Interesting perspective looking beyond the traditional 1st Class counties in the men’s game. - ThreadSky

crickether.com • 125 days ago

Interesting perspective looking beyond the traditional 1st Class counties in the men’s game.

How to future-proof the T20 Blast medium.com/@kieranholly...

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lunchtakenearly.bsky.social•125 days ago

Accepting that this explicitly refers to the men's game, but interesting that the women's regional teams really did cover the whole country but it was considered to be not working

kieranholly.bsky.social•125 days ago

I do refer to men's cricket as the women's regional system has been reformed with the three tier system and knockout comp. I would advocate for promotion and relegation in a nation-wide T20 Blast but understand why this isn't being considered in the women's structure until 2028

kieranholly.bsky.social•125 days ago

Thank you for sharing

theteesra.com•124 days ago

Curiously, Kieran’s post echoes Claire Taylor’s comments at the CRN Conference (hopefully coming to a podcast, soon?), that, by 2035, the men’s game will be copying innovations from the women’s — integrating the National Counties as a lower tier of the Blast sounds remarkably like tiers 1, 2 & 3!

kieranholly.bsky.social•124 days ago

Sadly I couldn't make the CRN this year but will look for the podcast. Similarly with international cricket a lot of the associates have targeted the women's team as the vehicle for growth because the ceiling is far higher than in the men's. Just look at the progress made by Thailand Brazil etc

cricketacademic.bsky.social•124 days ago

Podcast coming soon!

theteesra.com•124 days ago

👍

dafrankland.bsky.social•125 days ago

The greatest opportunity for growth in English cricket is probably within the existing counties. London, Sheffield and Liverpool could all financially support a professional team. Lincoln, perhaps less so.

kieranholly.bsky.social•124 days ago

I can't help but feel you've missed the point. If I was born in Sheffield I would support Yorkshire. Cricket fans outside FCCs take day trips to Scarborough, Headingley, Trent Bridge etc. Everyone needs to be represented so fans can turn sporadic engagement into a long term and sustained investment.

kieranholly.bsky.social•124 days ago

It's not about sustaining a professional setup they already play the games in the NCCA it's about integrating it. Lincoln are never gonna win the Premier League but they're in a system where they can build towards it. If we can't build a fully representative T20 league then there is no hope

theteesra.com•124 days ago

The 5 east London boroughs, part of Essex until 1965, have a combined population of 1.4 million. The links with the County still exist (and Essex still recruits many players), but will only become more tenuous as new populations move in to the area.
East London United, to play on Hackney Marshes?

privatesecretdiary.com•124 days ago

In terms of widening geographical spread, another London team doesn't work - but a solution would be for London Spirit to move to Hackney Marshes? I'm sure the new owners would be up for this.

theteesra.com•124 days ago

It does, perhaps, if you consider the population?
Thinking more about the Blast than the franchise competition.
“Eight’s Great”!

dafrankland.bsky.social•124 days ago

It's less geographical spread than population spread. London has just two professional teams, but more people than the other 16 host cities and towns combined.

paulframe85.bsky.social•124 days ago

There are 3 former first class grounds in the east

theteesra.com•124 days ago

“Former” being the operative word. One pavilion is closed “for renovation”; another looks very tired, even after winter repair works.

privatesecretdiary.com•124 days ago

Yes agree with you, particularly wrt E London/Essex. My point's more about the original blog - large areas of the country disengaged. Athers literally just chortled on commentary that nobody in Lincoln was interested in cricket.

kieranholly.bsky.social•124 days ago

Can I ask what this was in reference to? I'm at work so not watching the game

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