No 116, Mar 24 - The Grumbler's County Cricket Newsletter
🟣 Stewart to stand down at Surrey 🟡 Surrey, Leics Somerset lose overseas stars 🟠 RIP Robin Hobbs 🔴 Which counties will get new women's teams? 🔵 Championship on the way 🟢 Scottish T10 to start
The next newsletter will come out just as the County Championship season begins.
Perhaps it will change in a fortnight but, right now, I am struggling to get myself up for the new campaign. There are too many malevolent forces trying to leave this weakened event increasingly incapacitated. With all the cruelty of a playground bully pulling the legs off a mayfly one by one, this review or that schedule change, prompted by this broadcaster or that new franchise competition, have left it barely twitching into life when it should be striding into the spring sunlight once more.
OK, it will never be what it was. And, what it was, for all but that golden post-war period, resembled a well-meaning, impoverished, amateurish mess.
Except, that is, when it resembled a less than well-meaning, impoverished, shamateurish one.
But, in terms of a sporting contest, the Championship has only got better and better in the last decade. Just think about the last-afternoon title wins by Middlesex, Essex and Warwickshire. The relegation fights. The collapses. The chases. Bat and ball have been balanced enough to create more drama than ever, with captains willing and able to play their hand. Oh and skilful players who have created the most exciting England side in years and battalions of franchise outfits.
There are a million things wrong with it, but its capacity to create drama for its fanbase is not one of them.
I am writing this intro on a Sunday afternoon in front of the television. The IPL was on when I started.
Bash, bash, advert, bash, slide, hype, advert, bash, dancing, advert, hype, wicket, advert, bash, bash, tactical timeout for adverts, bash, bash, advert, slide, dancing, hype, advert, bash, bash…
I have always liked T20 but, frankly, this is all hit and no giggle.
And, unlike the Blast, there is no historic narrative to draw me in.
However, in the Championship, I find myself switching to streams of tight finishes or extraordinary feats no matter who is playing.
Then there is the social side, as exemplified in the two tweets in this section. It is so important in an angry society that has whitewashed over the major mental health cracks created by social media and was left with gaping holes after the isolation of COVID-19. This is sport’s true value. But it does not appear on a balance sheet.
Honestly, I fear for the Championship as a national competition of any relevance. Rather than being passive, I should be lapping it up as we may be in the realm of ‘last chance to see’. It has been there so many times that we just assume it will keep muddling through.
That has to stop.
I wrote a long list of ideas to promote the county game in the last newsletter. Here’s a couple of structural ones I left off. Personally, I find discussing this area all a bit ‘deckchairs-on-the-Titanic’ in the current climate. But here goes.
Three divisions of eight
I love the argument trotted out about ‘if you created the Championship now, it would be very different’. This is the United Kingdom for heaven’s sake. Building haphazardly upon traditional structures without resolving key issues is what we do. You cannot uninvent teams.
However, we know the Championship is unwieldy and uneconomic. Three divisions of eight teams allows a season of 14 games, seven home and away, while concentrating the best teams at the top. Two up, two down. The bottom division would draw up the best from the National Counties or even representation from Wales, Scotland, the Netherlands, Germany and possibly the SACA Academy but without the financial shackles of being full-time. This pressure is also taken away from at least two counties. Though, in years to come, Olympic status might bring game-changing funding for the associate nations. And, in football, all the National League sides and most of the teams in the North and South divisions below have been able to go full-time in the past decade. Building from the bottom up has its advantages.
The 50-over is a retro shirt competition
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.
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Player News - Signings, Contract, Injuries
Signings: Unadkat (Sussex - Overseas - Champ last 5), Harris (Leicestershire - Overseas - Champ), Lister, Farooqi (Nottinghamshire - Overseas - Blast)
Australia allrounder Aaron Hardie withdraws from Surrey stint (Cricketer)
Injury rules Sutherland out of Somerset stint (Somerset CCC)
Our Sheffield Shield Team of the Tournament (Cricket.com.au)
With all the drop-outs, will the replacements come from here?
Alec Stewart to step down as Surrey's director of cricket (Telegraph)
The toughest decision of my working career - Alec Stewart signals Surrey exit (Cricketer)
A true servant to the game.
Robin Hobbs: England and Essex bowler dies aged 81 (BBC News)
Bowling fast is more important than wickets: Rob Key’s message to county bowlers (Telegraph)
George Dobell was spot on in this podcast. Bazball is wonderful entertainment but its record does not support the pedestal upon which it has been placed. And self-praise is no praise.
Amir to miss start of the season with Derbyshire (Derbyshire CCC)
Scott Borthwick on Durham's revival and returning to Division One (Northern Echo)
News, Views and Interviews
ECB women's cricket restructure has 16 counties bidding for eight teams in 2025 (Cricinfo)
Dragons’ Den-style format to decide which counties get women’s teams (Guardian)
Only Derbyshire and Worcestershire have not made a pitch to host one of the eight women’s teams. Frankly, I have struggled to get behind the women’s franchise competition, even though the Sunrisers are based at Chelmsford.
But it is different if they play as Essex.
As I argued last week, the revenue potential of women’s sports has utterly changed in the last five years.
Handing the new franchises to the eight applicants not involved in the tournament-that-shall-not-be-named would help strengthen the roots of the game nationally. I accept this would not hit the biggest population centres and transport links etc. This is about growing the women’s game first and foremost. But it does add to the user case for important new stadium plans at counties like Gloucestershire, Essex and Leicestershire. And, even though they cannot afford it and the MCC would do enough to keep them, Middlesex might be able to justify a permanent move away from Lord’s.
It won’t happen of course. They will just follow the money. They always do.
Phil Salt: I'm Not Spoken About As Much As I'd Like To Be In Test Cricket (Wisden)
What’s that, you say? Phil Salt not spoken about in England terms?
That’s Phil Salt of Kolkata Knight Riders, Adelaide Strikers, Barbados Tridents, Dambulla Giants, Delhi Capitals, Desert Vipers, Islamabad United, Lahore Qalandars, Manchester Originals and Pretoria Capitals.
You takes your money and you makes your choice.
I am being somewhat unfair to Salt as, in the piece, he talks about the primacy of red-ball cricket both as a challenge and in terms of technique. We should be grateful for such an attitude these days. But Pat Cummins ignored the call of the big bucks from the IPL last season and had a stellar year. Chris Woakes did likewise to prepare for the Ashes.
Scotland launch franchise tournament (Cricket Europe)
Alex Hales among players set for new Scottish T10 tournament (Cricketer)
At what point should counties just let them go?
Or at least, as Alec Stewart said, renegotiate contracts to gain a little more upside for themselves. In any form of work, a good freelancer can earn more money for less effort. But they have to look after themselves. Staff members are shackled, earn less but have more security and extra benefits.
Former Cricket Scotland Chair raises 'serious concerns' over damning McKinney Report (Cricinfo)
Yorkshire County Cricket Club deny return of sacked staff (Bradford Telegraph and Argus)
Dusting off kitbag cobwebs and limbering up for the cricket season (Guardian)
Renshaw and the Red Ball (Grockles)
LancsTV launches dedicated channel in India across Jio platforms (Lancashire CCC)
Surrey CEO: Investor interest in English cricket 'a good thing' (City AM)
'Stop-clock' to be permanent rule in limited-overs cricket from 2024 Men's T20 World Cup (BBC Sport)
Vitality extend and expand partnership with ECB (Cricketer)
Mark Nicholas set to be appointed next MCC chairman (Times)
Are we just going to rotate Andrew Strauss, Mark Nicholas, Eoin Morgan and Clare Connor around the top jobs?
Seems like it, at times.
Which brings me to this story…
How rugby and cricket are fighting private school dominance (Telegraph)
For me, UK cricket will be subservient to overseas interests unless this situation changes. If the game continues to be played and run by the seven per cent who go to public school mainly for the benefit of that same seven per cent then the sheer weight of a resurgent, confident and economically powerful India will steamroller everything and bend our domestic game to its will. Because we are not engaging the 93 per cent to anywhere near its potential. So who will care if we do not run our own game?
The job will be all but complete if the growth of UK franchise cricket is placed in the hands of IPL teams, overseas investors or private equity and, at the same time, its growth kills the county game.
Not that Nicholas will mind according to this story from 13 years ago, see below. Of course, we should not be held to account for everything we said back in 2011. But the quotes below follow the pattern of players who owe their careers to counties turning their backs on the game when they reach the broadcasting booth. These are the not custodians of the game, merely the loudest voices.
Mark Nicholas calls for counties to relinquish first-class status (Guardian)
"It would be no shame for some counties to relinquish their first-class status. The battle to survive is self-serving and damaging to the game's resources. Derbyshire, Northamptonshire, Gloucestershire and Worcestershire – to name four of six or seven – exist for no obviously justifiable reason."
"County clubs should be centres of excellence but too many are not, employing mediocre cricketers from elsewhere. They stumble along the breadline, sustained by money from Sky."
And finally…
The story of this newsletter
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I would be in favour of 3 divisions/conferences for the county championship. Hadn't thought of expanding it to include some minor counties. Even split the current 18 counties into 3 would work for me - I appreciate this would see a reduction in the number of games to just 10 each. But maybe was of season play offs of some kind could be introduced too?
Also need to utilise the out grounds for counties again to make it easier for more people to get to a game to watch cricket. Appreciate this would be unlikely for T20 as revenue would be decreased with capacity likely to be less than at the counties main home, but worth a go with the 50 over comp surely - especially on a weekend or if scheduled in the school summer holidays.