We’re still waiting for the release of next season’s County Championship fixtures. The most current news is that it will be a week from today. In the meantime all we know is that there won’t be any Roses matches next year and that Lancs will play the MCC in Dubai from the 27th of March. (Shrewd observers will note that this already clashes with a Test match. Presumably the ECB were cross that they couldn’t make a Roses match clash with a Test this year and had to think of something different.)
Whilst we wait there has been some news from the Shires. Yorkshire had a massive shake up of course and now Lancs have announced that they probably will not be profitable until 2013. This is not surprising, as the long legal battles have delayed the redevelopment of Old Trafford and meant that there have not been any Test matches in the north west since the Kiwis toured in 2008. There will be four matches at OT next year, and the unveiling of the Championship pennant, but it is not until the Ashes come back in 2013 that the crowds will really come in. (And hopefully there will be another Championship pennant to unveil that year.) It’s not good news, of course, but nor is it disastrous. A lot of clubs are posting losses and at least there are very large profits forecast from 2013-2016. It could be much worse. We could be Yorkshire.
Jimmy Anderson has also revealed that he would like to have a better chance to play in the IPL. Good luck with that, mate. I don’t see the ECB budging and making a window for the IPL (nor should they). And I don’t see the IPL budging and accepting that they are less important than international cricket and should schedule themselves around it, rather than insisting that it be the other way around. So I don’t see there being English players with a significant part in the IPL anytime soon. I can understand why Jimmy (and others) would want to play in the IPL, but I’m fine with them staying in England.
Defensive Indifference 