ECB Announce 2014 County Cricket Schedule

2014 might seem a long way off to start planning your summer holidays, but the ECB have shown county cricket fans the shape of summers to come with the publication of the 2014 domestic cricket schedule on Thursday.

The format of the LV= County Championship will remain as is; two divisions of nine with two teams promoted and relegated each season. The scheduling of first class matches will change however, with games running from Sunday to Wednesday for the first 14 matches of the 2014 season.

The t20 tournament will become a regular weekly fixture occupying Friday nights and Sunday afternoons, in line with the “strong desire from Counties and spectators," to have an "appointment to view," t20 schedule.

Hampshire comment: Stalemate against Falcons

The end of the football season showed us cricket lovers a few things. One is the delight we can all share in the fact that a Joey Barton equivalent doesn't exist in the sport. The other is that, in its purest form, the exhilaration of success and devastation of failure are what makes sport what it is; the greatest entertainment on earth.
 
And it was with the Premier League's Mancunian dichotomy in mind that I chose to reflect on the bore draw between Hampshire and Derbyshire this weekend - probably not my smartest moves.
 
And sure, losing two full days of cricket to rain as we did at the Ageas Bowl last week was never going to be conducive to achieving a result in this match, and so it came to pass with the game petering out into a tepid draw on a sunny Saturday afternoon.
 

Hampshire Comment: Finding a Balance

One of the biggest challenges for any county cricket club is having a squad that can be competitive in all three disciplines of the game. Counties at least can recruit high-profile overseas players for the Friends Life T20 tournament, ensuring exciting cricket for packed houses and TV audiences alike.

The other two disciplines need to be considered as well though, with the LV County Championship still the cornerstone of the English domestic game ad Clydesdale Bank 40 overs cricket offering participants another chance of silverware.

For Hampshire, their 4-day game has come up short  in recent years whilst failure in the CB40 format has really only left the Friends Life T20 tournament as a possible avenue to success, one they took in 2010 of course. 

Hants Comment: Hampshire vs Leicestershire LVCC

When the rain hit the borough of Eastleigh last Friday it seemed as though it may never stop. It did of course, for a bit, but with only ten overs bowled on days three and four of Hampshire's match against Leicestershire at the Ageas Bowl, there was no chance of a result being reached in Hants 3rd game of the season.

Drawing against Leicester might  have been considered a decent result before a ball was bowled last week but, having restricted the visitors to just 234 in their first innings having been 148/3 earlier in proceedings, as well as reaching a promising 217/4 themselves with the bat, the Royals will wonder what could have been from the match.

Hampshire Comment: Glamorgan vs Hampshire

Hants (156 & 204/8) beat Glamorgan (103/9 dec & 256) by 2 wickets at SWALEC stadium, Cardiff.
 
In sport, winning is everything but Hampshire will know that it would be folly to gloss over the cracks en route to victory in Cardiff this weekend.
 
Hampshire beat Glamorgan with Hamza Riazuddin scoring the winning runs off the penultimate ball of the match, but one couldn't help feeling that it should have been a lot easier for Hampshire, particularly after a day one in which Hampshire utterly dominated.
 
A young bowling attack has been assembled at the Ageas Bowl for this summer as the likes of Dominic Cork, Simon Jones and Imran Tahir all moved on. A new attack has been built around the likes of Danny Briggs and David Balcombe, with Riazuddin also being given a chance of first team action.
 
And this investment in youth has already paid dividends in the opening two games of this season, with Balcombe in particularly fine fettle. He excelled again in Cardiff, taking 5/33 in Glamorgan's first innings as the home side faltered to 103/9 shortly before close on day one.

David Balcombe's 'Ridiculous' Run of Form

It's not so long ago David Balcombe was merely a peripheral figure in the Hampshire squad, unable to stake a claim for first team action. Having made his debut for Hants in 2007, Balcombe subsequently spent much of the proceeding 3 seasons playing in the lower Surrey leagues, before going on loan to Kent last season.

And it was at Canterbury last year that something finally clicked for the 27 year old, who started his cricketing career playing for Durham UCCE in 2005. His last two games for Kent last season yielded 19 wickets at 13.37 runs a piece, form that made his permanent employers Hampshire welcome him back to the Ageas Bowl with open arms.

Of course relegation for Hants last term meant a summer clear out of playing staff was needed, which worked in favour of players like Balcombe as it meant a guaranteed chance of first team action in Division Two and in Balcombe's case, he has taken it with both hands.

Hampshire vs Gloucestershire: Comment

David Balcombe's 11/119 was the best figures of his career

Hampshire captain Jimmy Adams spoke before this season about laying building blocks for the future having assembled a young squad for the 2012 campaign with coach Giles White, and if those calls for patience and perseverance were to take the heat off the more junior members of the squad before the season opener against Gloucestershire at Ageas Bowl this weekend, then it very nearly worked!

David Balcombe, the tall right arm seamer who was out on loan at Kent last season, bowled with pace and accuracy to finish with career best figures of 11-119, a sterling effort, and one that almost set up victory against the team that suffered an innings defeat against Essex last week.