Posted by Ah, the County Championship, bastion of egalitarian sporting competition, where every county plays every other county home and away… except for four of them.
An important thing to look at when previewing the County Championship is which matches won’t actually happen. Ten first division teams, each playing 14 matches – we can see the perfectionists among you wincing at the mathematics of it.
But is there not a certain artistry in leaving that last little something open to interpretation? Just as the Mona Lisa’s ambiguous expression has captivated onlookers for generations by somehow suggesting both melancholy and contentment, is there not something slightly magical about pondering whether or not Mark Stoneman might have laid the groundwork for a big first innings up at Headingley had he been given the chance to bat there? Is there not something quasi-transcendental about never knowing whether Mohammad Abbas might have bagged a hatful had he had the chance to open the bowling down at Hove?
The answer to all of these questions is no. It would definitely be better to play each team home and away.
But that’s not the way the domestic game is organised. The counties would rather have a greater number of them in with a chance of winning a prize that’s slightly less worth winning. And so, in March, a week away from the start of the season, we find ourselves trying to identify the gaps in the fixture list and work out whether or not they might prove meaningful.
For example, these are the matches the current champions won’t be playing this year. Will that help or hinder them? Who’s to say?
- At home to Sussex
- At home to Worcestershire
- Away to Nottinghamshire
- Away to Somerset
Maybe once the ECB’s splashed its Hundred millions on a new stadium with a roof, all of these ghost matches can be manifested in the autumn. Perhaps the County Championship could build to a big climax at Christmas.
That would at least be more in keeping with the governing body’s longstanding love of scheduling domestic finals at least a couple of months after the rest of the competition has taken place.
At least the teams going for the Championship are playing the same *number of games* as each other, unlike a century ago (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=1925_County_Championship&wprov=rarw1)
We’ve come a long way in 100 years.
We’ve also gained Durham.
The most interesting cricket chat is often about stuff that almost happened or didn’t happen. My favourite guest piece is about such an event:
https://ianlouisharris.com/2012/06/08/long-to-rain-over-us-heavy-rollers-edgbaston-trip-2012-nigel-hinkss-take-6-to-8-june-2012/
Yet still, I am forced to agree, that the 10/8 split of county teams into two divisions, rendering the first division skew, is bollocks.
Maybe we could play the ghost matches by AI and add the results to the table.
Wasn’t the division system brought in to resurrect the English Cricket team which then became no. 1 in all formats before it was implemented?
PS you Poms, look out for an Aus fast bowler named Vidler
Callum Vidler. Described on his Cricinfo card as “right-arm medium”, which seems like misinformation for a lad who is bowling north of 150 kph – 90+ mph in real money. Looks very sharp. Mark Wood-like but perhaps with a smoother action which might make his body more reliable:
https://www.cricket.com.au/videos/4239518/callum-vidler-sheffield-shield-final-pace-speed-queensland-teenager-fast-bowler-south-australia-wickets
To be fair on Cricinfo, Vidler is only 19 years old and might well have clocked no more than medium pace quite recently.
Get your Vidler limericks in now, before the TMS lot get on to it, by which time it will be too late.
Yeah, it’s a weirdly unremarkable action for someone properly quick. Usually fast bowlers are either very obviously elastic or you can really see the effort – either a big, muscular round-arm launch or, like Mark Wood, every moment from the start of his run-up to landing on the ground in his follow-through.
Suppose Jofra Archer was one example of someone who could crank it up without looking like that, back when he was quick. And to be fair to Vidler, he does end up on the deck at one point in that video. The fact he gets his front arm out of the way early is the only particularly noteworthy element to our eyes.
The divisional system helped when it was introduced 25 years ago, Fred, but so much other stuff has mushroomed up since then that it’s not really functioning in the same world any more – which is why they only play 14 games and not the 16 they played back when it was a division of nine.