Scarborough could be hit hardest by virus shutdown
CONFUSION REIGNS with regards to the county cricket season in light of the coronavirus pandemic.
The England and Wales Cricket Board has ruled that the campaign will not begin until May 28 at the earliest.
In reality, it could be like those interminable Brexit delays and prove the first of several startdates.
Why, the season might not get going at all, not that this is among the planet’s most pressing concerns.
There would be no crueller cut from a Yorkshire cricketing point of view if the games at Scarborough fell by the wayside.
Yorkshire are due to visit North Marine Road in mid-June for a County Championship match against Lancashire – the first Championship Roses game (and only the third ever) at the ground since 1991 – before Warwickshire provide the opposition at the August festival.
Throw in a couple of one-day matches against Nottinghamshire and Warwickshire in July too, and the 10 days of scheduled cricket on the North Yorkshire coast was always going to be a highlight.
Ditto the brace of one-day games against Northamptonshire and Surrey at York in August, a ground that made such a favourable impression last summer when York staged its first Championship fixture since 1890.
Alas, coronavirus has messed things up and then some, with Yorkshire having been optimistic of attracting the highest crowd for a Championship match in England this year when Lancashire brought their buckets and spades to “Scarbados”.
The club had been eyeing daily crowds of around 6,000-7,000 in North Marine Road’s evocative amphitheatre.
“Ideally, we want it to be the biggest aggregate crowd for a game in the County Championship this season,” the Yorkshire chief executive Mark Arthur had said before the ECB’s latest update concerning the programme.
“There’s been a lot of interest from Lancashire supporters, with the feedback from Scarborough Cricket Club being that there were plenty of B&B/hotel bookings.”
Whether the Red Rose invasion now takes place remains to be seen, with the entire Championship programme – let alone Scarborough’s allocation – under threat.
The ECB has said that it will, quite rightly, prioritise the most financially lucrative formats of the game if we do get started, with many counties facing a fight for survival.
Alas for traditionalists, myself included, that means the T20 Blast and (if you pardon me for using bad language in a family newspaper) The Hundred.
It is the only pragmatic solution for the governing body, with the best-case scenario being some form of truncated Championship, perhaps even on a regionalised basis.
The Lancashire match at Scarborough was important not just in its own right but also because it could be the precursor to more such fixtures.
“If it went well, then we would definitely like to take more Championship Roses matches to Scarborough in the future,” Arthur had added.
“It’s something that hasn’t taken place since Martyn Moxon (Yorkshire’s director of cricket) got a match-winning hundred (in 1991), but I wouldn’t have thought that we’d be waiting another 30 years to take Lancashire back there.
“Of course, we don’t know what the schedule looks like yet for 2021 either. Until other people tell us what the schedule looks like, we can’t make too many plans at this stage.”
Ideally, and dependent on which counties are in which division, Yorkshire would like to play at least one of Lancashire, Durham, Notts and Surrey in their two annual Championship games at Scarborough.
“The best attended games (at Scarborough) in recent years have been Durham, Notts and Surrey, and if you add Lancashire to that list then I think we’d be looking to always have at least one of those clubs,” said Arthur. “The interest there has been in this year’s fixture speaks volumes.”
What is beyond doubt in these uncertain times is that Scarborough remains the jewel in Yorkshire’s crown.
“It’s absolutely still got the magic,” said Arthur. “We do need to improve some of the facilities – toilets, the general environment, things like that. There’s no plans for any major structural changes.
“The atmosphere is like nothing else you will find in this country for Championship cricket.”
We would like to take more Roses matches to Scarborough in future.
Yorkshire chief executive Mark Arthur on the potential of this year’s Roses match.