English County Cricket

As England free fall down the test match rankings, you are left asking where the saviour will come from?

Really the hope should come from the county game. However, with the current set up that is hard to see that happening.

Whenever someone looks good, England snap them up and they are in the England squad. Often not playing crucial time in the middle, but instead getting practice at carry water bottles. 

The England selection policy is not the only problem, though. How the county game is set up is the major problem.

With 16 teams and two divisions, the county game is big in cricketing terms. However as the saying goes, quality is better than quantity.

I feel that the ECB maybe need to remember this. Instead of having a pot of talented players with some hands picking out the best ones, we have a pot of talented players with some of the hands having to scrap the pot and even go into another pot to find what they are looking for.

This other pot is usually a South African one. With the uprising of the South Africans comes the downfall of the English team, one reason being Kolpak players. With South Africans such as Jacques Rudolph and Tyron Henderson making England their home due to not being bale to break into a very strong international side.

While having these players come over may bring in a few hundred more fans every match, it is not helping the English international team. In the end of the day the county set up is almost a constant trial for the international set up.

My feeling is that England should bring the number of teams down to 10, at the most. This would mean that less Kolpak players would be needed. I also feel that the overseas allowance should be increased and Kolpak players scrapped but only allow two overseas players to play in one game.

Obviously, the ECB cannot get past European Union rules, so all Europeans would have to be allowed to play but anyone from outside of Europe should be classed as overseas. If players want to put themselves forward to be selected for England then no problem and they just become considered to be English, much like Andrew Strauss, Geraint Jones and Kevin Pietersen.

Bringing the number of teams down would also mean that only the best English players are playing. While anyone who plays at the county level has talent, when some play you do wonder how they manage to be a professional cricket player.

If players are playing at a high standard it will mean that the progression into international cricket will not be so high, much like Australian State cricket.

I also feel the moving away from 50 over cricket is not a good thing for England. They are one of the worse full nations at ODIs yet at the county level they are not trying to do anything about it.

Twenty twenty may bring in the crowds, but it will never carry the credibility that test cricket or 50 over cricket carry. The longer the game, the more skill matters.

Twenty0twenty cricket is a bit of luck as much as anything. While I do not feel it should be done away with I think it should be kept to a bit of fun instead of a serious form of the game.

Replacing an one day competition with another twenty twenty competition is a mistake, I feel. The fact that there is no 50 over competition left in the county games means that in international cricket a stamina is missing.

The English football team are always trying to improve at a grassroots level. Maybe it's time for the cricket team to do the same!