Agreed Bwildered. A far better summer of Test cricket than I'd expected a few months ago, and encouraging signs of progress from England. A fantastic effort by those who've made it possible, both on and off the field.
As for what comes next..... I haven't got a scooby. But a joke doing the rounds on Twitter says it all:
Speaker to (socially distanced) crowd: "If you believe everything will go back to normal after the Covid-19 crisis is over, please raise you right hand ....(long pause).... now slap yourself with it"
It's as true for cricket as everything else. If the Times was correct in saying that all the counties will be looking at a 15-20% cut in funding next year, there are going to be big changes well beyond a lot of players' contracts not being renewed and staff being made redundant.
I fear that not all 18 counties will survive - some have been cash-strapped for years (e.g. Northants, Leicester & Derbys), and Durham nearly went under. And, much as it pains me, I see a lot less County first-class cricket being played in the future. Maybe regionally-based 6 team conferences playing each other twice a season is as good as it's going to get. I hope I'm wrong.
