No 106, Sept 24 - The Grumbler's County Cricket Newsletter
π£ Last week of the season coming up π€ Will Kent or Middx go down? π’ Murtagh, Berg and maybe Cook retire π΄ Champions Durham, Surrey set for title π Gale's new job π΅ Champ's first women's umpire
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This time next week the county season will be over.
The only remaining nail-biter concerns relegation from Division One, where Middlesex and Kent are separated by a point. Northamptonshire are down despite making Surrey follow on and then hang on during the final day at The Oval last week.
However, Alec Stewartβs side will be champions, probably by Wednesday, after Essex rolled the dice against Hampshire at Chelmsford only for the south-coast county to complete their chase with five balls to spare. Durham are Division Two champions and Worcestershire will join them in midweek too.
It is not quite the dramatic denouement we wanted. Autumnal rain and bad light have always scuppered the end of the county season, even when we only played to the middle of September, not the end. Too often, 12 months of work fades away in front of a phalanx of stone-faced players staring out from a bleak balcony as it hammers down.
It would be nice to think the sportβs governors would be thinking how to solve this and produce a better conclusion. But, as you will find out below, their focus is entirely elsewhere.
That is not to say, we do not have enough drama as it is. The conclusion of the last couple of rounds has been captivating and, while hoping Surrey befall a series of unfortunate events at the Ageas Bowl, I will be second screening the games at the bottom over the next few days.
The consultants the ECB brought in to fashion you-know-what have always talked of three key factors in creating great sport:
Quality: fans need to be impressed
Jeopardy: fans need to be kept in suspense
Connection: fans need to care
Arguably, county cricket has the last two. If the final one is questionable then the ECB are partly to blame by deliberately taking the game off free-to-air television in exchange for money that while helping to sustain the traditional county structure also paid its top players much, much more. Iβd also argue they were slow to act on the other key contributors - the loss of cricket in schools and changing media patterns.
This weekβs games
Previews will be added before play starts this week
Div One
Kent vs Lancashire
Hampshire vs Surrey
Northamptonshire vs Essex
Nottinghamshire vs Middlesex
Warwickshire vs Somerset
Div Two
Durham vs Leicestershire
Glamorgan vs Derbyshire
Sussex vs Gloucestershire
Yorkshire vs Worcestershire
Then we come to quality.
Yes, average players can excel on Championship pitches. But, at the same time, every single English player has came through the county system but the best are then taken out for international duty which hinders the product that remains. Sometimes unnecessarily so. Just look at the Ollie Robinson example in recent weeks when Sussex were going for the title.
But, above and beyond all that, is quality a key determinant for a successful league if you are strong in the other areas? Because sport is changing.
Hereβs what has happened recently:
A football game of YouTubers sold out West Hamβs 62,000-capacity stadium
Other YouTubers are topping the bill in pay-per-view boxing bouts
Influencer tennis games in SE Asia are gaining huge popularity
There has always been an area in which sports and entertainment overlap, mostly in the US. But the Washington Generals only beat the Harlem Globetrotters once in 17,000 games. Those were βeventsβ and the show was always greater than the sport. Yet UFC fighter Francis Ngannou will say it is a valid win if, in his first boxing match, he somehow defeats unbeaten world heavyweight champion Tyson Fury in Saudi Arabia in a few weeks.
Meanwhile, crowds in the EFL Championship and the One-Day Cup somewhat undermine the importance of quality in a fanβs interest. And, of course, the tournament-that-shall-not-be-named has never had the star names it was billed as enjoying and, in 2022, was little different to the Blast.
I am not saying county cricket needs to start fielding YouTubers. But I am saying the County Championship continues to provide enough jeopardy and connection to overcome its lack of quality in comparison to the international game.
We still need to make it a βfinishing schoolβ for the higher echelons of the sport. But the prevailing thinking has been about this alone rather than making it a competition worth covering and following.
If the higher-ups were bothered, we could explore doing it the other way around. The YouTube streams have revolutionised the way the casual and at-work fan consumes the game.
Now, we must look at how we connect and the messages we wish to portray.
Because, for those of us who understand it, connect with it and can find it, the County Championship is fantastic entertainment.
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Players - contracts, signings, retirement
Signings: Stanley (Lancashire)
Departures: Gloucestershire: Lace, Naish, van Meekeren, Warner
Tim Murtagh announces retirement at end of Middlesex's County Championship campaign (Cricinfo)
Retiring Murtagh is 'last of dying breed' as Middlesex seamer bows out at Lord's in style (Cricinfo)
Playing on the Lordβs square with your Dad and kids. This is a lovely end to a fine career
Northants all-rounder Gareth Berg announces retirement from county cricket (Northampton Chronicle)
Essex quash Alastair Cook retirement reports, say decision will be made at end of season (Wisden)
County Championship
Durhamβs revival is a crucial win for cricketβs have-nots (Times)
The Aussie coach who brought Bazball to Durham - and now wants the England job (Telegraph)
Durhamβs revival is a crucial win for cricketβs have-nots (Times)
Durham secure Division Two title despite Brett D'Oliveira resistance (Cricinfo)
Surrey lead table for final round after draw relegates Northants (BBC Sport)
Worcestershire will be promoted β despite talent drain to Nottingham (Telegraph)
MCC Clarification on Goldsworthy Hit Wicket Incident (Lordβs)
This was perhaps the weirdest dismissal of the season.
I was pleased that Sussex decided to voluntarily exclude three of their players from the game with Derbyshire last week after a fractious final day in the previous round against Leicestershire.
Ethical codes are important in sport. I think it is a selling point for county cricket to hold a high moral line.
First Female Umpire in English County Cricket Championship (New York Times)
County Championship: Pick your team of the 2023 season (BBC Sport)
News, Views and Interviews
Revealed: The five new versions of the Hundred being considered (Telegraph)
[You-know-what]: Counties could use local football teamβs name as vote looms (Times)
Here are the five options according to the Telegraph
1. Status quo - ECB funds and runs the competition.
2. Expansion to 10 teams - Presumably at Durham and Somerset.
"The ECB would have the option of continuing to run it, or franchise the teams, which would raise funds for the game".
3. Central investment - Up to 10 teams.
"The ECB would sell a stake in the competition to a private equity firm. Eventually, the teams could also be franchised, ceding further ECB control".
4. βA closed structureβ
The ECB remains in control of (and funds) a closed league, with eight teams that could become 10. Each team would be a joint venture between the ECB and the first-class counties attached to the venue (so Oval Invincibles would include Surrey and Kent), therefore including every county. Third parties would then invest in those teams and the attached first-class counties. A closed second division β with no promotion and relegation β would take place beneath to βprovide purposeβ for the counties that do not host a team.
5. βThe Open Pyramidβ (also known as βThe Investable Pyramidβ)
"This would see a second division added and promotion and relegation βphased inβ. All 18 first-class counties would host a team, and enter a joint venture with the ECB and third-party investors. The ECB would remain in control of the main competition."
If the Telegraphβs report is correct scrapping the event in favour of a sooped-up Blast, as suggested by Richard Gould in the past, is not one of the options. Shame.
But options 1 to 3 are more of what we have now. No thanks. For a start, they do little to alleviate fixture problems if the Blast still exists
Option 4 at least gives counties skin in this particular game, albeit with a pointless second division. Option 5 is what I would choose if you put a gun to my head but I have a huge list of caveats.
And remember, details, details, details. That will be the method used to neuter the counties. Canβt have the gameβs most loyal, long-standing supporters fleas having a say on the future of cricket, can we?
All of these ignore power differentials anyway. Outside investors, presumably Indian interests who own, or would like to own, IPL franchises will be attracted by control. They will not be able to maximise their investment without it. But if their interests are paramount then counties, critical for the spread of the game and player production but poor, backward-looking and disorganised, will be shunted aside.
If you think the franchise controllers, administrators and TV execs will be happy to hand over a single penny if they can do without them then you should think again.
Just three years in, the tournament-that-shall-not-be-named has clearly left the Richards unconvinced or they would not be looking to change it.
This week, I heard this fascinating podcast on the HS2 railway, another very British cock-up that has been described as an βunstoppable white elephantβ. It outlined a process that plays over and over again when we try to make major infrastructure changes in this country.
Unclear vision partly created by the messaging around having to βsellβ it
Deliberately underestimate cost because you know the real figure will not allow it to be agreed. A βwell-known gameβ
Push through a βtable-top planβ, practical concerns missed or ignored
For various reasons, the original plan has to get altered so much that it barely fulfils its purpose anymore
So many delays, the main instigators leave. Contractors and overpaid consultants used. No real accountability
No-one prepared to grasp the nettle and scrap it if it goes wrong
But then, having got used to it, many of those initially resistant are more accepting. Inertia works, no matter the cost, the alternatives and the original thinking behind it.
This is why Colin Graves and Tom Harrison can never be forgiven for bulldozering through this half-baked idea. Just a few years after running the show, cricket has effectively shown them the door. Yet we dare not do the same to their big idea.
It has never been the fluff and the fireworks of the tournament-that-shall-not-be-named that has bothered me (though, at Β£6m per year, the ballistics budget is more than the turnover of a couple of counties combined). It is where it takes us. The story of Premier League football demonstrates that players (their agents and sports execs) will always want more. Have a look at this graph. And remember income has gone up incredibly in this period.
I am happy to say no, accept less and double down on the connection that is so special in English cricket (see intro). We will never outbid India anyway.
But I may be in the minority.
Tom Cullen: Glamorgan 'cronyism' must change after Matthew Maynard departure (BBC Sport)
βWe play as oneβ: Bas de Leede on Total Cricket, Cruyff and the World Cup (The Guardian)
Edgbaston plans 'not affected' by Birmingham City Council cash crisis (BBC News)
Look back: Yorkshire cricket legend Brian Sellers (Bradford Telegraph and Argus)
ECB to offer England stars multi-year Β£1m deals (Times)
As I wrote in the introduction, I believe that the old norms of sporting attachment are changing. If you have kids under 18 then Iβd bet they admire social media stars you have never heard of and would not even know how to find even if you had.
Valuing the financial incentives for the England squad is very hard given the money available in franchise cricket. Some would say let them go, others say pay them what they want. The latter are often ex-players funnily enough. The ECB know they have to find a middle ground.
Guerilla Cricketβs piece talks of "Royβs axing from the World Cup squad is a mild microcosm of the perform-or-perish nature of top-flight sport.β
Players do not need benefit years anymore and the major ones do not seem to care about being a club legend. And of course, they only ever move to buy a bigger house and put their kids through private school βlook after their familiesβ.
The tale of Jason Roy is set to be repeated again and again. The connection I talked about in the intro is being stretched. It is hard to support a team when you think the players donβt care as much as you do.
So I ask this - Is it better for a county to have a stellar squad seen regularly on the TV or a pedestrian one prepared to do a couple of afternoons a month in the local school to deepen the community connection?
And finallyβ¦
How walk through Sussex village led to launch of new cricket team (Sussex Express)
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