Next summer’s restructured county cricket program, "arranged in blocks to allow players to focus on the individual formats," is causing "headaches" for CEOs charged with implementing it, according to Simon Wilde of the LONDON TIMES. The situation "is exacerbated by England’s busiest-ever home fixture list, a Champions Trophy tournament and a women’s World Cup staking prior claim on many venues." In "the firing line are county out-grounds popular with members in the bigger counties." The traditional format of the festival weeks held at out-grounds "involves a championship match plus a one-day or Twenty20 fixture," the white-ball contests being the ones that "help cover the costs." But with the '17 season "largely divided into concentrated periods of four-day, 50-over and 20-over games, this will not often be possible." The reduction of championship fixtures from 16 to 14 "creates scope for more counties to do away with these venues altogether;" already half the counties play all their matches at their HQ. Out-grounds "are not popular with players who prefer the manicured pitches and superior facilities" of the main centers. Middlesex’s T20 captain Dawid Malwan said that he "did not think professional cricketers should play at club grounds." Malwan: "You never know what wicket you will get. Hopefully we get to the stage where we won’t play on these pitches again." Out-grounds "could suffer further if, or when, the Twenty20 competition is reconfigured to a two-division event" with the top flight fully televised, as many out-grounds "lack the infrastructure to support broadcast units" (LONDON TIMES, 7/17).
