Outside Edge: Thrilling County Championship finale showcases what cricket has to offer - time to take note
It's become a sad reality of the game that the terrific quality of Championship cricket, especially in division one, is for the most part almost inversely proportional to its visibility
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Your support makes all the difference.There can have been no better advert for the County Championship than this week’s remarkable finale, which ultimately saw Middlesex crowned as champions at just before 5.30pm on Friday afternoon. Toby Roland-Jones, who finished with 6-54, secured victory with two wickets in two balls as Yorkshire sought to chase down 240 runs in 40 overs and ultimately fell 61 short. Defeat was particularly tough on Tim Bresnan, who had almost single-handedly kept Yorkshire in the hunt, but having not lost a single game all season it was hard to feel that Middlesex were anything less than worthy winners.
Fifty years ago and Lord’s might have had a full house to witness such a climax; in 2016, a couple of fullish stands is perhaps the best that can be expected. For those lucky enough to have Sky, the title decider was available in full on TV – a rare Championship foray by the ECB’s primary television broadcast partner.
Yet the truth is that the terrific quality of Championship cricket, especially in division one, is for the most part almost inversely proportional to its visibility. Forget the chuntering of some old lags, this year’s tournament should be proof if it were needed that domestic four-day cricket in this country is regularly of the highest class. It is that quality, as much as the advent of central contracts or any other factor, which has stood the England team in good stead in recent years. If only the cricket were not so little seen.
And yes, of course it is true that the pace of modern life is not conducive to regularly spending entire days watching county pros battling it out, not always in glorious sunshine of the sort which bathed Lord’s on the season’s final day. Yet it seems impossible to believe that there isn’t – or couldn’t be – a decent audience out there for what was once our national sport.
This year the ECB has in fairness been inventive in offering a rights deal to the BBC which enables it to show snippets of international and domestic cricket on its website. But packages of that sort appeal to committed fans, not to merely curious viewers. If the government really wants the Beeb to be a “Broadcaster of distinction”, then it could do worse than to encourage the corporation to push hard for a proper slice of the pie when the ECB negotiates its next broadcast deal for 2019 onwards. Being innovative does not mean ignoring important aspects of Britain’s - and the BBC’s – heritage.
Close but no cigar
With Somerset having done the necessary by seeing off Notts on Thursday, club supporters were encouraged to head down to the Cooper Associates County Ground for some nail-biting in front of the telly, to watch with baited breath the developments from Lord’s that would make or break Somerset’s season.
The late surge by Chris Rogers’ side had thrown the title race unexpectedly wide open. And having reached the top of the table by virtue of this week’s win against Nottinghamshire, being pipped at the post will be hard to take. One of the venues in which supporters could gather to watch Middlesex beat Yorkshire was the Stragglers Coffee House, which opened last December. As Somerset’s wait for a first ever Championship continues, members must wonder if a more optimistic name could have been chosen for the café.
West Indies blown aside by dominant India
While England and Pakistan played out an enthralling, see-saw series this summer, in the Caribbean the West Indies were being pummelled by India. In four tests, West Indian blushes were spared only by bad weather – a 2-0 loss might easily have been a whitewash. India, led by Virat Kholi, were dominant; the Windies were shambolic, as has been the case in tests for much too long.
India’s summer triumph has been put in context, however, by a far more testing encounter back on home turf against New Zealand. The black caps are themselves fresh from a disappointing test loss to South Africa but showed real quality in restricting India to 318 having lost the toss at Kanpur on Thursday. At stumps on day two the New Zealanders were well placed on 152-1.
The county season may be over but there is much of interest to keep cricket fans busy in the coming weeks and months. Football? What football?
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