Rhodes call for changes (From Worcester News)

Rhodes call for changes

7:10pm Sunday 5th September 2010 in

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WORCESTERSHIRE director of cricket Steve Rhodes has called for a change to the Clydesdale Bank 40 competition after just one season.

The current format sees 21 teams, the 18 first-class counties, plus Scotland, Holland and Unicorns, split into three groups.

The section leaders and the best runner-up then progress into the semi-finals before a Lord’s showpiece finale.

However, the format, which replaced the Pro40 league competition, has meant that many of the matches have produced dead rubbers.

The New Road chief, who watched his side end their CB40 Group ‘A’ campaign with a nail-biting four-wicket defeat at Lancashire Light-ning on Saturday following a run of four successive victories, would like the competition reduced to 18 counties once again with an introduction of a quarter-final stage.

“I would change this format to three groups of six,” Rhodes said. “I would do it like the old Twenty20 where you play 10 games home and away, then a quarter-final, semi-final and final.”

But the County’s director of cricket would not like to see the groups regionalised like the old Twenty20 Cup.

“I would seed it with your finishing positions from previous years so the groups are fair,” he added.

“I wouldn’t worry too much about travelling, I can say that for a side in the Mid-lands, but if I was at Durham I might have a problem.

“I like the idea of playing different teams, that would happen if you have a seeding system for the groups.”

Rhodes said counties were made aware that the current CB40 format may produce many dead games before the competition started.

Saturday’s match at Aig-burth, Liverpool, was one of those scenarios with neither the Royals or Lightning able to progress to the last four.

But that didn’t stop Alexei Kervezee firing his maiden one-day century for Worces-tershire.

However, the 20-year-old’s 111 in the County’s challenging total of 258-6, which saw a 96-run fourth-wicket stand with skipper Daryl Mitchell (40), was not enough to prevent Lancashire from edging a four-wicket win.

The New Road side came into the match on the back of four consecutive wins, in-cluding the 90-run success at Surrey last Wednesday when Worcestershire posted a 40-over best score of 376-6.

But slack bowling and fielding allowed the hosts to complete a double over the Coun-ty despite impressive bowling from Moeen Ali, who finished with figures of 2-29.

Lancashire’s Luke Procter hit a fine unbeaten 64 to help see his side home.