Anthony McGrath: Essex coach says cricket must expand opportunities for young
- Published
Anthony McGrath became Essex head coach in November 2017
Essex head coach Anthony McGrath believes cricket needs to expand opportunities for young players to ensure a healthy future for the game.
Counties are currently discussing proposals to reduce the number of Championship and T20 matches.
They arose from from Sir Andrew Strauss' high performance review, and a decision is due at the end of November.
"By reducing teams or games, you reduce the pool of people who play, boys and girls now," said McGrath.
"I don't think anything is ever going to be perfect, but we need more cricket really through the year.
"It's such a short season and it's just finding a way (forward) that pleases everyone.
"England cricket is so important, of course, but the counties feed that and the more players who play, you're going to produce more cricketers," he told BBC Essex's Around The Wicket show.
The review has suggested reducing the number of Championship and T20 matches that counties play from 14 to 10 in a bid to improve the England men's side.
The new-look Championship would involve three divisions of six teams, and there would be dedicated windows for the One-Day Cup, T20 Blast and The Hundred each summer.
"The future of cricket is not in the next two or three years, it's in the next 10, 15, 20 so we need young boys and girls to be playing as much as possible and being able to come not just to Test grounds, but places like Essex or Worcester, away from the Test grounds," said McGrath.
"We need to encourage and entice people to come and enjoy cricket because we are competing against so many other things. We need to play cricket in as many parts of the country as possible, at the highest level we can."
ECB chair Richard Thompson has called for "compromise" in ongoing talks about the proposals, which must be approved by two-thirds of the 18 first-class counties.
"It will be interesting to see where we end up because I've spoken to a lot of members, our board, and players and we are all of a similar view that we don't want to see a reduction in red-ball cricket," said Essex chief executive John Stephenson.
"And financially, we don't want to see a reduction in T20 cricket either because that really helps the clubs.
"I represent the views of Essex and the members and that seems to be the view at the moment. It will be interesting to see where it ends up."
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