Yorkshire vent concerns over staggered starts

Moxon is upset that the England and Wales Cricket Board are allowing leaders Durham to start their match against Nottinghamshire at Chester-le-Street, beginning this morning, 15 minutes early on all four days.

ECB has agreed to a 10.15am start in the North East and 100 overs on each of the first three days instead of the usual 96 per day.

This is to enable a shortened final day of 84 overs that will give Nottinghamshire an extra hour’s travelling time to London on Friday night ahead of their YB40 final against Glamorgan at Lord’s the following morning.

Moxon, whose second-placed side trail Durham by 27.5 points ahead of their penultimate match of the season against Middlesex at Headingley, starting today, believes the early start could benefit Durham.

The former Yorkshire and England opening batsman points out there is less chance of bad light earlier in the day and feels the revised playing time is another example of inconsistency across the four-day competition, which he says includes some counties having floodlights and others not.

ECB say they sympathise with Yorkshire’s position but believe their decision is fair.

Moxon, however, wants greater consistency.

“We’ve asked the ECB for consistency throughout the competition but they’ve said that the action they’ve taken in this case is proportionate, and that given the whole host of other inequities that we have in the competition, they don’t see it as a major issue,” he said.

“I just think the fact that in conversations I’ve had with them that they’ve listed a whole host of inequities that already exist, such as some teams having floodlights and others not, my point is how many inequities do we allow before the competition becomes a farce?

“I’ve got no problem with the principle of allowing Notts to finish early and get down to London; I fully understand why that is happening and don’t disagree in principle with that.

“However, my point to the ECB is that, given already in the last week or so there’s been a lot of time lost to bad light going into the last hour of play, that Durham starting earlier and then only having 84 overs on the final day could be an advantage to them.”

Moxon believes ECB’s action sets a dangerous precedent.

He feels it is too late in the day to be moving the goalposts.

“It’s just a dangerous principle to change the rules two games out from the end of the season,” he said.

“Who’s to say that next year there might not be some other occurrence whereby another county might want different rules for the final couple of games?

“The hours of play, at this stage of the season, you wouldn’t find them being changed in any other competition, in any other sport.

“In a serious competition, surely we’ve got to try to have as few inequities as possible?”

Although Moxon is concerned that Yorkshire might be disadvantaged by ECB’s decision, he accepts it could also work in their favour.

Durham, for example, could find themselves batting in challenging early morning conditions with the ball zipping about, but Moxon believes that is missing the point.

“It might be an advantage to Durham, it might even turn out to be an advantage to us, but the fact is that surely it should be a level playing field,” he stressed.

“If we all have the same hours, and the weather goes against any one team, you can’t complain.

“But if we find ourselves with a washout on Friday, Durham and Notts could theoretically have been able to play 12 more overs on the first three days than we would have been able to in our game. They could have picked up important points during that time or even forced a result.”

Alan Fordham, ECB’s head of cricket operations (first-class), said Yorkshire had outlined their view that all matches should start at the same time.

It is a view understood to be shared by Middlesex coach Angus Fraser and by Surrey chief Alec Stewart, whose side are in action this week against Warwickshire.

“We totally understand where Yorkshire are coming from,” said Fordham.

“They made the factual point that if the Durham game goes its full distance, it will finish an hour earlier than the other matches, and they made the bad light point.

“In response, we have to consider all competitions; it’s a showpiece Lord’s final and we have to take that into account.

“In an ideal world, we would not need such a change of hours, but we feel it is proportionate in the circumstances.”

Yorkshire, who have not played Middlesex in the Championship at Headingley since 1999, and who have not beaten them there in the tournament since 1985, must realistically win their last two games and hope Durham implode.

Yorkshire finish off against Surrey at The Oval, while Durham end their campaign against Sussex at Hove, with both matches starting on Tuesday.

“We’ve got to win our last two games and hope that Durham are unable to win theirs,” said Moxon.

“It’s not impossible, but clearly we’ve got some work to do.

“There’s still everything to play for, though, and we’ll give it our best shot.”

Yorkshire must gain four more points than Durham manage this week to take the title race down to the final round.