The Royal London Final
The Royal London Final which I attended yesterday was spoiled by two things: a result that was predictable too early in the game to make it a a contest and an icy chill. Surrey got off to a good start and were 45 without loss when Laurie Evans took a superb one-handed catch to dismiss Jason Roy. After that Surrey collapsed. At one stage 5 wickets went down without a single run scored. Their total of 138 was never going to be good enough and Warwickshire reached this by 3-55. Jonathan Trott scored an unbeaten 82 as Warwickshire knocked off the runs without problem.
An icy chill made watching uncomfortable. I could see several spectators in Middlesex sweaters so I imagine they made a trip to the club shop to buy some additional warmth. Watching cricket cold is no fun.
Once this limited over final was cricket’s equivalent of the Cup Final in football. I recall Suusex’ early domination under the innovative captaincy of Ted Dexter. I recall Lords being packed when I saw the very good Kent side of the seventies with the likes of Brian Luckhurst, Mike Denness, Asiq Iqbal, Alan Knott, Derek Underwood beat Somerset. With various different sponsors, the Natwest and now Royal London it has diminished in status. In the morning papers where cricket coverage is limited by football, Paralympics and Davis Cup Tennis there was not even a preview of this final as more attention was given to the squad selected for Bangladesh. There were 17,000 I guess at Lords, just over 50% full, and this with a London club represented in Surrey. Surrey are by far the richest county club. I heard that their T20 taking are £1.8 million and they account for 25% of all county revenue. Yet success has not come with wealth as for the second year running they were losing Royal London finalists. Warwickshire by contrast have a huge debt. Their T20 side is called the Birmingham Bears so how will either county react to a T20 metro competition running in tandem? The 50 over game looks like being squeezed whilst the County Championship which could not finish closer with Middlesex playing Yorkshire at Lords is not nearly as lucrative as the white ball competitions.
Time was when if you won the toss you put the opponents into bat and were pretty much guaranteed the victory as wickets fell in the early morning September moisture. Yesterday Grant Batty recalled by England aged 39 of Surrey won the toss and elected to bat. Another change will take place next season as the Final will be June 18th. The Royal London like the Derby will not benefit from moving the dates around. Cricket is indeed in transition.
