The first piece of major county news of the season has come out with the publication of the Morgan report, and it certainly hasn't been met with widespread approval. David Morgan, the former head of the ICC, sat down to have a look at the county structure, and reported back on his findings to an ECB panel today. And this is what he had to say.
Basically, from the 2014 season (which is the earliest the changes can be implemented), Morgan wants the county championship to be reduced from 16 to 14 matches, with T20 staying the same on 12 games, and the one day competition to become a ten match, 50 over competition.
It's becoming a recurring theme for the ECB to fiddle around with the county season. It seems that not a year goes by without some form of alteration, or talk of change to the competitions. Cricket overkill, players without days off from playing, training or travelling, and a lack of spectator enthusiasm has seen a lot of tinkering with the season's make-up over recent times, so more reports and consultations are to be expected during the long close-season.
So what if Morgan's recommendations are to take place? Well, the first and most eye-grabbing change would be the reduction to the County Championship. The two division, 16 game set-up that has been in force for the past decade has worked very well, and the current success of the England test team is testament to that. The promotion / relegation system keeps every county interested until deep into the season, with something riding on almost every game. And given the sacred status that county fans give to the CC, any reduction to that would be not taken very well at all. Messing around with the division system would be a bad idea, as would fiddling around with the rules so teams play each other a different amount of times would detract from the integrity of the competition.
I think everyone is glad that the T20 group stages have been cut, especially us Middlesex lot, as it is often a long, drawn-out car-crash when a team (usually Middlesex) keep getting pasted (although a reduction in T20 isn't all good news, as it means less Pinky the Panther). Given the proven financial advantages and growth of the T20 competition, a fair compromise has been reached and nobody is too upset by that.
The other interesting news is the change to the One Day competition. It's widely thought that the CB40 is a terrible competition, but not because it is a 40 over format. The fact that only one team can qualify from each group means that once a team has lost a couple of early games, the rest of the competition becomes a formality, and interest is soon lost. However, the 40-over-a-side part has actually been quite good, and I for one have enjoyed the one day matches that don't have those rubbish boring middle bits that fill 50 over cricket. However, while the ICC continue with One Day Internationals being fifty overs, it makes sense that our domestic cricketers should be playing 50/50 matches in order to prepare them adequately for when they make the step up. A thought through competition with small groups and quarter-finals will mean that people won't really be mourning the end of the ill-concieved CB40.
Overall, the Morgan report is something I generally agree with, but the main and obvious disagreement is with the sacred County Championship. The old adage of "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" should be remembered, and the County Championship has worked incredibly well in it's current format over a proven length of time. While I understand the needs of Sky to show a certain amount of matches per year, and the needs of the players to not solely be playing, training or travelling, a lot of the problems would be solved if the season was extended by a couple of weeks - the couple of weeks that it's been shifted to accomodate the Champions League. Whether the report turns into reality remains to be seen, but the publication of the Morgan report has certainly given the ECB a lot to think about before they give any new plans the go-ahead.
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