Coronavirus leaves English cricket facing uncertain season
26 March, 2020
Despite the planting season chill, English cricketers would normally be turning their thoughts to outdoor practice. Instead, they face an extended period in limbo.
The impact of the coronavirus means there will be no sound of leather on willow no hardy supporters wrapped up in woollies braving the bitter early-season conditions.
The other day the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) declared that very little professional cricket will be played before May 28 at the initial.
The original County Championship, comprising four-day first-class suits, has much time had to co-exist with a variety of other limited-overs, or white-ball, formats.
And this time the program was to toss the Hundred in to the mixture, with a cast of high-profile overseas superstars including Australia Check captain Steve Smith.
ECB chiefs were hoping the 100 - a 100 balls-per-side tournament featuring eight new franchises, all with men’s and women’s clubs - would attract a fresh audience.
Former England captain Nasser Hussain has suggested the Championship, significantly less lucrative for the counties compared to the 2020 Blast, could be scrapped within an unprecedented peacetime move in response to the shortened time.
“A very important factor the ECB must do is prioritise the fiscal decisions in every this - Test match cricket, white-ball cricket,” he told Sky Sports.
“Probably the purist will have to suck it up come early july with the County Championship. They are the decisions the ECB will need to help to make with their stakeholders and their companions.”
The first-class Championship may be the proving ground for the five-day Test format but is normally played before sparse crowds.
Income from white-ball cricket, plus broadcast and business revenues from international suits helps maintain the 18 first-school counties afloat.
- Short season -
The immediate focus is on options for cricket in June like the three-Test series against West Indies, the Twenty20 Blast and the England Women’s schedule against India.
Pakistan are also due to play three Checks later in the English summer months and Australia have already been booked set for several limited-overs matches.
The ECB is modelling a number of options to start the growing season in June, July or August as it scrabbles for a remedy to a shortened summer.
“Alongside our partners in the game, we continue steadily to plan against several scenarios for the cricket season,” an ECB spokeswoman told AFP.
“It is problematic for us to make sure of what outcomes the overall game might be likely to deal with.
“These could include the opportunity of playing matches nowadays, or potentially postponing or perhaps cancelling further factors of the season.”
Durham chief executive Tim Bostock said if the growing season were reduced to just 8 weeks, it would be easier to launch the Hundred following year.
“It’s pretty sharp international cricket comes initial then from then on it’s the (Twenty20) Blast and the 100. That’s where the earnings is,” Bostock informed Talksport radio after talks between your counties and the ECB.
“Tom Harrison (ECB chief executive) has been really pragmatic. I absolutely receive the impression if we get yourself a two-month time the pragmatic view would be what’s the idea of launching this competition nowadays? Let’s launch it properly next year. I think we’re all on a single page.”
Reigning county champions Essex own suggested regional game titles between neighbouring clubs as a means of keeping first-course cricket going if the most common two-division format should be abandoned.
“Spectators and members want that and it would also give us some four-moment cricket to aid England’s Test series in an exceedingly tight schedule,” Essex leader Derek Bowden told Sky Activities.
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