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Following the initial release of the Natwest T20 Blast schedule , the fixtures for next season's Specsavers County Championship and Royal London One-Day Cup have also been released by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB).
Several changes have been adopted for next season, notably that counties will play 14 instead of 16 Championship games and the one-day competition will begin in late April and culminate with a July final at Lord's. Also, twenty of the Championship fixtures will be played as day/night games to prepare for England's first ever home day/night Test at Edgbaston in August against the West Indies.
After a thrilling climax to the Championship season last year, many will wonder if the competition needed tinkering with at all but the reduction in games is a sensible move, freeing up valuable time in a packed calendar, and reducing the strain on players.
To do so, the ECB have had to move around the two divisions resulting in an uneven split. Next season, Division One will have eight teams, playing each other home and away, and Division Two will have ten teams, with each team playing fourteen games, taking on each team at least once but not playing every team home and away. Confused? Quite.
To add to the myriad of changes, three quarters of the games will begin on either a Friday or a Monday as opposed to the majority of Sunday starts of the past two seasons. The change to more Friday starts is a good one but beginning 39 Championship games on a Monday, and therefore playing the whole game during the working week, seems an odd decision. With last season's Sunday starts, at least spectators could get to one day of the match without taking time off work to do so.
There will also be precious little Championship cricket during either the Royal London One-Day Cup or the Natwest T20 Blast, both of which will be played in concentrated blocks in May and July to August respectively. In July, there are just eight Championship games scheduled as the Blast targets bumper crowds fuelled by the best of the English weather and the school holidays.
Champions Middlesex open their first-class season in the traditional curtain-raiser against the MCC in Abu Dhabi beginning on March 26th before starting their title defence on the 14th April away to Hampshire. They face Yorkshire, who they pipped to the Championship on the final day of the 2016 season, at Lord's on Monday 19th June. Essex, who earned the only promotion spot available last season because of the restructuring, start their Division One campaign at home to Lancashire on April 7th.
In Division Two, Durham, who were relegated by the ECB after the end of the season due to financial issues at the club, begin their quest to get back to the top flight at home to Nottinghamshire, who were also relegated last season, albeit for dint of their poor performances. Derbyshire, who failed to win a single Championship game last season, will hope to put that right in their opening game against Northamptonshire beginning on April 14th.
The Royal London One-Day Cup has also been moved, an April start in part catering for the Blast but also to help prepare Englands squad for the Champions Trophy. The group stage of eight matches per team will be over by May 17th and the quarter-finals and semi-finals will be held in June before the final at Lord's on July 1st.
It is a welcome change, returning the showpiece domestic one-day final to midsummer which the ECB hopes will bring back some of the glamour of the Benson & Hedges Cup finals of yesteryear. The July date replaces the September version of recent years which has seen Lord's fail to sell out and poor weather have an impact. Last season's winners Warwickshire open their defence away to Natwest T20 Blast winners Northamptonshire and Surrey, the beaten finalists, start with a trip to Taunton to face Somerset.
The ECB can never win with scheduling, whatever they do likely to upset one party or another. The reduction in Championship games is necessary and right and by playing the various competitions in blocks, they are trying to avoid players having to switch between different formats from day to day which should allow sufficient time for focused skill and tactical development. Not that the decision to start a third of the Championship games on a Monday sits right and there are risks involved affordability for families and spectator apathy - in playing the white ball formats in blocks.
But there are only so many days and so much cricket to fit in. The success or otherwise of the new schedule ultimately depends on the quality of the cricket. As last season's Championship finale at Lord's proved, there is plenty of that left in the county game yet.
http://m.cricbuzz.com/cricket-news/...p-games-reduced-day-night-fixtures-introduced
Several changes have been adopted for next season, notably that counties will play 14 instead of 16 Championship games and the one-day competition will begin in late April and culminate with a July final at Lord's. Also, twenty of the Championship fixtures will be played as day/night games to prepare for England's first ever home day/night Test at Edgbaston in August against the West Indies.
After a thrilling climax to the Championship season last year, many will wonder if the competition needed tinkering with at all but the reduction in games is a sensible move, freeing up valuable time in a packed calendar, and reducing the strain on players.
To do so, the ECB have had to move around the two divisions resulting in an uneven split. Next season, Division One will have eight teams, playing each other home and away, and Division Two will have ten teams, with each team playing fourteen games, taking on each team at least once but not playing every team home and away. Confused? Quite.
To add to the myriad of changes, three quarters of the games will begin on either a Friday or a Monday as opposed to the majority of Sunday starts of the past two seasons. The change to more Friday starts is a good one but beginning 39 Championship games on a Monday, and therefore playing the whole game during the working week, seems an odd decision. With last season's Sunday starts, at least spectators could get to one day of the match without taking time off work to do so.
There will also be precious little Championship cricket during either the Royal London One-Day Cup or the Natwest T20 Blast, both of which will be played in concentrated blocks in May and July to August respectively. In July, there are just eight Championship games scheduled as the Blast targets bumper crowds fuelled by the best of the English weather and the school holidays.
Champions Middlesex open their first-class season in the traditional curtain-raiser against the MCC in Abu Dhabi beginning on March 26th before starting their title defence on the 14th April away to Hampshire. They face Yorkshire, who they pipped to the Championship on the final day of the 2016 season, at Lord's on Monday 19th June. Essex, who earned the only promotion spot available last season because of the restructuring, start their Division One campaign at home to Lancashire on April 7th.
In Division Two, Durham, who were relegated by the ECB after the end of the season due to financial issues at the club, begin their quest to get back to the top flight at home to Nottinghamshire, who were also relegated last season, albeit for dint of their poor performances. Derbyshire, who failed to win a single Championship game last season, will hope to put that right in their opening game against Northamptonshire beginning on April 14th.
The Royal London One-Day Cup has also been moved, an April start in part catering for the Blast but also to help prepare Englands squad for the Champions Trophy. The group stage of eight matches per team will be over by May 17th and the quarter-finals and semi-finals will be held in June before the final at Lord's on July 1st.
It is a welcome change, returning the showpiece domestic one-day final to midsummer which the ECB hopes will bring back some of the glamour of the Benson & Hedges Cup finals of yesteryear. The July date replaces the September version of recent years which has seen Lord's fail to sell out and poor weather have an impact. Last season's winners Warwickshire open their defence away to Natwest T20 Blast winners Northamptonshire and Surrey, the beaten finalists, start with a trip to Taunton to face Somerset.
The ECB can never win with scheduling, whatever they do likely to upset one party or another. The reduction in Championship games is necessary and right and by playing the various competitions in blocks, they are trying to avoid players having to switch between different formats from day to day which should allow sufficient time for focused skill and tactical development. Not that the decision to start a third of the Championship games on a Monday sits right and there are risks involved affordability for families and spectator apathy - in playing the white ball formats in blocks.
But there are only so many days and so much cricket to fit in. The success or otherwise of the new schedule ultimately depends on the quality of the cricket. As last season's Championship finale at Lord's proved, there is plenty of that left in the county game yet.
http://m.cricbuzz.com/cricket-news/...p-games-reduced-day-night-fixtures-introduced
