Mark Butcher has criticised the structure of T20 Blast Finals Day, stating that at the event at Edgbaston last weekend "at no point did you ever feel like the crowd was really involved in it".
Gloucestershire won the T20 Blast for the first time last weekend (September 14), beating first Sussex in the second semi-final before winning the final against reigning champions Somerset by eight wickets. It was only the fourth time Gloucestershire had reached Finals Day, with their last appearance being in 2020.
Finals Day has been hosted at Edgbaston since 2014 where both the semi-finals and the final take place on the same day. Speaking on the Wisden Cricket Weekly podcast, Butcher questioned whether holding all three matches on the same day at Edgbaston created the best atmosphere possible for a marquee day of the English domestic calendar.
"It's never been my favourite way of deciding what is a very tough competition," said Butcher. "To play all those group matches, win a quarter-final and then go to the thing [Finals Day], I don't think from a playing point of view that it's ever been satisfactory. But, obviously, people love it.
"The other thing about it that was interesting to me was that, in all the quarter-finals the atmosphere at the grounds was much more high octane than it was at Finals Day. The reason for that is the two sets of supporters who are there for the quarter-finals are there for that game, for those teams and for those teams only. With Finals Day you have a lot of people who are there for the day out, and not supporting any of the four sides - they bought tickets ages ago and want to dress up like a wizard or something and have a great day on the beers with their friends. So you end up with this weird situation where you have pockets of Somerset fans and pockets of Gloucestershire fans, but at no point did you ever feel like the crowd was really involved in it. And I've felt like that for the last however many years that I've done it.
"I understand, it's this big centrepiece and it lasts for the whole day, but surely after 21 years there's a better way of doing it. Because, as I said, the quarter-final nights are the best nights of the entire competition, and then Finals Day is about the mascot race and if you're lucky people remember who won it. Thankfully they will this time because it's a first time winner."
Finals Day is famous for many of those in the crowd attending the day in fancy dress, as well as the mascot race obstacle course in which each of the team mascots take part. Quarter-finals for the competition take place at the home ground of the top two-placed teams in the North and South group.
Next year will be the first edition of the women's T20 Blast competition, with another finals day set to take place at The Oval on July 27. Men's Finals Day will once again take place at Edgbaston, with the ticket ballot already open for the event.
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