Re: What would you do with the county system?
Posted: Tue Jun 25, 2013 3:40 pm
Theoretically eight city franchises could be created for Premier League Cricket; London, Southampton, Bristol, Cardiff, Birmingham, Nottingham, Leeds, Manchester. Have two regional groups of four who play each other twice (6 games), top 2 in each group through to finals day.
The level of success would be mixed though; London and Birmingham have a wide catchment area, Manchester and to a lesser extent Leeds if they are affiliated to their popular football clubs, Nottingham with a hardcore fanbase. Not sure how successful Bristol and Southampton would fare, whereas Cardiff doesn't have a cricket fanbase to fall upon or even top class Welsh cricketers.
Most of the support is going to be artificial and is either reliant on bored football fans or overseas cricket fanatics who might relate to the franchises, very difficult to sustain success when cricket is not the national sport and participation at grassroot levels is dwindling.
The level of success would be mixed though; London and Birmingham have a wide catchment area, Manchester and to a lesser extent Leeds if they are affiliated to their popular football clubs, Nottingham with a hardcore fanbase. Not sure how successful Bristol and Southampton would fare, whereas Cardiff doesn't have a cricket fanbase to fall upon or even top class Welsh cricketers.
Most of the support is going to be artificial and is either reliant on bored football fans or overseas cricket fanatics who might relate to the franchises, very difficult to sustain success when cricket is not the national sport and participation at grassroot levels is dwindling.