Abandon or shorten County Championship to salvage something meaningful: Alastair Cook to ECB

Abandon or shorten County Championship: Alastair Cook to ECB

By Web Desk
March 23, 2020
Photo: AFP

Former England skipper Alastair Cook, amid the ravaging coronavirus, has suggested to the English cricketing authorities to save the English season by scrapping or at least cutting short the "four-day County Championship". 

The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) on Friday had called off all professional cricket until May 28, which had the most immediate impact on The Championship, which was scheduled to start on April 12.

The Champion County match, the annual curtain-raiser for the year, was to be played between the Marylebone Cricket Club and Essex later this month in Sri Lanka, but had been called off.

County Championship matches do not generate as much money as limited overs fixtures or internationals but are seen as vital as preparing players for five-day Tests, still widely regarded as the pinnacle of the game.

"I could have retired from all cricket when I quit the international stage in 2018 but I stayed on because I loved playing for Essex and that means the County Championship," wrote Cook in his Sunday Times column.

"I couldn't have asked for a better first season back on the (domestic) circuit than winning the title in the last game of 2019.

"Will we get to defend that title? As things stand, there will be no cricket in England until May 28 at the earliest.

The 35-year-old left-handed opener went on to ask: "Can we salvage the four-day competition?

"Possibly but that will demand that we all pull in the same direction.

"We may well be looking at an abbreviated tournament, with more back-to-back matches and stretching into early October (sometimes warmer than the second half of April when the season usually starts). We may, as a result, see more floodlit cricket and ticket prices will almost certainly have to be reduced.

"None of this is ideal but we all have to see the bigger picture -- for our sport and the country as a whole," Cook wrote.

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