YORKSHIRE CCC

For the Cricket Yorkshire Podcast, Yorkshire County Cricket Club Chairman Steve Denison shared his thoughts on the furore around the 100-ball format earmarked for 2020; a competition that caused howls of protest from media and fans alike.

If you have been living on the moon and are blissfully oblivious of the news, here’s a brief recap…

The England & Wales Cricket Board (ECB) has announced that their plans for their new eight-team, city-based T20 tournament (including a Yorkshire-based squad at Emerald Headingley) is not going to be T20 after all.

Instead, ‘The Hundred’ (working title) will be 100 balls of cricket comprising 15 six-ball overs then a final ten-ball over. Shorter, snappier and more likely to appeal to a younger audience or a fumbling attempt to ride the coat-tails of the IPL and the Big Bash?

In its current guise, the ’15+10′ as I’m calling it won’t feature any England players though they will be attached to squads for marketing purposes – which just makes you want to bury your head in your hands and weep.

Apparently, the way we can inspire kids to become the next Joe Root is for them to see him in a poster, decked out in ‘Northern Hailstones’ garb on the Headway in Leeds, then to get along to Headingley only to discover he’s playing for England in a T20 in Nottingham.

When Yorkshire’s Chairman Steve Denison put his head above the parapet on Twitter to express some positivity for the competition, it attracted all kinds of criticism from fans who clearly feel my suggestion of the hashtag #ballsto100balls has some traction.

So, it felt apt to ask him to be a guest on the Cricket Yorkshire Podcast so we could debate some of the issues surrounding this new competition. We don’t solve the game’s woes in half an hour but we crack through quite a bit so do have a listen to the Podcast below.

Listen to the Cricket Yorkshire Podcast with Steve Denison

Up for discussion….

• Do we need a new competition? Isn’t English cricket complicated enough with a packed schedule?
• Is the growth and popularity of the T20 Blast deserving of free-to-air TV instead?
• Has an audience really been identified and if so, what do they think?

 

Share your thoughts and this interview!

So, what do you think about the 100-ball concept? Could it draw a new generation to the game who currently know nothing of flashing bails and switch hits?

Personally, I’m all for boosting the popularity of the game but the way this has unfolded has been shambolic.

Currently, there are major concerns over how soon this is all meant to happen, the format and those who will take part. It will all come out in the wash, as they say.

Chip in with your ideas….you can get in touch with me via @cricketyorks on Twitter or ‘Like’ or comment on the Cricket Yorkshire Facebook page and share your thoughts.

If you liked this read, please share this article and podcast using the Twitter and Facebook buttons below…it helps to spread word of Cricket Yorkshire and you may well have friends and family who like their cricket.

Yorkshire CCC opening batsman Alex Lees is talking to me as the echo of conversation bounces off the walls in the sports hall under the East Stand.

The capricious nature of the weather has brought with it a flurry of snow so the interviews are indoors and we grab a few minutes before the team photos are underway.

In the very first minute of our chat, Alex talks of going back to the drawing board and whether that’s literal or more a figure of speech, he is acutely aware another year like 2017 is not on the wishlist.

Lees was a regular in a Yorkshire top six that creaked rather than purred in the County Championship but his 531 runs at an average of 24 meant he was part of the criticism from fans.

As he discusses, if you listen to the Cricket Yorkshire podcast below, part of the rethink has seen Alex tweak his technique so his batting stance is more of a crouch.

He’s a laid-back bloke who I’ve interviewed before and you can tell that the barbed comments about his batting have stung but he is looking forward:

“That’s all you can do is move on because unfortunately, if you dwell on things, in sport or in life, you can beat yourself up. You find yourself at the same place as you were the previous twelve months ago.”

With the clarity that time away from the middle over winter brings, Lees sounds as though a lean 2017 has toughened him up for the inevitable rollercoaster of another county season.

It might be a soundbite for my benefit or a lesson from Dr Mark Nesti, a specialist in applied sports psychology at Liverpool John Moores University, whose expertise the county are now tapping into.

Speaking to yorkshireccc.com, his Coach Andrew Gale certainly seems positive: “From what I’ve seen with Leesy, his stubbornness for runs is coming through again. He’s one score away from being back in form.”

“He’s had a good pre-season. You can tell since he’s come back how much fitter and leaner he is. He’s desperate to prove people wrong. And he will.”

We get to talking about competition at the top of the order with Lyth, Lees and Kohler-Cadmore acutely aware that three into two doesn’t go.

Cheteshwar Pujara is a world-class opener-in-waiting – if Yorkshire choose to go that route though Pujara is more likely at three where he bats so efficiently for India.

Lees’ reply is telling in that Alex doesn’t trot out a respectful, middle-of-the-road answer about ‘wait and see’ but assures me that he will be picked, if he bats how he knows he can bat.

Cricket is a game of ifs and buts and yet if you are one to look for patterns then Alex Lees is due a stellar 2018 after averaging 33 in 2015 and then plundering 1,000 Championship runs in 2016.

If only it was that simple, eh? Well, for Lees, being the best version of the batsman once mentioned for an England call-up is all he can do and Yorkshire need him firing from the start.

LISTEN: THE CRICKET YORKSHIRE PODCAST WITH ALEX LEES:

CRICKET PHOTOGRAPHERS

Cricket Yorkshire is fortunate to be able to benefit from two professional cricket photographers this year.

Ray Spencer does the Bradford League website photos and Mark from Caught Light Photography is going to be on hand to offer his view from the lens on club, league and county cricket.