Lord's get blame as Twenty20 fails to pull in crowds

Less than 12,000 people saw Yorkshire's opening three home games despite a vigorous publicity and marketing campaign.

Although welcoming the extended nature of this year's competition, with counties playing 16 group matches instead of 10, Regan feels the fixture schedule is deterring spectators.

Like all counties, Yorkshire's Twenty20 programme is a chaotic nonsense, with games taking place on various days of the week and at different times, leading to periods of inactivity and flurries of matches.

Regan believes the tournament would be better played at a specific time of week, such as Friday evenings.

He feels this would provide clarity for all concerned and ease the burden on supporters' pockets.

Yorkshire argued for greater simplicity last summer when the England and Wales Cricket Board at Lord's consulted the first-class counties on the domestic structure.

But not content with meddling with the County Championship to the extent that half the season was shunted into the opening two months of the season, the ECB have done nothing to streamline the one-day calendar.

"With 25 per cent of the Twenty20 tournament gone, I've been disappointed with our attendances at Headingley Carnegie," admitted Regan.

"We had a pretty good crowd of around 5,500 for our first match against Derbyshire, helped by lovely weather, but only around 3,000 for the Durham and Northamptonshire games, when the weather was poor.

"I know in other parts of the country crowds have been down – the likes of Middlesex and Surrey haven't had the sort of attendances they've had in previous years, for example, despite massive names being brought in such as Adam Gilchrist and Andrew Symonds.

"And although I favour the expansion to 16 matches, I don't like the structure we've got at the moment.

"In my opinion, there needs to be a regular appointment to view for spectators.

"We need to let people know that Twenty20 is happening on the same day and at the same time each week, such as Friday evenings, and have a proper interval in between games.

"What we've ended up with is a series of fixtures crowded together, which makes it difficult for people financially, and also makes it harder for clubs to maximise revenue.

"I think Twenty20 should be spread out more across the season because the system at the moment isn't attracting the spectators."

Yorkshire's only guaranteed Twenty20 bonanza – weather permitting – is their annual Twenty20 home match against Lancashire, which takes place on Thursday (5.40pm start).

The game is worth up to 200,000 to Yorkshire compared with an estimated 150,000 from their seven other home matches.

"What's tending to happen is that people are cherry-picking games and just coming to maybe one or two," added Regan.

"Obviously the Lancashire home match is a big draw for us, but other games are falling by the wayside.

"We're hoping for a near full-house against Lancashire, but it all depends on the weather and the walk-up.

"The Lancashire game could actually bring in more money than our other home fixtures put together, but we need to get to a situation where we're attracting 5,000-10,000 spectators per game with a better schedule and not just relying on the Roses match to bring in the fans."

Although there are signs of dwindling Twenty20 crowds across the country, the picture is not universally bleak. Cup holders Sussex have enjoyed good attendances, emphasising the importance of success on the field.

"You can only do so much in terms of marketing and publicity," said Regan. "Sussex were the champions last year and they've had over 7,000 for each of their games, which shows how success can capture the imagination.

"Unfortunately, we haven't had the best of starts to this year's tournament (Yorkshire have lost three of their opening four matches) although there's a long way to go."

Cricket lovers might question the wisdom of extending the Twenty20 Cup during a summer dominated by football's World Cup.

Yorkshire's game against Durham at Chester-le-Street on Friday clashes with England's match against Algeria in Cape Town, although the second half of the football will be shown on Durham's big screen once the cricket has finished.