Counties out to ‘put on a show’ for fans at home as Bob Willis Trophy marks belated return
➤ Matches to be live-streamed as clubs plan to utilise squads ➤ New competition created as alternative to championship
It is a crushing disappointment for those who have waited all winter, and all spring, and half the summer to attend a county cricket match that Edgbaston and the Oval will not be allowed to admit crowds of 2,500 spectators this weekend.
The games, however, will go on. At 11am, at nine grounds around the country, the umpire will drop his outstretched arm and shout “Play!” to widespread relief, and to preserve a form of entertainment which has lasted 150 years. This county season will start four months late, but not four or six years late as in 1919 and 1946.
It is not the traditional County Championship but the Bob Willis Trophy, which has been a good invention by the England and Wales Cricket Board to fill the time available. Five first-class games for each county, at one per week, and all available on live-stream, with commentary.
In normal times Northamptonshire’s players would have arrived at Edgbaston to practise on the afternoon before their game against Warwickshire, then checked in at their team hotel. For the inaugural round of the BWT, their players will drive from their homes to the ground on the morning of the match – one per car – rather than take a team bus. The capacity of a coach in Covid times is 15 as opposed to the normal 50, so most counties would need two coaches for their players and support staff.
“We’re going to give an opportunity to every squad member to play,” said Northamptonshire’s chairman, Gavin Warren. “There’s not going to be any second XI cricket this season and every player deserves a chance. For us this season is more about participation and putting on a show.”
It will be interesting to see if this
enlightened view prevails over the next five weeks, or whether competitiveness will take over and winning becomes the sole objective. Northamptonshire and Somerset are the two counties who have never won the County Championship, so the BWT would make a fine stepping stone.
It is one of the most attractive features of the BWT that every county has the chance of winning it, unlike the County Championship with two divisions.
Adding another competitive element, approximately one-third of the 400 county cricketers are in the final year of their contract. They have the five weeks of the BWT then the T20 Vitality Blast in which to state the case for their livelihood.
At New Road in Worcester, Lancashire will be playing Leicestershire. It was to have been a home game for Leicestershire at Grace Road before Leicester’s lockdown. Now large parts of Lancashire are locked down too, but the game is still due to go ahead, on neutral territory, with daily symptom and temperature checks on players and match officials.
“You have to put a lot of virus on a cricket ball for it to stay there,” the ECB has been advised.
Other anomalies dictated by medical necessity are that Hampshire and Derbyshire will not have any home matches. Derby has been requisitioned for the Pakistan squad to play their warm-up games ahead of their first Test at Old Trafford on Aug 5. The Ageas Bowl has been taken over by England for the summer, forcing Hampshire to base themselves at Arundel.
Durham have been allotted four home games, which will reduce their mileage expenses, and comes as a rare sign of favour by the ECB.
Middlesex will play their two home games at Radlett, not Lord’s, but not for medical reasons. The construction of the new Compton and Edrich stands has been delayed by lockdown. MCC are still hoping to stage the five-day BWT final at the start of October between the two group winners with the most points. A first-class final would make another novelty, and a fine climax to this mini-season, especially if crowds are admitted from the start of October as the Government has provisionally indicated. But Essex will remain county champions come what may.
Unforeseen changes emerge out of crises, so it remains to be seen whether the BWT becomes a format for the future. Were every county to play the five others in their regional group at home and away, that would make 10 first-class games per season, the same number as Australia have in the Sheffield Shield.
It would be an eco-friendly format, reducing travel, and with plenty of local derbies. It would also make space for the other competitions the ECB wants to cram into the season – the Hundred, the Vitality Blast and the 50-over competition – without overlapping.
If there had been no virus, the Hundred and the 50-over competition would have overlapped this season – and a 50-over tournament largely featuring second XI players would not have made a suitable legacy after England’s World Cup victory.