T20 sidelines game, not future-proofs it

INmy opinion, the ECB’s new T20 format is a reckless and unnecessary gamble. In pursuing a new audience, they risk alienating the old one. Half of all existing fans oppose the plans and a quarter don’t know.

In order to force reluctant counties to accept their plans, they are using what appears to be an unpleasant mixture of bribery and bullying. Tom Harrison denies the charge, but if it’s true that counties were told they wouldn’t get their £1.3m unless they went along with the new plans, that’s bullying in my book.

I’ve read the statements of Harrison and Eoin Morgan carefully, and cannot see a single rational argument in favour. They say rightly that we need to do something to widen the appeal of the game, and then leap without evidence to the assertion that we should try to copy the success of Australia and India, where conditions are entirely different. Certainly the ECB should break down the paywall it erected in 2005, but the need to do it with a new competition is not proven.

Highly regarded former professionals such as Vic Marks and Jason Ratcliffe, still active within the game, have expressed their reservations, so I would very much like to see a debate between, say, Marks and Ratcliffe on one side and Harrison and Andrew Strauss on the other.

I believe that, far from ‘future-proofing’ county cricket, this is the first step in sidelining it.

DAVID PRACY, Nazeing