As I look out on my garden, buried under 20 cms of snow, I am comforted by the signs of spring. The storks are here (though suffering), some crocuses burst out before being buried in snow, and Easter has come and gone. And today the cricket starts. With online coverage with multiple cameras and commentary teams. Free. (it says here)
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SomerSex - County championship 2021
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Yorkshire really haven't been that successful since the 60s have they? Not having a dig, just looking at the history of the competition, amazed that Glos, Northants or Somerset haven't won it at all, even by chance in 120 editions.
Has there ever been a time when the county championship hasn't been blamed for the failings of the England team? The most recent patch has been to make draws equal to ties points wise to encourage digging in. I'm not sure it'll really change anything though. Surely the simplest thing would be to not dump all your fixtures at the far reaches of the season?
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We've won it three times since 1968, which is twice more than Lancashire. We have been remarkably consistent in recent years, not like counties like Middlesex or Notts who seem to oscillate between extremes in performance. When the fixtures came out I was quite enthused by the increase in Saturday cricket, now I'm glad I don't have to think about going this weekend given the forecast.
I don't like the increase in points for draws, surely that just means we'll go back to like it was roughly a decade ago when everything was played on pitches more befitting a timeless Test.
I'm sure Somerset will find an imaginative way to not win the Championship again. Perhaps they'll finish second then win the Bob Willis Trophy.
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Oh bloody hell everything is on YouTube. How am I meant to get any work done this summer? Yorkshire have just taken their second wicket, David Lloyd left one from Matthew Fisher which swung back in and clipped off stump. They keep showing the scoreboard to introduce the new batsman (Billy Root in this case). Give us the full experience and tell us what Graham is cooking in the indoor school for lunch.
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Glamorgan already 29/3 in the Rootout at Headingley, a reassuring constant in these tumultuous times.Last edited by Ray de Galles; 08-04-2021, 10:56.
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Two centuries already at Leicester, though unsurprisingly neither for the home team as Hampshires Tom Alsop and especially James Vince make hay against some, lets be polite here as it's the first game of the season, pretty ordinary bowling. Yet another long season in store for the Foxes.
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No, nothing to do with money. It's never about money. The counties make no money from the championship, it comes from the ECB. They may make money on T20s but I don't know.
If there is a change in the way the championship works you are unlikely to go wrong with saying that it's to improve the England team.
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The rationale behind the creation of two divisions was aimed at improving the standard of players for England - the thinking was that, in the First Division, the better counties (with the better players) would be playing each other more frequently and so there would be a higher level of competition. I think that it was also felt that the two division format would mean more counties having something to play for for more of the season - in the old format many counties would be (realistically, if not mathematically) out of the running for the championship by the start of June and spend the rest of the summer trying to look engaged in whether they finished 11th or 12th.
I think it's highly unlikely that Cheshire will ever move up to First Class status. Durham were the last to make the step, in 1992, seventy one years after the second last (Glamorgan). There is a huge difference in the finances and infrastructure required between the County Championship and the NCCA Championship (previously known as Minor Counties Championship). The first class counties all have their own permanent grounds and have fully professional squads, employed to play 80-85 days each summer. The minor counties use various club grounds and use mostly amateur players, drawn from the local leagues. They would also need to find a way of persuading the existing First Class counties that it would be in their interests to split the revenue coming from the ECB 19 ways rather than 18.
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