How would you solve the problems of the cricket district?

Ben Fawkes of England and Surrey scored 76 and 103* against Lancashire at Emirates Old Trafford in the first round of the 2023 Championship. Credit & Champion Copyright: Mike Egerton/PA Wire.

The county season is in full swing again, and while it was great to hear the sound of the skin on the willow reverberating across the ground, the problems of the game remain clear and numerous.

< p>We'd love to hear from Telegraph readers about how they'd like to see the county's game change to improve it and maintain its vital place in the sports landscape.

I've outlined a number of problems — and possible solutions — but we want to hear your thoughts with the goal of shaping the readers of the Telegraph' a manifesto to save local cricket.

Issue 1: Schedule

The county season before limited overs cricket in 1962 ran from early May to late August. In an attempt to cover all competitions, it has expanded to start from the first week of April, when it is too cold for players and spectators, until the end of September: from four to six months.

The championship itself, the core of the county's season, has never reached a perfect resolution with every team playing every other home and away. It has always been unequal, or one-sided, or imperfect, and did not satisfy everyone, whether it was played for four days, as has been uniform since 2000, or for three days, or for two, as in 1919 year.

The introduction of two divisions in 2000 was the most drastic change – to increase the competitiveness and quality of the players brought up for the England test squad – since Lord Maclaurin failed to sell the three conference concept. The disadvantage of two divisions was that some neighboring districts had not played each other for ten years.

So it seems there is no perfect solution, whether it be the Indian Premier League or the upcoming Major League Cricket in the summer, the US is siphoning off the best English cricketers. Like many Victorian institutions, county cricket, having grown organically/chaotically, is too entrenched to be broken for us to start over with a clean slate.

Perhaps the easiest reform is to start the season with a knockout tournament with 50 players. The over 50-man domestic competition was a kennel for English players who won the 2019 World Cup, but has since been downgraded to a competition during the Hundred for runners as well. For England to win the World Cup with 50 batsmen, young batsmen must learn to hit big hundreds, not the fast 40s like in leagues with 20s. (Will Smeed, Somerset whiteball specialist, played one 50-over game.)

If the 18 first-class districts are joined by 14 national (also called minor) districts in eight regional qualifying groups of four, followed by the playoffs, the season will be up and running by the end of April. Most of the country will be involved, as well as all the best non-IPL players.

How would you like the county season to be structured? Challenge 2: The 100

The competition, which began in 2021, appears to have generated far more losses than the England and Wales Cricket Board was prepared to admit: around £10m so far.

Defenders of the hundred will argue that launching new products in new markets almost always involves initial losses; and that, whatever the amounts, the double headline format attracted new audiences. The afternoon women's match, which precedes the evening men's match, clearly draws more women and girls, as well as members of the BAME community, than any district game has ever seen.

Critics of the Hundred make two main arguments. First, it takes the whole of August. Traditionally, this was the height of the English season, with the Test team looking to win the series and the county competition nearing a climax. Now nothing but this white ball novelty, and England Cricket Director Rob Key himself said that August couldn't go on without red ball cricket.

Lewis Gregory and Luke Wood won the 2022 Hundred Final for the Trent Rockets. Photo: Action Images via Reuters/John Sibley

The second main argument against Hundreds is the format. It seems to work more or less for the women's 100, perhaps because most players didn't know another form of professional competition. As for the men's hundred, the most sincere form of flattery is imitation: no other country has tried to play cricket for 100 balls. It did not catch on, unlike the 20-person county contest that was launched in 2003 and spread like wildfire. If the first season of The 100 worked in 2021, the second season had few closed endings and a declining free-to-air TV audience. Some also argue that a five-ball set reduces the tension of the duel between batsman and bowler, resulting in full action and little to no drama.

If the 100 is to continue until 2028, in accordance with the ECB's broadcasting agreement, it could be shortened from one month to a week by arranging two double headings on Saturdays and Sundays; or it could be expanded to 10 teams, perhaps starting the South-Western Warriors (at Bristol and Taunton) and the Eastern Eagles (at Canterbury and Chelmsford), each playing the other nine teams once; and perhaps the game could consist of 10 duels of 10 balls? No game will be dead even if the chasing side needs 40 of the last 10 balls because the bowler could crack.

What would you do with a hundred? Problem 3. Interaction with fans

It is unknown and incomprehensible the number of people who remotely follow county cricket, check the latest results of their favorite county in any competition, but who have not watched them live for years. Simply because county cricket certainly benefits many.

As for the actual figures: the number of members of the district is kept in the strictest confidence of the ECB, because its disclosure would reflect a rapid decline. Gone are the days when large districts had over 10,000 members: current reasonable estimates now put the total membership in all 18 districts at 70,000. Membership is increasingly unequally distributed: they are subscribed to test-ground districts and therefore have faster access to England tickets, while some districts without test-grounds have seen their membership drop to 1,000.

Only on two occasions has district cricket begun to stand on its own financial legs without handouts from ECB broadcast deals. One is when the championship is held at open venues such as Arundel, Cheltenham and Scarborough where paying spectators will be present. The second is Vitality Blast: T20's seven home games are a lifeline for the county, a time when they set up temporary stands and 'sale' ads and earn up to £100,000 selling drinks in a single evening. Sir Geoffrey Boycott has suggested keeping the Hundred and abolishing the Vitality Blast, but what will be left of some counties besides championship games in front of three men as dogs are no longer allowed?

How would you increase fan involvement in county cricket? Issue 4: Quality/character of county cricket

The 20-over cricket played by the counties, i.e. Vitality Blast, is almost as good as any franchise tournament: not as many star batsmen and bowlers as the IPL, but better standard of play.

What can be corrected relatively soon is the imbalance in the championship between pace and spin. Until 1960, spinners took half the wickets in the championship. Between 1960 and 1980, they took 36 percent, and since 2010, less than 20 percent. When Surrey won the title last season they took a total of 31 spinning wickets in 14 matches. Hampshire, third, took 34 wickets with a spin, and none from their spinner Mason Crane. Durham managed less than 20.

There may be some connection between this lack of rotation and the empty stands. Spectators are asked to sit 96 overs a day, of which 90 are played by seamers—not fast stump bowlers, but dry bowlers at 70 to 80 miles per hour.

To solve the quality problem, there could be two divisions or two conferences in which the district would play 14 three-day games of 104 or 110 overs with such severe penalties for slow over-bets that they would have to choose two spinners.

< p> Participants could even choose to what kind of conference would they like their district to play: a seamstress-dominated four-day conference, or a three-day conference with an old-fashioned mixture of tempo and rotation, ideally using more outside venues where pitches wear more naturally? Such counties would prepare the English players for the tour of Asia. The champions will be the winners of the playoffs. So there will be something for every taste in England and Wales' home cricket.

How would you improve the quality of local cricket?