Moxon says the need for T20 cash hurts development of fast bowlers
● Yorkshire chief says marginalising four-day game is bad for Test side
Yorkshire director of cricket Martyn Moxon believes England’s Test prospects are being undermined by the counties’ focus on the financial rewards of Twenty20.
England’s humiliating Ashes loss in Australia, where they have lost the opening three Tests to surrender the urn before Christmas, has put the domestic game under the spotlight, with the lack of pace bowlers coming through a particular issue.
With T20 now played in the middle of the season to maximise revenue, marginalising a large part of the County Championship to April and September, Moxon says the county game is no longer a breeding ground for Test players.
“The problem with English cricket is that there are so many conflicts,” said Moxon.
“There are conflicts of interest between county and international cricket, and it’s so difficult to solve them.
“Realistically, how many counties now can genuinely look to produce Test cricketers because of the debt Counties are in, so we have to play the cricket that’s going to bring in the revenue to keep us all afloat, and we all know that the type of cricket that brings in the revenue is T20.
“We have to maximise revenue from that and it’s been identified that the best time of year to play that is when we’re now playing it.
“The importance that a certain number of counties place on T20, that’s the priority, not red-ball cricket.
“It automatically reduces the number of counties that are potentially looking to produce red-ball cricketers and investing time in developing red-ball cricketers, because it doesn’t bring you any revenue.
“There isn’t an easy solution. We need to play T20 when we do because of finance, which means we’re playing Championship cricket in April and September predominantly, which is the time of year when your traditional English seamers dominate.
“But it’s a different type of cricket and a different type of cricketer required to winning in Australia as opposed to winning in England, for example, just as Australia have found when they’ve come to England.”
In Australia, Mark Stoneman yesterday said he is determined to help England prove they are more than Ashes also-rans in the two remaining Tests in Melbourne and Sydney.
“It’s pretty devastating really,” the opener said, as he reflected on the latest defeat, by an innings in Perth.
“We came from the first two games, with the knowledge of where we wanted to put things right and how we were going to do things better... so it’s pretty hard to take.
“The Ashes are gone but we hope the Boxing Day occasion will get us back up for it.”
The Melbourne Test is high on any wish-list for an English or Australian cricketer, and Stoneman is no different.
“I can’t wait,” he said. “There are experiences in world cricket that everybody would love to be a part of, and the Boxing Day Test is certainly one.
“It’ s obviously not ideal going there 3-0 down, but at the same time what better way to bounce back than to perform well in the Boxing Day Test?” Stoneman has won new admirers with his gritty batting in this series – 193 runs at an average of 32.16 – but he regrets his highest score is 56.
“Personally, it’s pretty disappointing because I’ve made starts in a lot of innings,” he added.
“The example the Australians have shown with the bat is we need big scores – threefigure scores.
“We made 50s in the first couple of Tests, and they managed to make hundreds, which proved the difference.
“Then [in Perth] we had a couple of guys score hundreds, and they [Steve Smith] have made doubles.
“Personally it is pretty frustrating that I haven’t gone on to make the bigger contributions that would set us up a platform of making 500 or 600 – which really gives you a foothold in the game.”