England players star in County Championship

Lancashire v Yorkshire

Sunday 31 August 2014

Day 1 of 4 Day Championship Match

No Sup today. It's all Balls

Dear Cricket fans

Do you want to see the County Championship brew up to Title/Relegation/Promotion shoot outs with England stars playing for their Counties in bunfights the sponsors & TV companies would lap up?

This season? Good luck fella.

Some point in the future? Read on.

The ECB commit to England players being available for their Counties after the International Season ends & for the final 2 rounds of the Championship.

To build the season to a final 2 round dogfight climax you just have to schedule it in running.

Before the season starts only the first half of the season is scheduled. Every County plays every other County once - 8 games per County.

At that point you use the Championship table to schedule the third quarter of the season. The next 4 rounds are effectively top half of the table Counties v bottom half of the table Counties. At the end of that, each team will have played 12 rounds.

At that point, you schedule the final 4 rounds. The final 4 rounds will already have an inbuilt top of the table, Championship rivals shoot out feel to them. And indeed bottom of the table relegation shoot out.

You must preserve the all play all home & away integrity of the schedule. But where possible you schedule the final 4 rounds to engineer the top 4 playing each other in the final 2 rounds. Let the shootout begin.

Few leaps of faith ....

The "breaks" in the Championship schedule could be when T20/50 Over QF/SF/Finals are played.