Who'd have thought it!?

Yeah, but they wouldn't be on county wages in the PL!!!

Another thing this system would mean is that counties can go semi-pro. No closed shop.... which means that if some county sees Chasney Hawkes down in dorset pulling up trees they can select him for a championship game..... we'll lose less players that way too. I'm sure you must know players not in FC cricket that could easily give it a good go.

JKLever wrote:Yeah, but they wouldn't be on county wages in the PL!!!

Another thing this system would mean is that counties can go semi-pro. No closed shop.... which means that if some county sees Chasney Hawkes down in dorset pulling up trees they can select him for a championship game..... we'll lose less players that way too. I'm sure you must know players not in FC cricket that could easily give it a good go.

Not on County wages and yet they still come. You could easily get Patel, O'Brien, Franklin etc into a PL side, and they'd be happy. Just so happens Counties spend double on them. You very seldom get a top test player playing County cricket for a prolonged period of time these days.

My ideal would they would HAVE to go semi pro.

There are a inumerable amount of players I know whom, would do alot better than dome of the trash that have managed somehow to make themselves a career being a bog standard, if not worse county cricketer, whose face seems to fit.

JKLever wrote:

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.

Yes, that's what I thought you said initially, hence my query to holcs about leaving India out. All those tournaments are FC, but the essential structure is desirable: reduce the number of teams at each level/tournament, picking the best players from a pool composed subsets of teams from the previous level/tournament ..

.. which TO has made amply clear previously ...

Except, in India, the Duleep is not necessarily a "more prestigious" tournament to be in compared to the Ranji.

Ranji is definitely the big one.

holcs wrote:

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!

Then punish the sides with Kolpakers not the rest trying to bring on England-qualified players.

Basil wrote:

Then punish the sides with Kolpakers not the rest trying to bring on England-qualified players.

Word.

Time the Kolpak system was either pared down to max 1 per side or else abolished altogether.

Also, extend the central contracts beyond the hard core tried-tested and failed ballast that England constantly carry around with them.

Napier Key Denly Malam amongst just 4 of many who did well in the domestic T20 comp last year weren't even considered for the hit n giggles in the Carribs ... with all the T20 gigs coming up this year, isn't it time these specialists were given a run ??

I don't think six regional sides would be quite enough for this country. Personally, I enjoy the county divisions, but would like to see the number reduced to a more manageable nine. In talking about providing players for England, we've got to be careful about things. As JK rightly pointed out yesterday, Nottinghamshire haven't produced an England player for a while whereas the likes of Leicestershire and Northamptonshire have. Leicestershire have a reputation for being this, that and the other, but with Stuart Broad and now Joshua Cobb coming through, isn't there a hint that they're getting a few things right? Derbyshire too have the likes of Borrington and Clare in their ranks, yet are perceived as something of a 'worthless' county.

In centralising county teams, in consigning them to regions, the structure in this country may not allow the talent to come through. The Australian system works as much because of the outstanding infrastructure than anything else - I dare say they could make things work whether they had 6 or 60 teams. What I'm saying is that there's as much of a problem with the coaches, the people employed to make players better, than there is with the current system. There's a problem with both and I agree entirely that fewer teams would mean 6 - 9 stronger teams, where players are testing their abilities out against a better standard of player each week, but there are other problems and a change to 6 regional teams next week would not suddenly magic away all of English cricket's problems.

Besides which, we're stuck with this system now and we've got to make it work. I find it interesting that this argument often comes down to there being not enough English players. I see it more as a problem of there not being enough quality English players. I suppose that means they're spread too thinly and argues for the fewer teams point of view. However, couldn't you make things better by having MORE foreigners, but of a higher quality, who in terms shafted some of the rubbish English cricketers, keeping the better ones there or thereabouts, so that the actual standard of the county game was better and the GOOD English players were coming up against a better and more testing standard of cricket?

Lest we forget, the Aussie system survives on 66 players being available for selection. The good thing about that is that a third or so of those, plus another sixth or so when the current crop is particularly good, are in consideration for the Aussie team. In England's case there are probably twenty players out of a good 150 Englishmen.

Get rid of Direbyshire, Leicstershire, and Northamptonshire, and put Glamorgan on notice.

They are sucking the blood out of English cricket.

Interesting comments from Thorpey in the Sky studio. He reckons that he had Aussie players saying to him while he was with NSW that they would prefer to play more than 10 games. He also said that he thought we played too much cricket in this country

Augustus wrote:I don't think six regional sides would be quite enough for this country. Personally, I enjoy the county divisions, but would like to see the number reduced to a more manageable nine.

I want the county championship to stay, remain first-class and be semi-pro so it opens the system up to anyone in the country. Then the 4 teams on top of that with the 44 best players playing 6 matches a season against each other.

Both systems remain as FC cricket - as TO & Pink said, that's how it works in India.

One day cricket can remain the same, and since this is surely where counties get bigger attendances it will hit them far less than having a FC comp 'above' their level.

Keep the FC 18-team, two-division competition as it is. Counties will be happy.

Dump the Pro 40. Counties probably won't be happy.

Play the 50-over competition (is it the FPT these days?) as a long drawn out Sunday league turning into a knock-out tournament for the semi-finals and a the final. Counties might be happy.

One T20, mid-season. Counties might not like that. Giles Clarke would probably snot all over himself.

And then towards the back end of the season, four regional teams, chosen and managed by four England selectors, consisting of all English players, play each other once, in a mini-league, top two play a five-day final at Lord's for a big, bastard cheque straight out of the ECB's fat, bloated pockets. Winning the regional final would be financially more rewarding to the players than winning the ordinary FC competition - should they require a bit more incentive.

It's only four more games, max.

Counties will moan that they're losing their best players and that it's devaluing their competition, but, honestly, f*ck them. Grant Elliot is devaluing their competition.

Will it make England better? Probably not. But if it spices up the system, brings a bit more competition and incentive to impress and get noticed, I'd be well up for that.

And anything that makes Giles Clarke snot all over himself can only be a good thing.

Dello wrote:Keep the FC 18-team, two-division competition as it is. Counties will be happy.

Dump the Pro 40. Counties probably won't be happy.

Play the 50-over competition (is it the FPT these days?) as a long drawn out Sunday league turning into a knock-out tournament for the semi-finals and a the final. Counties might be happy.

One T20, mid-season. Counties might not like that. Giles Clarke would probably snot all over himself.

And then towards the back end of the season, four regional teams, chosen and managed by four England selectors, consisting of all English players, play each other once, in a mini-league, top two play a five-day final at Lord's for a big, bastard cheque straight out of the ECB's fat, bloated pockets. Winning the regional final would be financially more rewarding to the players than winning the ordinary FC competition - should they require a bit more incentive.

It's only four more games, max.

Counties will moan that they're losing their best players and that it's devaluing their competition, but, honestly, f*ck them. Grant Elliot is devaluing their competition.

Will it make England better? Probably not. But if it spices up the system, brings a bit more competition and incentive to impress and get noticed, I'd be well up for that.

And anything that makes Giles Clarke snot all over himself can only be a good thing.

If you shaved a couple of 4 day games off the current schedule, you could probably fit in a regional competition without counties having to lose players. Some matches could be played at the sstart of the season to act as a series of competitive test trials.

Henry wrote:Get rid of Direbyshire, Leicstershire, and Northamptonshire, and put Glamorgan on notice.

They are sucking the blood out of English cricket.

Fark off, we don't want their donut fans turning up at Trent Bridge as we're the only FC cricket in the East Midlands still running!

Keep 'em hemmed in, and don't give 'em an excuse to invade us says I.