Opportunity missed as T20 fails to achieve desired Blast off in search of Magic Weekend - Chris Waters

Did you watch it? Did you go to it? Did you give a flying fiddlestick about it?

My own opinion, for what it's worth, is that T20 "Blast Off" is a decent idea.

But it could, and should, have been so much better.

Driving into Birmingham on Saturday afternoon, I thought that the concept – a double-header of games to kickstart the tournament – would be like a mini Finals Day, which was more or less how it was presented.

Even a flier above the A38 heading towards Edgbaston suggested that a major event was in town – “Falcons v Lightning, Bears v Vikings. Four teams. Two matches. Blast Off!”

Yay!

The reality, though, could not have been more different.

Edgbaston was maybe half-full at best; perhaps a few thousand more than for the average group game; there was no great buzz around the concourses – at least not compared to the average group game – and one had the nagging feeling that the whole experience fell rather flat.

Even the results provided no succour; not only did Lancashire Lightning win (yuck), but Yorkshire Vikings lost to Birmingham Bears.

Not a good day, in other words, for Yorkshire supporters.

It would be tempting, under the circumstances, to say that “Blast Off” should be consigned to outer space, ditched as an idea that didn’t quite work, and yet it does have the potential to succeed.

Leaving aside its gimmickry title, and the fact that our T20 competition remains much too long with 14 group games per county, it is by no means unusual for sporting events to be launched in this way, and no reason why it can’t work in cricket.

In rugby league, for example, they have Magic Weekend, when an entire round of matches is played at a single stadium, and a similar initiative exists in netball.

The Magic Weekend formula, which has been copied in other rugby-playing nations, is now well established in the English calendar.

The key is that “an entire round of matches is played at a single stadium”, not the haphazard nature of T20 Blast Off.

Indeed, why in a tournament featuring 18 first-class counties, were just four chosen to take part on Saturday – and on what basis were they chosen?

Hampshire, last year’s winners, were not involved, and why did Blast Off feature two fixtures from the North Group, involving four of the nine teams in that group, as opposed to no games/sides from the South Group?

Perhaps there was a good reason (no doubt financial); otherwise, like most things that the powers-that-be come up with, it didn’t make sense.

There were/are two obvious alternatives.

First, by going back to three groups of six, as opposed to two groups of nine, Blast Off could replicate Finals Day by having three fixtures (played at 11.00, 3.00 and 7.00, say) – featuring a game from each group.

Second (my preferred choice), the concept could be expanded to feature all 18 counties in a three-day event.

Next weekend, for instance, is a Bank Holiday weekend, which would have been a perfect chance for a Bank Holiday Blast Off.

This could have featured three games on the Saturday, three on the Sunday and three on the Monday, thus ensuring an entire round of opening games a la Magic Weekend.

It would give each club a taste of the Finals Day experience (some have been somewhat less successful than others since the competition was inaugurated), along with the fans of those teams.

It could soon establish itself in the T20/cricketing calendar at an Edgbaston ground ideally fit for purpose, centrally located and easily accessible.

Bank Holiday Blast Off, or Blast Off weekend, would, one imagines, be attractive to broadcasters.

It would be a way of taking an underwhelming concept on Saturday’s evidence and turning it into something at least half-worthwhile, something simpler to understand, market and promote.

The promotional aspect should not be overlooked.

I was surprised to see that there were no other newspaper journalists present on Saturday who were writing on the game, unless they were invisible in the press box, and despite the fact that England’s Jonny Bairstow was in the Yorkshire team. Most national correspondents turn up for Finals Day.

Of course, a concurrent round of Championship games didn’t help, requiring journalistic resources elsewhere, along with the fact that the football season is still dragging on. The weather can also be hit-and-miss at this time of year (it was actually glorious in Birmingham on Saturday).

A concept that didn’t really Blast Off on this occasion needs a bit more imagination and ambition from the England and Wales Cricket Board.

Who knows, perhaps when they stop flogging the dead horse that is the men’s Hundred, they will wake up to the fact that our existing T20 competition has plenty of potential.