What Do Points Make ?

[swannbaker]

In the county cricket championship games , three points are awarded for a team that draws and eight points for a tied match . In a match that is meandering inevitably to a draw , and there have been many this year , why do the two captains not put their heads together and contrive a tied result ? Whilst this will not benefit one against the other it will benefit them with regard to other teams in the league . A typical scenario could be a fourth innings declaration at 0 for 0 leaving the scores level , or is this not a moral standpoint in this day and age ?

[Buenchico]

Why would anyone declare at 0 for 0 when they only require 1 run to win and they've got 10 wickets standing?

Contriving a tie is exceptionally difficult to do. Let's suppose that team A scores 500 all out in their first innings. Team B also scores 500 all out. As it's obviously a good batting wicket and, with 1000 runs scored, time likely to be getting on, a draw would seem to be the most likely result. However you could hardly expect the captain of Team A to agree to a tie (instead of a draw) at that point; he's got to try for some quick runs and then hope that (with the wicket starting to break up) he can bowl out team B cheaply. So he declares his second innings closed at 250 for 7, with 2 sessions remaining. The chances of team B scoring 250 in 2 sessions is so low that contriving a tie (after team A had failed to pick up any wickets in the first of those sessions) would be extremely difficult. Even if team A deliberately bowled badly, so that team B were on 249 for 7 with 1 delivery left to get the run required for a tie, their captain would have to trust that:
(a) the batsman didn't simply ignore any agreement to get a single, and hit a boundary instead ; or
(b) that a mis-field by his own team wouldn't allow a stroke intended as a single to reach the boundary.

Sorry, your theory just doesn't make sense to me!

[swannbaker]

I speak of contrivance in badly rain affected matches . The last couple of hours are reached and scoreboard shows Team A 300 , Team B 250 for 3 . The captains get together agree Team B should score 300 for (say) 7 wickets and declare . Both teams declare their second innings at 0 for 0 . Team B's captain would dare not allow his team to score the 1 run required to win as it would bring riot and dishonour down upon his shoulders . First innings bonus points are not affected and each team takes an extra five points . QED .

[Buenchico]

The possible loss of all points from the match, under Law 42.1, might also be relevant!
http://static.ecb.co.uk/files/3140-fc-domestic-lvcountychamp2013-p17-62-lr-12370-12370.pdf

[jno]

that would look perilously like spot-fixing

[swannbaker]

Law 42 appears to deal with the spirit of the game and guards against the likes of the Brian Rose declaration some years ago and the likes of Northeast and Key chucking down pies this very morning and going for 100+ in 9 overs . If the umpires are made privy to the captains contrivance there can be no thoughts of match fixing . Whatever happened to initiative ?