No 12, May 12 - The Grumbler's County Cricket Newsletter
All the Championship previews | Up to 80% of Warks streamers are millennials | Hameed redeemed | Hampshire rebranded | Atherton's quality | ECB's financial concerns
OK, this season is getting really busy now. It is game after game after game… and it’s great. There is even more good news in the stories below - the Championship will be on Sky for the next month and the YouTube streams show young people ARE interested in red-ball cricket. Also, starting this Sunday, yours truly is writing 2,000 words a week in The Cricket Paper. Half of this is The Grumbler column. It’s tagline is “…...probing the right areas of the county game”. It all means this newsletter might be a bit rushed, please excuse any typos.
And if you want to get this newsletter every week, subscribe here.
Here are all the previews of this week’s games. Each team links to a different story.
Essex v Derbyshire
Sussex v Kent
Glamorgan v Yorkshire
Middlesex v Hampshire
Durham v Worcestershire
Somerset v Surrey
Game-based News
Teenage wicketkeeper set for Yorkshire CCC debut (Yorkshire Post)
County record holder Coles signs Sussex deal (Brighton and Hove Independent)
Tip-top Stanlake sees red for county stint (Cricket.com.au)
County cricket talking points: Notts send message with big win over Essex (The Guardian)
Tweets of the Week
News and Views
Haseeb Hameed: ‘Nottinghamshire have helped me fall in love with cricket again’ (iNews)
Hameed’s re-emergence is one of the feel-good stories of the last couple of years. He was dismissed after his failures at England level and this led to a general loss of confidence. Now he's back in the runs at Trent Bridge.
Hampshire Hawks Are Back! (AgeasBowl)
OK, so the badge might look like a Ryanair rebrand but this is good news overall. I always thought the Hampshire Royals sounded like a variety of potato.
Mike Atherton has grown into one of the cricket writers I most respect. He is always considered and reasoned, possessing respect for the traditions alongside a desire to move forward. These days, the route to a post-cricket media career seems to be a combination of a) get a hair transplant b) go on a dancing show c) be a bit of a dick. All while wholeheartedly backing the interests of those who employ you. Atherton is refreshingly different. (Link = $)
Surrey member fails in bid to reclaim fee after 2020 lock-out (EPSNCricinfo)
One of the most pleasing aspects of county cricket's Covid-19 story was the generosity of members. The vast majority of whom donated their annual fees. That's why this story is disappointing. It sounds like the complainant wanted a refund of their fees but not to give up the benefits they brought.
This is now a familiar tale. Somerset are getting 250,000 views for each game, Warwickshire got 60,000 for the first day of the Bears v Pears, of which one per cent come from the USA and 60-80 per cent are 18 to 34 years-old.
Indian Premier League 2021: English counties offer to host postponed games (BBC)
Retirement problems and a changing, confusing calendar (AddisArmyCricket)
All too familiar fears on future of the County Championship, the overall cricket priorities and fitting them in the calendar.
A nice piece in the Mail on one of the stars of the County Championship so far. His Warnesque wicket also ‘won’ the competition's social media for a week or so. But one thing. He is a rising star with a big county and this is a story in the most popular online newspaper in the world. Yet there are no comments. Zip. Zilch.
How are England's Test contenders faring in the County Championship? (TheCricketer)
Of course, this is troubling news and, let’s be fair, the ECB have done some fine work over the last year of lockdown - swiftly securing the counties’ finances and putting on last summer's international series. But name me another governing body that has launched an entirely new competition during this pandemic. The XFL, a jazzed-up American Football competition, was closed in April 2020 just five weeks after it started and the clubs laid off their newly-appointed staffs. The ECB’s reserves were already lowered because the tournament-that-shall-not-be-named was costing more and more. It is always prominently PR-ed that ECB CEO Tom Harrison took a temporary pay cut of 25per cent during the pandemic. And this is to his credit. Of course, he'd got a 17 per cent bump the year before and, it seems safe to assume he was the top earner in these accounts on £512,356, down from £580,459. Meanwhile "due to a raft of redundancies, the number of employees on the ECB payroll dropped by 58".
The Hundred: A death knell for traditional cricket? (Varsity)
Podcasts I like…
It started as a magazine and now it is a podcast. Links: Apple Podcast and website
Links I like…
Fill up the Cricket Supporters Association survey
County Cricket Matters - Buy the magazine direct or on Kindle
Finally…
Yes, I am still plugging my book on county cricket and midlife.
Buy through Amazon or through me for an autographed copy
Finally, finally, let’s end on a high…
Watch this, if just for the carnage after the final run is scored. It is like the charge of the Light Brigade from the stands as the players hack their way through the crowd towards safety. Also Bob Willis’ post-match interview is a curmudgeon’s delight.