T20 Finals Day: Warwickshire CEO Stuart Cain hopeful of 5,000-8,000 crowd
- Published
Edgbaston has been the home of T20 Finals Day since 2014
New Warwickshire chief executive Stuart Cain is hopeful Edgbaston might be allowed up to 8,000 spectators for T20 Finals Day.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson's guidance is that crowds may be allowed back in sports grounds in limited numbers from 1 October.
The knockout stages of the T20 Blast have been pushed back 1 and 3 October.
"With the current guidelines, we're hoping for between 5,000 and 8,000," Cain told BBC CWR.
"From the 1st October, Boris said things would get better for live events, so we pushed it back with that in mind."
Warwickshire's optimism is based on the success of the trial when Edgbaston and The Oval were allowed to let in 2,000-maximum crowds for two friendly games prior to the start of the new Bob Willis Trophy.
The plan was to then allow crowds in on both the Saturday and Sunday of the first round of Bob Willis Trophy fixtures, only for the government to shelve it until October following an increase in positive coronavirus tests.
"We had a successful pilot," said Cain. "The sports minister came up and saw how well Edgbaston can handle crowds safely. And we're hopeful. We're in strange times but we just have to make the best of it."
Would they rather be the Warwickshire Bears?
Cain also told BBC CWR that the club will look again next year at whether they might restore the Warwickshire name after six years playing in the T20 Blast under the Birmingham Bears banner.
Although the club won the T20 Blast for first and only time after making the controversial change in 2014, the Birmingham Bears name has never been well received by supporters living outside Birmingham,
"I know names are emotive things," said Cain, who has only just taken charge after moving from his job with Coventry-based Premiership rugby neighbours Wasps to take over from Neil Snowball, now the England and Wales Cricket Board's head of county cricket.
"But, at the moment, the key things is playing cricket again and trying to get a few people in the ground. Hopefully we'll have a proper season next year, then we can have a look at things from there.
"I understand people's concerns but we have more important things right now that we need to think about."