CMJ: Two divisions rejected (16 September 1997)

Tuesday 16 September 1997

Two divisions rejected

Christopher Martin-Jenkins

BY 12 votes to seven the 19 first-class counties and MCC voted yesterday for the County Championship to continue as a single league for at least three more seasons, with a lucrative incentive for the counties finishing in the top eight and a penalty for the bottom four.

Thus was the idea of dividing the championship into two divisions firmly rejected, for the time being at least, along with the ingenious but, by common consent, over-fussy idea of splitting the counties into three equal conferences.

It will be seen as a defeat for Lord MacLaurin, chair- man of the England and Wales Cricket Board, who had declared himself unequivocally for two divisions last week in what proved to be a counter-productive tactic, but this vastly experienced businessman expressed neither surprise nor disquiet when he announced at Lord`s yesterday evening that although the blueprint`s proposals for the championship had been re- jected, the vast majority of the changes proposed for the game had been accepted.

"I can see the logic of all-play-all," he said. "Cricket is an ultra-conservative game. The 18 first-class chairmen represent 150,000 members. It would be wrong to say we haven`t made significant changes. They`ve taken a big step forward by accepting promotion and relegation in the league."

He referred to the decision to accept two divisions in the new National League, the working title for the 50-over competition which will replace the 40-over AXA Life League. It will have a first and second division of nine counties each, determined by finishing positions in the Sunday League next year, with promotion and relegation for three counties each season from 1999. These games will be staged on whatever days of the week suit the counties concerned, and floodlit matches will be encouraged by the Board.

There will be an attempt to get some television cover- age for the Britannic Assurance Championship as part of the new television deal which will be negotiated soon by the ECB for 1999 and beyond. The success of that deal and of the Board`s attempt to have all but the Lord`s Test taken off the Government`s listed events will be crucial to the game`s future financial viability.

The balance of the programme on offer from 1999 is now clear: five or six Tests; six or seven one-day internationals; 17 championship matches; 16 games in the National League; an enlarged 60-over NatWest competition ("cricket`s FA Cup"); and, in lieu of the abolished Benson and Hedges Cup, a brief new knockout cup for the top eight teams in next year`s championship.

For the two finalists this would involve three more one-day games but for all counties there will be a reduction of from five to eight one-day matches giving, in the words of the ECB chief executive, Tim Lamb, "significantly more time for practice and recuperation".

Lamb said he expected the participating counties to take the "lion`s share" of profits from the new cup competition for the top eight. He accepted that there was an incongruity in rewarding championship success with participation in a one-day tournament but added: "It is the financial rewards of qualifying for the Supercup which provide the incentive." By contrast, counties finishing in the bottom four of the championship next season will have to play each other in the third round, their first, in the following year`s NatWest.

If one aim of the blueprint - to make the game more commercially attractive - has been at least partially successful as a result of yesterday`s decisions, the slight reduction in the amount of one-day cricket to be played after 1998 is the only direct contribution to the first priority, that of creating a stronger England team. Lord MacLaurin said, however, that far from being shelved the idea of contracting the England team to the Board centrally was "very much under review". It could happen, he said, as soon as next year.

It is at the levels below the professional game that the architects of the blueprint hope to start breeding more competitive cricketers and the proposed changes were all accepted in principle yesterday by the Recreational Forum in the meeting which followed that of the First Class Forum. Lamb accepted that there was "still a lot of flesh to put on the bones" before the idea of a premier league in each county could be put into practice but he hoped that some 16 premier leagues would have started within two years.

There will be significantly less cricket played by county second XI players from next season, too, allowing more practice time and paving the way for amalgamation with the minor counties in the County Board competition, which will start next year, involving mainly non-professional players. Although many county coaches preferred four-day games for next year`s second XI championship, it was agreed that it would consist of 12, rather than the present 17, three-day games. This would pave the way for a reduction in playing staffs. Second XIs will also play a twoday single-innings knockout competition next year.

It will be years before the changes below first-class level start to have any effect on the strength of English cricket at the top, and much has to be taken on trust at this stage, in particular the lip service being paid to the need for better coaching at all levels. But a start has been made and anyone who believed that two division cricket was in itself a shortcut to a stronger England team was dreaming.

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