https://www.espncricinfo.com/story/county-cricket-reform-rebellion-in-the-shires-as-counties-consider-response-to-strauss-review-1336455

Rebellion in the shires as counties consider response to Strauss Review
Implications of domestic restructuring are stark, but is there the will for a fightback?

David Hopps
25-Sep-2022

Spectators look on during Somerset's crucial Championship victory over Northamptonshire, September 21, 2022
Spectators look on during Somerset's crucial Championship victory over Northamptonshire • Getty Images

County members are revolting. Well, the ECB have been saying that in private for years. But this time revolution really is in the air as county cricket traditionalists try to rally opposition to the Strauss Review which critics believe, if implemented in full, risks death by stealth of the 18-team professional system.

For all the clamour, even if their disgust morphs into united opposition, will the views of county members carry any weight? Fifteen of the 18 counties purport to be members' clubs, and clubs have long become skilled in mollifying them and then doing largely as they please. But this time, unlike when the Hundred was introduced, many have been forced to promise greater consultation. This time members are flexing their muscles.

Strauss wants less, more intense cricket, combined with greater rewards for elite players to dissuade them from forever rushing off to worldwide franchised T20 tournaments, and weakening the international game in the process.

But county members are joining national bodies, forming action groups, penning angry letters, and launching petitions on change.org. The majority are ever more dismayed by what they perceive as the ECB's high-handed and dismissive attitude to the professional game as it traditionally exists. The air is full of rebellion.

Can they really have an influence the length and breadth of the country before a vote on the future structure of the professional game, changes that will need support from at least 12 of the 18 counties?

And, furthermore, do members really speak for county cricket followers across England and Wales at a time when the largest county crowds are for white-ball competitions that attract thousands of casual spectators without membership rights?

Some counties are actively considering extending membership rights to white-ball spectators - a recognition not just to those who watch Championship cricket, but to those who watch county cricket in shorter formats. Warwickshire, for example, already offer full voting rights to anyone who buys a joint 50-over and Blast season pass. The policy risks an outcry from those whose sole priority is to protect the erosion of the Championship, but it would seem to be a natural democratic response to changing times.

Further justification for such a development can be found in the gradual shrinking of county membership from around 70,000 in 2005 to roughly 55,000 today - a fall influenced only to some degree by the disruption caused by Covid-19.

As yet, no county has opted to scrap membership entirely, although Surrey and Lancashire are probably rich enough to attempt to do so.

County cricket isn't perfect, but does it deserve the stick it gets?
Essex have been the pre-eminent red-ball team of the decade, but they are among the most ardent critics of the Strauss Review•Getty Images
The Strauss proposals in their current form appear to have no chance of being adopted without considerable compromise. Predictably, the non-Test-playing counties have been most shaken by what they see. Essex, Kent, Sussex and Leicestershire have been among the immediate critics. Derbyshire, Northamptonshire and Worcestershire are expected to be of similar mind. Somerset are hedging their bets, aware of the vague possibility that they might yet share a south-west Hundred team with Gloucestershire and settle into a happier ECB-approved future.

Read more at https://www.espncricinfo.com/story/county-cricket-reform-rebellion-in-the-shires-as-counties-consider-response-to-strauss-review-1336455

RH