No 114, Feb 19 - The Grumbler's County Cricket Newsletter
🟣 All the new signings - Abbott, Bancroft, Sams 🟡 The joy of 'social cricket' 🟠 Look! Lots of money, that will solve everything 🔴 Graves return confirmed at Yorks 🔵 Worcs, Northants ground news
It’s less than two months until the start of the county season and, as you will read, there is a lot at stake before then.
Even by my standards, this is a rather moany newsletter. But, as I argue below, one of the reasons for the UK’s parlous state is its lack of determined protest.
We like to moan at the people who moan and not consider why they are moaning. The assumption is that they are the problem, not the circumstances.
That is true sometimes, of course, and anyone pointing out problems needs to move quickly towards alternatives, solutions and actions in order to retain any semblance of relevancy.
But change starts with articulating the problem.
At the risk of drawing another line in the sand over which we will soon step, it feels these next few months are critical, even existential, for the county game. Then again, I wrote as much in 2021 and we are still here.
But only up to a point because, frankly, the health of the counties has got worse since then, see below.
However, muddling on through is what the UK does best and arguably its domestic cricket competitions are the perfect example. Like the Black Knight in Monty Python, it wails defiance at a departing conqueror when it has been ripped to shreds and left defenceless… and arguably pointless.
These newsletters started as a labour of love but, to be honest, they are getting harder to write. I am seeing no movement towards what I value in the game. In fact, at least at the professional level, it is travelling fast in the opposite direction.
This is in contrast to what I have seen among the cricket-playing community. And by that, I do not mean league cricket, or even the semi-serious stuff I played, but social cricket where they revel in the old notion of ‘it’s not the winning but the taking part’.
I heard this a lot when I was a kid. Often just before I played football when, as it turned out, the idea was the very opposite. Growing up, my learned experience was the higher standard of sport you played the higher level of wankerdom you needed to exhibit.
I like to think there is a lovely, little trend away from this nonsense among the grassiest knolls of grassroots cricket. I have written stories for The Cricket Paper on some of cricket’s ‘faith-preservers’ - George McMenemy and Alfrick CC. On social media, there is similarly warm, fuzzy stuff from the Metronomes, the Friendly Cricket Collective and others.
They boast of a game for all genders, all abilities and an inclusiveness of spirit that might mean putting on their worst bowler when the oppo need seven off the last over because it is their turn.
If they lose the game who cares? They had a go and everyone enjoyed it.
This may be a rose-tinted view but while UK cricket game lurches from one television-led cash grab to another and players hop from franchise to franchise, frankly I need to find some reason why the game is still worth the effort.
Hopefully, it will become obvious again in April.
But there are some battles to be won before then.
PS. I am on Threads. Join me there as Twitter has been ruined. Also here are my social media links - Facebook | Instagram
PPS I have set up a County Cricket Chat space on Reddit - r/CountyCricketChat
PPPS If you want to get involved in any groups to change this situation. Then there is the County Cricket Members Group and, of course, the Cricket Supporters Association.
☕️ When I started this newsletter I made two promises, it will be free forever and your data will never be misused. If you like this newsletter (and you can afford it) please consider buying me a coffee via Ko-Fi or subscribe via Patreon. All coffee buyers are name-checked in the next edition.☕️
Player news, contracts and signings
Signings: Pucovski (Leicestershire - Overseas - Champ, first 5), Sams (Essex - Blast - Overseas, first 8), Roach (Surrey - overseas - first half), Webster (Gloucestershire - Blast and some Champ), Cobb (Worcestershire - white ball), Gleeson (Warwickshire (yes, I know) - Blast), Neser (Hampshire - Blast - Overseas, first 8), Bancroft (Gloucestershire - Overseas - All format), Hardie (Surrey - Overseas - Champ), Abbott (Surrey - Overseas - 4 Champ, 8 Blast),
Contracts: Balderson (Lancashire - 2yrs), Hutton (Nottinghamshire - 2yrs), Hales (Nottinghamshire - white ball), Critchley (Essex - 3yrs)
Credit: @8_BitCricket
Aussies abroad: Who's playing county cricket in 2024 (Cricket.com.au)
New Aussie quick admits whirlwind ODI start “doesn’t feel real” as County stint awaits (SEN)
County cricket is an aspiration for this Aussie quick.
“I'm hopefully trying to go play some County Cricket in the off-season in England,” Xavier Bartlett said. “It’s obviously a bucket list sort of thing and something that I want to try and expose myself to and learn as much as I can over there in their conditions.
“I haven't really made up my mind yet (with what club). There are a few people there, but it's obviously really nice to be wanted by those calibre of teams.”
Mark Alleyne named as Gloucestershire's new head coach (Cricinfo)
Mark Alleyne: Gloucestershire appoint former all-rounder as head coach for second spell (BBC Sport)
David Lloyd & Samit Patel: Derbyshire name new Championship and white-ball skippers (BBC Sport)
Essex name Sam Cook as deputy to Tom Westley (Cricketer)
Sussex Cricket welcomes Pete Fitzboydon as Chief Executive Officer (CricketWorld)
Sussex appoint Pete Fitzboydon as new chief executive (Cricketer)
Dan Cherry appointed Glamorgan County Cricket Club Chief Executive Officer (Glamorgan)
News, Views and Interviews
ECB plans to auction off Hundred teams to raise £100m (Times)
ECB turns down billion dollar offer for the Hundred from IPL founder (Telegraph)
Lalit Modi made India a cricket superpower before exile – now he wants the Hundred (Telegraph)
Mark Chapman, Manchester Originals chair, says the ECB aren't talking to Hundred boards (Cricinfo)
The Hundred is mocked, but ECB has created a golden goose to save English game (Telegraph)
Restructuring of The Hundred, minimal IPL involvement in Lalit Modi's proposal to ECB (Cricbuzz)
It is a fallacy that more money is always better.
Common sense suggests it should be but, these days, wealth is simply not shared. Far too often it is merely used to look after the few at the top. So, in fact, more money only creates greater inequality.
The ECB patted themselves firmly on the back because of the size of the initial television deal and then somehow were allowed to unilaterally extend it with Sky. This was the basis of Teflon Tom Harrison’s obscene bonus. (Tellingly the BBC have not followed suit but, interestingly enough, have inked deals with rugby league and netball in recent weeks).
Yet, after a decade in which many smaller counties stabilised and whittled down their debts, some are still sending warning signals that threaten their very existence. So, clearly, the extra money has not trickled down and, of course, that extension with Sky looks less valuable given higher inflation levels. This piece ($) says that, at an average rate of five per cent, its real value will be reduced by 20 per cent by the time it concludes.
Cash has been splashed on keeping the stars away from franchises via bigger, longer central contracts and pushing the ECB’s pet tournament. We will never know how much the latter has cost because the figures, like the communications strategy and the schedule, have been used to serve a purpose. The only argument is the extent to which this was planned from the start. But it is a major weakness of the regulator of a sport being its commercialiser. They set the agenda and fulfil it so, like the world’s worst boss, ‘their’ ideas get favourable treatment and PR cover until they can stand on their own two feet.
The oldest trick in the book of the powerful is:
Cut off the resources until desperation sets in
PR a preferred option as ‘more efficient’ or, if unpalatable, the "only option"
Get what they want via legal, intractable methods
Right now, we are seeing a raft of stories about the potential revenue that could come from the tournament-that-shall-not-be-named (mainly in the Telegraph of course) at exactly the time the ECB is talking to counties about extending the event. And with it, make changes that could end the membership model for good and effectively condemn non-Test counties to second-tier cricket. Since my last newsletter Surrey have announced the signing of three overseas players while Middlesex and Gloucestershire have said they will not have one this term.
Members are being told 'there's no other option' but to do as the ECB say because counties are skint. Certainly, there is worrying poverty in the county game. This report ($) says five counties have required advanced payments in the last two years and, on average, they get 47 per cent of their overall revenue from the ECB central payment. It would have been interesting to compare their “unsustainable level of debt” with those in lower league football clubs and other sports.
One of the problems in the UK is the lack of protest over the rise of inequality. The French have protected their workers’ rights, pensions and the relative affluence of their middle class because they are prepared to blockade Paris to keep them. In Germany, football fans have mounted a sustained campaign of disobedience against proposals to sell ownership in clubs to private equity. Please note, the authorities argue that this will give their clubs MORE money and make them more competitive in Europe but, perhaps having seen what has happened in England, the fans fear where this slippery slope will lead. And it looks like they are winning.
In the UK, you are a moaner or disruptor if you protest. And, in the past few years, this position has been steeled by the introduction of some of the most intolerant laws in Western Europe over public dissent.
German fans protest against the influx of new capital into football (Inside the Games)
German fans protest plans to sell off ‘ownership’ stakes to private equity (Inside World Football)
'No reason to stop': German fans vow to continue investor protests (Yahoo Sport)
No such sanction will be required to keep irate elderly members are bay if they flex their few and failing muscles to block the ECB’s expansion plans. After the important elements of the Strauss Report were kiboshed, I predicted mechanisms would be created to neutralise county members’ remaining power and the continuing £1.3m payment for you-know-what would be whittled away and eventually disappear.
Noticeably, the new payments are one-offs. They will be sticking plasters for broken legs unless there is serious structural change and, according to this report, that £1.3m is dependent on the new TV deal. Ben Stokes deliberately tied his central contract to that deal too. I wonder which will take precedence?
But above and beyond that, the new value created by extending the tournament-that-shall-not-be-named can only be truly realised if control is lost. Selling off stakes in franchises is a one-time sale. Sports investors are not in the habit of giving you something for nothing and it is easier to enact the changes you want with 80 or 100 per cent of the shares rather than 51 per cent.
The investment numbers bandied around are like transfer fees for sports journalists. As my first editor told me “Always exaggerate the figures, no-one is going to sue”. Bridgepoint wanted £400m for 75 per cent last year. Lalit Modi is prepared to throw in £800m for the whole thing. But if precious little trickles down to you it does not matter that much anyway.
Of course, Modi has been banned for life by the BCCI and wanted by Interpol but I am sure that he would be a fit and proper custodian for English cricket if he has the cash. Hell, why not invite Allen Stanford to bid? He loves cricket and, back in the day, was good with money. Other people's money as it turned out and you will have to call a US jail to reach him.
But, as Giles Clarke's ECB showed, when the investors are loaded you do not look too hard at the source. Dissenting voices had quietened long before FIFA World Cup final in Qatar, the Saudi Football League is now a story solely about stars not sportswashing while the merger of LIV Golf and the PGA tells us any ongoing qualms can be balanced by the number of 0s on the end of the cheque.
Because money is good and more money is always better, isn’t it?
But just like those politicians boasting 'record-breaking new funding' producing 'world-beating' services, it never seems to change anything.
In the world of important things, the NHS still crumbles, the lines at the food banks get longer and the calls for benefit cheats to be jailed grow louder. But when the bankers crash the economy, they are propped up and none of the perpetrators see the inside of a court. Then, amid a cost of living crisis, the cap is taken off their bonuses.
Meanwhile, in the world of unimportant things, long-standing football clubs get shafted by amoral owners, counties get handed back to custodians under whose governance they were subject to scrutiny by the DCMS Select Committee and rugby clubs go under or end up fighting for their existence (though, surprise, surprise the Telegraph produces a puff piece in support).
If I felt we could trust the ECB to deliver on the headlines that the tournament-that-shall-not-be-named is the way to 'save the county game' and 'grow the sport' then I could support it but the evidence suggests they wish to slowly suffocate it until its usefulness is extinguished then kick the carcass to the curb.
There might be more money in a franchise game but the rich are only getting richer and the poor are getting poorer.
As the German football fans say “more money but less value”.
London in contention to host third Hundred team (Telegraph)
Of course, you-know-what would be more likely to grow the game if Somerset and Durham get the nod but it was a city-based event and a third London franchise would still mean only one team per 3m people. Compare that to the ratio in Leeds, Bristol or Southampton.
In addition, I suspect the capital is more attractive to investors from Saudi or India. Remember the major northern Premier League clubs - Man United, Man City and Liverpool - have all opened offices in London.
ECB inviting counties to run top-tier women's sides from 2025 (BBC Sport)
Women's competitions overhauled by ECB as counties invited to tender for teams (Cricinfo)
Counties seek greater incentive for producing England talent (Cricinfo)
ECB to scrutinise county spending to make sure women's game is supported (Telegraph)
Essex Women announced their fixtures this week. I took notice. The Sunrisers have held no interest for me whatsoever. They have played at Chelmsford but there is no connection at all.
I’d like to think the women’s game is an opportunity for counties to retain relevancy in a growth area but Huw Turbervill argues here ($) that the numbers might not add up.
Bazball has changed county cricket – we know how we need to play, says Dom Bess (Telegraph)
Remembering broadcaster John Arlott; the voice of cricket (Great British Life)
Cricket on ice — howzat possible? (Times)
I’ll Show You What It Feels Like, Now I’m On The Outside (Being Outside Cricket)
Dutch domestic competition stays the same - for now (Emerging Cricket)
Ashley Giles raises prospect of Worcestershire leaving New Road as flood impact worsens (Cricketer)
Worcestershire: New Road 'situation worsening' as water levels rise, says Ashley Giles (BBC Sport)
Did New Road always flood this way? I am used to annual pictures now but I cannot remember them from a few decades ago.
Northamptonshire Cricket Club's dream of second ground moves closer (BBC News)
Durham County Cricket Club pitches new £27m hotel plan (Boutique Hotelier)
James Anderson to form part of task force charged with reviving state school cricket (Cricketer) ($)
In the past, it seems cricket has seen it as acceptable to allow the 93 per cent of the population who go to state schools to be ignored. Perhaps that is why there is no great outcry about the changes being forced now. There are no angry fans in their 20s and 30s to protest.
Which brings us to this…
Graves calls for unity after 88% vote in favour of Yorkshire takeover (Guardian)
Yorkshire: Colin Graves elected chairman for second spell (BBC Sport)
Yorkshire "faced administration" without Colin Graves return (Bradford Telegraph and Argus)
Graves wants 'line in the sand' at Yorkshire after Rafiq racism row (Peninsula Qatar)
Yorkshire County Cricket Club Settles Legal Dispute with Former Physio (BBN Breaking)
Yorkshire County Cricket Club confirm Colin Graves' controversial return (Sky Sports)
So Colin Graves is back as chair of Yorkshire.
How sadly predictable.
The club started its recent run of troubles under him. The ECB started going badly wrong under him.
Both times the organisations ended up in front of the DCMS Select Committee to explain themselves.
Not that Graves turned up to answer questions around his Trust being a ‘roadblock to change’ at Yorkshire so was told to ‘put up or shut up' by MPs. Funnily enough, he has decided to turn up now ($).
He followed this with the ‘banter’ comments, which suggested he did not understand the issue anyway. Of course, he has rowed back since. Well he would do, wouldn't he?
My position throughout the Yorkshire racism scandal has been:
Total transparency
The acceptance that good people can do bad things
No pile-ons for those who show understanding, contrition and the desire to make amends. (I have no time for Michael Vaughan but at least he showed up and demonstrated a scintilla of humanity in his statements after his case was not proven.)
This applies to Yorkshire and Essex. Both are guilty and need to take a long hard look at themselves.
The difference is that Yorkshire have gone backward whereas, at least, Essex are trying to move forward. Their (relatively) superior handling of the situation has probably kept them from greater external intervention and the same level of points deduction. But that will come and it should.
A vocal element at Yorkshire seemed resistant to the idea that there was ever a problem, let alone potential solutions.
The same was true at Essex but, thank heavens, this group have been pushed away and largely discredited.
Of course, I will be called biased and blinkered on this issue. You can decide that yourselves. Just read back on everything I have written throughout before you do.
And consider where both clubs have been left and who is running them.
What worries me most about English cricket is that, despite everything, it is not moving forward. The public school influence is as great as ever, the ECB continue to chase money above everything else and we still reward and enfranchise the same people to run the game.
There were reports that Graves was the only route to save the club. There were reports that the ECB would never let them go under. There were other reports that financial lifelines were ignored. These were dismissed as ‘absolute lies’ by the club’s CEO.
You can make up your own mind on who to believe.
But we ended up with Graves back in charge at Yorkshire.
Azeem Rafiq has left the country and is not expecting to be involved in cricket again.
But we ended up with Graves back in charge at Yorkshire.
All the people sacked (especially all those entirely innocent), the reforms of Lord Patel, the flak he got, the newspaper headlines, the select committee questions, the local paper comment pieces, the threat of losing international games, the relegation, the points deductions and everything else.
But we ended up with Graves back in charge at Yorkshire.
That’s why I won’t head to Headingley while he is in control.
Durham to play in Zimbabwe's domestic T20 competition to prepare for T20 Blast (Cricketer)
T20 cricket won’t allow a youngster to develop as a cricketer, feels Clive Lloyd (Telegraph India)
'A broken sport' - Franchise free-for-all compromises players' incentives (Cricinfo)
Expect more, quick switches like Reece Topley in the future.
And finally….
The story of this newsletter
This newsletter started in January 2021 because, frankly, no one else was publishing one and the county game lacked promotion. It will always be free and we will never misuse your data.
🤝 Sponsor - If you would like to sponsor this newsletter then please let me know
☕️ Coffee tips - The newsletter is a labour of love but it takes a long time to write. If you like the content, please feel free to tip me a coffee.
My monthly coffees: Gary Prail, William Dobson, George Dobell, Long Leg, Kevin Roome, John Lucey, Sophie Whyte, Cow Corner Slog, Graeme Hayter, Chris Moody, Martin Searle, Ben Hieatt-Smith, Russell Holden, Adrian Partridge, Sam Morshead, Steve A, Simon Hemsley, Ralph, Alastair Wilson, Steve Hart, Bill Dove, Steve Thomas, Rich Turner, DJH27
Patreon: Simon Burnton, Bob Christie, Richard Maslin, Duncan Lewis, Chris Lowe, Steve
Coffees since the last edition: Peter Hardy, Simon, Anthony Berry, David, Andrew
Classifieds
Links
Join the Cricket Supporters Association, it’s free
County Cricket Matters - Buy the magazine direct or on Kindle
Guerilla Cricket - irreverent, online commentary and jingles all the way
Leading Edge - County stats dashboard and podcast
98 Not Out - top interviews and cricket chat on the podcast
Also, there’s my book, Last-Wicket Stand.
🏴☠️ Indy bookshop | 🇺🇸 USA | 🇦🇺 Australia
I’m on a long trip to New Zealand, and am currently in Whangamata, at the base of the Coromandel Peninsula. This evening, I’ve been lucky enough to come across some classic social cricket. After work, short format, everybody bowls, everybody bats, and everybody enjoys themselves (whilst consuming liquid refreshment), and loads of fun. This is what cricket should be: a bunch of colleagues/mates coming together to lose some stress and enjoy what is a very simple game if you remove all the complexities. The New Zealand v Australia test was on in the clubhouse, but the game on the pitch had the attention of most spectators.
Everybody enjoyed it, there was plenty of ribald commentary from the boundary, and I thoroughly enjoyed myself. It might even make up for missing the beginning of the season back in England.