Who'd have thought it!?

Saw the England womens team on the old box yesterday talking to Ian Ward.

Seems they have the set-up alot of us have discussed on here, where they have 4 regional teams, with the top 44 players in the country playing against each other - after performance in county cricket.

And looksy, they win the WC.

How does it come to a situation where the mens game should be taking pointers from the womens.

Thorpe was saying as much during the rain break. Said regional cricket would never happen because the counties hold all the power.

I know. And yet he from what I understand advocates it.

Just strikes me as yet another ridiculous call from the ECB to have a successful structure that works in the womens game under their noses, and not even look at implementing that with the men.

I mean, Australia, SA and now the women.....

JKLever wrote:Thorpe was saying as much during the rain break. Said regional cricket would never happen because the counties hold all the power.

Then I guess the answer is to gradually undermine them, take away their power and influence bit by bit, then bring in a competition above them when they no longer have the ability to fight back. Or alternatively allow the strongest six to form an elite competition, perhaps the six based at the "traditional" Test grounds and the others can be relegated to minor county status.

If the England team is unsuccessful in the long term then it will eventually kill off interest in cricket in this country and the counties will have no future anyway.

And whats more regional cricket means you wouldn't have to cull any counties. As I've said on here 6 matches per side, 3 home & away - have it so that player can represent the area the were born or brought up rather than what county they currently play for.

For eg. poor example but James Middlebrook can play for 'North'

It should then be made clear that selectors will be influenced by the players playing in this cricket and that the objective of county players is to get chosen to represent the 'region' then the test side. No overseas, kolpaks etc in the regional game.

holcs wrote:I know. And yet he from what I understand advocates it.

Just strikes me as yet another ridiculous call from the ECB to have a successful structure that works in the womens game under their noses, and not even look at implementing that with the men.

I mean, Australia, SA and now the women.....

Why just Australia and SA?

HH_pink wrote:

holcs wrote:I know. And yet he from what I understand advocates it.

Just strikes me as yet another ridiculous call from the ECB to have a successful structure that works in the womens game under their noses, and not even look at implementing that with the men.

I mean, Australia, SA and now the women.....

Why just Australia and SA?

Hasn't India got something like 200 FC teams?

the ranji has two divisions and a total of around 25 teams

the duleep trophy is between the 5 zones - west, east, north, south and central

the irani trophy is between the ranji champions and the rest of india

the duleep and irani are the real platforms for showing the selectors your performance against other quality players

the ipl, though right now for only t20 is city based with only 8 teams. hopefully this can be extended to first class matches sometime later. we have the same resistance from existing cities/states, but slowly and surely that resistance is chipping away (two divisions, ipl, etc)

the duleep also has a visiting team competing every season along with the other 5 zones, usually a national 'a' side. last year the england lions were the sixth team. the year before was sri lanka 'a'

The One wrote:the ipl, though right now for only t20 is city based with only 8 teams. hopefully this can be extended to first class matches sometime later. we have the same resistance from existing cities/states, but slowly and surely that resistance is chipping away (two divisions, ipl, etc)

And it would be played in SA?

only when security is double booked

HH_pink wrote:

holcs wrote:I know. And yet he from what I understand advocates it.

Just strikes me as yet another ridiculous call from the ECB to have a successful structure that works in the womens game under their noses, and not even look at implementing that with the men.

I mean, Australia, SA and now the women.....

Why just Australia and SA?

Because from my understanding you have about a gazillion tournaments in India, whereas SA, AUS and our women, essentially have a system of:

Club
Grade/County Cricket for the women
Regional/State

Which is precise and a controlled way of moving upwards through performance.

And not to forget India can afford to have a gazillion teams given the status of cricket within that country.

holcs wrote:Because from my understanding you have about a gazillion tournaments in India, whereas SA, AUS and our women, essentially have a system of:

Club
Grade/County Cricket for the women
Regional/State

Which is precise and a controlled way of moving upwards through performance.

whats different in india? the duleep and irani are after the ranji has finished and the players are picked based on their performances in the ranji

The One wrote:

holcs wrote:Because from my understanding you have about a gazillion tournaments in India, whereas SA, AUS and our women, essentially have a system of:

Club
Grade/County Cricket for the women
Regional/State

Which is precise and a controlled way of moving upwards through performance.

whats different in india? the duleep and irani are after the ranji has finished and the players are picked based on their performances in the ranji

Because as far as I was aware in my limited understanding it wasn't as clear cut a scenario as in SA or Aus.

Whereby it goes from Club - Grade/County - State/Regional

I'm still not sure from what I have heard that the Indian set-up is as clear cut and rigid as the Australian or SA.

ranji is the main FC tourney

below that you have the age based teams which feed into the ranji

after the ranji season is over you have the duleep where the best players are selected from each zone based on their ranji performances

the irani is a one-off match between ranji champions and a rest of india side

none of the tournaments overlap

How many of those levels are first-class? All of them?

yes, all except the age tournaments. so ranji, duleep and irani

See this is the difference TO, as I said not quite so clear cut.

As in their is only one FC tourney that has all the best players in it.

The One wrote:yes, all except the age tournaments. so ranji, duleep and irani

Exactly the way I want our cricket re-organised.

18 FC Counties feeding 4 regional teams with the best domestic players.

Exactly JK, although I would have all that FC cricket. I would make Regional stuff, probably 6 of them, the FC - and the county stuff essentially not count. You'll still get the County support, just a better standard of player produced.

Not sure the counties would survive without FC status though, certainly wouldn't attract overseas players (who I don't want in regional cricket)

IMO, we'd just need to cull one of the 2 (FFS) poxy T20 tournaments to find room.

holcs wrote:See this is the difference TO, as I said not quite so clear cut.

As in their is only one FC tourney that has all the best players in it.

we have a FC tourney that has all the best players in it (ranji)

and this gets further distilled at the end of the season to get the best of the best (duleep)

i prefer it this way. puts in another level between FC and international cricket, which is needed imo. esp with so many FC teams

Sounds the perfect system for a country with quite a lot of FC teams.... which is why we'll never do it.

JKLever wrote:Not sure the counties would survive without FC status though, certainly wouldn't attract overseas players (who I don't want in regional cricket)

IMO, we'd just need to cull one of the 2 (FFS) poxy T20 tournaments to find room.

Of course they would attract Overseas pro's. Not being funny but the standard of Overseas is no higher than Premier League cricket this year within reason.

SA, AUS, INDIA, they all do without Overseas to a point!

The county system as it stands is a sponge for the funds of the game that could be better spent elsewhere than on some dreadful Kolpaker!