Sussex v Glamorgan

Yesterday I took Martine, a French friend of Bob Tickler, to her first cricket game. In the taxi to the ground from Brighton to Hove I managed to explain the T20 format, the tensions between the counties and the envisaged new metro T20 competition and the power shift from Lords to the sub-continent but all to little avail. We arrived at Hove in a downpour. Martine quickly mixed well in the social ambience of our Players Club and seemed unconcerned that play was to start 90 minutes late at 7-50. The game was reduced to 14 overs. Glamorgan posted a beatable total of 112. Sussex should have found this a doddle but the rains returned. Martine sat gamely in the cold and wet till we decided to call it a day. The umpires did the same shortly afterwards.

I explained that a Test can last 5 days with no result, and now we had a no result in the 3 hour format. I did not explain that Sussex have failed to qualify in both the white ball competitions in a week. Bangladeshi speedster Fizz Rahman has torn  a shoulder muscle. It was a bit of will-he-won’t-he-join-us saga because of his homesickness, now he need not worry. He only played two games for us, looked good when he took four wickets v Essex , less good with 0-32 v Surrey. Now we are looking for an all rounder in the one competition left, the second division  championship. The season has been as rotten as the weather.

Its hard to see two T20 competitions working in tandem. What do the paymasters SKY think – who paid £75 m for all televised cricket rights – and how can the counties countenance another competition when their T20 is so lucrative? The model seems to be the IPL and the Australian Big Bash but in both countries state or grade cricket is not so integral. The view talking to Sussex executives and supporters is that it’s totally half baked.