match against Somerset to become champions for the first time since 2012.

I believe Somerset have never managed to win it despite several near misses but a certain gentleman in the Bristol area will know better than me.

P.S. forgot to mention entrance to Edgbaston is free today and tomorrow a really good move by the club.
 
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Then there's Silly Point.

If I've got my field placings right, you'd be silly to field there....

"But it's not particularly silly, is it? " as John Cleese was told by an official from the Ministry of Silly Walks when seeking a grant to develop his own brand of silly perambulation (Monty Python for those not a fan).
A really good bowler can manage three maidens in a row, think I'll declare now before I get my bails dislodged.

However before I do toddle off Warwickshire are in with a great chance of winning the much neglected county championship needing maximum bowling points then winning the match against Somerset to become champions for the first time since 2012.

I believe Somerset have never managed to win it despite several near misses but a certain gentleman in the Bristol area will know better than me.

P.S. forgot to mention entrance to Edgbaston is free today and tomorrow a really good move by the club.
Quite right about Somerset. Along with Essex they were favourites to win this year's County Championship. Essex didn't even make the top group after the first round of ten matches earlier in the season. Somerset did but lost the first three of their top group games - heavily in each case after winning the toss and putting in the opposition on each occasion . They won the toss again and 'inserted' Warwickshire but now the pressure is off they seem to be making a better fist of things in this game, perhaps to Warwickshire's chagrin.
 
Great move by Warwickshire, obviously believe county game is alive and well!

Warwickshire know what they have to do tomorrow. Who said this part of the game was dead? Not forgetting Lancashire earlier; that went to the wire.

More on the cricket theme. Aussie PM announced no favours for England team's families during Ashes tour. Wonder who will blink first and announce their withdrawal from the squad. I can see this from both sides so it's not intended as a criticism.
 
Tense day tomorrow Warwickshire are157 in front with nine wickets in hand so the theory is quick runs and then set the bowlers too tight to call in my opinion.
 
I would not expect a country to make exceptions for relatives of cricketers to visit that country if others can't do so generally.

As to The Hundred, one of the things I feared might happen has already started. A Worcestershire player who played for Hampshire-based Southern Brave in The Hundred is leaving Worcestershire to play white ball cricket for Hampshire next season. He gave as his reasons the enjoyment he gained from playing at the Ageas Bowl and the Southern Brave coaching provided by mainly Hampshire coaches.

Somerset is my cricketing county and several of their extremely promising young cricketers played for various franchise teams in The Hundred. Given that all The Hundred venues are test match grounds with extra money that brings I expect some of my county's young players to be 'poached' by so-called bigger counties after tasting the atmosphere at the test grounds.

I read an article recently that suggested it won't be long before the only first-class counties are those eight whose home is a test match ground with a Hundred franchise based there. The other ten first-class counties would become minor counties and act as feeder clubs to the eight major counties.

The ECB is soon to consult on the format of the 2022 season. Because it expects Covid still to feature it is likely to be a short-term arrangement as this season and 2020 were, with the hope that summer 2023 might be back to normal when a longer term domestic cricket calendar can be formulated.

This season when no first-class cricket outside test matches was played between mid-June and late August was clearly unacceptable and, amongst other things, meant that when replacements had to be called up to the England test side they had not played any red ball (first-class) cricket for many weeks beforehand.
 
Tense day tomorrow Warwickshire are157 in front with nine wickets in hand so the theory is quick runs and then set the bowlers too tight to call in my opinion.
Warwickshire have declared their second innings leaving Somerset to get 273 runs from 79 overs to win.

It seems a generous declaration but was inevitable in that Warwickshire need to win the match whilst Somerset have no chance of becoming county champions.

Had Warwickshire batted Somerset out of the game the visitors would simply have shut up shop in their second innings knowing the best they could achieve was a draw. At least Somerset now have the carrot of a win if they bat well so might be more inclined to chase the runs and in so doing lose wickets. We don't know either what if any agreement the captains had come to, eg will Somerset continue to go after the runs even if they begin losing wickets in the process?
 
Listening to commentary on BBC C&W. Must be first time ever I've tuned in to that station!

Earlier they mentioned that ECB are considering returning to two County Championships leagues, based on 2019 results. It was considered unfair to Nottinghamshire based on this season's performance, as they would be relegated. They're continuing the debate as we head to the end of the lunch interval.

Debate between "suits and tracksuits" continues....
 
The game is being streamed live. Click below link then click on 'Live Stream' at top left of page.


Update 1325 hours: Somerset now 35-2. Warwickshire need another eight wickets to win the County Championship!
 
Now three wickets down!
 

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