London
Former England captain Alastair Cook has suggested the four-day County Championship may have to be curtailed or abandoned completely so officials can salvage “the most profitable parts of the English summer” following the coronavirus outbreak.
Friday saw the England and Wales Cricket Board announced that no professional cricket would be played in England and Wales before May 28.
The County Championship, which comprises four-day first-class matches — and which Cook helped Essex win last season — was due to start on April 12.
The Champion County match, the annual curtain-raiser for the year, was to be played between the Marylebone Cricket Club and Essex later this month in Sri Lanka, but had been called off.
County Championship matches do not generate as much money as limited overs fixtures or internationals but are seen as vital as preparing players for five-day Tests, still widely regarded as the pinnacle of the game.
“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,” wrote Cook, England’s all-time leading Test run-scorer in his Sunday Times column.—AFP
