No 124, May 24 - The Grumbler's County Cricket Newsletter
🟢 All the county previews 🔴 Who do you trust in English cricket? 🟣 Yorks heading for demutualisation? 🟤 Signings at Somerset, Hants, Leics 🔵 Yorks to get women's team early 🟠 Worcs return home
Trust, or the lack of it, is at the heart of English cricket’s problems right now.
Members are being asked to fall in line with the sale of franchises, give up their last rights (before the game gets its own final sacrament) and believe in the game’s leadership one final time.
No one is promising a pain-free route to a brighter future. Instead, they argue, quite bluntly, that the county game has no future at all unless we sign on the dotted line.
However, trust is a two-way street and why should members hold fire on what Mike Atherton describes as “their last arrow” (see below) if they believe the leadership do not have their interests at heart?
In wider society, trust in our institutions and leadership is at a record low.
Just this week, the UK has seen a triple whammy of inquiries into long-running scandals – infected blood on Tuesday, Paula Vennells on the post office on Wednesday and beyond then Simon Case on Covid on Thursday.
In each case, there were media stories going back years/decades revealing mere fractions of the real truth. But the standard practice of ‘deny, delay, deflect and disparage’ worked in the short and medium term.
It took an ITV drama to finally get justice in the post office scandal and, before that, Hillsborough.
Saying sorry now amidst a fog of convenient amnesia is a pitiful portrayal of holding power to account in the UK.
Of course, this is the serious stuff, people’s lives.
In the wonderful nonsense world of sport, we have seen Manchester City lift their sixth Premier League title in seven years (and they will probably add the FA Cup on Saturday) despite a long-term investigation that brought 115 charges for breaching financial rules. Why are we still waiting for a judgment when other Premier League teams have gained asterisks in the league table for more modern and less serious misdemeanours?
Elsewhere, the leadership at Manchester United and Chelsea have been horribly mismanaging their vast potential while their fans are squeezed more and more. Liverpool and Arsenal have had their fair share of protests against their ownership in the last decade or so.
But, increasingly, criticism is just noise, easily soaked up and mitigated via weapons of mass distraction. Then there is doubt, the best friend of the crisis communications professional.
Cricket likes to think it is better than all this.
It was long dominated by the Blazers and consistently giving platforms to the likes of Andrew Strauss and Mark Nicholas on anything outside of the boundary rope suggests something of that ethos lingers on.
The Suits took over when the ECB replaced the TCCB in the 1990s. More professional, more modern, more money, they argued. It has not really worked. A string of poor strategic decisions and failure to capitalise on a few good ones leaves English cricket struggling for relevance.
But, still, we are asked to trust our leaders. Not that there is much choice.
Let’s leave aside those who left recently with their tails between their legs and a bulging bank balance. Let’s leave aside reports of serious discrepancies over profitability which, it seems, have just been brushed aside.
The current leadership of the ECB has u-turned on its position on the tournament-that-shall-not-be-named ($). This week, Colin Graves has done a 180 on demutualisation at Yorkshire after firmly suggesting it would not happen.
When you-know-what was launched two of the key selling points were free-to-air television coverage and the uniqueness of the format which would allow it to be licensed to other countries. Well, there is no sign of a renewal from the BBC but every indication that you-know-what will morph into a conventional T20.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, things have changed, they say, but hey, trust us.
You only have to read the tweets from the Lancashire CC Members Group this week to see how trust has broken down between the fans and the club at Old Trafford.
Compare that with Essex, who held their own virtual members meeting to discuss the sale of franchises. Initially, I was sceptical but they were candid about the overall situation and their current thinking. And shock, horror, they were even praised by members in the comments for their openness. I won’t be sharing further details on this meeting because they asked us not to.
This is how trust works.
The sale of franchises is a pivotal decision for the future of the county game. As Atherton says, maybe the last one members will ever truly make. Recently, someone described it to me as having to cut off a finger to save the hand.
A painful truth.
It has been argued that the game needs a Mick Lynch, a strong, articulate irritant to hold the leaders and a sometimes supine media to account. I see that.
But what it might really require is a David Attenborough, a venerable expert trusted by the powerful and the powerless who is capable of unifying the sport.
Otherwise, I fear that, if cricket has any remaining relevance in the decades to come, this moment could be the subject of one of those far-too-late, far-too-weak inquiries.
The leaders might have conveniently forgotten what has transpired by then.
But I won’t.
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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.
County Championship - previews
Click on a different team for a different preview
Div One
Durham vs Somerset
Hampshire vs Surrey
Kent vs Essex
Lancashire vs Warwickshire
Worcestershire vs Nottinghamshire
Div Two
Gloucestershire vs Derbyshire
Leicestershire vs Glamorgan
Middlesex vs Sussex
Northamptonshire vs Yorkshire
Last week’s round-ups…
County cricket: thrills and spills galore in a super round of games | The Guardian
Players - moves, contracts and other news
Riley Meredith: Somerset sign Australia fast bowler - BBC Sport
Yorkshire County Cricket Club sign Vishwa Fernando for County Championship 2024 | Parpare
Ottniel Baartman: Hampshire sign South African seamer for end of Blast - BBC Sport
Ian Holland joins Leicestershire on loan from Hampshire - BBC Sport
Matt Carter: Nottinghamshire bowler leaves Trent Bridge after nine years - BBC Sport
Somerset offer Shoaib Bashir out on loan as Jack Leach returns to full fitness | Telegraph
A pretty incredible chain of events for one of England’s winter stars.
Jamie Smith: I'm ready to keep for England, even if I don't for Surrey
Jamie Overton Ruled Out Of England Test Summer With Back Stress Fracture
Ian Chappell - Australian cricket has a Will Pucovski problem | ESPNcricinfo
News, Views and Interviews
Counties agree [tournament-that-shall-not-be-named] deal – now watch the money roll in | Times
The [tournament-that-shall-not-be-named]: After counties agree funding model, who will invest? | Times
My understanding is that an agreement over the funding distribution and ‘the direction of travel’ is still some way away. Then again, it’s Mike Atherton writing these pieces, one of the most trustworthy voices throughout this whole sorry saga.
While we wait for the truth to unfold here’s a primer on sport and private equity. And Owen Slot’s nuanced but highly critical view on CVC’s role in Premiership rugby.
Selling the future? Private equity’s role in sport » The Long Game | Sports Business
CVC deal has sucked the life out of the Gallagher Premiership | Times
In football, the days of Jack Walker, a successful local businessman, taking over Blackburn and leading them to the title are long gone.
He was a millionaire owner.
Now you need to be a billionaire in order to pay players the millions they demand.
That is where private equity comes in (it is the only way to realise the required money) and, despite what anyone says, traditional custodianship leaves.
It becomes all about money.
ECB in U-turn as Yorkshire women to join 'tier one' league after snub sparked backlash
The allocation of tier-one women’s teams has been poorly handled. The announcement of the original eight was met by an array of press releases from the overlooked that barely concealed their anger at the allocation process and its subsequent communication. Now Yorkshire, in desperate financial trouble, get theirs early after missing out on coming in first. How? Why?
More governance questions for the ECB. And a penny for the thoughts of Durham, Kent and Sussex among others.
But it won’t be unless the non-hosts stand firm, supported by their membership. The history of this entire event has been based on removing the game’s traditional checks and balances. Not that some of them were not obstacles to progress. Having achieved most of that process through fair means and foul, it is naive to expect them to revert to altruistic custodianship without being forced.
Yorkshire members told club must 'demutualise to survive' and cease member ownership | Telegraph
Yorkshire: Chairman Colin Graves says club needs private structure | BBC Sport
Click on the video below at 31.25 to see Alex Sobel, Leeds Central and Headingley MP, question Graves on the issue of demutualisation at the DCMS Select Committee three months ago. Or go here
Questions are already being asked in high places. But I expect nothing to happen.
Why? Because it never does.
This week, Graves has reiterated that he will not financially benefit from any future sale.
Why not back that up with a cast-iron contract and end the speculation?
Chair of CMS select committee writes to Graves over Yorkshire demutualisation plans | ESPNcricinfo
'It's Just Pointless' - Andrew Strauss Bemoans Lack Of Progress On English Domestic Schedule | Wisden
See the intro. For many, trust in Strauss was destroyed when he led a review into the game that excluded the tournament-that-shall-not-be-named.
It is like ignoring Brexit when looking at the UK’s current political and financial position.
Too many times we are asked to consciously disregard the elephants in the room.
Speaking of which…
Arron Banks launches 'Glexit' campaign to take control of Gloucestershire | Telegraph
County cricket desperately needs radical thinkers to save game | Telegraph
Yes, county cricket does need radical thinkers. But I fear it will get rascals and chancers because there is an opportunity for money to be made.
Demutualisation opens the door for major investment but also a quick flip five years down the line.
Why do you think the ownership of major football clubs has moved into foreign hands in the past few decades?
It is to make money. Not for the game but for themselves.
Chief Executive Will Brown to leave Gloucestershire | ESPNcricinfo
Yorkshire cricket: First woman 'proud' to lead pitch preparations - BBC News
He doesn't miss - Sam Cook tipped to replace retirement-bound James Anderson | The Cricketer
Visually impaired student's joy at playing competitive cricket - BBC News
And finally…
The story of this newsletter
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