County cricket’s defiantly low-key nature has brought joy to millions but may not save it in a looming era of belt-tightening
The ice cream stand at Worcester. The grass bank at Canterbury. The tree-lined riverside approach to Sophia Gardens in Cardiff, one of those grounds that always seems to be wet, even when it’s dry. The way the sunlight dapples off the new pavilion at Headingley as Steve Patterson lopes in for his eighth over. The second-hand bookshop at Derby where you could spend an entire afternoon browsing the modest selection of tea-stained hardbacks with alluring titles such as An Illustrated History of Ilkeston CC 1910-1985 and Keeper’s End! Horace Baggs: A Life In Cricket.
It’s funny what you miss when you’re indoors. Of all the privations we are enduring as a people, the loss of county cricket should probably sit some way down the list. But there were times during the listless, gloriously sunny weekend when it was perhaps only natural to wonder, idly and hypothetically, how the opening day of the 2020 County Championship season was going.
Written by Jonathan Liew
This news first appeared on https://www.theguardian.com/sport/blog/2020/apr/13/unease-resounds-across-cricket-without-the-comforting-hum-of-county-game under the title “Unease resounds across cricket without the comforting hum of county game | Jonathan Liew”. Bolchha Nepal is not responsible or affiliated towards the opinion expressed in this news article.
