Worcestershire’s initiative in allowing spectators free admission on the August Bank Holiday for the Specsavers County Championship match versus Gloucestershire at New Road has come in for praise via The Times newspaper’s lookback at the 2017 season.
The paper’s writers were asked to select their “Moment Of The Season” and Paul Edwards opted for the scheme adopted by Worcestershire on day one of the four-day game.
The idea stemmed from the commercial team wanting to attract the T20 crowd to the longer format of the game and give them a reason to give it a try.
They were rewarded with an excellent crowd turning out who had the add bonus of seeing Ravichandran Ashwin make his debut for the County.
Edwards writes: “When Worcestershire decided to offer free entry to the first day of their match against Gloucestershire to attract those who only went to T20 games, a connection between the formats became more than blather.
“Most T20 spectators will never watch the Championship, but if 20 per cent can be attracted to four-day cricket, that would be excellent.”
Worcestershire’s respect towards Chris Read in his final home match for Nottinghamshire at Trent Bridge was also chosen as a ‘Moment Of The Season’ by another Times writer in Steve James, the former Glamorgan and England batsman.
James selects “The guard of honour for Chris Read from Worcestershire players on his last game at Trent Bridge.
“So nice to see that sort of thing still happens.”
