No 126, June 9 - The Grumbler's County Cricket Newsletter
🟣 Bashir loaned, Carse banned, Woakes absence explained 🟤 Blast underway 🔵 Essex charged 🟢 MCC members to vote on franchise sale 🔴 The best blogs 🟠 Update on the future of this newsletter
WARNING: If you don’t like the political stuff then skip this bit
So I have spent some time mentally putting my toys back in the pram after tossing them overboard last week.
Thanks to those who contacted me personally about that rather curt edition. I appreciate your support and the coffees.
For me, the decision to sell franchises in the tournament-that-shall-not-be-named is the third major nail in the coffin of domestic cricket as we know it. The first was the initial “ambush”, to use Richard Gould’s words at the time, when it was introduced. The second was Teflon Tom Harrison agreeing the extension with Sky just before he left. It stopped The Richards from changing tack, even if they wanted to.
Before you say it, I realise I have said all this many, many, many times before. Hence my overall feeling that this blog really has nowhere to go anymore.
Is it really worth it when the fundamental questions have never been addressed? There is no point in arguing over the right shade of lipstick to put on this pig of a situation.
Then again, we are in the midst of a General Election campaign in which, despite all the bluster, the biggest issue is the decline of living standards and rising costs.
Yet, no one is talking about the effects of Brexit, let alone the possibility of rowing back on it.
Everyone knows it has failed. Everyone knows we have harmed ourselves. Everyone knows we were lied to. However, it must be said that, unlike you-know-what, there was an undeniable appetite for it among the general public at the time, if not now.
Of course, the conmen behind it are now saying it would have worked if you had done it our way. This is the Singapore-on-Thames vision of low regulation, high investment with wealth trickling down. However, in reality, the UK has very rarely had the bravery, conviction, trust or altruism to make such leaps of faith. And nothing significant ever trickles down anyway. So now we are stuck in the worst of all worlds.
Likewise, the tournament-that-shall-not-be-named could work exactly as they say it will. The counties could use this one-off sale of the family silverware to improve their grounds, diversify their businesses, develop their pathways and set themselves up for the next few decades. Then the ongoing wealth of the new event could be shared fairly and wisely for the good of the game.
Yet, as with everything associated with this competition, it is a major risk, especially as the backstory of this event has been driven by money and screamed untrustworthiness.
Cricketers’ chief Lynch: ‘The Ashes could become like the Ryder Cup’ | The Guardian
The men who know the price of everything but the value of nothing | The Bouncer Cricket Blog
Of course, given the circumstances of the counties - rising costs and flatlining money from the ECB - doing nothing could be fatal. However, this latest move confirms the future financial foundations of the game are being built on the sand of the new venture, not the bedrock of the traditional game. It hands too much control to those who do not have English cricket as a priority. There seems to be an assumption that all the investors will be cuddly, cricketing-loving capitalists waving Union Jacks. Undoubtedly it will make more money than the T20 Premier League alternative proposed by Gould back in the day but a greater share of that revenue is likely to go into the pockets of investors, execs, players and agents, not growing the game. And, as David Murray says in the video below, if the opportunity is that great then why not do it ourselves?
Of course, if English cricket was capable of squeezing all the potential out of you-know-what then it would have done the same thing over T20. After all, part of the problem is that the same suits have been running the game for the last 30 years. But, in a move so typical of the UK, we invented something great then sat back and allowed others to beat us at our own game. Or at least make a better business out of it.
As Jarrod Kimber says in the video above, the whole thing has had a whiff of panic about it from the start. But a much stronger stench has come from the lack of honesty, post-rationalisation and we’re-just-right-you’re-just-old arrogance.
Of course, circumstances change decisions and, by their very nature, it is hard to draw a definitive roadmap for any new innovation. Still, I remember lots of enthusiastic talk about free-to-air TV and licensing the format abroad, less about flogging controlling stakes in franchises to overseas investors. But, like that border in the Irish Sea, it has suddenly become pivotal to the discussion.
Honesty, I really do not know what to do with this newsletter anymore because constantly pointing out the elephant in the room is something we do not seem to want or enjoy in this country. Believe me, it’s boring and annoying for me too.
The alternative is to simply swallow the blue pill and tweet happy cricket pictures. Unfortunately, I feel there is much more at stake than that.
So I have decided to take a leaf out of the sports business industry in the UK by not making a firm decision and kicking the can down the road.
I’ll go to the end of the season with this newsletter and frankly see if writing about the county game is worth it anymore.
The LinkedIN post from David Murray, above, drew a significant reaction when I tweeted it last week.
So I thought I would dig in a bit further. Here’s a YouTube video of our chat…
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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.
The Blast
County cricket fans deserve better than the T20 Blast’s scattered start | Cricket | The Guardian
T20 Blast 2024 roundup: Sam Billings hundred takes Kent to stunning win | The Cricketer
Players news, signings and contracts
Shoaib Bashir: Worcestershire sign England and Somerset spinner | BBC Sport
Falcons sign Fletcher for Vitality Blast | Derbyshire CCC
Mohammad Amir to join Falcons for six T20s | Derbyshire CCC
Ashton Agar joins Northants as short-term replacement for Sikandar Raza | ESPNcricinfo
Lewis to join Leicestershire on loan | Somerset CCC
Blake Cullen: Middlesex fast bowler extends contract until 2026 | BBC Sport
Hampshire Hawks Batter Ali Orr breaks arm in Surrey T20 Blast loss | BBC Sport
Durham and England bowler Carse banned by cricket regulator over betting breaches | ESPNcricinfo
News, Views and Interviews
Essex CCC charged in historic racist abuse inquiry | BBC Sport
Essex chief executive says they will not name those involved in alleged racism | BBC Sport
Essex players found guilty of historic racism to face no punishment by ECB | Telegraph
Essex face points deduction over charges of systemic racism | Times ($)
This is just not good enough.
We all get the difficulty, complexity and legal minefields through which we must tiptoe regarding charges of historic racism but look where we have ended up.
No individuals punished, apart from those sanctioned by Essex themselves
No one named at all
The victims so concerned about the backlash they will receive that they have decided to step back
(For reference, here’s my approach)
As George Dobell says on the Talksport podcast, above, where is the independent regulator in all this?
I had great hopes that this body may start healing a few of the self-inflicted wounds in English cricket. However, it turns out, its scope is very limited. But given the ICEC report, racism must be A1 on its agenda.
Not only must justice be done but it must be seen to be done. The almighty mess at Yorkshire has had a knock-on effect in the Essex case and the body designed to sort it out has not stepped up.
Nothing has changed.
Village cricketer's shock at bowling Kumar Sangakkara | Telegraph
County cricket star joins coaching staff at Malvern College | The Malvern Observer
Ex-Premier League chairman takes over at Northamptonshire CCC | BBC News
Lancashire Cricket launches Lanky & Friends animated series | Broadcast
This is a good idea.
Shaheen Afridi in talks with Canada's Global T20 after you-know-what withdrawal | ESPNcricinfo
United States League could be the death knell for county cricket at home | Yahoo Sport
Major League Cricket’s expansion plan poses a threat to English competitions | The Guardian
This is one of the main reasons that the tournament-that-shall-not-be-named exists - matching player wages in other events so they do not leave English cricket.
I believe this is a fool’s errand.
I want players paid well. They deserve it, they grow the game. But not so well that their demands threaten the future health of the counties that created them.
In most ‘challenger’ sports, stars are made in international competition on terrestrial television. Just consider the rising profile of women’s footballers over the past few years or the Olympians who become household names on the basis of a couple of successes four years apart.
Perhaps the only recent exception is Luke Littler, thanks to Matchroom’s revolution in darts
In the past, the company’s founder, Barry Hearn, has said that England’s top cricketers could walk down Brentwood High Street without being stopped for a selfie. If they want to change that then playing far-flung franchise cricket is not the answer.
Their bank balances will benefit from that decision of course but if that is their primary motivation then they do not deserve my interest.
MCC to give members choice over whether to sell stake in you-know-what | Telegraph
It’s so ironic. The ultra-rich members’ club who do not need the money is going to have a vote on selling stakes in the franchises.
Then again, as I have written in The Cricket Paper this week, “the current issue raising Members’ ire, whether to sell off franchises in the tournament-that-shall-not-be-named, involves understanding the devil in a detailed legal document running into thousands of pages. While, by rights, binding members’ votes should be going on throughout the first-class counties, are they actually best-placed to make this pivotal, one-time, potentially life-saving decision?”
The real problem is one of trust in our leadership.
Stephen Fry lambasts Marylebone Cricket Club as 'stinking of privilege and classism’ | Telegraph
Stephen Fry criticises MCC at Hay Festival: ‘Stinking of privilege and classism’ | The Independent
'I should keep my big mouth shut': Stephen Fry apologises for cricket remarks | Telegraph
Ignorant MCC tirade by Stephen Fry fuelling abuse of middle-aged white men | Telegraph
This was an incredible storm in a teacup.
Fry says something that, for me, is entirely true and certainly in keeping with his other views. Then apologises and suffers a ‘pile-on’.
“The main barriers to ‘inclusion’ at MCC are a 25-year waiting list and a high annual subscription, not racism, elitism and classism,” writes Simon Heffer in the Telegraph completely failing to see the link between the two.
New records for the Peakfan Blog | Peakfan
Essex plan £40m Chelmsford redevelopment in bid to host England matches | The I
The dying of the light on first-class cricket | Paddy’s Sports View
Wreaths laid in MCC museum to mark D-Day 80th anniversary | Middlesex CCC
Everyday I Write The Book | Rain Stopped Play, inspection at 3
Geoffrey Boycott: Sixty years on from my Test debut, cricket has changed for good – and bad
And finally…
The story of this newsletter
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