"I'm optimistic by nature," former England captain Michael Atherton says. "I think it's a great game, there's a huge demand to watch it and see it so I'm not full of gloom at all."
ATHERTON'S ANALYSIS
Atherton impressed by India's treatment of U-19 cricketers
There are about half a dozen of the young Indian cricketers from the Under-19 WC winning squad who have had an opportunity in the IPL - Atherton. © Getty
Atherton is speaking at Old Trafford, the ground where he spent so much of his playing career for both Lancashire and England, about the current state of English cricket. After a poor winter for the Test team and the less than warm reception given to the announcement by the ECB that their new eight-team tournament in 2020 will be in a totally new 100-ball format of the game, things have not been all sweetness and light of late.
