New County Championship Season

The new County Championship season is now under away, and although the weather is a lot colder than most sane cricketers would rather, the show must go on.

Last year, Derbyshire and Yorkshire were promoted from division two, whereas Worcestershire and Lancashire were the two teams who will be spending this year trying to get back into Division one after being relegated last year.

But who is going to prosper in this years County Championship?

And who is going to struggle?

Well - I'll start off with Division two.

As a Leicestershire fan I don't take much joy from admitting this, but it's looking quite likely that we will struggle again. We've lost a cuple of players, and the players that we've brought in are no better than the ones we've lost, with the exception of Niall O'Brien, who I rate. Sarwan will have a big role to play in his debut season as skipper, although he will miss the second half of the season because of international commitments, he will surely be greatly missed in the batting order. We also have young Shiv Thakor at our disposal, who has great potential, he could be key. If he has his breakthrough season, we could do well, if he does not, it could be the wooden spoon for Leicestershire...

Glamorgan have got to be chosen as one of the teams that will struggle, for the simple reason that they just don't have good enough players to have a good chance of posing any real threat in the division. They have Marcus North as an overseas player, he is a solid batsman, but doesn't really stand out compared to the overseas players at other counties. To conclude - I think we could be seeing Glamorgan lingering around at the bottom of the pile for another year.

Elsewhere in Division Two, I expect Lancashire to bounce straight back into Division One, led by Glen Chapple, a seasoned County Championsip player, they have quite a good squad. One star of the team is Ashwell Prince, a quality batsman who, in Division Two, has the ability to score game changing runs against any opponent. Lancashire have good players and will be hungary to put the misery of relegation last year behind them, and for these two reasons they are my favorites to go up.

The club I think will join Lancashire in Division One next year is Essex. A slightly controversial decision I know, but they are a good team who have been trying to get out of Division Two for a few years now. Led by James Foster, a very good wicket-keeper, they have a good chance of promotion in my opinion. They will have Ravi Bopara for the season, assuming he isn't picked for England. (which I hope is the case as he has never performed for England!) Although I really don't rate him as an international player, I do think he can clock up a lot of runs for his county. They also have a decent bowling attack, David Masters is a high quality bowler, and Tymal Mills has got potential, could it be his breakthrough year? They have also Saj Mahmood, who they have obtained over the winter, he, as an ex England international, has got quality, and if he shows it, Essex could be on their way to Division One.

Moving onto Div 1 now...

Nottinghamshire were my favourites for the title last year, and this year my opinion has not changed. The strength of their batting lineup is extremely impressive. They have Alex Hales and Michael Lumb opening the batting, two players who have done the same for England (albeit in T20 games) and they now have Ed Cowan for the first half of the season. The top three alone could rack up a big score, but it doesn't stop there. James Taylor, depending on international selection, will play games. Stuart Broad and Graeme Swann will also put in a performance or two here and there, when they are free from the England squad. Sheer strength in depth is my reason for choosing them, sorry Warwickshire, I don't think you'll retain the title.

Will Warwickshire Retain Their Title?

I would like to be exciting and throw a real curveball for who I think will be relegated, but I just can't see Derbyshire having the quality to survive. However, they have obtained Shivnarine Chanderpaul as their overseas player, and if Derbyshire do have any chance of staying up, the WI international needs to score big runs frequently. But one thing they will have is team spirit, a nucleus of young players will surely be putting in 110% into training and matches to try and ensure safety for the county. They need a good start to the season so heads don't drop if they have any chance of staying up.

The other club I think might see the drop is... *drum roll* Durham. Durham have a good squad on paper, you can't deny that, Graham Onions is a player a greatly admire, and personally I would like to see him get a crack at an England spot when we play New Zealand in a number of weeks time instead of Steve Finn. On their day, Durham have the players to outplay nearly everyone in the Division, but they don't seem to have their day often enough.

Only time will tell if my predictions are correct - any opinions you have on any of my predictions or your own predictions are always greatly received at TheSillyPoint. You can leave a comment at the bottom of this post, or you can contact us on Twitter @TheSillyPoint_

Cheers

County Championship Attendances

The new county championship gets underway is just a matter of weeks now, and instead of writing about who I think will be successful in the upcoming season or who would struggle. I thought it would be much more productive, and interesting  to write about the more underlying problem in the domestic long format of the game. Attendances.

553,000 people watched county championship cricket LIVE last year, and on the surface, that seems like quite a big number.

But if you bi-sect it and work out the average amount of people who watch every County Championship game, you quickly realise that actually, it isn't that many people at all.



A Bare County Championship Stand

Attendances on average were 800 people per day at any given County Championship game.

Possible reasons for these attendances?

1. The Rise of T20 cricket. It's no coincidence that since the arrival of T20 cricket, interest in County Championship cricket has gone down considerably. This may have had some effect on the attendances at CC games.
2. People can't afford to go to games, an adult could probably get into most County games for under £15 for the whole days play. The food can be expensive but homemade food can be taken, so overall a day at the cricket for two could cost little over £30, which is dirt cheap compared to other sports. Because of the cheapness I think this reason is invalid, but I've chucked it in the list just to even things out.
3. People just aren't available to go to games. County Championship games start midweek when people are at work, and so they aren't physically able to get to games. But this reason is slightly flawed, the games finale is on a Sunday or Saturday depending on what day it started on, most people are not at work at the weekend.

I think the reason for the low attendances is simply that interest in County Championship cricket is just not high enough, this is partly due to the rise of T20 cricket but partly due to the lack of media coverage in my opinion. For example I support Leicestershire, I live in Norfolk. No games are ever on TV, with the exception of maybe one or two at the end of the season, and I can't get any coverage on the radio. This means I have to browse the Internet just to find a scoreboard, and if I get a text commentary I'll be damn lucky.

It's a lot of effort to go through with not a lot of reward, a dull scoreboard which is usually slow updating is not a lot of reward for searching for a decent website to look on, and I can see why a lot of fans just wouldn't bother.

A solution?

Well - I think a weekly TV show dedicated to just County Championship would be perfect, cricket's version of Match of the Day.

Every Sunday night, sit down, relax, and watch your team in action. A summary of all the games that took place that week, with debates taking place regarding whatever matter had arisen in that week.

Cricket fans would get to see how their team have been getting on, and interest would start to rise. This would result in people getting more and more gripped by how their team are doing, and this could influence people getting to games.

I personally think it's a pretty damn good idea, although I am quite bias because I am the fool who created the idea in the first place!

Feel free to add your opinion on the matter in the comments box on this page, or on our Twitter page @TheSillyPoint_

Structure of Test Cricket

Is it time for a re-structuring of Test Cricket?

Cricket is on the rise in many countries, Afghanistan just to name one.

In the early days of cricket the number of teams playing cricket was relatively small - but now many more countries, Nepal, Ireland, Bulgaria, just to name a few, are playing in the World Cricket League.

Ireland are reigning champions of this league, and it got me thinking.

Should there be a re-structuring of the way Test Cricket is run?

Ireland have proved that they are the best minnows in the world, and surely they have won the privelage of playing Test cricket against the big teams at the best stadiums in the world. They now play in the T20 and World Cup but I think they've earnt more than just that.

Also, I've been watching a bit of West Indies v Zimbabwe.

To put it bluntly, Zimbabwe are pretty terrible. Windies are by no means a fantastic Test side, sure they have Chris Gayle but apart from that they don't have any world beaters. West Indies are probably the third worst Test side (infront of Zimbabwe and Bangladesh) and yet they are trouncing them convincingly.

Ireland and Netherlands have beaten top teams in the past, and have shown their potential as cricketing teams. Bangladesh and Zimbabwe have been lingering at the bottom of the Test rankings for years now, and it's my opinion that the Test system needs spicing up a bit.

Boyd Rankin of Ireland has given up playing cricket for Ireland in the hope of being picked for England's test team, and more eg George Dockrell. will follow if something does not change.
For me there's three options.


Rankin - Pursuing English Cricket

1. Give Ireland/Ireland and Netherlands Test Status, so they can keep their best players and prove their cricketing ability.
2. Create a two tier system where every so often (probably every two years) one or two teams are relegated from division one and promoted from division two. This way teams such as Ireland, Afghanistan and Netherlands have something to strive for, and the lesser Test teams such as Bangladesh and Zimbabwe would get to be competitive if they got relegated, which lets be honest, would be extremely likely.
3. Option three would to keep it exactly the same as it is now, which would mean teams losing players, and Bangladesh and Zimbabwe would continue to be the whipping dogs of England, South Africa etc.

Option three is the one I would personally avoid at all costs, option one would be a compromise but option two is definitely the one for me.

Will it actually happen though? Will the ICC pull their fingers out and actually act? Only time will tell, if the idea gets enough support anything could happen.

But I can't see it happening, I really do hope it will, but I just can't.

Cheers