Andy Tennant, the performance director at Cricket Scotland, is a persuasive fellow, so let's try to agree on some basic principles when it comes to discussing his argument for establishing a cricketing version of rugby's RaboDirect Pro 12 structure; a competition which has undeniably raised standards across the Celtic environs, even if the improvements have been more noticeable in Wales and Ireland than Scotland.
For starters, Tennant is surely correct in his assertion that the present club-based tournaments in the various countries offer no realistic pathway, whereby the elite performers can make the transition from tackling Arbroath one day to Australia the next. It might be stretching matters to claim, as Tennant did during our interview, that the gulf between domestic action and international fixtures is "a yawning chasm", but the governing bodies in the Associate nations need to raise their game, particularly with no matches against English county opposition scheduled after the end of 2013.
Consequently, the notion of a European Championship definitely has merit. If I was, heaven forbid, a cricket official, grappling with future plans in Scotland, Ireland and the Netherlands, I might go easy on the parallels with rugby – the latter sport, after all, responded to the advent of professionalism with all the dexterity of a tanked-up Tartan Army supporter trying to climb up an escalator the wrong way. Yet, now that the Scots, Irish, Welsh and Italians, have joined forces, there is do questioning the competitive and commercial appeal of the RaboDirect structure. The clubs, by comparison, are several notches below and, even if some of us bemoan that, we can't re-write the past.
From Tennant's perspective, the creation of a European League would herald in a radical new era of cross-border district cricket, and that is also to be applauded. Many of the details remain to be finalised, and Scotland's administrators appreciate that all the potential participating countries are at different stages in their regional development. This means the new Euro tournament might not come into existence until 2015, but it seems likely it will be staged on a home-and-away basis, featuring three teams from Scotland, three from Ireland, and two Dutch sides, who would take part both in 50-over and Twenty20 fixtures. There would also be the possibility of inviting Denmark and the Channel Islands to get involved, but the minimum number of participants would be eight, which would provide the elite players with at least 14 fixtures, hopefully of high intensity, every summer, scheduled in and around their international commitments.
On a positive note, this proposal makes sound sporting sense. In the absence of regular tussles with the English teams, the Associates have to seize the initiative and prepare to rely on their own endeavour and enterprise. Indeed, Tennant confirmed that the ICC's TAPP funding had been delivered on the understanding that the recipients would aim to establish professional or semi-professional structures within their environs. As to the commercial allure of any European event, it is easy for the critics to counter that rugby enjoys a much higher profile and supporter base, which helps to attract blue-chip sponsorship deals, but that wasn't always the case. Only three or four years ago, the two Scottish sides, Glasgow and Edinburgh, drew average crowds of just 2500, which was in no way sufficient to pay the wages of 70 or 80 players. To a large extent, the shortfall had to be met by the SRU and cricket's governing bodies will have to do something similar if there is to be any wholesale introduction of a professional system.
But that shouldn't be an interminable stumbling block, or not if the will exists to make regional cricket the future of the sport in Europe. This is where I do have serious reservations, based on my experiences of what happened in rugby, where club organisations had the rug pulled from under their feet and were effectively left to wither on the vine, both deprived of their leading players, and starved of publicity, as the districts hoovered up the talent, commercial revenue and media coverage.
Yet, if we are being honest, what is the alternative? Tennant was in forceful, passionate mood, and spoke convincingly about how the Regional Series could and should be regarded by Scotland's leading lights as the ideal platform in which they can display their international credentials. For a select band of possibly 30 or 40 individuals who may end up on various contracts, funded centrally by the governing bodies, a European League season, starting with domestic district games, as the prelude to cross-border battles, allied to a couple of ODIs and challenge matches against visiting Full Member state squads/IPL groups/development ensembles, allows the best players a coherent structure, with the opportunity to perform in between 25 and 35 fixtures, at home and further afield.
Predictably, the nay-sayers will counter this is pie in the sky and ask how it will be financed. (We have essentially answered that: via TAPP). They will also declare that the Scots don't have 40 players who deserve contracts, but, while this may be true at the moment, we surely can't persist with the status quo and hope that Uddingston, Greenock and Co will keep producing Calum MacLeods and Richie Berringtons. Yes, the seed-bed of talent is pretty thin, but the negativity of some clubs is keeping it that way.
Essentially, it boils down to one, hard question: do enough people in Scotland want districts to prosper in the future to join the party? As somebody who backed the clubs in rugby, and who still believes the SRU perpetrated a catalogue of half-baked decisions and disastrous financial misjudgments, I can sympathise with those who are suspicious about – or antagonistic towards – the direction in which Scottish cricket is heading.
But, in cold, practical terms, the majority of clubs have gone backwards on the pitch in recent seasons, and Scotland's fortunes have slumped accordingly during the same period. This isn't just my view: I had it confirmed by officials and participants from every part of the country during the summer that never was. It may be that those in the anti-district camp have a valid case, but not when they maintain that nobody takes the Regional Series seriously. Fact: the players I've interviewed have all spoken of their desire to be involved in more meaningful, genuinely competitive action. And many of these younger, hungrier lads are excited by the thought of a European League.
As they should be.