RIP CMJ

I'm never going to do justice to CMJ's life in cricket but fortunately he's written his memoirs that will allow you to catch up on all that.   But his passing away is very sad for any cricket lover in the UK, and when listening to TMS pre-Xmas I frequently wondered how he was doing and whether he'd be back on TMS again....sadly not.

 

He'll be greatly missed - I can't say I agree with all his thinking because he was (softly) anti-technology, and when I asked him about his thoughts on the 50 over game being marginalised by Twenty20 and potentially ending as a format at some point, he didn't think that would be the case.   I remain convinced 50 over cricket will die at some point, but time will tell.   That opinion was given by CMJ when he came to Steyning to promote his book "Top 100 Cricketers of All Time" - again, promote would be too strong a word for it...he simply came to talk about the book and sign copies for anyone that wanted him to.

With Tony Greig also passing away over Xmas, that's two big names in cricket commentary gone for 2013 and cricket will be far worse off for that.   CMJ had strong well thought out views, but was also capable of getting along with people with diametrically opposed views, and as such emitted a real sense of calm on the radio, and authority in writing.   He'll be much missed by many.

Plans for English cricket

Interesting to see CMJ's views that he's passed on to David Morgan who has reviewed how English competitions and fixtures are structured. I like the idea of scheduling matches to start on set days, as they used to. CMJ wants Championship matches to start on a Sunday, and one dayers to be played every Saturday. I'm up for that although, as he's noted, TV would pay less for this type of scheduling where they don't have cricket every day. It seems like a price worth paying to me.

Not sure about Twenty20 - CMJ would like matches scheduled every Friday night so there is a home match fortnightly. To reduce the amount of the season where the players (and spectators) have to think about 3 formats, I think I'd go for Thursday and Friday nights consecutively. It'll be over quicker which, to be honest, is my main consideration. Twenty20 just gets in the way of the County Championship which should be the main focus for players, if not the casual spectator who likes Twenty20, or the County Financial Directors.

The main thing I like about CMJ's proposals is the on-going Championship cricket throughout the summer. It can't be right that at the height of summer Championship cricket stops to make way for Twenty20. If there is Championship cricket throughout the summer, Counties may tempt back some of those that have given up County membership in protest at the lack of 4-day cricket for a large chunk of the season. Perhaps the Counties can have their cake and eat it?

The only thing I'd be critical of in CMJ's thoughts is this meaningless sentence: "Championship and Test cricket to be innovatively and actively marketed." Andrew Strauss said something similar when asked about how Test cricket could be promoted. As CMJ says "one should always be prepared to offer an alternative when criticising" so I'll have a think about how to market the County and Test game. It'll be slightly more specific than "innovatively and actively marketed"!

CMJ: "there will be some good players there"

Just heard CMJ discussing the Cricketer Cup final on Sunday between Old Etonians and Old Malvernians. "There will be some good players there," he said "including Alex Loudon who's scored a couple of hundreds". Probably just as well OMTs lost in the semi if CMJ expects "good players" although I suppose the definition of "good" varies! I suspect that CMJ's definition of good is good by professional standards....

Needless to say, when it was mentioned that Alex Loudon's girlfriend may well be watching, Boycott had no idea who Pippa Middleton is. She's not a cricketer so she doesn't exist in Boycott world.

Happy cricket reading....

Apologies for the low levels of Burbling lately - been pretty busy but I'll try to Burbletastic next week! In the mean time, have you seen that The Cricketer has a new look site now that the Wisden Cricketer magazine is overseen by the likes of Jonathan Agnew and CMJ? Alternatively you can read about Adil Rashid getting worse and Ben Stokes getting better at King Cricket. Or Reverse Sweep's piece about how we should look out for 17-year old Reece Topley following his wicket-taking antics for Essex. Happy cricket reading....

The Wisden Cricketer magazine changes hands again

As a subscriber to Wisden Cricket Monthly I'm a big advocate of it - of course websites now offer up to the minute cricket information, but there's still definitely a valuable place for non time sensitive pieces about cricket and TWC does that nicely.

It's nice to know that the magazine is in the hands of real cricket lovers like Jonathan Agnew and CMJ though - it will be interesting to see how the new ownership impacts on the magazine and how content is incorporated (if it is at all) into their Test Match Special website.

2 or 3 forms of cricket eventually?

Martin Crowe has come out and said he's in favour of reducing to 2 forms of cricket - Tests and Twenty20. Shane Warne has said the same.

I've got to say I'm in agreement (much as I personally prefer 40 or 50 over cricket to Twenty20 and would prefer it if Twenty20 was jettisoned) - imagine a world without one of the two lesser formats....Kevin Pietersen might even be available for the odd game of County cricket!

So that makes 2 cricketing greats and me (and the BBC's Australian correspendant Nick Bryant, but he hardly counts!). I know CMJ is against because I asked him when he came to Steyning - he thinks 3 formats of the game will remain.

Anyone else want to join Shane Warne, Martin Crowe and myself in supporting a reduction to two formats of cricket!?!?

CMJ on the current cricketing issues

As part of the Adur Festival Christopher Martin-Jenkins came to Steyning CC last night to talk about his book "The Top 100 Cricketers of All Time" and to sign a few copies. He related a few anecdotes that got a number of chortles and he wasn't amazingly polished and fluent, which perhaps endeared him to his audience more than if he had been. And he also got his audience on his side by saying that he'd forgotten what a picturesque ground Steyning is (he has played for Horsham at Steyning in the past).

When it came to the Q&A it was clear that he's anti-technology because of the immediacy of an umpiring decision that is made without review. And his suggestion is that 50 over cricket may have some cosmetic surgery but all 3 forms of cricket will remain - he thinks it may change to 40 over cricket.

A quality evening.