Sir Andrew Strauss, the newly knighted English cricket administrator wants to make the England cricket team as the best team in all the formats in 5 years. He wants to get there by making wholesale changes to County cricket. He has warned “The status quo is not an option.” More than a century old tradition in English cricket will undergo a massive change if Strauss’s proposal is carried forward. Naturally, he has faced opposition from the County chiefs and former players. Will Andrew be able to win over them? We will have to wait. Let me analyse in Andrew Straus wants to change the English game.
England has one distinct problem that the other countries do not face. 6 months of winter and spring when playing cricket is out of the question. As a result, they are forced to squeeze all of their first class games in a short span of 6 months. Despite that, rain is likely to play spoilsport in substantial number of games. They will have to work within the available window.
What are Strauss’s proposals?
Among 17 proposals, Strauss has recommended 3 tier County Championship with the top 6 teams in division one and the rest split into division two and three. He has also proposed to reduce the number of County games from 14 to 10. There is also a plan to introduce a One Day Cup to be played entirely in the month of April. One other proposal which is interesting is an overseas competition among the County teams to take advantage of the warmer weather which will effectively expand the season.
The recommendations relating to the domestic structure are for 2024 at the earliest, and require approval from two-thirds of the First-Class Counties (FCC) – meaning 12 out of the 18 must vote in support.
“The current schedule is not working in the way it should,” Strauss told Sky Sports News. “No solution works for everybody. It’s one big Rubix cube and I think this is the best solution for English cricket moving forward. It answers some of the fundamental issues that have prevented England achieving in the past. It means the quality of player is going to be higher, the quality of cricket is going to be higher,” he explained. He further add, “It reduces the gap between domestic cricket and international cricket. And there’s slightly less cricket, so more time for rest and repair.”
The stumbling recommendations for the counties to accept
Strauss is convinced that the new proposal will help English cricket. He feels that lower number of games will help in high intensity contests.
I am not really sure whether lower volume of games will lead to higher contests. Most of the cricketing world are trying to ape the Australian system. Australia has a short Sheffield Shield season with fewer teams. It has worked well for them. It may not be because of that but the inherent nature of the Australians. They are a sporting nation and are extremely competitive. Comparatively, England is not though sports is given added importance of late. Less number of games will reduce the number of players who will be exposed but one point that Strauss says is valid. It will give the players sufficient rest which will inturn result in them being at their best in every game.
The other stumbling block for the Counties to accept the contentious proposal is the income. Reduced games means lesser footfalls which will have a direct impact on the revenue for the respective County. All the Counties will have to pay for players for their service. A popular overseas player will be paid even more. How will they be able to compensate this loss? It is not one or two Championship games. Strauss has proposed to reduce four of them. That is a gigantic number.
Other overtures are plain
Other proposals are quite mundane. For eg., “improve our shared understanding of what it takes to win”. This is so vague that it really does make much sense. Perhaps, Strauss’s committee would have explained this to the county and ECB.
There is another one. “Enable England players to better manage workloads”. If Kevin Pietersen had still been playing, this would have been music to his ears. Nevertheless, he will still be chuckling because this is exactly what he requested the ECB all those years ago. He wanted to stop playing ODIs and concentrate on Tests and T20 but ECB will have none of that. Strauss, the same Strauss who was the captain of Kevin at that time, did not approve and now, he has suggested that England players must be allowed to manage their workload. It essentially means that they must be allowed to skip some games or in the case of Stokes, retire from a particular format.
Jos Buttler, the current white ball captain, has welcomed these steps
“I do feel a reduction in games would allow players to prepare properly, recover properly and put a lot more emphasis on those games. The pressure on those games would be a lot higher and I think the standard could potentially be higher for that. I can see how that would see more high performance, in that sense.”
Opposition to the plan
Sir Geoffrey Boycott, the redoubtable former player is unhappy with Strauss’s plan. He writes that, “If the counties vote for the Sir Andrew Strauss report it will not produce more quality England cricketers and it will be the death of county cricket.
Boycott wished that Strauss had spoken to some of the older England cricketers who may have had interesting ideas to improve the game. He also says that for a very longtime, ECB wants the counties to play less red-ball games and more white-ball games because that is where the money is.
Wrapping up Andrew Strauss wants to change the English game
Strauss has been credited with the man who brought about white-ball revolution in the English game. Will he be able to succeed with his latest recommendations? He is likely to face a stiff opposition. Strauss will have to convince a lot of county chiefs.
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