I think its clear to see that we need to pick at least 2 spinners and with Bresnan coming back that causes problems on who to leave out. Lyth and or Gales places must be at risk as well as both have performed badly so far so maybe its time for Taylor. Lyth is the much better fielder but Gale has a slight edge in the batting.
Brophy back for Guy and Pyrah has a bad two matches so far bowling wise.

Team?

Taylor, Brophy, Naved, Vaughan, Mags, Rudolph, Gale or Lyth, Bresnan, Rashid, Wainwright, Kruis.

Yorkshire Know-it-all
(no login)
Change it, now!
May 27 2009, 4:24 PM

I'd like to see a number of changes. Assuming Bressy plays, I'd add Chris Taylor to the mix, as he's had good success in the shorter game.(90+ strike rate in T20's) I'd move Naved up to 4 and Shazad up to 6 0r 7. I would not include either Kruis or Sayers, since Kruis is not a great fielder and can be expensive in the short formats, and Sayers is too slow off the mark. I would keep Gale, since he can slog with the best of them, and its only a matter of time before he comes off. Adam Lyth would not be in the T20 side, as he's had little success in this format. Its also time to bring young Bairstow, if Brophy is still in sick bay.

My side: From

Jacques Rudolph
Chris Taylor
Michael Vaughan
Naved
Tony McGrath
Ajmal Shahzad
Andrew Gale
Richard Pyrah
Tim Bresnan
Adil Rashid
Jon Bairstow
David Wainwright

"I think its clear to see that we need to pick at least 2 spinners"

Is it? I don't think Rashid is a better one-day bowler than any of the seamers, and shouldn't be picked just because he's a spinner. Is Headingley even expected to spin, or are you picking a team for a game in the past, rather than the present?

It's the batting that was the problem in the Lancs game, and has been in the FPT beforehand. Rudolph looks terribly out of form, so I'd consider giving him a rest. Gale's had a poor start to the season, so his place should be looked at too - though I don't see Taylor doing much better. The value of specialist batsmen depends on their explosiveness, and ours just don't have that - so with Bresnan returning I'd revert to the four batsmen strategy we had at the start of the year, and trust the all-rounders to provide the impetus. If Brophy's fit, I'd consider this team:

McGrath
Brophy
Naved
Vaughan
Lyth
Gale/Taylor
Bresnan
Pyrah
Shahzad
Wainwright
Kruis

What we need most of all, certainly more than team changes, is a clear head whilst batting. That was the major fault in the lost game - braindead batting under pressure. Doesn't matter what we put out if that doesn't change.

You are right Rey - Headingley is not a spinners track but slow or spin bowling is the better option generally in twenty/20 matches. The previous history in this competition within all clubs, apart from us, is of spin/slower bowlers consistently having better figures than seamers. If other clubs make a success of the "three spinners" option why can`t we. Your team has 5 seamers and and 1 spinner, when all of the other sides tend to play at least 2 spinners and it consistently works for them.

Just to add that the game is on Sky

If anyone's planning to go the Burley Road-Cardigan Road route, there was some roadworks going on at the junction yesterday, making it one lane for a bit - I'm not sure if they're gone now but I can only report on what I saw yesterday.

And you can pencil in Adil Rashid's name for Friday's Roses match, now that he's been called into the England side.

what do the England selectors see in Rashid for the T20 that Moxon and Mags are missing?

I suppose he may as well be getting more experience of carrying the drinks for England instead of running round the boundary at Headingley (up to his knees in water...) delivering isotonic drinks to our boundary fielders.

England obviously think spin is key to T20 success but we still don't.

And before dpressed tells me spinners look good as we cannot bat against them, my views are based on more than the spinners who play against Yorkshire. Last night young Max Waller (his parents must have had a sense of humour for those of you old enough to remember) of Somerset fielded brilliantly and then took a few wickets without even bowling half decent leg spin - however, taking the pace off the ball and not bowling up and down straight stuff gives the batsman more to think about and usually leads to mistakes.

its not just Yorkshire that cannot play spinners

After yesterday's news, I think you'll find that Rashid is in the eleven for all our remaining Twenty20 games.

Whatever Team is picked I just hope that we can ensure that the batting order has some flexibility based on how the innings is proceeding at the time.......At the moment it feels like the batting order is written out pre-match and stuck to whatever the situation.....Having said that why not try a bit of a blast at the beginning of the innings with Rana....Nothing to lose, especially in the first 5 overs.....This is something that Warwickshire do with Neil Carter, he doesn't come off every game but when he does he can be very destructive and lay the foundations for a good score

Paul Allott on Friday's Roses slog. And he has lots to say about Rashid and Bressy playing for England. Worth a read: Link to Allott

The article says we could play 3 internationals (Vaughan Bres and Rashid).

Sorry but I am not sure Rashid is an international player yet as I don't recall him actually getting a game for England yet.

Of course if we were to be pedantic then we could argue that Mags is also an England international and taking it further so are Rudolph and Rana so we could play 5 internationals (but Rashid is not yet one of them)

Didn't Rashid play in one of the Tour matches in the West Indies?

Nevertheless, whichever way you look at it, Allott has got his logic wrong (not surprising for someone born the wrong side of the Pennines). Bresnan and Rashid are currently in England squads. Vaughan is an ex-England player, in the same way that McGrath is, though he is closer to a recall than our portly captain!

According to Graham Hardcastle (Telegraph and Argus) we can expect to see Rashid in tomorrow's Roses tussle, along with Bressy and Rafiq.

McGrath will open and Naved may also move up the order.

Apparently, Bresnan will now be available to Yorkshire until at least the end of June.

It's an absolutely gorgeous day. It should be a grand occasion - let's hope eevrything goes right for the club - especially if it's on TV - and it's a good night with the right result. I'm sure Bressy and Rash will want to impress their national audience. I just hope it's one of those rare and beautiful nights when everything just clicks and goes our way....

Think this game could well sell out, be great to see Headingley full just hope it raises the team.

I hardly think so Loiner,best not to believe all the hype from the marketing department.
No doubt we will see the best crowd of the season so far,but with TV coverage,I'd expect no more than 8-10 thousand in.
I'd be happy to be proven wrong.

I can tell you now that you're wrong.

Worth a read: Link to YEP

I always thought the capacity was over 20,000? Do they mean that we've got 12,200 seats for the public and the rest of the seats are allocated for members?

I believe the capacity of Headingley is 17000 but there will not be half that amount in tonight. I assume they can only actually sell however many remaining tickets there are after allowing for the members. It is on Sky, so why fight your way through 2 or 3 hours of rush-hour traffic both ways when you can watch it all at home. I am a YCC member and could get in free, but will not be travelling for the above reasons.

Sky Sports misleadingly described this evening's entertainment as a twenty - twenty cricket match.

They were completely wrong - in fact it's a circus, with Froggy as the ringmaster and starring 11 clowns dressed in black

Thank heavens that I have to go out in 10 minutes - and I'll not bother to record the rest of this fiasco.

It is pathetic - clueless tactics and batting

Oh, gawd! Another hapless performance by our batsmen. And in front of big home crowd.

Only thing good tonight is that it could have been a total disaster in the end we gave them a game only just , but we do have to get our season going soon.

We were rubbish. Wrong team selection yet again, 4 batsmen, 6 bowlers plus 3 part timers, and Pyrah at 5 - out first ball and bowls 1 over. Inept batting, usual predictable bowling changes. The opposition spinners tie our batsmen down completely, our spinners get hit all round the ground. 57 dot balls in our innings, hardly any boundaries. We are pathetic at this form of the game and as usual we show ourselves up on national television with a crap performance and idiotic behavour by the so called supporters. Really glad I did not attend and watch such garbage. Please MM do not come out with any more stupid statements re "we are one the best 1 day teams in the country" as we are probably one of the worse.

Great atmosphere at Headingley today but another one-paced, one-dimensional Yorkshire batting attack. To say this game is disparagingly called "crash, bang, wallop cricket" is ironic as our batsmen rarely manage to find the boundary. I don't want to have to pay to watch McGrath grind out yet another one day innings with a sub-50 strike rate.

I think it's time for Moxon and McGrath to concentrate on the 4-day game and let somebody else have a go at the one day strategy. Whatever we are trying to do isn't working and while ever we are failing miserably, some young Colts could be getting a game.

I'm sorry but I have to disagree about the atmosphere tonight. It was good to see the ground full, but sadly a large proportion of the crowd had no interest in cricket at all. I know that I sound like an old fogey, but personally I find it almost impossible to concentrate on the cricket with the loud mouth chanting and the constant stream of people walking backwards and forwards even during play. Three idiots stood near us drinking all game and chatting, and two had their back to the game throughout. They might as well have been in a pub.
I know the revenue is valuable to the club, but I'll seriously have to question whether I'll be taking my son to another T20 "Roses game". Leaving the ground we spent 10 minutes dodging drunks, and quite honestly I do not want him to think that this is acceptable behaviour. He loves going to the cricket, but I think this will be one fixture we miss in the future

As for the game itself, we batted very poorly again. Personally I agree with previous posters that we need to be more flexible. Tonight was begging for Rana to go in earlier as a pinch hitter. At best it would have given us much needed momentum. At worst, we would have simply lost another wicket with the other players still to bat. A special mention for super JR who managed to kill a pigeon stone dead after hitting it with a throw from the boundary!

Bang on about the atmosphere - aside from the things you mentioned, there was some sort of incident around the H/I sections of the Western Terrace involving stewards apparently; I was actually watching the match which was a rarity around me so I didn't see the incident, but I understand it could have been a fight? Add to that the building of 'snakes' using plastic beer containers (and constant steward intervention), which again almost everyone around me chose to watch instead of the cricket (and, in the majority of cases, lapped up), and you have a non-pleasant, non-cricket-like, atmosphere.

Incidentally, before I'm accused of being too sensitive, I didn't like the pigeon incident and I thought the cheering of the crowd at it was a disgrace - and I wasn't too happy with Rudolph's acknowledgement of them.

Roll on the resumption of the County Championship...

give it another name. this is not cricket. i feel guilty joining a 20/20 thread.

Waters has a go at the "fans." Link

Well, the best thing that can be said of the game that it was a lovely evening weather wise, I am not going to add any comments about crowd behaviour just to say it wasn't good at all.....I haven't made many posts on this forum but I find that I am beginning to resemble a broken record by going on about our batting order and introducing flexibility when required into it......I am convinced that McGrath writes it down on a sheet before the innings and we stick to it....come what may.....we just do not take any advantage of the opening overs.....Du Plessis opening the bowling, I think we took 6 off his first over.....shouldn't we be looking to get after the likes of him straight off ?.

Bt the time our 'hitters' arrived at the crease it was just too late to salvage anything due to what had gone before, having said that another 20-25 runs may have made it interesting due to some good work by the bowlers.

It will be interesting to see what batting order we employ at Chesterfield but time for a change I think.....let's give Gale and Rana a go at opening the batting, what do we have to lose ?

I too did not realise the capacity had been reduced so drastically,however a few more present than I anticipated ,but still short of capacity.
As for crowd behaviour,this sort of thing seems to be encouraged by the county club,let them in early ,serve them as much beer as they can consume,have a moronic team of Stewards and security employed to control them,ban the harmless activity of beer snakes,and you have a ready made recipe for disaster.
Keep telling them to stay off the pitch with no formulated policy in place to keep them off,was an open invitation for some to run on.
It was only at the insistance of the police that the bars were eventually forced to close,left to Yorkshire they'd have been happy to ply them with drink all night and take their money and to hell with the consequences.
Totally hypocritical for the club to condemn this behaviour when they are in a position to prevent it.
You cannot have it both ways Yorkshire CCC,a complete alchohol ban and pay for proper Policing,if you dont want the disgraceful scenes we witnessed last night to be repeated.
Do you really expect to attract families and children when they are subject to this sort of thing.
Be assured the ECB would have ben watching closely last night's events,and together with last week's ODI fiasco,they'll not be favourably disposed to future International cricket at The Carnegie building site.

I went to the corresponding fixture at Old Trafford last year and the scenes were exactly the same. A load of blokes so drunk they could barely stand, paying hardly any attention to the cricket. Endless moronic chanting and incesant swearing. At one point I applauded a Yorkshire boundary and was frankly scared for my own safety - for the first time ever at a cricket ground. The stewarding is well meaning but ineffectual - cricket clubs aren't experienced at dealing with this sort of crowd and I'm afraid it's only a matter of time before we have a really serious incident of some sort. One day games at scarborough have got a bit leery receently - but post work Friday night 20/20 games are a league of their own.
I'm afraid I won't be going to any more 20/20 games - and I'm not some daft old fogey - i'm in my forties and enjoy a pint as much as the next man.

Incidentally, if there's no PRO 40 next year will be getting reduced memberships? It's only when you watch 20/20 that you realise what a good game 40 overs cricket is. I gauarantee it will be revived within 5 years once the 20/20 bubble has burst..

I am gradually forming the opinion that be it Yorkshire,Lancshire or other counties,they do not see this as a major problem,and are happy to attract this type of audience,and serve thenm as much alchohol as possible.
Putting profit before all else seems to be an accepted policy,and the 20/20 format appears to be an excellebt opportunity to encorage this excess.

I think I'm right in saying that the club doesn't make a penny from the sale of alcohol within the ground. It goes to Headingley Experience, who pay a yearly negotiated fee to the club.

So why not take the sensible approach and close the bars during the hours of play,and keep the irresponsible drinkers out, so doing more to encourage a new audience ,which is one of the main ideas of 20/20.
Friday was a disgrace,that reflects on Yorkshire CCC and needs to be seriously addressed.

Many of the 'fans' on the Western Terrace were from Lancashire, including many of the pitch invaders. The bars of Headingley had been bursting at the seams since lunchtime, so I'm not sure an alcohol ban within the ground would have made much of a difference.

the negotiated fee in the fist year of the contract was if i recall rightly about £400,000 for all catering/drink related income streams. the contract is long term (16 years?) but does not apply to new facilities (eg. catering/drink in the new pavillion is in a new facility). catering in the hotel facility at international and some other matches is I think covered by a separate contract, again organised on a long term lump sum basis.

>>> the harmless activity of beer snakes

As one who was once a designated driver, never had a drink all day and had a falling ''snake'' with half a pint of not so best bitter fall upon them and had to drive home smelling like a brewery without having consumed a drop, I'd say ''snakes'' were far from harmless.
Watch the cricket, cheer the cricket if it's good, not adverse to the odd jeer if it's bad but don't applaud a bunch of drunken idiots who are clever enough (just) to put 137 plastic containers inside one another.. It might be big, but it's not clever.

is featured on the official site's homepage.

The making beer snakes is obviously a fun game for the inebriated, and the challenge is to make a snake long enough to attract the attention of the stewards, who are probably paid the minimum wage to put up with this infantile behaviour.

I have a solution: on entry to the ground, give each person one plastic beer glass (maybe with a £1 deposit). To get a beer from the bar they need to bring their own glass. No glass, no beer.

Well perhaps,beer snakes are not such a good idea,but one glass each and a deposit would cause even more chaos I suggest.
How about serve beer in cans only,with receptacles for their instant disposal,and eviction from the ground for anyone seen throwing them or abusing their responsibility in any way.
How about issuing vouchers on entry,with a restriction on the amount of alchohol to be purchased by each spectator.i.e.three vouchers-three pints and that's it.
What is definitely required is spootters watching the crowd backed up by CCTV coverage to quickly detect offenders and eject them immediately rather than give the crowd the opportunity to taunt the inneffective stewards,with no action taken.

Marksmen with rifles?
It's a cultural thing. You have decide on the audience you want to attract and tailor your product to suit. If you play a game on a Friday eveing after work you're going to attract an audience of drunken men. Play on a sunday afternnon and you'll get families - as we saw in Chesterfield. ECB and YCCC are culpable because they know the drunks spend more money - and indeed have more money to spend...

me and my mates were in the western terrace on Friday and it was absolutely awful. towards the end of the match a glass bottle was thrown from behind us and narrowly missed my mates head, a couple of centremetres to the left and he would've been hospitalised. it's a miracle that no-one was. hopefully tonights going to be a bit better but i doubt i'll be renewing the 20/20 part of my membership next year. I'm 27, used to have a leeds united season ticket in the kop and have never before had to endure such idiotic behavoiur at a sporting event... can't wait for 20/20 to be over for good.

So did Yorkshire ask for the match to be scheduled when it was ,with the soul intention of attracting the audience to The Western Terrace which it did?
The Green Team have no formal training to crowd control,nor have the Stewards,they are merely anybodies recruited or sent by the employment exchange at the basic wage to make up the numbers.
In the situation which arose on Friday they were clearly ineffective,with little idea of how to cope.
Proper Poicing was obviously the answer to minimise the chaos that ensued,and Yorkshire CCC have a clear responsibilty to use them at whatever the extra cost in the interests of public safety.

One question I have about last Friday is the following:

Why has my bag been searched before entering the ground for every FPT game, but it was not searched going into the Lancs T20 match?

A glass bottle in the hands of a drunken idiot is a lethal weapon. Turtle Tim (above) is very lucky that the bottle didn't hit him.

The club has been very quiet about all the criticism above. I think a statement is needed.

I would suggest Clogger it's indicative of the confused policy adopted by the club as to security procedures,a lack of consistency.
I was not searched either,perhaps the volume of spectators arriving together made it unfeasible.
I agree Mr Reagan should issue a statement together with an apology to all those whose entertainment was spoiled by Friday's events.
I,m in the ground now and look forward to hearing from him tonight.
A public address message before the start of play might well be the appropriate action.

Not a word,neither explain or apologise seems the club's policy.
Perhaps yesterday's attendance of a mere 4,300 against 11,300 on Friday might concentrate their minds in future.
And why was it not possible to obtain a pass-out last night?
''I,m a Yorkshire member,can I leave the ground and return later?''was my question.
''No mate,you'll not be allowed back in''
''why's that?'' was mert with a shrug of the shoulders.
An explanation please Mr Regan?

a passout is a vital asset and should be given as a right. a friend of mine needed to meet his daughter from college and return but was denied a passout. do the authorities think the yobs are going out to the pub and not spending money on the ground?. this issue needs looking at.

And if the rule for 20/20 is NO alchohol to be brought into the ground,then why no bag searches on entry?
I'm becoming increasingly confused by what's going on.

I agree about pass outs ... my conspirisy thery is that they dont want people going out to buy food when there's all those consessions behind the West Stand.

btw My bag was certainly searched before I paid for my entry opposite the cricket school .... but this was when the gates opened at 3:45 so there weren't many in the queue.

Well I entered via the main gate when they opened through the member's turnstile,and nobody was searched.
Is the view that members can be trusted to abide by the rules,whilst paying spectators can not, and need a bag search,as happened to Dpressed?

For tonight's game it says on the website that members (only) will be allowed passouts.

Which rather confirms what has already been said about a discriminatory and confused attitude towards spectators.
Most unsatisfactory,and insulting to the paying public.

Members are the paying public .. we don't get our cards for free

I wonder if the 'pass out' will be the membership card - but then they could do that with the normal tickets too if they didn't want the hassle of handing out the pass outs. Doesn't make a whole load of sense.

I just hope the weather holds out - the forecast isn't that great, and the skies from my office window here a few miles from Headingley aren't wonderful either.

Or you could argue that members are entitled to extra privileges because they've proven their commitment to the club by paying an additional subscription. There is also the consideration that the club possesses the name and address of any member who misbehaves, and could remove their membership if their behaviour warranted it...
Strikes me as a very sensible and practical approach.

One interesting point .... spectators who paid on the gate against Durham weren't issued with a ticket. I wondered if it was just me (or the turnstyle I used) but 3 'senior citizens' had the same experience in the £10 turnstyle.

Next season the ECB have stated that the new twenty/20 league will be played Friday evenings. Not a wise choice for two reasons. When are County Championship matches going to start? Obviously not Saturdays, as this would be impractical, finishing one match late Friday then starting another one the following morning perhaps 200 or more miles away. Tuesday is out as well for a four day CC match. Sunday probably would be the best day for CC matches to start, finishing Wednesday and allowing travelling to be done on the Thursday. However, the main reason that Friday evenings is a bad idea is that we will get a repeat of the Yorks/Lancs match crowd behavour every game. Most of the crowd who attend Friday evening twenty/20 matches do not go to watch the match, but just see it as an excuse to get ******. They will have 4 times as many opportunities next season to drink themselves to oblivion and then spoil the genuine cricket fans enjoyment!!!

Will CC matches be on at the same time as the T20s anyway?

I don't think the current 'concentrated' T20 is the right way to go either - a rainy week and you have a lot of N/R matches!

As far as taking people's money and not giving them a ticket,raises very issues and needs to be investigated.
Evfery indication if this is the case,a scam may be operating at The Turnstiles.
I,m sure The C.E.O,.will give the matter his full attention.
Everybody whether member or not should be entitled to a pass-out from the ground.
It's an infringement of their human rights to refuse one,and any challenge to the club's policy would be upheld in court.
This is another issue that needs to be properly sorted,before the club finds itself embroiled in a further administrative mess.

With automated turnstiles and cctv I'm afraid the need for actual printed tickets is largely redundant.
Similarly, I think it unlikely that the European Courts would uphold your assertion that a pass out voucher from a cricket ground constitutes part of your basic human rights.
I think Stewart Regan can possibly devote his energies to more pressing tasks....

Friday night for 20/20 cricket is what the cricket watching public have demanded,through the extensive marketing research carried out into the subject.
What the majority obviously do not want is the kind of behaviour we witnessed last week in the Lancashie game.
Which is why all counties are currently working with The E.C.B and the police to reach agreement on a policy which allows people to enjoy a drink in moderation without their behaviour distracting from the enjoyment of others.
I,ve already put forward a number of proposals on this board and to the consultative committe and all are being considered.
Where large numbers of spectators can be accommodated in a single terraced area ,like The West Stand at Headingley,measures are being considered to segregrate the crowd with no-go areas seperating them into smaller areas as we've seen at soccer grounds ,so that their behaviour can be more easily monitored and appropriate action been taken swiftly to prevent potential trouble.
A positive approach is being taken to curb the excesses of a minority,and that should be supported by all of us.
I do know Yorkshire CCC are deeply concerned about the future and are working closely with the authorities to agree on a satisfactory arrangement next season.

perhaps for one Friday night game the bars at Headingley should serve alcohol free drinks but with the purchasers not knowing this - then we could assess whether its really alcohol to blame for the behaviour or just peoples general behaviour anyway.

I doubt the crowd against any other county would be quite so rowdy on a Friday evening anyway.

Would be a good social experiment but then I suspect Cleasby may feel selling alcohol free drinks that are marketed as alcoholic is a further infringement of human rights?

As for passouts to get out of the ground for a T20 game I can understand exactly why they are not needed - the T20 game is over in about 2.5 hours so why would you need to leave during the game anyway?

Likewise tickets being handed out is meaningless if paid on the gate - wonder if they gave you a receipt if you asked for one? Once inside the ticket is useless as its a free for all re seating and as Steve says the turnstiles can assess how many people have passed through anyway.

I do find some of the accusations against Stewart Regan quite amusing - he is so far this season he is to blame for the weather, the stewards inability to police the ground properly, the drunkenness of fans, the ticketing policy, the scoreboard, our overseas players contract and god knows what else.

Some of these things require the responsible behaviour of others which he cannot do much about at all - its like saying the Prime Minister is to blame for the actions of all his cabinet colleagues (there again...)

The Lancs match was a roses match, on a sunny friday at the end of a hot week, and the first really hot week of the year. I think the combination of all those together was the cause of the problems. I don't think it would be the same on a dull friday at the end of a rainy cold week playing Leics.

TC's suggestion of serving alchohol -free drinks is an excellent one.
No doubt those paying three quid for a pint of whatever would react in typically light-hearted and jovial manner to the suggestion,before burning the place down.
Gates open at 3.30 for 20/20 and people have allsorts of reasons for leaving the ground between then and 8.30.
As,has been suggested it's to prevent then buying food and drink outside without paying extorianaate prices, the club's policy should be rightly condemned.

I personally blame the Lancashire team for not knocking off their paltry target til the last over. If they had knocked up 112 to win in about the 13th over then half the crowd would long since have gone home and the close finish would have been avoided as well as half the pitch invaders.

Another suggestion - we saw a race between the 2 mascots in between innings - why don't the stewards arrange a race between all the pitch invaders as well as this might just help them get it out of their system but in some cases they would also be too knackered to try and do it a second time when the match is actually in progress - we could make it a big game of British bulldog with the stewards v the pitch invaders

Extortionaaate prices are an infringement of one's human rights as well.
Gentlemen, I think we've done this subject to death. Let's move our caravan on to more fertile pastures...

The beer behind the West Stand is £3 a pint, which is about the same as pub prices. So what are we all on about?

the beer was £2.20 a pint in the headingley taps last championship game.

In answer to TC we didn't want a pass out during the game ... but before it. As the motorways round Leeds can easily to block up after 3:30 some of us arrived rather early. One mate wanted to walk to the chippy whilst I preferred to the cross the road to buy an ice cream rather than paying the inflated prices in the ground.

Arriving early at cricket grounds is actually a Yorkshire tradition. Some of us like to sit "behind the bowler's arm" which is a popular position. Members of our mob will be 'in position' around an hour before the start of the game ... with others turning up at various times before the start. This confuses (& upsets) 'regulars' at other counties who are used to being able to still get their 'favourite seats' after turning up at 10:45.

'Friday night for 20/20 cricket is what the cricket watching public have demanded,through the extensive marketing research carried out into the subject.'

No-one ever asked me.

The market research was done last season but only at Twenty/20 matches on Friday evenings. No one attending CC, FP or Pro-40 matches were asked their opinions. It`s hardly surprising that the ECB got the answer they wanted. Its the equivalant of asking turkeys if they are in favour of Christmas.

Oh right - I attended one Friday evening T20 game last season (Nottinghamshire maybe?) and I wasn't asked then; was it only people in a certain stand or something?

Well no,actually those not actually attending 20/20 cricket were not asked the question as there would of course have been little point in the exercise.
Perhaps a revolutionary notion to actually canvas those attending 20/20 cricket,which as we know is far in excess of any other form of domestic cricket,but of course those at THE ECB don't know what they're doing.
Of course they should have asked the flask-carrying,C&G cap wearing army of octogenarians limping in and out of Headingley,who no doubt would have voted for 20/20 matches to take place during the months of January and February,and starting at at about 3 a.m. in the morning.
Yeh we know you don't like it,but get used to it folks.
It's here to stay and getting bigger all the time.

It is not getting bigger all the time - crowds are down considerably on last season. To much twenty/20 has actually diluted the crowds this season by large amounts. Check out the ECB figures - I assure you crowds are down!!

Link

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/cricket/article6401844.ece

Firstly the ECB did base their plans after interviewing people at 20/20 matches (& only 20/20 matches).

Secondly ond big factor in getting large crowds in the early years of 20/20 was the cheap ticket prices ... I think it was £5 a match with members getting in for free. Now members have to pay extra & Yorks are charging £20 (£10 for kids & OAPs)... that's £60 for a couple with 2 kids .... for a maximum of 240 balls.

Thirdly I have to agree with what someone has already said ... one 20/20 cup is viable ... next year we've 2 different 20/20 competitions. Crowds will soon decline ... I predict a revival of the 40 over league in a few years time

Not correct dpressed.My full membership gets me in to all matches including 20/20.
Of course if you choose the cheaper option which does not include 20/20 then you won't get to see it,which presumably you have,an extra £25 for all the 20/20 matches sounds pretty good value to me,and credit to Yorkshire for offering people the choice.
I know attendances are down so far,but that's more due to the earlier dates for 20/20 due to the world cup,splitting the fixtures into seperate times and a failure to properly promote the tournament ,as well as adding extra matches and altering the formula.
Wht I,m saying is
with an extra tournament next year to include overseas players and blanket coverage on Indian TV,crowds will return and the income generated will be massive through advertising and sponsorship/

As usual our Middlesex correspondant is splitting hairs. The 'standard' Yorkshire membership allowed one into all home 'league' games including 20/20 when it was launched. After one 'large' rise we were promised the membership would be held for a number of years. This was circumnavigated by removing 20/20 (or rather by charging extra for including 20/20). For those of us who have to travel a distance paying extra for 20/20 is not really viable.

Your Middlesex correspondent Dpressed is telling it like it is,not twisting the truth to fit in with your arguement.
At least four different membership options I believe,and you pick the one that suits.
If you dont want to watch 20/20 then no need to pay for it,and if you do an extra £25 squid seems good value to me.
History has nothing to do with it,as Mr Regan will probably tell you.