Although club cricketers are busy preparing for a full season, the National Counties have reluctantly voted to axe this season’s T20 competition.
The 20 National Counties – formerly known as the Minor Counties and the Unicorns – have decided to cancel the T20 competition which was set to kick off in late April and May, primarily because the travel required was not deemed “essential” under government guidelines.
One time Hampshire and St Cross Symondians cricketer Richard Logan, the NCCA’s Operations Manager, explained: “There were five or six fixtures that would really have involved some very long journeys, and without the option of hotels being open, as they will not be until around more than halfway through the competition. Going from Cornwall to anywhere, or Cumberland to anywhere, would have been a test.
“We were also looking at no catering, no showering, no changing rooms – and I should say it’s not as if all players were saying they wouldn’t put up with that.
“But we weren’t sure if players getting changed in their cars and driving home three hours without a shower was really the kind of conditions we want for our players at what is the height of recreational cricket.
“And safety and wellbeing aspects were always in the top of our minds. There were lots of factors that came into it.”
Wiltshire had pencilled in a T20 double header against South Wilts on Easter Sunday, but instead the Bemerton club will host Southampton Solent University at Wilton Road, noon.
The 20 National Counties – formerly known as the Minor Counties and the Unicorns – have decided to cancel the T20 competition which was set to kick off in late April and May, primarily because the travel required was not deemed “essential” under government guidelines.
One time Hampshire and St Cross Symondians cricketer Richard Logan, the NCCA’s Operations Manager, explained: “There were five or six fixtures that would really have involved some very long journeys, and without the option of hotels being open, as they will not be until around more than halfway through the competition. Going from Cornwall to anywhere, or Cumberland to anywhere, would have been a test.
“We were also looking at no catering, no showering, no changing rooms – and I should say it’s not as if all players were saying they wouldn’t put up with that.
“But we weren’t sure if players getting changed in their cars and driving home three hours without a shower was really the kind of conditions we want for our players at what is the height of recreational cricket.
“And safety and wellbeing aspects were always in the top of our minds. There were lots of factors that came into it.”
Wiltshire had pencilled in a T20 double header against South Wilts on Easter Sunday, but instead the Bemerton club will host Southampton Solent University at Wilton Road, noon.
