Bring back two divisions in the County Championship

HUW TURBERVILL: Yes, two divisions are not perfect, but the change helped to create a better Test side after the underachieving 1980s and 1990s

Like Fox Mulder in my beloved The X-Files, still “I want to believe”. Retaining faith in the English game’s administrators is testing, though.

The negligence of red-ball cricket is beyond dispute now. Since Andrew Strauss shifted the balance of English cricket from red to white, Test cricket here has been winging it for too long.

Against India, England lost 2-1/drew 2-2 with a forfeit* (delete as appropriate). They lost to New Zealand. Excluding the pummellings by West Indies in 1984 and 1988, and the Ashes annihilations in 1989 and 1993 (probably the two finest teams the world has seen since the War)… then it’s the worst Test summer since 1986 (when England lost to New Zealand and India); and 1999 (the defeat to the Blackcaps that left them bottom of the world Test rankings).

Eventually playing no first-class cricket in the run-up to major Test series is going to catch up with you.

The ECB favour The Hundred, the counties prefer the Blast, but the English cricketing public crave the Test game.

The greats are queuing up to highlight this calamity; it has also finally forced Joe Root, known for his saintly patience, to go public. “It would be nice to see first-class cricket seriously considered as a priority within the scheduling,” he said after England’s defeat the Kia Oval.

“Look at how this summer has gone and how we’ve been hampered – whether it be through injury and in terms of our preparation. We’ve been told that Test cricket is a priority in this country and I think that should feed into the county game as well. Hopefully, that is paramount and something that is seriously considered for next year along with some other important pieces in the domestic structure.”

^{Joe Root has asked for first-class cricket to be "seriously considered as a priority"}

It is time for the leadership of the ECB to ensure that the counties stop dictating the fixture schedule – or what’s left of it after The Hundred’s landgrab.

Never again must a major series like this one with India – which has nevertheless still been riveting – not have a domestic red-ball build-up (there were only two rounds of County Championship fixtures in high summer).

Nasser Hussain told The Cricketer: “There is too much emphasis on white-ball cricket. Eoin Morgan is getting the England sides he wants. Joe Root is not. This needs to be redressed.”

Mark Ramprakash agrees. “The ECB and Chris Silverwood are prioritising white-ball cricket, white-ball trophies, and Joe Root has not been helped by this prioritisation,” he told compare.bet. “So he’s got to fight his corner as England captain, he’s got to try and push to make sure he has his best cricketers available for Test matches.”

The Royal London Cup, so much more than a second-rate competition

I acknowledge it’s not just as simple as playing more county four-day matches, however. As Michael Vaughan said in the Telegraph: “County cricket is now a completely different game to Test cricket because there is no pace, no spin and you don’t need to bat for five to eight hours. We have been crying out for more four-day cricket this summer but why would you want any young England player going back to his county and playing in a system that is nothing like Test cricket? It is like a chess grandmaster playing draughts.”

He went on to bemoan Matt Parkinson and Mason Crane being excluded from the last round of Championship matches, and Dom Bess and Jack Leach being under-bowled.

It’s time to bring back two divisions in the County Championship. Ditch conferences swiftly before further damage is done (does the casual punter really understand what is going on at the moment?).

^{Like Fox Mulder in The X-Files, Huw Turbervill still wants “to believe”}

Yes, two divisions are not perfect. Coaches feel less inclined to blood youngsters; there are more ‘result’ pitches; and some counties get trapped in the basement… but the change helped to create a better Test side after the underachieving 1980s and 1990s.

Central contracts and two divisions have helped make for a much better England team over the last two decades that preceded it. Incremental fudges like 8/10 becoming 10/8 are just pandering to the counties.

The best players will migrate to Division One and the England Test team will benefit from that. Have you heard that the IPL is expanding to 10 teams? I don’t think I need to spell out for you what that might mean globally…

How to solve a problem like the English summer schedule

I don’t blame Alan Fordham, who has such a hard task trying to accommodate everybody’s wishes.

The Cricketer is firmly on the case, however. Our eyes are very much on what fixtures, and when, will be going on our legendary wallchart next spring.

It is time for the ECB hierarchy – chief executive Tom Harrison, Sir Andrew Strauss, chair of the cricket committee, and chairman Ian Watmore – to lay down the law to Fordham and the counties.

I especially retain faith in Watmore to sort all this out. I want to believe…