Glamorgan Cricket: Matthew Maynard welcomes new format

Glamorgan head coach Matthew Maynard has welcomed the chance to win the County Championship again.

A new format sees the 18 counties grouped into three conferences, followed by three divisions for play-off games in September.

"It's a tough group, but we're in a position we haven't been for many years where we can win the County Championship," said Maynard.

Glamorgan are seeded fifth out of the six teams in their conference.

Four of Glamorgan's five opponents would have been in Division One under pre-pandemic plans for 2020, but after 15 years out of the top flight of four-day cricket, Maynard welcomes the chance to compete with top sides such as first opponents Yorkshire.

"There's got to be optimism there, we realise the enormity of the task, we need to be at our very best in most of our games," the former England batsman told BBC Sport Wales..

"But we have the players who can score runs and take wickets against these top sides."

After a shaky spell in 2020's limited four-day season, Maynard knows he needs more from his batsmen, with David Lloyd promoted to open after missing the Bob Willis Trophy through injury, and Australian star Marnus Labuschagne due to bat at three when he arrives in May.

"We were short on runs last year especially in the first innings, that was the difference between 2019 and 2020 though we competed fairly well," he said.

"So our main focus has to be first-innings runs this year."

With Labuschagne and Queensland team-mate Michael Neser delayed by the Australian domestic campaign, the man thrown into the front-line will be Ireland captain Andrew Balbirnie, who proved a hit in Glamorgan's 2020 T20 Blast campaign.

"It's a challenge, as is batting at three in any cricket, you've got to score no matter whose place you are trying to fill," said Balbirnie, who will bat first wicket down for the opening four games of the season.

"He (Labuschagne) had an exceptional year a couple of years ago and had a big impact on the club, but that's what I'm trying to do and hopefully I can hit the ground running."

Who's who

Despite the arrival of Neser and the return of Labuschagne and South Africa's Colin Ingram (for T20), Glamorgan will operate with a slimmed-down squad compared to a large first-team group in recent years.

Marchant de Lange has joined Somerset after losing his status as a domestic player, while veteran all-rounder Graham Wagg will play second-tier National County cricket for Shropshire.

Welsh trio Kieran Bull, Owen Morgan and Connor Brown were all released, while Charlie Hemphrey is unlikely to play again after failing to gain re-classification as a home player.

"There's still very fierce competition for places and picking the team for the (first friendly) Cardiff Uni game was a real headache, but hopefully we can gel nicely for Yorkshire," said captain Chris Cooke.

What's when

Glamorgan start a block of seven four-day Championship games on 8 April, with T20 Blast beginning on 10 June.

The One-Day Cup runs parallel to the Hundred franchise tournament from mid-July to mid-August, while the Championship returns in a three-division format to decide final finishing places from 30 August.

Crowds or no crowds?

Glamorgan have applied to the Welsh Government to run pilot events for the return of supporters during early Championship matches, while they will be desperate to see decent crowds allowed for the T20 Blast in June.

"We are desperate to have everyone back, hopefully we can have some crowds for the T20s if a pilot goes well in the four-day stuff, and I'm sure when the gates open the Welsh faithful will come flooding back in," said Cooke.