Summer Sports - Cricket “ "The 20-o over game
can sometimes make us groundsmen pull our hair out. It pulls in the crowds and it’s exciting, but they play on in pretty well all conditions, players sliding about all over the place
and testing eight replacement sprinkler heads around the 19-pitch table. The covers are on to ward off these necessary, but unwelcome, showers. It does look a little strange, but then it has been a strange time for everyone in the business of preparing summer sports pitches. It’s an unchartered time ahead for cricket,
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too. The juggling act between the traditional four-day county game and the Twenty20 goes on as a fresh look at match scheduling gets an airing in the coming season. The domestic game keeps trying to get the balance right between the cash benefits of the short game and its appeal to what some call the non-cricket loving public, and championship matches, the core of the game for nearly two centuries, but where numbers continue to dwindle. It is the uppermost challenge these days for counties as much as it is for those that run the game. At Kent cricket’s spiritual home, you get a
clear impression that the club is not just taking up this challenge, it is moving ahead very purposefully on all fronts. Everywhere you look there’s tradition, but the ground, which first staged county cricket in 1847, has the look of a venue for 21st century cricket. Its telescopic floodlight pylons and electronic scoreboards are fit enough for any big match, day or night. A nine million pound redevelopment scheme, initially held back by the credit- crunch, has now burgeoned and given one of
t’s a grey, chill March day, but a dry one, and Simon Williamson and his team are at full throttle after weeks of frustration. There’s a huge irony in seeing an engineering contractor fitting
the grand-old icons of county cricket a pleasing uplift. Giving up some of its territory for an impressive facelift to the pavilion and surrounding stands, a fresh HQ, and better facilities generally looks a pretty good deal for Kent now that work is complete. The Spitfire Ground, St Lawrence looks ready for whatever direction cricket will head in the future. The ECB, under its Chairman David
Morgan, has had a serious look at the state of county cricket over the last couple of years, taking stock of what over 25,000 cricket followers had to say about things. Its so-called Morgan Review came up with a re- shaped fixture schedule, which comes into force this season and is due to run until 2017. It means Sunday starts for most 4-day LV= County Championship matches, with nearly all Twenty20s - to be known now as the NatWest T20 Blast - being played on Fridays. There’s a new one-day competition, the 50-over Royal London Cup, too. The hope is that this overhaul will market the game better and bring more into grounds like the Spitfire Ground, St Lawrence. Away from the chill out-in-the middle, in
the relative comfort of the groundstaff room, Simon is very positive about the new look St Lawrence Ground. “I think it's fantastic and a big step forward,” he says. Had the redevelopment brought about
changes to the way he prepares outfield and pitches? “Not really. The only change in the way we do things was the loss of the permanent nets practice area behind the main stands, sold to build new homes. It means that practice strips have to be prepared on the outfield and it does get
The ‘new’ lime tree in a day-night game setting PC APRIL/MAY 2014 I 59
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