One of the many items we've kept meaning to address is Greg Shahade's discussion of how to run a sports league. In particular, this four point plan:
- Make every regular season game very important.
- Give a big edge to the teams that perform well during the season, but make it possible for other teams to win.
- Cultivate rivalries.
- Appropriate number of teams should make the postseason.
We suggest that the 20/20 Cup in English cricket does at least three of these things well, and the First Class Trophy fails on at least one account.
For those unfamiliar with the format, the 20/20 Cup splits eighteen sides into three divisions of 6, which play home-and-away over a period of 16 days. Best two in each group, plus the two best third-placed sides, progress to the quarter-finals; the three group winners and best-placed runner-up have home advantage. The four quarter-final winners progress to Finals Day, when both semis and the final are played.
Next season, the First Class Trophy puts twenty sides into four groups of 5, which play home-and-away between 20 April and 28 May. Top two in each group make the quarter-finals, with group winners having home advantage. The semi-finals take place a month later, with the final a further six weeks away.
It's fair to say that both contests as outlined above meet criterion 4: slightly fewer than half the sides will play a quarter-final match, and most sides will be in contention before the penultimate round of matches. In the season just ended, the FCT was two groups of 10, which led to many dead rubbers early in the tournament.
We also suggest that both contests meet criterion 1: a defeat in any given game will hurt. It can be that a match between two qualified sides is of little value, as the draw for the semi-finals is unseeded, and there's no advantage to cruising through the group +10=0-0 or winning a more competitive section with a +6=1-3 record.
Neither contest properly meets criterion 2: home advantage in the quarter-finals is worth something, but home advantage in the semi or final is worth somewhat more, and those are not decided by performance on the square. The FCT in particular may gain from seeding the better sides at home in the semis.
It's in criterion 3, local rivalries, that there's a difference. In English cricket, there are many long-established local rivalries:
- Lancashire - Yorkshire
- Warwickshire - Worcestershire
- Derbyshire - Leicestershire - Nottinghamshire
- Gloucestershire - Somerset
- Essex - Kent
- Middlesex - Surrey
It would be beneficial for any grouping to include all of these: in particular, the trio of counties in the East Midlands should not be split.
20/20 divides as follows:
N - Durham, Lancashire, Yorkshire, Derbyshire, Leicestershire, Nottinghamshire
W - Warwickshire, Worcestershire, Northants Glamorgan, Gloucestershire, Somerset
SE - Essex, Kent, Middlesex, Surrey, Sussex, Hampshire
All the rivalries are preserved. The FCC splits:
SW - Gloucs, Glam, Worcs, Hants, Somerset
SW - Essex, Middlesex, Surrey, Kent, Sussex
Mid - Notts, Northants, Leics, Warks, Ireland
N - Scotland, Durham, Derbys, Yorks, Lancs
Two of the traditional groups are split. It is possible to include Scotland and Ireland to create four groups of five while maintaining all the rivalries and geographical correctness, but one of the groups reads: Notts, Leics, Derbys, Northants, and, er, Hampshire.
It is somewhat easier to create five groups of four: Scotland joins Durham, Lancs, Yorks; Ireland tags with Glam, Warks, Worcs; the rest are an exercise for the reader. We suspect that any expansion to the 20/20 format would involve three groups of seven, with the Netherlands the last additional side.
