As millions prepare to tune in to the Indian Premier League (IPL), another major domestic cricket tournament is also starting this weekend.
However, unlike the IPL, the only fireworks to be seen at an English ground when the venerable County Championship starts today will come if hardy fans are denied a reviving cup of tea.
The sight of IPL dancing cheerleaders would likely spark a medical emergency among elderly spectators were it to be repeated in the rather more prosaic surroundings of Chester-le-Street or Northampton.
Photo: AP
The County Championship, which last year celebrated its 125th anniversary, is about as traditional as cricket gets.
The teams play in white, the matches are scheduled for four days and the public-address announcer is far more likely to talk about a change of bowling from the Pavilion End than to urge spectators to “make some noise.”
There are those who regard the County Championship as merely a means to prepare players for Test matches, which still draw good crowds in cricket’s birthplace, if not everywhere else.
The fundamental problem for the competition, as with all domestic first-class cricket, is that much of the game takes place during the working week.
As a result, crowds tend to be modest at best and veer toward the elderly and the retired.
Officials at the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) have tried to overcome that problem this season by starting most Championship matches on a Sunday in the hope of drawing a weekend crowd that could include amateur players who have taken part in Saturday club matches.
The fact that this season’s event is sponsored by Specsavers, a high-street chain of opticians, which has followed several insurance companies, is also indicative of the Championship’s target audience.
For all their commercial efforts and the increasing popularity of the domestic Blast Twenty20 competition, many of England’s 18 first-class counties rely on a block grant from the ECB to stay afloat.
However, woe betide you if you tell a loyal county member that the money represents a “handout.”
As far as they are concerned, it is their team’s “dividend” for contributing to the health of English cricket.
Despite repeatedly dire predictions, no county has yet gone bust and in the words of Stephen Chalke, author of Summer’s Crown, a history of the competition published last year, the County Championship, “rather like the British constitution, emerged in its own haphazard way and it survived and adapted to the consequences.”
However, the advent of the lucrative IPL and an increased international program mean the game’s leading players are far less able to commit to a full county season than in years past.
Yet the Championship still matters, with a large online following attesting to its enduring appeal.
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