Worcestershire v Yorkshire: Headingley chief calls for T20 Blast rethink

Dawson, the club’s acting chief operating officer, who is effectively running the show on a day-to-day basis, believes that the Blast should be trimmed and the fixture list in general made easier to follow.

His comments come after Yorkshire were forced to stage six of their seven T20 home games in the space of 15 days and amid declining attendances all around the country.

“Our T20 schedule this year was six games in 15 days,” said Dawson. “That’s ridiculous.

“We played over the long bank holiday (for the Queen’s platinum jubilee) when people went away. It doesn’t help anyone.

“To my mind, we should have three groups of six, with five home games that could be scheduled better – i.e., on Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays or Sundays, instead of the current system of two groups of nine with seven home games.

“Fewer games, and better scheduling, would create more volume and we would lose two games worth of costs, and players wouldn’t be playing a ridiculous amount of cricket.

“Before we went into that schedule (six home games in 15 days), we had two back-to-back County Championship games.

“To my mind, it’s simple – you’d increase your yield, because you’d have lost two games worth of costs, you’d get more people coming along and you’d have players playing less cricket. It’s that simple for me.”

Dawson, who has stepped up from his role as the club’s commercial director, and who will be a strong candidate when Yorkshire look to recruit a new chief executive, probably in the autumn, said the schedule has had a negative financial impact.

Commenting on crowd numbers, with counties typically reporting that sales have been around a quarter less for some fixtures than in 2019, with very few sell-outs, he said that “they’re definitely down on 2019, and we’d normally sell out for the Lancashire match (the Roses attendance was 11,363 in a circa 17,000-capacity venue).

The glut of games made it desperately hard for Yorkshire to sell tickets – not least in the midst of a cost of living crisis – and the competition is not only jostling for position in an overcrowded schedule but also having to co-exist with The Hundred, for which strong sales have been reported, not least due to pricing.

Dawson, who doubles up as general manager of the Northern Superchargers 100-ball operation that is based at Headingley, believes everything can still co-exist properly if only the schedule is better devised.

“I think the introduction of The Hundred has done what it said it would do, which was to help grow the game,” he added.

“Sixty-six per cent of the people who came to Headingley (to watch it last year) had never been to cricket before, so I see that as a good thing, them coming through our front door through The Hundred, and then hopefully they’ll want to come and watch other forms of cricket, too.

“What it did for the women and girls’ game was fantastic,” he added.

“To see them playing in the Test match venues on Sky and BBC in front of huge attendances was amazing for the women and girls’ game.

“But cricket doesn’t help itself with the scheduling.”

Dawson explained: “No one knows when the games are, when they’re played, and actually with The Hundred you knew that it was every day at the same time and on the same platforms, and it was easy to follow in terms of the schedule.

“People were able to follow it because it went on for four weeks and then it stopped.

“With the other competitions, though, I can’t remind myself when the games are, I really can’t, and the schedule has been messed around with every year, or so it seems.

“It just needs better scheduling, for the 50-over perhaps to be at the bookends of the season and to get some County Championship cricket in the heart of the summer while The Hundred is playing.

“The Blast would still sit where it sits, but with fewer games.”

Yorkshire return to T20 Blast action tonight when they take on Worcestershire at New Road (5.30pm start).

They are also in action on 
Friday night against Northamptonshire at Wantage Road (6.30pm).

Yorkshire do not then play until the following Friday, when they stage their penultimate Blast fixture against Birmingham Bears at Headingley.

They finish their group campaign against Leicestershire at Grace Road two days later, with the quarter-finals taking place on July 6-9 and Finals Day at Edgbaston on July 16.