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Festival finds favour in Fordham's fixture framework

9 March 2018

The ECB's Head of Cricket Operations Alan Fordham is coming to the Brightside Ground on Monday to speak to the Gloucestershire players and coaching staff ahead of the new season.

A new code of laws recommended by the MCC came into force in October - particularly with regard to player conduct (with associated penalties) and the size of bats - and Fordham's visit will be a reminder not only of the detail but that the season he helps to shape is now almost upon us. A large slug of his time, and virtually every working hour in the autumn, is taken formating the fixture list.

"It's an ever present in my year because you can have three seasons on the go at the same time" Fordham told the website. "2018 is with us, next year is very much a live issue with the World Cup schedules close to being finalised and with the new T20 starting in 2020 we're already looking at that. We want to get our domestic programme right."

The shape of the season changed considerably last year with the Royal London Cup and Vitality Blast in their own time slots. It threw up some different challenges for Fordham, including the retention of the Cheltenham Festival, and Gloucestershire Chief Executive Will Brown didn't need to call him to emphasise how important that was.

"We know Festival dates are valued and I can only remember a handful of times when we haven't been able to put Festivals on when they were wanted" Alan added. "Cheltenham is huge to Gloucestershire and it's a good example of us trying to find solutions to requests across the season by manufacturing an extra Championship game in the second week both last year and in 2018. It's all about prioritising, the computer will make the best of what I come up with and we sort the rest using a penalty points type system."

"Gloucestershire understand that keeping Cheltenham has an impact in other areas, and they accept that. You rarely eradicate the pinchpoints completely. We have a file called 'nasty journeys' which are the ones we've tried to solve and the net result is only worse for someone else. At that stage, there is no room to move."

With talk in the media of the County Championship possibly being changed into a three Conference structure in 2020, Alan Fordham's working landscape isn't set in stone long term at this stage. He does, however, have two decades experience in the role and as a batsman for Northamptonshire for more than a decade before that, knows better than most how to produce the best framework possible for everyone involved.

"I think even the members who would like a steady diet of Championship cricket throughout the summer - and that is the biggest casualty - can see the benefits of the blocking off the competitions" Fordham concluded. "Compared to having ten weeks where the Championship and T20 were interacting, it gives a shape to the season which is easier to understand for spectators as well as players, umpires and those of us delivering it."

"2019 is broadly going to look like 2018, although the World Cup will take at least six weeks so we'll have to cut our domestic cloth accordingly. In 2020 we're planning to play the city T20 where The Vitality Blast sits this summer, but beyond that getting the other competitions in will take a bit more thought. I always say that you can have anything you like, just not all at the same time. My job is about choosing what those compromises are."

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