County action is set up for an Indian summer
COVERAGE NOW SKY-HIGH
THE suspension of the IPL has helped spark the English cricket summer into life – with County Championship matches live on TV and online, and fans due back into grounds next week.
The summer is well on the way to being the bumper year the game missed out on in 2020, with visits of New Zealand, India, Sri Lanka and Pakistan, not to mention the arrival of The Hundred.
But it is the re-emergence of the oldest and dearest part of the game that has got things off to the perfect start. Until last year the County Championship had only ever been paused since its introduction in 1890 by two World Wars.
Now that it has resumed, initially behind closed doors, it is flourishing in a way that it has not done for generations, thanks to a perfect storm of good weather, a conference format, available star players, improved streaming services, a run of eight weeks without interruption and the attention of fans and broadcasters in the absence of the IPL.
And after adding Middlesex’s stream on to their main cricket channel last week, Sky Sports will again bolster the coverage by putting Billy Root’s Glamorgan v Joe Root’s Yorkshire on today, before fans will be allowed back into grounds for the first time next week.
“The County Championship has been able to own the start of the season and create a real buzz around it,” said Neil Snowball, the ECB’s managing director of county cricket. “The feedback so far has been good and we could continue with this format next year. The quality of the cricket has been great and having the likes of Stuart Broad and James Anderson playing has elevated it.” Improved streaming has not only allowed roughly 700,000 fans per round to tune into a basic feed online, but it has helped Sky Cricket to use the gap in its schedule to show four rounds of matches on its main channel. “We decided to take advantage of the fantastic service that the counties are putting on with their streaming options,” said head of Sky Cricket Bryan Henderson.
❑ JOFRA ARCHER is set to step up his return from injury after returning to the Sussex squad for today’s LV= Insurance County Championship clash against Kent.