PAUL EDWARDS addresses the key figures at the top of county cricket, thanking them for their service, appealing for unity amid the high-performance reviews and asking for the concerns of players to be accounted for
Please excuse me but can you give me a little of your time? Maybe not, you're all busy people and you're coming towards the end of discussions that could hardly be more important for the future of the game we all love. But if you can spare me 10 minutes, I'll try not to waste them. That being understood, let's not hang about.
The first thing I'll say is 'thank you'. All of you render cricket a service and there must be days on which your only reward is to be pulled in six directions at once while receiving criticism, if not abuse, from the people you're trying to serve. I'm not blowing smoke up your arses here, this isn't empty flattery. The vast majority of you care just as much about cricket as your members and some of you could earn more money elsewhere. Yet you give your time to your counties and to English and Welsh cricket. I'm grateful.
My own season ended just over a fortnight ago at Worcester. Over the preceding six months I'd watched so much fine cricket in both divisions that any sadness had to be balanced against deep appreciation of the players who had enriched my summer: players like Anuj Dal and Ben Geddes; Ali Orr and Jack Brooks; George Lavelle and John Simpson; Ben Compton and Liam Patterson-White; Gareth Roderick and Fin Bean. Yes, I get about a bit; yes, I'm very lucky.
I haven't missed a round of the LV= Insurance County Championship for five years. That was why I volunteered to serve on the high-performance review back in April. I didn't for a moment think my offer would be accepted but I reckoned one ought to show willing.
Cynical friends suggested that actually watching so much county cricket disqualified me but I thought that was a cheap shot and we've had far too many of those. Indeed, while there was so much to enjoy this summer, my pleasure was sometimes tainted by the acrimony of a debate that frequently became little more than a slanging match. At some point in the recent past, we've lost the precious art of listening to each other, but that isn't confined to sport.
Martin Eadon (right) and Steve Elworthy are chair and chief executive, respectively, at Surrey (Nathan Stirk/Getty Images for Surrey CCC)
So let's put the bitterness aside. Let me be plain that I do not wish to abolish The Hundred and I fully appreciate its extraordinary impact on women's cricket. Some of the new teams have attracted many new and often young supporters to cricket and it would be wrong of me to deny them their fun. They are part of the game's future.
But to discuss the structure of the domestic game without allowing The Hundred to be part of the debate devalues the exercise and might tempt you towards unnecessary conclusions.
That's especially so when one considers that by playing two matches on one day more frequently, time could be freed up for Championship cricket in August. That could require the broadcasters to be understanding but I assume they care about the game, too. And it would at least increase the chances of there being some live cricket on the box when the weather is unsettled.
I am not a traditionalist, though. Although the past informs, enriches and to some extent determines the present, it cannot of itself justify policy. My strong commitment to a meaningful County Championship comprising 14 games – there, I've said it – stems more from the belief that such a competition provides a proper test of professional county cricketers and that such a programme is not only feasible but also desirable, given the eccentricities of the English climate.
More to the point, I reckon the majority of the players want the 14-match Championship to be retained. Their objections to the current situation centre far more on the concentration of matches in a brief period – six or seven in as many weeks this April and May – as on the volume of cricket they are asked to undertake in six months.
That, of course, seems to be at variance with the view of the Professional Cricketers Association that "the players want to play less cricket", words often used by Sir Andrew Strauss when launching the review.
Hugh Morris is CEO at Glamorgan (Stu Forster/Getty Images)
I'd like to put some courteous factual questions to the PCA: Precisely when were the players polled? What were they asked? What percentage of current professionals replied? What percentage of those who replied wanted to play less? Who were the independent auditors for the whole process?
My point is if the players were asked during the most gruelling part of the season, the results might be particularly misleading, not that I would ever accuse the PCA of doing so deliberately. But I get to talk to a lot of professional cricketers and I believe their views are far more nuanced than we have been led to believe.
And I'm sure you'll have considered the British climate. The subject mocks easy generalisation, of course, but the evidence from recent seasons suggests that April and particularly September are becoming far more suitable for professional cricket than perhaps they used to be.
The pitches are a little slower in April and 10.30am starts in September test batters in different ways but isn't that a counter-balance to the flatter wickets on which we play in June, July and, I hope, August? Surely being tested in a variety of conditions is a central component of any young cricketer's development. And I certainly agree with many county pros that we could play on into the first few days of October and maybe that would allow another round of Championship matches to be fitted in.
The impact of climate change is rarely so beneficial, though, and I hope the whole process is reversed as soon as possible. When torrential midsummer rain arrives, it frequently wipes out two or three days of a first-class game and this season's exceptional weather merely shows how erratic our climate has become. As a general rule, I reckon that each county can expect to have a couple of four-day games badly affected by the weather. It's worth considering when you are thinking about the amount of cricket we play.
Andrew Strauss, the architect of the high-performance review (Alex Davidson/Getty Images)
That's almost all I wanted to say. I know this column hasn't mentioned the Blast, which I enjoy, or the Royal London, which I like even more, but you have given me enough of your time.
The easy assumptions about the County Championship are that it's gentle, soft and undemanding; one of summer's many pastorals; appealing to the spectator but of limited value to the selector; July's picture in a calendar entitled The English Scene.
Well, it is often beautiful, of course, but anyone who doubts its intensity has probably not watched much of it. It remains the prize that matters most to the players – and you are its principal guardians. Moreover, you are also, in part, the guardians of all the very young cricketers – you've not yet heard of them – who rock up at their first county trials with dreams of playing Ashes Tests still fresh in their minds.
I hope your deliberations go well this week. Don't be scared of taking time to reach the best conclusions. We waited until last January for the first-class fixture this year and everyone coped. It's vital to get things right because while you all know that your clubs’ core responsibilities include the development of England players, they also extend far beyond that role.
The counties are the engines by which inclusion and diversity can be implemented. Isn't it sad that one or two middle-ranking people at the ECB would like to get rid of them? So to adapt Benjamin Franklin's saying, it's important that you hang together or assuredly, you will hang separately.
But that's a gloomy thought on which to end. Much better, as long as you're not from Yorkshire or Hampshire, to remember Liam Norwell pounding in on the last day of the season with no greater prize on offer than his team's survival in Division One of the County Championship. Such things still matter to the players and I know they matter to you, too.
Thanks for reading and winter well,
Paul
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