Lancashire to force vote opposing any reduction in County Championship

Lancashire had a great run this summer in the County Championship

In the latest turn of events, the members of Lancashire have decided to force through a vote at a special general meeting to prevent the club from promoting a reduction in the County Championship fixtures played per year.

Rob Key, the ECB’s managing director of England men’s cricket, has recently come up with a recommendation of deducting the English First Class competition from 14 to 10 games per team. 

“I would have 10 games of Championship cricket,” Key told the Tuffers and Vaughan Cricket Club podcast in May. 

“I think you’ve basically added in a month of the season with competition so you’ve added in a month’s worth of cricket, so you’ve got to lose a month’s worth of cricket. So you have 14 games, you go down to 10 games and you end up with 10 high-quality games," Key added.

However, the idea of reducing the number of County Championship games per season has heated up in recent months, with Andrew Strauss, the Chairman of the ECB's Performance Cricket Committee directing a high-performance review into the structure of the English game. 

Meanwhile, the Lancashire Action Group (LAG) has called upon the club to ensure that the chief executive, Daniel Gidney, will discuss the issue with the England and Wales Cricket Board to prevent the number of County Championship matches per season from being reduced. 

LAG To Force a Special General Meeting

The Roses look content with the current County Championship Programme

LAG also claims that it has received more than 600 members' signatures to force a special general meeting and they will present it before the club on Wednesday after Lancashire play Worcestershire in a Royal London One-Day Cup match. 

“The club’s management will oppose any reduction in the number of first-class fixtures for next year unless it has the prior consent of the membership from a further special general meeting,” the signatories demanded.

Earlier, representatives from all 18 first-class counties met with the ECB last Wednesday in regards to the High-Performance Review and the scheduling future of upcoming County Championship seasons. 

However, they have not come to any conclusions about the review yet but a reduction in the overall quantity of county cricket is expected to be proposed.

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