“Rest and rotation” are the output of “greed and ignorance” on the part of cricket’s administrators. All who love our sport can see that they are getting a devalued, subpar experience as the schedule is absolute chaos.
Not having the best players available due to schedule clashes or needing a rest is absurd, it’s undermining the integrity of the contest.
My personal objective is to save test cricket, and to elevate it to its rightful place at the pinnacle of the game. The first point of action is to reduce both the volume of tests and the countries playing it. I appreciate that a vague attempt to grow the game has been attempted but reality is that some teams don’t have the player depth, financial resource or interest to make test cricket viable.
The growth of the ‘limited overs’ or ‘white ball’ game is such that we have to accept change. It is bringing a new audience to cricket, and it does bring money to fund cricket. However, something must give and that I believe is 50 over cricket. It needs to be removed from the international schedule of test paying nations.
Test Cricket:
- Limited to 8 teams; Australia, India, South Africa, England, New Zealand, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, West Indies.
- Each team must play two 5 test series in a 12 month cycle (1 home, 1 away).
- Each 5 match series must be allocated an 8 week/2 month window in the middle of the home team’s season.
- Each series should not overlap a franchise T20 tournament
- This creates a 7 year cycle, each team will have played home and away and then the top 2 play in a one off test at a neutral venue.
The objective here is to ensure that all teams play an equal number of tests in a year, and do so both home and away.
Each team will play in 5 test series, which allow the rivalries and battles to develop and the players to play through varying conditions.
The games will ideally not be back to back, as we want the best XI on the pitch as often as possible.
In England, I firmly believe that we should have a home test schedule that is locked in (like Wimbledon, The FA Cup Final, The Open Golf etc). This requires naming 5 test match grounds, and then allocating them tests in the same order, and in the same week of each summer.
- Edgbaston
- Lords
- Trent Bridge
- Old Trafford
- The Oval
Edgbaston should be a fortress much like the Gabba in Australia, the home of cricket should be an annual event in the calendar. Followed by 3 more excellent cricket grounds that promote great test cricket.
Each Test would start at 10am.
International T20:
- Each test series (as described above) should be preceded by a 5 match IT20 series.
- There should be a IT20 World Cup every 4 years and open to all associate nations.
- No other IT20 outside of this for Test match nations.
English Domestic Cricket:
I won’t pretend to understand the domestic structure of all 8 test match nations, but I do believe we in England need to re-shape our domestic season. The problems mirror those of the international game and for the same reasons.
As with the international game I don’t believe that our first class counties should be playing 50 over cricket anymore. They also should not be playing two variants of the T20 format, the schedule should be built around the excellence of first class cricket and one strong T20 format.
First Class Cricket:
I suspect this will be my most controversial section, I love county cricket but I do think it needs to change a lot. I’m not convinced that quality is good enough, and there are lots of substandard overseas pros too.
I would not disband the county structure, but it would sit underneath a regional structure with counties feeding into 8 regional teams. The 8 regional teams would play a first class fixture list with a total of 14 games (home and away) and a final at Lords.
I started my 8 regional teams with ‘The Hundred’ teams, and made two changes. The North team would be based in Durham and a South West Team would replace Welsh fire and be based in Taunton (I want to reflect the support in these areas and their strong track record of player development).
- 4 day cricket would be played with playing conditions mirroring test cricket.
- Each region would name a squad of 16 players, all of whom would be eligible to play for England.
- Players selected by England can only be replaced by players from the underlying counties in that region.
- Injured players in the 16 can only be replaced by players from the underlying counties in that region.
I have intentionally excluded overseas players, whilst part of me believes our players can learn from them. They also are learning about our players and conditions, this is an advantage to a touring team. Given the reduced number of players (16×8=128 players), we should not need to bolster the squads with overseas players.
Domestic T20:
I do accept that The Hundred has brought some positive innovation to the game. Some very simple things like the countdown on the big screen (this can be replicated in any format).
I especially like the ‘two sets’ tactical choice of a bowler remaining on. This is a good development because almost every rule change in T20 has been aimed at helping batsmen, and to be honest the balance is so far in their favour.
What I understand less is ‘change for the sake of change’, T20 is attracting a new audience, but it would be nice if some of that audience also then were drawn to first class and test cricket. Thus, I think that 6 ball overs work just fine.
I also think that we need to be realistic about the product, I have been to games live and watched on TV and some of the standards in The Hundred are very poor. Whilst there has been ‘highlight’ moments in the field, there have been a lot of very poor dropped catches.
- The same 8 teams as playing first class cricket (see above to create a consistent identity)
- Squads of 16 (as above, but can be different players to that of the FC squads)
- Can have 2 overseas players in squad and XI.
- 6 ball overs (120 balls)
- Keep the innovation of being able to bowl 2 overs back to back from the same end.
- Bowlers limited to 4 overs each (24 balls).
- Batsman limited to 4 overs each (24 balls and retired out)
I am stupid enough to believe that this change is needed, but wise enough to know that it won’t come. I hope the game I love survives, but if it doesn’t, I can always look back fondly on growing up in an era when Warne, Wasim, Waqar, Tendulkar, Lara, Waugh, Donald, Stewart, Thorpe, Gough, Kallis, Ponting, Ambrose, Walsh, McGrath et al often went toe to toe over 5 days in the greatest form of the game.