Nobody really is thinking about the cricket fans. All the talk is about player power, franchises and administrators. In the English domestic game, it’s all about counties and county chairs and The Hundred. My experience is that nobody is thinking about the fans and spectators.
I am a Season Ticker Holder at Lancashire. I have done the maths – once I go to a handful of T20 Blast matches and The Hundred, along with the discounted International Tickets, it’s not bad value for money. But my intention was to also go to lots of other games. However, its mid June and I have been to Old Trafford just twice in 2024.
County Championship
The only good thing about the fixture list at the start of the season is that the games started on Fridays and so took in both days of the weekend. And I suppose they did at least come after we changed the clocks.
The first fixture was against champions Surrey and should have been a wonderful fixture, but given that it started on the 4th April, it was almost certainly doomed to be a weather impacted draw. Its been a dismal season weatherwise, but early April in Manchester would be pushing it in the best of summers (though ironically would have been ok in the Covid summer of 2020). The amateur football season was still in full swing, but despite my son’s fixtures, I was able to get to 2 sessions of this game – until the rain came.
Bizarrely, and frustratingly, we then had 2 away fixtures on the bounce (Essex and Hampshire – so not a realistic option for travel) so the next home fixture was in May, where Lancashire were battered by Kent. It already looked like Lancashire’s 4 day season was going to be grim).
This was followed by another away fixture against Nottinghamshire, before the next home fixture which was at Blackpool. This was actually a rare nice weekend (relatively), and Lancashire play the long form cricket better at the outgrounds. Lancashire played really well and deserved to beat Durham. This game was one I would have travelled to, and I was just unlucky with the diary. Typically, I could have attended the next round – the two consecutive away games cancelled out here by 2 consecutive home fixtures – but it was another rain ruined fixture against Worcestershire.
And that was that for the first part of the championship. Not much fun for fans, and totally pointless from the point of view of England selection.
T20 Blast
You would think it would be a bit easier to follow the T20 fixtures. However……
The first round was on the 30th May. It’s a good job it was half term given the 1900 start time for the men’s game. Lancashire rightly made a lot of fuss about this being a ‘double header’ with the Lancashire Thunder game. Thunder just got past Central Sparks, before Lancashire beat Durham well. The problam was the extremely long waiting time betweem the games – not at all family friendly. County Cricket can learn an easy lesson here from The Hundred.
The next evening, Lancashire were away at Worcestershire, where they lost, but I went to Taunton with my family to see Somerset play. We were on the way to Cornwall. The 1830 start at Taunton made more sense, and Somerset played well to just past Essex – it was a good night. It is worth noting, however, that this was also a double header, so the earlier start time clearly was possible even in the case of the double header. However, it was not a 1830 start everywhere – looking around the country on that night, games started at 1730, 1830 and 1900. I have no idea what time randomiser the ECB use for the fixture list, but the right time for fans is surely 1830.
The following week clashed with our Cornwall holiday. That in itself is fine, but its incredible to see Lancashire having 3 games in that week. Obviously, all three of those games were at different times of day.
What’s next?
Over the next week or so, Lancashire have 3 away fixtures in the T20 cup, before 2 rounds of Championship Cricket. One of these is a home fixture but its being played in Southport, meaning that no men’s cricket will take place at Old Trafford until 7th July when the men play Worcestershire again (they are away at Northamptonshire before this). They have 3 consecutive home games – 2 in 3 days at one point, before the One Day Cup and Hundred take over.
How on earth fans can be expected to deal with all this is beyond me. I yearn for the days of a game every Friday night which we had in the early days of T20 and – do you know what? – it worked.
Cricketed 