David Malan has given unequivocal support to the ECB’s proposal to reduce the number of county championship matches.
Malan said, In county cricket, you go from one game to the next, and it becomes like you are going through the motions, and England has only been No 1 in the world rankings in Test cricket for a short period.
Moreover, Malan said, England has produced some world-class players in recent years, but we can not argue that the county system is working if we have only been No 1 in the world for such a short period.
The main problem near Malan is that the county setup means the players do not have enough time to practice. Malan said, If you are a player trying to get better, there is no time to work on your game, and I think that less cricket but at a higher intensity would be better to prepare for those games.
Malan said with less cricket but at a higher intensity would lift the standard of cricket too because bowlers will be fitter and be able to bowl quicker for long periods. The bowlers will become more challenging for the batters, he added.
Malan also argues that the young players would be able to commit to all formats of the sport by reducing the first-class.
Malan said cricket is now a 12-months-a-year game, and It’s no longer a six-month game for the players that step up to play for England.
Malan said look at the young players like Will Jacks, who has come in and done so well in the Hundred and the T20 Blast, and he is getting a lot of opportunities.
Malan said I know Will’s got Test ambitions, and he still wants to play Test cricket, but I believe that several players in that position will give up red-ball cricket.
Moreover, Malan said It has to make it appealing for players to still want to play scheduling-wise four-day cricket, so there needs to be a bit of time between games for them to recover and work on their games.
