Yorkshire CCC swing red-ball debate for Championship cricket

YORKSHIRE chairman Roger Hutton says that the club felt duty-bound to fight for red-ball cricket on behalf of its members after it was confirmed that the shortened season will contain an abridged version of the four-day Championship.
Yorkshire's Matthew Fisher celebrates taking the wicket of Kent's Daniel Bell-Drummond. (Picture: SWPIx.com)Yorkshire's Matthew Fisher celebrates taking the wicket of Kent's Daniel Bell-Drummond. (Picture: SWPIx.com)
Yorkshire's Matthew Fisher celebrates taking the wicket of Kent's Daniel Bell-Drummond. (Picture: SWPIx.com)

Hutton and his fellow chairmen voted yesterday to play red-ball cricket as well as the T20 Blast, as opposed to the other option on the table which was to play a 50-over competition and the T20 Blast

The vote was passed by a narrow majority with up to eight of the 18 first-class counties thought to have favoured the double white-ball alternative.

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The Championship will start on August 1 and is set to be renamed for this year as The Bob Willis Trophy in memory of the former England captain, who died in December.

Yorkshire and their county brethren will be split into three regional groups of six with each team playing five games and the top two teams meeting in a five-day final at Lord’s.

There will be 10 group games per county in a regionalised T20 Blast followed by quarter-finals and a Finals Day at Edgbaston.

The exact make-up of the competitions/fixtures is likely to be finalised next week pending venue medical/safety assessments.

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But with the traditional game valued no more highly than in Yorkshire, Hutton felt it was important that the club went into bat on behalf of their loyal members and supporters, with the matches set to be live streamed pending the return of spectators to grounds.

“I’m thrilled to bits for our members that we will be playing red-ball cricket this season,” said Hutton.

“Yorkshire is a huge fan of the red-ball game and, for me as chairman, it felt like a bit of pressure because you’re very anxious to get red-ball cricket to Headingley on the members’ behalf.

“We have a duty to them and although every one of the counties would say that the first priority is safety and that we need to make sure that everyone is safe, you’ve also got to work out what your stakeholders want – and our biggest stakeholders are our members. We had a duty to argue for red-ball cricket, and I’m delighted that this is the step that has been agreed.”

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Hutton said that voting figures were not disclosed with some counties harbouring concerns about overnight hotel stays for four-day fixtures.

The situation is thought to be fluid around whether sides will play equal numbers of fixtures at home and away, something that will have to be thrashed out in the coming days.

“There are 18 counties with different considerations and you have to respect all of those,” added Hutton.

“There is a big requirement to make sure that this is safe, and different counties have different challenges with that.

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“Therefore, there was uncertainty from some counties about what they can and cannot deliver, and you have to respect that, just as there are counties who prefer different versions of the game.

“It wasn’t clear going into it what the outcome would be, but all the counties have united together and are supportive of the decision that’s ultimately been made.”

Hutton went on: “There is a possibility that a county doesn’t meet the necessary (safety) requirements, or can’t meet the requirements to play a four-day game because they are more complex than for the one-day game.

“Technically, there is the possibility that a fixture can’t get fulfilled because a county can’t fulfil it due to health and safety and Covid, but it’s been agreed that the four-day competition will go ahead and we’ll work around the issues.

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“The fixtures haven’t been confirmed yet because each county has to go round and do their assessment to make sure they’re capable of playing the four-day game, that the venue’s fine and the medical requirements are all sorted out. Hopefully, the fixture list will come out by the end of next week.”

The T20 Blast season could start on August 27 and end with Finals Day at Edgbaston on September 26. Clubs remain hopeful that some spectators will be allowed into grounds before the end of the season.

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