Cricket-Match-Special ... A forum for discussion

Arthur Crabtree wrote:Funny Kiwi?

Coney? Smith?

Coney

thank you

The only person who finds Smith funny is himself.

Coney is among the greats. He could do Country File, Nature Watch, Newsnight. Programmes about STDs on BBC3. Anything.

Same he can't do the old TOTP's during the Yewtree weeks.

That's more Danny's remit I think.

Aidan11 wrote:http://www.espncricinfo.com/england/content/current/story/820095.html

I can see the argument for franchises tbh , there is a limit to how wide you can spread the interest and having 18 teams inevitably dilutes the quality of the teams, look at the renegades team today, by no means the highest profile team in the tournament and it had a bowling lineup of siddle, pattinson, stokes, shakib and ahmed

its hard to move away from the traditional county structure tho , probably too hard

Aidan11 wrote:It seems the popularity of the Big Bash in Oz is leading to calls for a similar franchise-based league over here.

Is it possible? Can it work?

Not a chance, England has too many administrative regions compared to other test nations. Going from county based to city based teams automatically reduces the fan reach and access levels (except for Birmingham and London).

The most successful Twenty20 counties are those who don't play at test match grounds therefore the likes of Somerset, Sussex, Essex, Kent and Leicestershire lose their strength and domestic cricket becomes poorer overall.

Then there is the other matter of media coverage and publicity in cricket, which is predominantly confined to digital media and paywall television. BSkyB will be influential on how franchise cricket will be televised, given they hold exclusive rights of all live English cricket until 2019.

Maybe the present sytem in the T20 Blast could be spiced up in the following manner:

Teams reaching the QF would be allowed to draft in one player from the one of the teams who failed to qualify and the teams reaching the Seni finals day could draft in two players from the non qualifying teams.

This would mean top CC talent would be on show on finals day and widen the interest of cricket supporters who's teams failed to qualify.

I reckon I know how a franchise T20 league could work in England. Bulldoze the entire country, and start from scratch. Establish ten metropolitan centers, five in the south and five in the north, and resettle the population in and around those. Establish T20 franchises in each one. Have all the hoop-la that DFM suggested. Job done. Might cost a bit, but it will all be worth it to have a franchise T20 league. Have an annual All-Star game, between the Northern Monkeys and the Southern Fairies. Get Guy Ritchie to direct the opening ceremony for the tourney. Parachute the Queen in, along with Bondy, Get Golden Balls to light the ECB flame, and use copies of KP's book as fuel to keep the fire burning.

The idea's a goer as far as flattening the south of the country. I suppose the new towns will maximise commercial opportunity while maintaining tradition. So we could have Leamington Spar. Burtons on Trent. Or Stratford Upon Avon can stay as it is.

from_the_stands wrote:I reckon I know how a franchise T20 league could work in England. Bulldoze the entire country, and start from scratch. Establish ten metropolitan centers, five in the south and five in the north, and resettle the population in and around those. Establish T20 franchises in each one. Have all the hoop-la that DFM suggested. Job done. Might cost a bit, but it will all be worth it to have a franchise T20 league. Have an annual All-Star game, between the Northern Monkeys and the Southern Fairies. Get Guy Ritchie to direct the opening ceremony for the tourney. Parachute the Queen in, along with Bondy, Get Golden Balls to light the ECB flame, and use copies of KP's book as fuel to keep the fire burning.

In England's green and pleasant land...........

from_the_stands wrote:I reckon I know how a franchise T20 league could work in England. Bulldoze the entire country, and start from scratch. Establish ten metropolitan centers, five in the south and five in the north, and resettle the population in and around those. Establish T20 franchises in each one. Have all the hoop-la that DFM suggested. Job done. Might cost a bit, but it will all be worth it to have a franchise T20 league. Have an annual All-Star game, between the Northern Monkeys and the Southern Fairies. Get Guy Ritchie to direct the opening ceremony for the tourney. Parachute the Queen in, along with Bondy, Get Golden Balls to light the ECB flame, and use copies of KP's book as fuel to keep the fire burning.

that probably will make more sense than anything the ECB will come up with

rich1uk wrote:

from_the_stands wrote:I reckon I know how a franchise T20 league could work in England. Bulldoze the entire country, and start from scratch. Establish ten metropolitan centers, five in the south and five in the north, and resettle the population in and around those. Establish T20 franchises in each one. Have all the hoop-la that DFM suggested. Job done. Might cost a bit, but it will all be worth it to have a franchise T20 league. Have an annual All-Star game, between the Northern Monkeys and the Southern Fairies. Get Guy Ritchie to direct the opening ceremony for the tourney. Parachute the Queen in, along with Bondy, Get Golden Balls to light the ECB flame, and use copies of KP's book as fuel to keep the fire burning.

that probably will make more sense than anything the ECB will come up with

The ECB? I'm thinking the UK government!

Alviro Patterson wrote:

Aidan11 wrote:It seems the popularity of the Big Bash in Oz is leading to calls for a similar franchise-based league over here.

Is it possible? Can it work?

Not a chance, England has too many administrative regions compared to other test nations. Going from county based to city based teams automatically reduces the fan reach and access levels (except for Birmingham and London).

The most successful Twenty20 counties are those who don't play at test match grounds therefore the likes of Somerset, Sussex, Essex, Kent and Leicestershire lose their strength and domestic cricket becomes poorer overall.

Then there is the other matter of media coverage and publicity in cricket, which is predominantly confined to digital media and paywall television. BSkyB will be influential on how franchise cricket will be televised, given they hold exclusive rights of all live English cricket until 2019.

From afar, and with a pretty ignorant understanding of the county system, I see this as being a stumbling block.

As soon as this finishes, I see that T20 needs to be separated from any new contract and sold to FTA tellie. Play on the county basis, 2 divisions, and as that very good article refers to, have it around school holidays to encourage the family roll-up. Being live to fta doesn't seem to have affected the crowd sizes in Aus, and it certainly HAS affected the awareness of the competition by the population as a whole. As an example, my S-i-L never watches any domestic cricket on tellie, until the BBL came along.

Having the international element of the imports certainly helps with this. While there are plenty of things CA has got right with the BBL, it certainly isn't perfect.