Can hold short regional tournaments amid COVID19, says Essex CEO Derek Bowden
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Essex chief executive Derek Bowden has suggested short regional four-day cricket tournaments for the 2020 season to make up for the matches of the County Championship lost due to the coronavirus pandemic. As things stand, the first seven rounds of the UK’s domestic championship have been called off.
The coronavirus pandemic has claimed casualties across all forms of life, crippling sport — and especially, cricket in the UK — badly. The domestic campaign will not begin until May 28, at the earliest, which means one half of the traditional domestic season being called off.
With international and white-ball cricket set to be the focus when the season does start, Bowden has a proposal to ensure at least some red-ball cricket is staged this summer.
"There is an opportunity to be creative with the schedule. Let's look at regional four-day cricket, maybe four or five regional competitions with round-robin four-day cricket. Spectators and members would love that and it would also give us some four-day cricket to support England's Test series in a very tight schedule. Essex could play Kent, Middlesex and Surrey, while Yorkshire could play Lancashire, Durham and one other team, maybe Nottinghamshire,” Bowden told Sky Sports News.Â
Essex are the defending champions of the red-ball tournament.
