No 117, Apr 4 - The Grumbler's County Cricket Newsletter
No 117, Apr 4 - The Grumbler's County Cricket Newsletter
🟢 Championship starts - all the previews you can read 🔴 Gould slams 'conspiracy theories' 🟣 Are you a Luddite or a flea? 🟤 'Selling the silverware' of the domestic game 🔵 Rising player workloads
Here we go.
Unfortunately, the current bitterness around the future of the county game has stained the build-up to the Championship season thanks to the flood of stories, scene-setters and stupid quotes you can see below.
Even for a sport in perpetual crisis, this one seems pretty bad but the leadership are saying to the fans ‘sit down, shut up, everything will be peaches and cream’.
The trouble is the last lot said exactly the same thing.
And, as it turned out, we were right to be fearful.
In fact, we did not protest loudly enough.
Of course, that’s when the powers-that-be deigned to talk to us ‘fleas’ and ‘Luddites’ after deciding the future of the game years ago cheered on by a phalanx of marketers and TV executives behind closed conference room doors.
Despite a huge marketing budget, their plan has not worked so they will toss more TV money at it until they can point to something that suggests it does. But, seemingly, it is no one’s fault, all those consultants were worth it, everyone deserves their bumper bonus and a nice new role somewhere important.
So that’s marvellous.
Clearly, I need to pipe down because everything is just fab and the leadership not only understand my views on the game but has them top of mind in every conversation.
So that’s just super.
Breathe…
Breathe…
Breathe…
OK, that’s taken the edge off it…
Clearly, I am entering this season in the midst of my own personal crisis regarding county cricket.
Surrey will win the title and, unless the other well-resourced teams get it together there are many more to come so, relegation aside, the Championship may portray only kitchen-sink dramas for me. Do not get me wrong, these are part of the way that county cricket sustains me. It really is the most wonderful waste of time ever invented. But a toxic atmosphere is clouding the most optimistic time of the season.
I trust my mood will change if Sam Cook and Jamie Porter reduce Nottinghamshire to 56-5 at lunch on the opening day at Trent Bridge, weather allowing. And I assume that a life-long romance will be rekindled the following Friday when Kent arrive at Chelmsford.
So, for now, in hope and with a dash of desperation… PLAY
County Championship - Round 1 previews
Click on each team for a different preview
Div One
Durham vs Hampshire
Kent vs Somerset
Lancashire vs Surrey
Nottinghamshire vs Essex
Warwickshire vs Worcestershire
Div Two
Derbyshire vs Gloucestershire
Middlesex vs Glamorgan
Sussex vs Northamptonshire
Yorkshire vs Leicestershire
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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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County Championship Previews
Here’s a fine set of previews from a poster on Reddit
Also, I have set up a County Cricket Chat space on Reddit
Deep Extra Cover Season previews - click this link and find them team-by-team
County Championship 2024: team-by-team guide to the new season | County Championship | The Guardian
County Championship 2024: Team guides, key players and expert predictions | The I
County Cricket 2024: List Of Overseas Players In County Championship 2024 | Wisden
County Championship 2024 preview: Surrey look to continue dominance - BBC Sport
County Cricket Schedule 2024: Full County Championship Fixtures List, Dates & Venues | Wisden
County Championship 2024: team-by-team guide to the new season | Yahoo Sport
County cricket needs Bazball | The Spectator
The seven phases of the 2024 County Championship – King Cricket
Player contracts, availability etc
Signings/Contracts: Morley (Lancashire, contract and loan to Derby), Miles (Warwickshire to Glamorgan - loan ), Price (Gloucestershire - 1yr contract), Clark (Sussex - 2yr contract) (Bopara (Northamptonshire - Blast), Swanepoel (Kent - overseas), Finan (Northamptonshire)
Jason Holder: Worcestershire sign former West Indies skipper for opening five games | BBC Sport
What a signing for Championship cricket.
There’s also this…
Yorkshire confirm Brook, Masood and Root availability | Yorkshire CCC
But, on the other hand, there’s this…
Nathan Lyon's availability for Lancashire reduced by Cricket Australia | The Cricketer
Glamorgan dealt double injury blow ahead of 2024 season | BBC Sport
Jack Taylor and Graeme van Buuren: Gloucestershire name captains for 2024 | BBC Sport
Championship Preview Interviews
Ali Orr loving life in Hampshire after controversial move from rivals Sussex | Portsmouth News
James Rew interview: I'm not going to become a Bazballer, I know what my strengths are – Telegraph
Ben Foakes targets top-six runs for Surrey despite England tail dilemma | ESPNCricinfo
John Turner: I've Got Something To Live Up To Now To Prove I Wasn't Just A One-Season Wonder | Wisden
"The squad is good enough to win all three formats": Dawson targets Hampshire titles | Portsmouth News
Why Dan Lawrence and Jordan Cox moved counties | ESPNCricinfo
Josh Hull: The 6ft 7in English left-arm fast bowler who wants to emulate Mitchell Starc | Telegraph
Potts promises more Bazball and title ambition from all-action Durham | The Guardian
How to fix County Championship’s spin crisis | Times
Four England Test Selection Questions The County Championship Could Answer | Wisden
Ed Bayliss has created some help charts and grids outlining the span of the Championship season ahead.
Use of grounds. 12 counties not using an outground
Rest Weeks
News, Views and Interviews
Richard Gould hits back at 'totally mad conspiracies' over 18 counties future - Telegraph
Gap between county cricket’s haves and have-nots is growing dangerous | The Guardian
Reimagining the [tournament that shall not be named] Where does it go from here? | ESPNCricinfo
Also, here’s County Cricket Members Group primer on the current proposals
Naturally, the Luddite comment got everyone riled up again. (Ed Warner's blog, below, revealed it was said FOUR times in the book).
If legacy fans of county cricket are being labelled this way BEFORE the proposed demutualisation that sees their final power over the game disappear then how will they be treated afterwards?
This is not the language of leadership, custodianship or even respect.
It is shabby.
But it is what we have come to expect in English cricket.
Many of us have spent a lifetime supporting the game with our attention and hard-earned cash. And if those running it deign to allow a future we can believe in, we will be here for a lot longer.
I am beyond tired of cricket’s leaders saying one thing in one job, then the opposite in another. Or making big changes, taking big money then swanning off.
The feeling was that Gould and Thompson were cut from a different cloth. Despite a promising start, frankly, I am not seeing it. Of course, they inherited a dire position and, to a large extent, their hands were tied by a Sky contract disgracefully agreed by Teflon Tom Harrison just before he was pushed out.
After everything that has gone before, building a working consensus is incredibly hard in UK cricket and they remain the best option we have. They can only be truly judged by the legacy they leave. Perhaps there is a long-term plan, we can only live in hope.
That said, they cannot be given a free pass or we will get more of Harrison’s ilk. Or Colin Graves or Giles Clarke or any of the others who presided over the decline of English cricket over the past 20 years. We cannot stop shrugging and accepting what we are given.
The quotes below in the Cricinfo piece angered me much more than the Luddite label.
They are treating the current situation as if it is a natural disaster occurrence.
Utter garbage.
Everything has been entirely man-made - what changes, what is allowed to die and what ‘is going nowhere’.
People have made conscious decisions to put us where we are (yes, often in response to outside events and external forces) and the system that allowed this to happen has not only failed to hold them to account but, often, actively rewarded them.
And, in cricket especially, those at the top table tend to come from a small sliver of society.
There is an innate arrogance in these quotes.
I read them as: ‘Cricket has changed. You did not ask for this version of change and we deliberately blocked you from the creation process but now we have neutered you please stop fighting because, hey, that might damage our vision. Also, hand over your last remaining powers so we can do everything we want and, of course, keep paying for those tickets and satellite TV subscriptions.’
Sod that.
This is 2024. You think cricket is my only entertainment option? In the attention economy, a million flashy things are fighting for my eyeballs and credit card details.
My family would not care one iota if I did not watch cricket again. Frankly, I have to carve out time to go.
To put it in language the marketers will understand, if you diminish and dilute the product of its value and, critically in sport, its meaning then I will simply shop elsewhere.
By now, I fully expected to be a life member of Essex. As it stands, I cannot guarantee I will pay my fees next season. I feel that detached.
Speaking of quotes, in the Telegraph piece, Gould talks of the ‘conspiracy theories’ surrounding cutting some counties, talking of cricket’s record in comparison to football and rugby. But he does not understand that he is sending his sport the same unsustainable way, dependent on television and/or private equity money.
Just because 18 first-class counties survive, it does not mean there is any point in their existence. Using a comparison I often employ, speedway still exists but, compared to its 1970s heyday, it is irrelevant. Eight super counties and 10 limpet teams left in the lower leagues without hope or ambition are no good for anyone apart from the few at the top. And the bank balances of the players and execs working for them.
Handing over control to those putting money above everything leaves the game open to vandalism. Not by the Richards, who I truly believe care about the county game, but those who come after them at the ECB, and those who buy clubs/franchises from those who bought them, who bought them from those who bought them in the first place.
We are deliberately creating degrees of separation from the soul of the game.
Since Leicester City did the unthinkable and won the Premier League, the big clubs have done their best to ensure it never happens again. They had already won a bigger slice of the overseas TV money before they tried to rip up the game entirely with the European Super League. On the face of it, FFP is a sound idea but it has been used to pull up the ladder between the big six and the rest. Next year’s new Champions League format will only widen that. The 115 charges against Manchester City have been delayed in a legal quagmire but the handful against teams at the bottom have been dealt with and the asterisks already appear against their names in the league table.
In short, money has been used to create divisions within the divisions.
Part of the appeal of county cricket to me is that it has largely existed as an antidote to this.
But, they will say this does not grow the game sufficiently quickly and it must be said that Premier League crowds and viewing figures are doing just fine. The hype machine still works on the young and monetisable. That feeds the beast, for now. But demand for traditional sport is softening among Gen Z. TV used to worry about ‘cord-cutters’ but a group glued to TikTok and YouTube will never sign up in the first place. Largely, they expect content for free. Personality sports events, like pay-per-view boxing bouts with Jake Paul and KSI, play well. Crucially, Premier League media revenue per game is going down. To achieve the same money (and pay the players) more and more games have been sold. They will re-organise at Super League to make the rich richer long before they run out of assets to sell.
For all his good intentions and the difficult environment, Gould must know he is opening up cricket to all this. Certainly, English cricket must change, investment is desperately required and the counties have long needed their heads bashing together. But casting the game adrift from its county moorings will mean it moves with the shifting tides of external influences, including some that may act against the interests of English cricket. Especially if they hold the purse strings.
Unintended consequences can confound the most benevolent and altruistic decision-makers. It is safe to assume rugby union’s leaders and their private equity investors had no intention for Worcester Warriors, Wasp and London Irish to go bust.
But they did.
Conspiracy theories develop when people lose trust in their institutions and thrive in atmospheres of suspicion and secrecy.
No matter who is in charge now, the ECB have only themselves to blame for the attitude that legacy fans show towards them.
I have pointed out before that money will be made from allowing counties to move from members’ hands to private ones.
Where will that money go?
I am sure we will be told that it will go back into the game.
In which case, I am sure that the ECB or counties themselves could legally contract against private or personal gain.
You know, just to be on the safe side.
Yorkshire 2.0: how Colin Graves plans to rebuild county’s reputation | The Guardian
Graves runs through his greatest hits in this piece. Everything is great, never done anything wrong, cannot understand the dislike because, well, look at the money I have made.
Just like Teflon Tom Harrison, he is still in a position of power in elite sport. The same people get the key jobs. Never being properly held to account.
To paraphrase an old saying, referees and politicians are two of the roles that attract precisely the wrong person. You want altruists who stay in the background, you get egotists who love to show they are in charge.
In sport, you want custodians who realise they are essentially entrepreneurial care workers. They look after the past, present and especially the future, valuing both the financial and non-financial. However, as more money comes into the game, the latter does not matter.
I have stopped going to sports business conferences these days. Largely it is just cynics in suits (no ties of course) celebrating how they have sweated that asset, squeezed that deal and only interested in more ways to monetise. They will say it is much more than that and will make sure there are enough community scheme successes to brag about in the shareholder’s report but their actions and focus reveal the truth.
In the piece, Graves trumpets his success in money (Costcutter and a record TV deal) and things he had little hand in, England’s on-field success.
What we saw when he finally deigned to turn up to the DCMS Select Committee was a sour performance lacking in humility and accountability. Famously, in his previous one, he said fans were consulted over the tournament-that-shall-not-be-named. As ever, there was no accountability for that statement.
As I have said, I will not put a penny in Yorkshire’s pocket while he is in charge. We must allow everyone the opportunity to demonstrate change but this piece and the DCMS performance suggest he sees no need for it.
Then again, if county cricket continues to have leadership like this then I will not be watching at all. Because, in the last five years, it has managed to achieve something I previously thought impossible.
Engender indifference in me.
Magnificent 10 for Derbyshire ahead of new county season | The Cricketer
Alan Wilkins appointed as new president of Glamorgan | ESPNCricinfo
While I have a healthy disregard for many of the moans from modern players given their financial demands are fuelling much of the change in county cricket (and unlike others, they are given a free pass), the physical toll is very real and under-appreciated by fans.
UK cricket can not prioritise. It only adds, it does not take away. So the fixture list is messy, unfair and suboptimal for everyone, especially players.
You could argue my stance on the domestic game is resistant to taking something away. But then, in my opinion, they are adding the wrong thing. The failure to prioritise stems from a lack of consensus about the way forward. But the MO of the Graves/Harrison period at the ECB worked to destroy trust and cohesion, see the conspiracy theories story above.
Cricket is full of players who have broken down and never recovered. Over-use for short-term goals can lead to long-term problems and members must shoulder some of the blame for having unfair expectations at times.
We know that short-formats and higher-paying cricket will take precedence. And if that is all they want to do then bite the bullet and go fully freelance. Cut the umbilical cord to the counties. Good luck to them, albeit in the future those clubs might need to look for some sort of personal recompense for their investment in talent creation.
It all means those willing to go through the blood, sweat and tears of the Championship grind deserve to be cherished and cut a little more slack.
Middlesex CEO: Ignoring investment offers for [Tournament-that-shall-not-be-named] would be foolish – City AM
Ollie Pope - 'I can't imagine Surrey without Alec Stewart' | ESPNCricinfo
Life after Stuart Broad: What did England’s next lot of quick bowlers get up to this winter? | King Cricket
The 10 most picturesque cricket grounds in Britain | Telegraph
And, finally…
The story of this newsletter
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