Leicestershire County Cricket Club

[worth_the_wait]

Getting older isn't all bad.   In fact, there are some aspects of it that I positively like.  But the one really depressing thing, is that you witness the destruction of things you used to love, and that there's absolutely nothing you can do about it.  The youngsters won't have any understanding, as the current situation is all they've known.
 
I used to love the old cricket formats.   
 
County Championship matches used to chugg away throughout the summaer.   Not many people attended, but it was interesting to pore over the scores of all the counties.  All the results were read out on BBC's Grandstand.   A bit like the racing results.   "Leicestershire 326 for 9" rolled off the tongue like "The 3.30 from Haydock Park was won by Wizard of the West".
 
The 40 over Sunday League.   A great competition, with live coverage on BBC2 of one game every week.   Even when it morphed into midweek, 45 overs, day/night.   Still a great competition.    The Benson and Hedges Cup.  An early competition to get the summer started.   And finally the Gillette Cup/Nat West Trophy bringing up the end of the summer.
 
I didn't particularly like the 20-20 format, but I accept it's been a life saver for the counties.   And it's been good to Leicestershire, so not too many complaints.
 
But this franchised Hundred sh*t feels like the end of County Cricket as we know it.  By all accounts, it's going to grow around the world in India, Austraila or whereever ... and there's nothing much we can do about it.
 
I just pray that our Leicestershire can win the Royal London One Day Cup, while there is still a semblance of County Cricket.    And if 1000's of us could turn Trent Bridge into a cauldron of "F * c k the ECB" it would be doubly great.

 

 

[Paninistickers]

42 minutes ago, worth_the_wait said:

Getting older isn't all bad.   In fact, there are some aspects of it that I positively like.  But the one really depressing thing, is that you witness the destruction of things you used to love, and that there's absolutely nothing you can do about it.  The youngsters won't have any understanding, as the current situation is all they've known.
 
I used to love the old cricket formats.   
 
County Championship matches used to chugg away throughout the summaer.   Not many people attended, but it was interesting to pore over the scores of all the counties.  All the results were read out on BBC's Grandstand.   A bit like the racing results.   "Leicestershire 326 for 9" rolled off the tongue like "The 3.30 from Haydock Park was won by Wizard of the West".
 
The 40 over Sunday League.   A great competition, with live coverage on BBC2 of one game every week.   Even when it morphed into midweek, 45 overs, day/night.   Still a great competition.    The Benson and Hedges Cup.  An early competition to get the summer started.   And finally the Gillette Cup/Nat West Trophy bringing up the end of the summer.
 
I didn't particularly like the 20-20 format, but I accept it's been a life saver for the counties.   And it's been good to Leicestershire, so not too many complaints.
 
But this franchised Hundred sh*t feels like the end of County Cricket as we know it.  By all accounts, it's going to grow around the world in India, Austraila or whereever ... and there's nothing much we can do about it.
 
I just pray that our Leicestershire can win the Royal London One Day Cup, while there is still a semblance of County Cricket.    And if 1000's of us could turn Trent Bridge into a cauldron of "F * c k the ECB" it would be doubly great.

 

 

The old John player was a marvellous format, every Sunday, 2pm til 6/7ish, alternating home and away. It was a mistake to bin it. 

 

The Hundred will.die inside 4 years. Max. I'd bet (some of) the mortgage on it. 

 

 

[worth_the_wait]

29 minutes ago, Paninistickers said:

 

The Hundred will.die inside 4 years. Max. I'd bet (some of) the mortgage on it. 

 

 

I (so) hope you're right. 

 

Otherwise i can see the 50 over one-day finished.   And that's basically the last survivor of proper one day cricket ... be it 40, 45, 50, 55 or 60 overs.  (All of which existed at some point).

 

 

[Corky]

The Hundred will either crash and burn or grow and push county cricket to the brink.

 

It won't end well whatever the outcome.

[Lako42]

16 hours ago, Corky said:

Killing county cricket and no shame in it at all.

 

The counties should break away from this disgrace and do it on their own. The ECB have their plastic shit and leave the proper cricket alone.

We'd be bankrupt in an instant. 

 

 

Cricket is ****ed in this country 

[Harpenden Fox]

1 hour ago, Lako42 said:

We'd be bankrupt in an instant. 

 

 

Cricket is ****ed in this country 

I don’t believe it is. Attendances at the Hundred are good. Attendances at women’s games are growing exponentially. Test matches usually sell out, although pricing is a problem. Basically, prices need to come down.

 

But I remain unconvinced there is room for 18 counties, and that does place us at risk. We are a heavily subsidised business reliant on ECB grants for approx 75% of our income. We have about 1500 members and attendances at 4 day games average around 300 per day

[Voll Blau]

7 minutes ago, Harpenden Fox said:

I don’t believe it is. Attendances at the Hundred are good. Attendances at women’s games are growing exponentially. Test matches usually sell out, although pricing is a problem. Basically, prices need to come down.

 

But I remain unconvinced there is room for 18 counties, and that does place us at risk. We are a heavily subsidised business reliant on ECB grants for approx 75% of our income. We have about 1500 members and attendances at 4 day games average around 300 per day

 

So the kind of future you're describing is one where professional cricket is basically only likely to be played in a smaller number of areas, making it harder for most people to actually access it in person. It's therefore likely to be an unaffordable day out for people outside of the larger cities where it will still be played (and for those who can, there's little incentive if they don't have a connection to the area anyway) and, unless there's major investment in facilities at schools, parks and clubs in the cities where it still is, the grassroots game will get no benefit at all from an increase in children and adults taking up the sport. Given the way the ECB dishes out bonuses to its top brass, I'll not hold my breath...

 

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/blog/2022/feb/04/after-all-the-failings-and-public-money-its-time-to-talk-about-ecb-bonuses

 

If cricket is to become more centralised, this also has a knock-on effect on the potential talent pool given there'll be fewer pathways to professional clubs from kids who learn their cricket at clubs in county-wide leagues or the rare needle in a haystack that is a state school cricket team. Therefore, we're likely to become ever more reliant (as if we aren't enough already) on private schools to produce our pro cricketers.

 

What we need to see is actually the opposite of the strategy the ECB is currently pursuing, which is based on top-down vanity projects aimed at competing with the IPL and Big Bash (Newsflash: We never will, and shouldn't even try). We need more cricket on terrestrial TV (could easily have been done renegotiating the contracts for the Blast and international matches instead of throwing the kitchen sink at a tournament nobody asked for) and more investment in facilities at state schools. Give kids heroes that are visible to them and who they can aspire to be, then give them the equipment and coaching to succeed. It's not difficult.

 

In short, yeah cricket is pretty ****ed in this country unless we change course quickly.

[CosbehFox]

Do the crowds at the Hundred have more paying customers than the Blast? 
 

You’ll find probably not 

[Harpenden Fox]

37 minutes ago, Voll Blau said:

 

So the kind of future you're describing is one where professional cricket is basically only likely to be played in a smaller number of areas, making it harder for most people to actually access it in person. It's therefore likely to be an unaffordable day out for people outside of the larger cities where it will still be played (and for those who can, there's little incentive if they don't have a connection to the area anyway) and, unless there's major investment in facilities at schools, parks and clubs in the cities where it still is, the grassroots game will get no benefit at all from an increase in children and adults taking up the sport. Given the way the ECB dishes out bonuses to its top brass, I'll not hold my breath...

 

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/blog/2022/feb/04/after-all-the-failings-and-public-money-its-time-to-talk-about-ecb-bonuses

 

If cricket is to become more centralised, this also has a knock-on effect on the potential talent pool given there'll be fewer pathways to professional clubs from kids who learn their cricket at clubs in county-wide leagues or the rare needle in a haystack that is a state school cricket team. Therefore, we're likely to become ever more reliant (as if we aren't enough already) on private schools to produce our pro cricketers.

 

What we need to see is actually the opposite of the strategy the ECB is currently pursuing, which is based on top-down vanity projects aimed at competing with the IPL and Big Bash (Newsflash: We never will, and shouldn't even try). We need more cricket on terrestrial TV (could easily have been done renegotiating the contracts for the Blast and international matches instead of throwing the kitchen sink at a tournament nobody asked for) and more investment in facilities at state schools. Give kids heroes that are visible to them and who they can aspire to be, then give them the equipment and coaching to succeed. It's not difficult.

 

In short, yeah cricket is pretty ****ed in this country unless we change course quickly.

Unless people actually turn up and start watching Leicestershire, yes.

 

There are just six State teams in Australia and a third of the population, yet they are consistently better than us at cricket 

 

 

[Tommy Fresh]

23 minutes ago, Harpenden Fox said:

Unless people actually turn up and start watching Leicestershire, yes.

 

There are just six State teams in Australia and a third of the population, yet they are consistently better than us at cricket 

 

 

Doesn't Australia have a very strong and competitive grade system, along with the 6 state championships.

 

I also don't believe Cricket is as elitist as it is here.

Edited 19 August 2022 by Tommy Fresh

[Voll Blau]

1 hour ago, Harpenden Fox said:

Unless people actually turn up and start watching Leicestershire, yes.

 

There are just six State teams in Australia and a third of the population, yet they are consistently better than us at cricket 

 

 

 

47 minutes ago, Tommy Fresh said:

Doesn't Australia have a very strong and competitive grade system, along with the 6 state championships.

 

I also don't believe Cricket is as elitist as it is here.

 

Bang on. It's the whole structure from bottom-up underneath the six states that makes them so competitive. The Grade system in all major cities, clubs elsewhere, cricket being played in every single state school. So while they've only a third of the population, their talent pool is potentially miles bigger than ours because just about everyone grows up playing it. This idea that it's just because there's in theory a higher standard at the top level is nonsense.

 

We're miles too reliant on a largely a few private schools and a strong club system in a select few areas of the country to produce the bulk of our talent.

[CosbehFox]

India has 38 first class clubs. They are consistently better than cricket than us. 
 

There is no one size fits all strategy. The 18 county cricket system has produced world champions for England at all formats of the sports. No one watches Sheffield Shield or the Ranji Trophy. 
 

As Voll says id argue that there is a lot of untapped potentially within England which doesn’t get exposed to cricket, my school was incredible rare as a inner city state school that we’d have a cricket team. We were facing the likes of John Cleveland College etc, we’d lose bar a couple of rare occasions but interesting it was much a challenge to them as it was to us. (Sadly came across racism all to frequently). Ultimately I think if we start cutting counties - it doesn’t help participation within those cities or areas, it’s forgotten what role Leics CCC play when it comes to the club game. 

[HybridFox]

I'd give up watching cricket than endorse the hundred 

[Paninistickers]

The ECB has presided over a decimation of the game since the 2005 ashes. Firstly with vanishing the game to Sky 

 

State School participation is non existent. So many sports have overtaken cricket in millenial kids' consciousness; Rugby particularly...cycling, tennis have each aggressively targeted wider participation and capitalised on elite level success. Cricket at schools has collapsed to Hockey levels of interest. 

 

The ECB seem besotted with focus group analysis and those sort of things always lead to the standard anodyne results; Family this, Asian community that, IPL big bucks the other 

 

Yet the attendance and televisual answer stares at them square.in the face. Taunton thrives. New Road with its cathedral backdrop. Festivals at Scarborough, Arundel and Liverpool l. Chesterfield, Sheffield or even Oakham. Boozed up t20 friday night urban crowds at smaller grounds Leicester, Chelmsford or Swansea. The ECB are trying to develop a fanbase that doesn't exist; middle class British Asians and happy families watching fireworks. 

 

KiSS. Keep it Simple Stupid. Summer sundays ...picnic blanket...marquees with booze and bbqs...let the kids on outfield at breaktimes. And let the big name players play (I saw every possible world star at grace Road in my childhood - Border, Warne, Botham, Gower, Viv Richards, Lara, Allan Donald....I could go on and on)

[Voll Blau]

14 minutes ago, Paninistickers said:

The ECB has presided over a decimation of the game since the 2005 ashes. Firstly with vanishing the game to Sky 

 

State School participation is non existent. So many sports have overtaken cricket in millenial kids' consciousness; Rugby particularly...cycling, tennis have each aggressively targeted wider participation and capitalised on elite level success. Cricket at schools has collapsed to Hockey levels of interest. 

 

The ECB seem besotted with focus group analysis and those sort of things always lead to the standard anodyne results; Family this, Asian community that, IPL big bucks the other 

 

Yet the attendance and televisual answer stares at them square.in the face. Taunton thrives. New Road with its cathedral backdrop. Festivals at Scarborough, Arundel and Liverpool l. Chesterfield, Sheffield or even Oakham. Boozed up t20 friday night urban crowds at smaller grounds Leicester, Chelmsford or Swansea. The ECB are trying to develop a fanbase that doesn't exist; middle class British Asians and happy families watching fireworks. 

 

KiSS. Keep it Simple Stupid. Summer sundays ...picnic blanket...marquees with booze and bbqs...let the kids on outfield at breaktimes. And let the big name players play (I saw every possible world star at grace Road in my childhood - Border, Warne, Botham, Gower, Viv Richards, Lara, Allan Donald....I could go on and on)

Spot on. The maddening thing is there's an alternate universe where the ECB don't flog the rights to Sky at a time when cricket hadn't been so popular for decades, they actually take advantage of it and the sport is now thriving across the country.

[HaroldBazBo]

People say were skint but have you seen the balance sheet at some test match counties?

[Graceroad]

Could be down to 3rd in the table tonight with Middlesex and Sussex going well.Huge game tomorrow

[Mark 'expert' Lawrenson]

Not buying into the 18 counties is too many thought process at all, approximately 65 million people in the UK, it’ll make it even more of a minority sport if we reduce the counties.

 

[CosbehFox]

1 hour ago, HaroldBazBo said:

People say were skint but have you seen the balance sheet at some test match counties?

When I mentioned the Blast crowds, I look up what Surrey and Middlesex were getting from them. 20k plus crowds for most of their fixtures !

[HaroldBazBo]

Surrey are well run. Yorks Durham and Glams for example skint.

 

Good to see Warks getting a beating today.

[Stadt]

I don’t see the logic in announcing the team the day before 

 

 

Edited 19 August 2022 by Stadt

[CrawlingFox]

3 hours ago, Mark 'expert' Lawrenson said:

Not buying into the 18 counties is too many thought process at all, approximately 65 million people in the UK, it’ll make it even more of a minority sport if we reduce the counties.

 

The answer if you want a narrower tip to your pyramid is to widen the base. ECB can't be arsed with grassroots so will just bin the likes of us to achieve it.

[worth_the_wait]

6 hours ago, Paninistickers said:

The ECB has presided over a decimation of the game since the 2005 ashes. Firstly with vanishing the game to Sky

Losing the Ashes Tests from Terrestrial TV to Sky was for me the seminal moment.    They took the money, but cricket all but disappeared from the public's consciousness.

 

I can't remember the exact viewing figures, but the average TV audience from the 2005 Ashes series to the next one went down by about 2/3.   It was something like 4.5 million averaged watching the 2005 series, down to about 1.5 million for the next.

(the peak viewing figures showing a similar-ish % decline, if a fraction less).

 

In effect, this was disenfranchising 2/3 of the interested public ... as an example, like City's home crowds decreasing from 30,000 to 10,000 overnight.    Cricket suddenly became a game only talked about if you had a Sky subscription.   

 

I appreciate, just because you can't watch something on TV, doesn't mean you have to stop playing it, or watching your local team.    But I think it had a huge affect.

[CoventryFox]

Michael Finan joins and goes straight into today’s squad. Left arm quick, 2 year deal rushed through as a replacement for Hendricks I guess. Big gamble. Fingers crossed  it’s a good one

[CrawlingFox]

11 minutes ago, CoventryFox said:

Michael Finan joins and goes straight into today’s squad. Left arm quick, 2 year deal rushed through as a replacement for Hendricks I guess. Big gamble. Fingers crossed  it’s a good one

Apparently a few counties were in for him.

 

A damning indictment of Griffiths, Sakande and A.Evans. what a waste of the wage budget. Hopefully Finan manages better than most of these recent pace bowlers we sign.