Twenty20 - no going back

So the ECB are having their annual meeting to decide whether to completely rethink scheduling for the following season. Anything has to be better than the shambles that was this year’s calendar.

One of the things they are discussing is the Twenty20 competition, which this year expanded to sixteen group matches per county, and dragged on from June 1st to July 18th.

The counties aren’t keen on a reduction in the number of games. Richard Gould, chief executive at Somerset, said: “It would be financially disastrous for us if we lost three T20 matches next season. We would lose £250,000, It would be like asking the ECB to lose three Test matches.”

Uh? The Twenty20 Cup has expanded as follows:

2003, 2004: 5 group matches

2005, 2006, 2007: 8 group matches

2008, 2009: 10 group matches

Somerset survived in those seasons, didn’t they? What’s changed? Have they really budgeted on the ECB keeping sixteen group matches in place forever? If they have, they are even more short-sighted than the ECB itself.

And it’s nothing like asking the ECB to lose three Test matches. There have been Test matches in England for a hundred years. There have been Twenty20 matches in England for eight.

Anyway, Somerset have no need to worry - there’s no going back now. There is about as much chance of a reduction in the number of group matches in next year’s Twenty20 Cup as there was of Alastair Cook getting dropped for the third Test.