‘Our aim is to get it back to as normal as possible’

SURREY CHAMPIONSHIP SECRETARY RELEASES FIXTURES FOR NEW SEASON

SURREY Championship Secretary Brian Driscoll said that the rejigged 2020 cricket season was a success and confirmed the fixtures for the 2021 season have been issued.

The 2020 AJ Fordham & Fuller’s Brewery Challenge Cup involved 50 different groups of teams competing against each other in smaller leagues, with no promotion or relegation at the end of it, in order for there to be a safe way for cricket to be played due to the effects of the coronavirus pandemic.

Even though Driscoll hopes to get the 2021 cricket season back to normal, he admits that the format used for last season is the current back-up plan due to the positive response it received from clubs. He said: “It went very well. We had a good report from nearly all of the clubs that they enjoyed it and it went okay.

“I think we kept within the restrictions and we managed to get cricket out, so cricket was the winner, that was the main thing.

“We’ve got it in mind again if we can’t get started this season, or if it is curtailed in any way, as we’ve now got the experience of how we did that last year.

“One thing that came out of it was the increase in the number of third and fourth XIs that wanted to enter.

“We’ve now formed two new divisions for those teams because of the demand from clubs.

“They’ve seemed to have an influx of players and availability following on from last year.”

The Surrey Championship released a statement on their website in November which listed the details of the upcoming 2021 season, where they revealed that an extra two divisions will be added due to the demand from clubs to enter more teams.

With the fixtures issued and a proposed start date in May, Driscoll is confident that there is real promise for this year.

He said: “Our aim is to get it back to as normal as possible.

“We’ve got all our fixtures issued, right the way through the divisions, which will be for normal games. Our seasons will start in May and they’ll run right through the summer.

“That’s what we’re aiming for, but it all depends whether we’re allowed.

“The biggest problem is keeping to social distancing, especially in the Premier and higher divisions where there’s all sorts of travelling.

“If we’re still in a lockdown situation, then we’ll have to go back to what we did last year – make smaller divisions and cut down the travelling and moving people around.”

Games for the upcoming season will have a few adapted rules, Driscoll reveals.

Clubs and umpires will have to monitor the cleaning of the ball, which will be continued from last season, while games will be timed and there will be limited overs.

Driscoll said: “We haven’t got anything written in yet about players not being allowed to spit on the ball, no, but there won’t be anything like that allowed – like it was last year, where we told clubs and umpires to keep control on the cleaning of the ball.

“The only change that we are having is in the limited overs, where they’re going to be using white balls in the top divisions.

“The lower divisions will continue to play with red balls.

“That’s the plan and we just hope that we can carry it all out.”