Who needs Mushy?
There was no need for the ECB to recruit Mushtaq Ahmed. They don't need advice from anybody on the art of spin.
On Thursday out came a media release under the momentous headline: "2008 saw highest domestic attendances in ECB's history".
Here is it's main substance.
"Attendances at domestic cricket matches in 2008 rose by 23% from 2007, reaching a record 1.5million. Attendances at domestic and international matches rose by 10%, with 2,243,496 fans attending matches in 2008 - the highest figure ever.
"The LV County Championship has seen attendances top half a million for the first time since 2003 and records a 30% rise on the previous year. Total attendance for the championship was 558,950.
"The Twenty20 Cup also enjoyed record attendances and was the most watched competition, with over half a million people attending group, quarter-finals and Finals Day matches. The expanded group match phase saw a 25% increase in the number of matches with the total audience for 2008 recorded as 593,717; a 36% rise.
"The NatWest Pro40 attendance recorded a rise of 4% from last year with The Friends Provident Trophy recording a 7% decline from 2007. However, the Trophy still records attendances in 2008 which double those of 2005 when the new format for the competition was introduced."
So there we have it. Great news all round? Well, sort of. Re. the phrase - "the highest figure ever". Only at the bottom of the release does the board add, somewhat sheepishly: "The ECB was formed in 1997 and the figures relate to attendances recorded during 1997-2008." So it's the highest figure ever - since 1997.
With more Twenty20 group games than ever before, anything other than more spectators would have been rather odd, of course. And I'm not sure that last point about the FPT is one to trigger riotous celebrations.
A crumb of genuine good news does lurk in there. A rise in championship crowds augurs well. Let's hope that continues - and applies at Edgbaston - in 2009.
But there is one figure that the ECB does not mention, of course - and cannot possibly know. That is the number of young people who never saw a ball bowled last season, so were denied the temptation to fall in love with and take up cricket, due to the total absence of live cricket on terrestrial telly, a shameful state of affairs which will remain in place until at least 2014.
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Brian Halford - Brian Halford’s look at Edgbaston.
It may be since 1997 - but its not bad news.
After a gap of a few years from watching domestic cricket on a very regular basis, I returned to hardly missing a game on the back of the first T20 Glamorgan match in 2003. I really enjoy both the T20 and the 2 division 4 day CC. There are others amoungst us who also like both - but at times I feel that some seem to think it is a mutually exclusive activity. Perhaps a few of our T20 brigade did make it to a 4 day game after all .......
My real concern is 50 over cricket. It is difficult to fit a match in - and the lunch time starts do make some very late finishes.............. especially difficult when reliant on public transport. I love the intricacies and mini battles of the 4 day game, and the cut and thrust of T20 - but the 50 over game so often seems a bit bland. I do continue to try with it though - even if it means getting home well after 10 pm on a Sunday.
But the news that attendances are up in general round the country (and not just T20) is pleasing to see !