The Reverse Sweep

Back-to-back Ashes series? Doomsday is here...

 
We blame football and specifically the Champions League. The European Cup was a perfectly good competition, but UEFA and the leading clubs wanted more cash, so lo and behold eligibility was extended to sides finishing 2nd, 3rd or even 4th in their respective leagues and the cumbersome Group Stage was born. Tedium and money ensued.

Cricket soon followed suit. The World Cup may only come every four years, but the tournaments in South Africa and West Indies felt like they lasted that long. This year’s edition will feature 42 pointless matches before the real action starts in the quarter-finals.

Twenty 20 competitions around the world – particularly those in England and India have got longer and longer. There may be more money in the short-term, but eventually the patience of cricket fans will run out and attendances will fall – this is exactly what happened in last year’s FP T20 in England, which featured the mind-boggling torture of 151 matches.

The concept of less is more seems to be alien to cricket and football administrators alike. Rather than leaving their audiences wanting more, they leave them begging for the pain and torture to end.

But amidst all this overkill, at least there was the sacred Ashes. A five-Test series every two years was just perfect with plenty of time for anticipation to build and then the main event itself that always leaves you wanting an encore.

Until now that is.

Now we know that with the World Cup being held down under in 2015, staging an Ashes series in the same Australian summer wasn’t going to be viable. But rather than delaying the series by a year – meaning that the sequence would go England 2013, Australia 2015/16, England 2017, the greedy men in the ECB and Cricket Australia have come up with a doomsday scenario.

The result is a back to back Ashes series in 2013 – 10 Tests in six months. And then to compensate for what would be a three-and-a-half year gap until the next scheduled series in England in 2017, the men in suits are likely to sanction another series in England in 2015.

We love the Ashes – you may have noticed – but the prospect of back-to-back series is about as appealing as being trapped in a lift with Westlife and Simon Cowell.

Maybe its time for cricket fans to stage an Egyptian style revolt and unseat the faceless administrators that are ruining the game?

Where next?

Twenty 20 cricket’s very English crisis

151 = Pure Greed

Cricket’s warning from Football

100 stories about the Ashes

Full coverage of the Ashes 2010/11 series

Check out all our Reverse Sweep heroes and zeroes

If you like this, follow us on Twitter @thereversesweep

The week in cricket on World Cricket Watch

As some of you may already be aware, we write a weekly column for World Cricket Watch under the banner of the Reverse Sweep, which is intended to be an alternative and irreverent round-up of the week that was in cricket.

This week's column is now up on World Cricket Watch (click here to read it) and features:

• A preview of the 3rd Test at the Oval with a prediction that is looking none too wise now
• A laugh at Ricky Ponting's expense after his near-Glenn McGrath moment of earlier in the week
• Yuvraj Singh's annus horribilis (and for those non-Latin buffs that doesn't translate to Yuvraj's horrible anus!)
• A round-up of the FP T20 Finals Day at the Rose Bowl
• An assessment of Cricket Australia's madcap new limited overs format

Twenty 20 cricket's very English crisis

Back at the start of the Friends Provident Twenty 20 competition, we predicted that the greed exhibited by the counties in raising the number of games this year to a mind boggling 151 (from 97) could well prove to be their downfall (read 151, English County Cricket and Pure Greed here). 

Unsurprisingly, these fears have proved correct  and the groundhog day nature of the competition has caused supporters to vote with their feet. So despite the excellent weather, the feelgood factor of England winning the World T20 and the presence of stars like Adam Gilchrist, Kieron Pollard and Andrew Symonds, attendances have fallen alarmingly. Twenty 20 cricket in England appears to be at crisis point. 

Having survived a flirtation with Allen Stanford, being imitated and then surpassed by its more ambitious Indian cousin and being only at the margins of the prosperous Champions League, hubris and alarming avarice from within seems to have tipped Twenty 20 in England over the edge. As such, the county chairman gathered at Edgbaston last week to discuss the falling crowds and to plot the way forward.

This has prompted much mirth in the media. Martin Samuel in the Daily Mail compared Twenty 20 to a passing fad "like Pixie Geldof or the Liberal Democrats". Although Martin makes several good points about how Twenty 20 has evolved in England, we are not sure we agree with him on this point. The IPL continues to go from strength to strength despite Lalit Modi's high profile problems and the ensuing corruption allegations. This suggests Twenty 20 certainly on a world scale is no flash in the pan. If English cricket had put self-interest to one side, gone down the franchise route and limited the number of teams to ten, who's to say that England couldn't have had a more successful and better run Twenty 20 competition than the IPL?

Unfortunately, it is this self-interest that has allowed Twenty 20 in England to spiral out of control. Too many matches, too many teams and dreadful scheduling has led to the current crisis. Hopefully, the county chairmen now realise the extent of the problem and do something about it in time for next season.

For what it's worth, the Reverse Sweep's solution would include:

1. Moving from 18 counties to a maximum of 10 city based franchises backed by the counties so the money goes back into the game and grass roots - imagine the interest if London was taking on Manchester at a packed Lord's on a sultry summer evening?
2. Allowing each franchise to play three overseas stars within the starting XI and sign up to four for their squads
3. Creating one solely Asian side to spark interest within the large British Asian community. A team including the likes of Bopara, Shah, Mahmood, Panesar, Rashid and Shahzad plus overseas stars like Sangakkara, Sehwag and Afridi would attract huge crowds
4. Better scheduling, with a big televised match on Friday and Saturday nights starting at 7.00
5. Limiting the competition to a lean and mean four week period at the height of summer when no football is being played and Wimbledon has finished
6. Building a window into the international schedule to allow England players to participate for the whole competition. It's crazy to expect fans to flock in if the likes of Pietersen, Collingwood and Swann are not on show

However, even if the county chairmen now realise the extent of the problem, the radical move to a franchise league won't happen (turkeys don't vote for Christmas). Whatever solution  they come up with must at least see the number of matches dramatically reduced - we must never again see 151 Twenty 20 matches in a single season. Surely, common sense will preveil? Don't bet on it.   

Matt Prior sends a red hot message to the England selectors

The Reverse Sweep would guess that Matt Prior is extremely disappointed to have been left out of the England World T20 and now the one day squads in favour of Craig Kieswetter. Unlike say John Terry, who's disappointment at his removal as England football captain appeared to lead to his failed Fletcher Christian moment at the World Cup, Prior has handled his demotion with grace and style. And for the time being at least, his place as the test wicketkeeper looks assured.

Indeed, Prior has sent his message to the selectors in the right way through his performances and into the bargain has helped our county Sussex have an electric start to the FP t20 competition. Prior has scored 414 runs in ten matches at an average of 46 with one brilliant blitzkrieg of a century against Glamorgan (117 off 55 balls) and two fifties, including a commanding 50 off 27 balls against Essex last night.

Even better has been his strike rate of 177.68 and his boundary hitting, which currently stands at 49 fours and 18 sixes. These stats are actually better than anything Kieswetter has managed for Somerset or England.

If Prior is honest then he would probably accept that his Twenty 20 and one day performances for England to date have not justified his talent. In 10 Twenty 20 appearances he averages 21 with a highest score of 32, and in one dayers his 55 appearances only amount to two fifties and an average a tick over 25. These are pretty poor stats, but even so the runs he is blasting now and his attitude will give the England selectors some food for thought and will certainly keep the pressure on Kieswetter as he establishes himself in international cricket.

It is yet another example of the fierce competition for places in the England team across all formats, which has to be a good thing.  

Shh! The County Championship has started again

Amidst no fanfare whatsoever the County Championship resumed again yesterday with five games.

The scheduling of this season is absolutely crazy, so even though it is only a few weeks since the last round of matches, it seems like a century ago. That maybe because of the new addition to the Reverse Sweep family in the meantime as well as a never-ending series of FP t20 matches.

We are not the only ones confused, or so it seems. Not only did Rory Hamilton-Brown open the batting for Surrey against Derbyshire just as he does in t20, but he smashed 24 off only 16 balls before giving Steffan Jones a wicket. It could be the scheduling or maybe it is the pressure of keeping Andrew Symonds off the sauce or Younis Khan from flouncing off?

Lucky you are being paid 150,000 a year eh, Rory?

Five days in cricket

Well we've quite a lot these last five days whilst we've been in hospital for the happy event of the birth of our daughter Isabella. Catching up we've missed some predictable and some not so predictable events.

1. We missed a brilliant game of cricket between India and Pakistan with Harbhajan Singh again proving he is the man for the big event.

2. England beat Scotland easily in a one day international and supposed slowcoach Andrew Strauss scored at a much quicker rate than greyhound opening partner Craig Kieswetter.

3. Australia were given a scare by Ireland. And then were also given a minor fright by Middlesex before Cameron White again underlined his credentials to be the next Australian captain in all formats. We saw too that Owais Shah gave a gentle reminder to the England selectors that he is still around.

4. We were delighted to miss test centuries by Graeme Smith and Jacques Kallis as they were no doubt mind numbingly boring and efficient. At last the West Indies have shown a bit of fight in their reply though. One other observation is that test matches in the Caribbean have become slow and turgid affairs. When you add South Africa to the mix that equals utter tedium.

5. More games took place in the FP t20 and crowd numbers no doubt fell further as even the most ardent supporters start to tire of a never-ending competition that makes the overbloated cricket world cup look like Kate Moss in comparison. We did see that our county Sussex continue to do well though.

6. We were bemused to see that the PCB rescinded the ban on its best batsman Younis Khan and then promptly didn't pick him for the upcoming tests against Australia and England. So the lunatics are still in the charge of the asylum.

7. And finally, England's football team has surpassed itself with its utter incompetence. And the malaise has a warning for cricket too. More of which later.

But all in all, it's good to be back.

Surrey reach a new low

It was always going to be a difficult season for Surrey. Following the trophy laden days of Adam Hollioake (when they were even tagged as the Manchester United of English cricket), the county has slid into oblivion and last season finished near the bottom of Division 2 of the County Championship.

This season hopes were high that an aggressive recruitment policy by coach Chris Adams would see the good times return. Steven Davies, one of the best wicketkeeper batsmen in the country, and Gareth Barry were snared from Worcestershire. Former England bowler Chris Tremlett was captured from Hampshire, and then most surprisingly of all Rory Hamilton-Brown was enticed from Sussex and appointed as captain on a reported 150,000 per year.

At 22 and with only a handful of first-class matches behind him, the appointment of Hamilton-Brown was seen by most as extremely risky and despite his own performances being reasonable, that seems to have been the case as results have been poor.

Surrey currently prop up Division 2 having only won one match this season. They were thrashed by an innings in their last outing against Leicestershire - one of four defeats in their eight matches to date. This is despite having the prolific Mark Ramprakash at first drop who is yet again having a good season. Davies has made a good impression but Tremlett has suffered from his usual spate of injuries.

However, Surrey fans (and we count them as our second team here at the Reverse Sweep having hailed from the Sussex/Surrey border) weren't quite prepared for the new nadir that was reached yesterday in their side's opening FP T20 match with Gloucestershire at The Oval.

Optimism must have been high considering that Surrey's batting line-up included Younis Khan and Andrew Symonds as well as Davies, Hamilton-Brown, Ramprakash and Usman Afzaal. With Chris Schofield, Andre Nel and Tremlett also in the side, Surrey had eight players that had played international cricket.

None of this mattered as they capitulated to 97 all out with Davies, Younis, Ramprakash, Symonds and Afzaal managing only seven runs between them. Poor old Hamilton-Brown tried his best with 41 to lead some sort of recovery from 17/5, but the die was cast and Gloucestershire chased down the paltry target with over half of their 20 overs still to spare.

That is one almighty thrashing in Twenty20. Even if each county is playing a million matches in this year's tournament, that is going to take some coming back from.

Expect to see Chris Adams scanning the Situations Vacant column at Oval tube station in the very near future.

151, English County Cricket and Pure Greed

Hands up if you thought the IPL seemed to go on for ever and ever? Well it actually lasted six weeks and comprised of 56 games. The interest of most cricket fans the Reverse Sweep knows started to wane after three to four weeks and when you have to put up with DLF Maximums, timeouts, Lalit Modi and Danny Morrison that is hardly a massive surprise.

English cricket and principally the self-interested counties have in their infinite wisdom decided to expand the domestic Twenty 20 competition from 97 to a whopping 151 matches this season, having moved from three leagues of six to two leagues of nine. These leagues will now run until the latter part of July, before the quarter finals, and then a short break before the finals day on Saturday 14th August.

Now the English version of Twenty 20 is a much more quaint version of the game than its richer and more garish Indian cousin. We don't have DLF Maximums or Danny Morrision thank God, but we do have Nick Knight's camp Sky advert and rather naff themed finals days (Wild West, anyone?). But this extension of the competition smacks of overkill and greed.

This year's competition has started off well enough with the highlight of reigning champions Sussex's win over last year's runners up Somerset in the opening match being Luke Wright's broken bat. That was followed by Kent's impressive run chase against a Ryan ten Doeschate inspired Essex yesterday. But how will jaded fans feel four weeks into the competition? Will they be tired of the bewildering schedule and have switched their attention to Wimbledon or the football World Cup?

The counties are hoping that the feelgood factor of England's World T20 win will have a positive effect on this season's competition and they may well be right. But you could also argue that with the FP T20 starting soon after that event in the Caribbean and the IPL coming just before it, that fans are already a bit tired of the T20 format at the moment. We shall see.

The greed shown by the counties could just be their downfall. 18 teams is at least eight too many for this competition and it would have been far more sensible to go down the franchise route. In this case, we are not talking about the smaller counties missing out whilst their bigger cousins with test grounds make hay whilst the sun shines. No we are talking about a similar franchise system to the IPL based on cities. Just imagine the interest if London were taking on Manchester at Lord's or Old Trafford in a televised Friday night match? Most of the money could be ploughed back into the counties coffers in any case.

A franchise system such as this could really challenge the IPL; if it is already not too late that is. Even better if a window was found so England players could participate in the competition - surely that is better than a pointless one day series with Australia? One of the teams could be a British Asian side. Such a team could comprise the likes of Ravi Bopara, Owais Shah, Sajid Mahmood, Adil Rashid, Monty Panesar, Dimitri Mascarenhas and Ajmal Shahzad, as well as overseas stars from the subcontinent such as Shahid Afridi, Virender Sehwag, Tamim Iqbal and Kumar Sangakkara. That would create massive interest and could prove to be a unifying factor in the different Asian communities in the country.

Unfortunately, that is never going to happen whilst the counties are in charge of their own destinies; a turkey wouldn't vote for Christmas. So instead of a new, exciting and most importantly lean domestic Twenty 20 with no more than 10 sides, England gets an over-inflated and lengthy affair that smacks of self-interest. One could argue that in their own way the counties are just as greedy as Modi and his former acolytes in this regard.

Wake us up when it's over... 

Luke Wright breaks his cricket bat

We weren't the only ones to observe during the World T20 that Luke Wright puts absolutely everything in to try and hit a cricket ball out of the ground.

Judging by what happened yesterday in the opening FP T20 match between Wright's Sussex and Somerset, he may be looking for a new bat manufacturer or at the very least a reinforced bat. Perhaps Dennis Lillee's infamous aluminium bat could find its way to Wright.

Watch and laugh...

 

Nick Knight's audition for Britain's Got Talent

No words are necessary except I hope you were well paid for this Nick. It'll hardly have the IPL worried, with or without Lalit Modi.

 

Help the Aged

Just when you thought you were getting a break from Twenty 20 after the IPL and World T20, the Friends Provident T20 starts next Tuesday 1st June with last year's winners and runners up facing off at Hove as Sussex take on Somerset.

A quick peruse at the squads will tell you that the counties are making a belated attempt to imitate the IPL by bringing in a number of international stars for the competition. Unfortunately, for English cricket that stable door was left open a long time ago and the horse has well and truly bolted even if Lalit Modi has been unseated from his not-so-trusty stead.

We'll be doing a proper preview of the tournament nearer the time, but we couldn't help notice that some of the stars that have been hired are to put it mildly a little past their best. We saw with Damien Martyn in the IPL how sad it can be when a former great player (and Martyn has to be one of the most stylish batsmen of recent times) is so obviously past their best that they should be consigned to the knackers yard. Sanath Jayasuriya in the World T20 also comes to mind.

Despite these warnings, Middlesex have conscripted; no doubt for an exorbitant fee, another former Australian who is way past his best. Admittedly Adam Gilchrist's best was pretty sensational, but as his stats in the IPL this year showed, Gilchrist should now be consigned to the commentary box. Gilchrist managed 289 runs at an average 18.06 for Deccan Chargers in the season just past with a highest score of 54. His strike rate was an impressive 156.21, but it was obvious that he is a shadow of his former self; hardly surprising considering he retired from first-class cricket in January 2008.

We may well be proved wrong but it would seem Middlesex are doing more for Help the Aged and its gate receipts by employing Gilchrist than in trying to actually win the competition.