Former England captain Sir Alastair Cook is worried that Essex's title defending County Championship campaign might be jeopardised due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
No professional cricket will be played in England and Wales until at least May 28, which means the first-class season has already been curtailed.
But with ECB's drawn contingency plan focussing on salvaging as much of the "profitable" part of the summer only, the priorities are to ensure international cricket, inaugural The Hundred and T20 Blast can go ahead in the latter half of the summer, provided the situation improves.
This, however, has raised serious doubts whether even a truncated version of the County Championship will be played or not.
"I could have retired from all cricket when I quit the international stage in 2018 but I stayed on because I loved playing for Essex and that means the County Championship," Cook wrote in his Sunday Times column.
“I couldn’t have asked for a better first season back on the (domestic) circuit than winning the title in the last game of 2019."
“Will we get to defend that title? As things stand, there will be no cricket in England until May 28 at the earliest," he added. "I can say this because I have no financial interest in the outcome but it strikes me that those proposing that the authorities prioritise the most profitable parts of the English summer -- The Hundred, T20 Blast and the national team -- have a point."
Cook keeps the four-day game very close to his heart but given the financial realities of our sport, it is first-class cricket that is most likely to be further marginalised across the globe because of the outbreak.
“Can we salvage the four-day competition? Possibly but that will demand that we all pull in the same direction," he wrote, adding, “We may well be looking at an abbreviated tournament, with more back-to-back matches and stretching into early October (sometimes warmer than the second half of April when the season usually starts). We may, as a result, see more floodlit cricket and ticket prices will almost certainly have to be reduced."
“None of this is ideal but we all have to see the bigger picture -- for our sport and the country as a whole," Cook stressed.
(Inputs from AFP)
