Suddenly county cricket is sexy. The melodrama of the last round of matches was agony for the committed, fascinating for the neutral and it even captured a fresh audience, which will please everyone at the England and Wales Cricket Board since they keep stressing this goal (rather than their eagerness to generate some more quick cash).
Taken in isolation the Middlesex-Yorkshire match at Lord’s was often a turgid affair on a dull surface. Yet it was mesmerising as the visitors eked out the last few runs to take them to 350; as Nick Gubbins rose to the occasion as impressively as the doughty old veteran Tim Bresnan; as we glimpsed the fevered negotiations going on in the old pavilion on the last afternoon and as Toby Roland-Jones produced his stunning, title-deciding hat-trick.
Why was it all so mesmerising? Because for some unfathomable reason that may have something to do with more than 120 years of Championship cricket, it seemed to matter so much. Without any doubt it mattered a great deal to the players and supporters of the three sides in contention for the title on the last afternoon of the season and the same applied in the relegation tussles that were going on at the same time around the country.
The Championship is still the trophy that means the most and somehow that has happened without millions of pounds being spent on delivering the “right brand to the cricketing consumer”. By way of contrast get ready for an onslaught from the marketeers when the ECB launches its new T20 competition.
In the West Country they are fed up at coming second again. There were more sad smiles from Marcus Trescothick and his younger colleagues along with the acknowledgement that Middlesex were worthy winners. The new champions remained unbeaten throughout and have to overcome the perennial burden of playing most of their home games on a surface that offers little succour to bowlers of any type.
The pursuit of the pennant transcended the usual newslines. There was no talk of Gubbins, Roland-Jones, Jack Leach or even Bresnan, who now appears to be one of the best batsmen in Yorkshire, “nudging the selectors”. This would not have entered anyone’s thoughts because the players were all engaged in something far more important than that.
However, now that is all over we can note that all the above-mentioned have enhanced their claims for future elevation by their performances in the last round of matches when suddenly many more eyes were upon them. They all responded to the grand occasion superbly. Roland-Jones’s hat-trick will be part of Middlesex’s folklore for decades to come.
Hopefully, all of you outside of Yorkshire and Somerset enjoyed the tension and drama of the final round because this may soon become a relic of the past. We are in real danger of sleepwalking into chaos. We could soon have a domestic structure that diminishes the championship significantly. The debate over the proposals for a new T20 competition in addition to the existing NatWest Blast is coming to a head. It seems as if it is no longer a battle of reasoned arguments, but a battle of wills and egos, with self-interest rather than common sense dictating the outcome. At the last meeting the vote, which drew so much attention, was not so much on the merit of the proposals, but a “back me or sack me” resolution from the centre. Which may not be the best way to plot the future.
The lie of the land has changed significantly in the past month. Counties instinctively opposed to the ECB’s preferred direction of travel are now open to the proposals. This represents a remarkable volte-face, which is often unrepresentative of their members’ views.
The counties with Test grounds are broadly in favour of the ECB proposals, with the honourable exception of Surrey. They can all smell the possibility of more money, which some of them badly need. Some of the smaller, impoverished counties are just as desperate and feel they have no alternative, but to support the ECB even if they will be denied access to the premier T20 competition.
Meanwhile, those clubs in the middle, who are not entirely dependent on ECB cash because they make the NatWest Blast work well for them, are conscious of not wanting to miss out on any gravy train. For them there is the possibility – or even the promise – of a few high-profile T20 games alongside the lead venues. Forget the arguments, they do not want to risk being ostracised by the centre. This is a deadly cocktail that may result in a domestic structure that will do the game no favours.
No other country has two T20 competitions, which is what we are blindly heading towards. I’m not entirely sure of the best solution but am increasingly convinced that it involves either a new, all-singing, all-dancing eight-team competition or a version of the current NatWest Blast. But surely not both.
If the preferred option prevails with two T20 tournaments, the second one (the Blast) will soon fizzle away – as would a championship competition reduced in quantity or quality, or possibly both. Under the current plan, 100 or so of our best county cricketers will be playing T20 throughout the month of August – once the NatWest Blast has finished.
Alongside the new competition the Championship will potter on with county sides unrecognisable from those that started the season. Will anyone care any more?