Cricket Diary: TPL (Test Premier League)

Finally some cricket: a couple of days at Edgbaston firstly a bit of a work day which allowed me to catch up with George Dobell (@GeorgeDobell1) which is always a pleasure, and meeting Don Topley (@ToppersSnr) which was very kind of him and very informative, then a day with my parents. I made my long awaited, but unscheduled, debut for Staffordshire Seniors Over 60s, a planned debut for the XL Club West Midlands, attended my first Birmingham Unicorns game as a coach/mentor, took my first net session with them, went to the Sports Therapist twice and the Osteopath once!

I was not planning on playing for Staffordshire Seniors but a call from the 2s Skipper to ‘help out’ lead as these things do to a debut for the 1s where I was going to field, not bowl and bat mid order. Fielded first and was really pleased/relieved/surprised how good I felt and was. Lacked any stamina ao was puffing and tired at the interval, which is where the wheels came off the plan! Having tucked in to the excellent teas the skipper who had taking a bang to head taking a great catch off the last ball of the over was declared unfit to open so I was pushed up the order. I am NOT an opener. Hate it with a passion, so tired, a tad stiff, full of food I struggled through 5 overs for 1 run before playing on. I actually felt pretty good, was seeing it, but my timing was poor and it was a good ball …. honest.

Next day I made my second debut of the week for the XL Club against Bloxham School. I had planned this as part of my recovery schedule but I thought it was at the school, not against a team of 16 to 18 year olds!!! I wasn’t called on to bat and we only had to bowl 25 of our 35 overs before the inevitable result, but I bowled 4 good overs in that I got a wicket, and it was coming out nicely with pretty good control, and although stiff towards the end I was still mobile and running and came off feeling far better than I thought I would have done.

Two games in two days so Thursday morning I was a little apprehensive: I had felt a slight twinge in my left knee and a pull in my groin and my knees had swollen up the night before but remarkably (and thankfully) I was out of bed with hardly an ache or pain and off to the Sports Therapist as planned.

She was really encouraged by the response from my body. A few areas tight and sore from not being used but the message was very much: more of the same.

Next up the Osteopath to make sure issues only soft tissue and I hadn’t done any structural damage, and again a thumbs up from him.

What next? I am playing for the Birmingham Unicorns on Sunday as part of my role with them, primarily I hope as a batter as I will have been at Edgbaston on Saturday for the T20 Double Header. I am then off to Spain for a week where the plan now is to try and get a good week of running done and some strength work as well as stretching. I have agreed to play in a friendly on the Sunday before the Bank Holiday and then think a week or so of nets and training and I will be ready for Staffordshire Seniors and after that will give it a couple of weeks before thinking again about club cricket.

Last week I muted (somewhat tongue in cheek) the concept of the T12Ball. This week I am floating a rather more serious thought: the concept of a Test Premier League played over the summer months in the UK.

Given that we are pretty good at Test Match Cricket, have more Test Status Grounds than we play tests each summer, and it is the ECB cash cow how about we set up a Summer Test Premier League. Concept still to be firmed up but:

• two divisions, one playing 5 test series one playing 3 test series.
• matches played simultaneously around the country so pretty much everyone anywhere can get to a game every week.
• ALL major test playing teams invited

Would also mean more international players from abroad in the country, so maybe they play some County Cricket to get in form, boost that part of the game etc

Other tours can go on throughout the year as countries wish but if the year ended up being 9 months white ball franchised cricket around the world and 3 months red ball Test Cricket in the UK would that actually be that bad?