Notes from ECB meeting

A working group has been established to consider the LV County Championship points system and report recommendations back to the ECB Board in December.

Do you have an email address or a contact? I'm sure there are several WRF members who would like to submit their thoughts. I certainly would.

Alex Roberts

I just saw the new proposed regulations on an article on the ECB website.

A list of the changes, such as the revamped Second XI competition and the type of balls to be used in the new season are listed below.

http://www.ecb.co.uk/ecb/about-ecb/media-releases/changes-to-2010-rules-and-regulations,308321,EN.html

Can't see any contact information unfortunately

What would we suggest?
Let's make it as simple as possible:
12 points for a win. 2 points for a draw.
Bonus points for first 90 overs only.
Pitch inspectors only called if fewer than five wickets fall on the last day.

agree we have to encourage more teams to play positive cricket and reward a win more than a boring draw.

However, this is as much to do with the pitches as it is with the point scoring system although perhaps more for a win and less for a draw might encourage clubs (and groundsmen) to alter the tracks to be more bowler friendly?

In which case go a stage further and tilt the bonus point system back to a fairer balance - at the moment it rewards batting sides (5 points max) more than bowling sides (3 points max) which leads to counties delivering batting tracks and packing their sides with batsmen so as to maximise the batting bonus points.

Bring it back to 4 batting and 4 bowling points for a start off and don't give the batting side bonus points til over 250.

The problem with 4 points starting at 250 is that it will just encourage counties to continue producing 'flat' pitches. My view is that a win should be upped to 16 points so there is a grater difference over a draw. Keeo the draw at 4 points to encourage teams to keep fighting if thewy are in trouble ... & also because a significant number of games are 'spoilt' by the weather

I would go slightly further than that. 20 points for a win and only 4 for a draw. There also needs to be far less emphasis on the wasted first 240 overs of every match when both sides just bat and bowl for bonus points. Limit the points to 3 for bowling and 3 for batting and for no more than 90 overs. Then the meaningful cricket and teams playing to actually win matches can commence late on the second day of every match instead of, as now, at tea on the third day. 300, 350, 400 for batting off 90 overs and bowling as now except 90 overs. The batting points are to easy to acheive at the moment at 3 an over. 4+ an over is better and would encourage more positive cricket. The option is still there for sides to bat slowly and build a big first innings total but they would lose out on batting points. That would mean max of 10 points for a drawn game but 26 for a won game a much bigger differential than at the moment.

Can anyone explain to me the reason for having bonus points at all?
Why not adopt the Australian domestic system which has no need for such contrived nonsense which adds nothing to the game.

A little ironic perhaps that people are wanting bonus points scrapped (or drastically changed) when it is thanks to batting points that Yorkshire remained in the first division in 2006 and 2008.

I'd like to see the the very flawed points system revamped. But as long as there are draws and draws caused by weather interruptions, there have to be "bonus" points awarded in weather-interrupted drawn matches. I'm just not sure how it should work, but leading on first innings in a drawn match should be worth something.

I've read quite a few times about extra points for a first innings lead but consider the following:-

Team A lst innings: 240
Team B 1st innings: 310
Team A 2nd innings: 299
Team B 2nd innings (needing 230 to win): 160 for 9

So why should team B, who were on the verge of losing the game when time ran out, be awarded extra points just because they had a first innings lead?

>>>>So why should team B, who were on the verge of losing the game when time ran out, be awarded extra points just because they had a first innings lead?

Because, if the rules awarded points for a first innings lead they deserve them. They would also no doubt say they would have knocked off the 70 runs needed to win the game as well, and who's to say they wouldn't? The only certainty is, they were leading after the first innings.

An overhaul of the bonus points system is long overdue. The current allocation of points encourages the accumulation of bonus points versus going all out for a win.

16 for a win and no more than 8 bonus points is better. As well the bonus point chase should be cut off sooner, probably at 100 overs. The sooner the teams concentrate on winning and not acquiring bonus points, the more likely a positive result will occur.

The current 5 batting points was introduced to encourage teams to try & build longer innings ..... but along with the pitch inspectors its resulted in more & more bore draws