CMJ: Blueprint begins to shed the fear factor (28 July 1997)

Monday 28 July 1997

Commentary: Blueprint begins to shed the fear factor

By Christopher Martin-Jenkins

EVENTS at Headingley may not be what the England and Wales Cricket Board were praying for but they provide a timely climate for the blueprint which will be unveiled officially to the counties and the press a week today. The Management board will be discussing the proposed changes to every level of the game at Lord`s today.

Already they have had individual explanations from either Lord MacLaurin or Tim Lamb, who are taking infinite pains with a plan they know will not please everyone.

The fact, however, that no one has yet become apoplectic - not excluding the arch-traditionalist, Peter Edwards of Essex - suggests that the plan for professional cricket will not be so radical as to produce the feared rejection when the members of the First Class Forum vote on Sept 16.

One less one-day competition; England players centrally contracted; regional matches against touring teams; and two-day, singleinnings matches for a premier club league in each of the 38 counties are all expected to be recommended after the consultation and the subsequent balancing act co-ordinated by John Carr from Lord`s.

First-class county second elevens are also likely to be buffeted out of what is deemed to be their cosy world - it is not, actual- ly, cosy, but something in it needs revision. The remedy here may be two-day matches in competition with the 20 minor counties, mixed, per- haps with the four-day games which county coaches would prefer. The intention is to force smaller professional staffs.

The exact plan for the premier county competition remains a well-kept secret and there are many who still feel that the only thing needed is a great deal more prize money at stake in every game, more for the title winners (this year`s will get -L70,000) and relatively more for every place below.

I tend to the unorthodox view that there is no such thing as an uncompetitive county match: but there is too little practice, recuperation and preparation time. There is no lack of genuine competition, certainly, about matches between the leading teams this season. Middlesex against Kent last week was both a classic match and a result which might affect the title. Football scribes might have called it a "48-pointer".

Had Kent lost, as they so nearly did against the unpassable bat of Mark Ramprakash, it would probably have buried their hopes, especially as it would have come so soon after their disappointment on the same Lord`s ground in the Benson and Hedges final barely 10 days before.

The value of having a top-class leg-spinner - especially one who bats usefully and fields like a whippet - was well demonstrated by Paul Strang`s success in Middlesex`s second innings after Martin McCague, who, like Ramprakash, should certainly be in the running for the tour of the West Indies, had done the job in the first.

Source :: The Electronic Telegraph (https://www.telegraph.co.uk/)