Plans in place for return of club cricket in the county

Official guidelines to allow local leagues to get their season started will be released this week with the Northamptonshire Cricket League set to get under way next weekend on July 18.

The NCL have released details of a competition structure for their divisions for the new-look season, which will take place over 10 weeks between July 18 and September 26.

It will see each team play seven win/lose matches each to be followed by a knockout stage consisting of quarter-finals, semi-finals and a grand final to ensure there is still something to play for in the absence of promotion and relegation this season.

The finer points over guidelines are set to be announced following a series of meetings that are due to take place tomorrow (Wednesday) but county clubs have already started to organise friendlies for this weekend in preparation for the full restart a week on Saturday.

Northants Recreational Cricket CIC have been working with the NCL, the South Northants League and clubs’ junior sections to gauge opinion as to what format the game should take when it does resume.

And Northants Recreational Cricket CIC’s cricket development manager Derek Styman was delighted by the response.

“Clubs can start in whatever format is allowed this weekend but, of course, that is much too short notice for leagues to generally get a programme together,” he said.

“So the NCL, which is the biggest league in the county, is scheduling to start on July 18 and the South Northants League is still debating whether it will be July 18 or the week after.

“We had a great response from the NCL clubs. At the deadline for responding to us, only three out of the 70 clubs hadn’t come back to us.

“The lion’s share of clubs want to play the longer form of the game so the NCL have put together a programme based on the response of the clubs with the start date being July 18.

“The consensus across the game is that, with circumstances as they are, you want to make the game as enjoyable as you possibly can.

“All four junior leagues in the county will be providing a programme of cricket.

“There are a few things to clarify but we have been out to the junior sections of clubs and almost to a man they want to deliver what they normally deliver.

“Clubs have been able to train since the beginning of June and a number have been. Junior cricket is almost an adaptive form of the game anyway so not a great deal will have to change there.

“The only thing that will have to be taken into consideration is the amount of travelling that will need to take place.

“But all the leagues are keen to get a programme organised for what is left of the season.”

The return of recreational cricket is something that will, no doubt, be celebrated by clubs across the county.

And Styman admitted there was a point during the lockdown due the Covid-19 pandemic where he didn’t think any cricket would be possible this summer.

“Without painting me to be a doom and gloom man, which I am not, I am normally very optimistic generally, I couldn’t see how we would get a game of cricket played because of the obvious issues with distancing and the cleanliness of the ball,” he added.

“All the signs early on were that there would be very little opportunity so I am heartened by all this and I am optimistic that the game we are going to put out won’t be far removed from the game that we would expect to play.

“But the ECB were always optimistic, they always portrayed a deep desire to get cricket on and they felt they would be able to. They have definitely got us to this point.”