One-day showpiece set to be stubbed out

Sunday 13 July 1997

One-day showpiece set to be stubbed out

By Scyld Berry

NEXT YEAR`S Benson and Hedges Cup final will probably be the last. The sponsor`s existing five-year contract is due to continue until the end of the year 2000 but Lord MacLaurin`s restructuring of English cricket, not to mention anti-smoking legislation, is likely to bring a premature end.

The competition for next summer is assured, since no notice to the contrary was given to Benson and Hedges by the England and Wales Cricket Board before April of this year. But, according to the draft of the Strategic Blueprint being sent out to the counties, it is likely to be a knock-out competition exclusively, without any qualifying rounds.

In 1972, the golden image helped to brighten up the dowdiness widely perceived in county cricket and rank-and-file supporters enjoyed a big and noisy day out.

But in 1972, only a handful of one-day internationals had been staged. Now the public demand is not for one-day finals between counties but between countries, and England have enough highclass players of limited-overs cricket to meet that demand. Next summer`s inaugural tri-series, between England, South Africa and Sri Lanka, has to be the way of the future.

"It would be a huge disappointment for us," said Jim Elkins, special events director for Benson and Hedges, at the prospect of their -L800,000-a-year sponsorship being terminated. "We`d want to put our view to the ECB that there is still room for two one-day knockout competitions."

If the existing contract is terminated, B and H would want to continue to be involved in cricket sponsorship - not surprisingly, giv- en that value for money - though anti-smoking legislation is expected to bite from 1999 onwards.

County cricketers are split on the future of one-day cricket. In the Professional Cricketers` Association ballot, 45 per cent voted for no change. The rest were in favour of one knockout competition and one league competition. The knockout competition would include all 38 counties of the ECB, not just the leading minor counties, as in the NatWest Trophy.

County cricketers are more decided about the future of the championship: they do not want it as it stands, say 74 per cent of them. Of these reformers, two-thirds want promotion and relegation - which is emphatically not what most counties themselves, or their memberships, desire. Cricket seems set for widespread dissent whichever way it decides to head next month.

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