No 129, July 7 - The Grumbler's County Cricket Newsletter
🟢 Reflecting on County Cricket Day 🟤 Cracker at Cheltenham 🔵 Kent, Leics, Essex signings 🟠 Wanna help cricket? Ask hard questions, get the right people in the room 🔴 How to value young cricketers
In many ways, it has been a good week for the domestic red ball game.
County Cricket Day arrived at the last minute with a plan written on the back of a napkin but it clearly tapped into a rich seam of goodwill. I was one of 6,000 at The Oval on Sunday, the biggest crowd for a day of Championship cricket at that ground this century. My daughter came with me. She likes scoring more than watching the actual game right now but I will gladly take that as a win.
The following day, I returned with two friends, one a cricket fan, one not. The latter enjoyed the convivial, easy-going and ‘not-football’ atmosphere so much he is talking about buying a membership at Kent, his local club.
As I said on the 98 Not Out podcast below, there must be a niche for one quiet, contemplative and, perhaps older sport, even if the market is not that big.
Then, on Wednesday afternoon, Glamorgan and Gloucestershire produced that incredible tie at Cheltenham. Though not my team and not even in their division, I was glued to the stream for the final hour.
After four days of cricket, all four results were possible with two balls remaining.
By the time this weekend is over, we will have seen England play a quarter-final in a major football tournament, the British Grand Prix and wall-to-wall Wimbledon on free-to-air television, but nothing will come near to the tension of the final few overs at the college. I was jumping around the room at that final-ball grab by a gloveless James Bracey even though I had no dog in the fight.
However, as a resigned and beaten Ray Liotta says when turning to the camera in the final scene of Goodfellas, “and now it’s all over”.
This tweet explains what I mean.
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County Championship - review
Glamorgan fall agonisingly short as thrilling record run chase ends in tie with Gloucestershire | Telegraph
'Incredible game' - Marnus Labuschagne recounts drama of epic County Championship tie | ESPNcricinfo
Sam Northeast Admits Glamorgan Left Numb But Proud After Epic Record Tie | Dai Sport
Tom Lawes rules over Essex as Surrey tighten Championship grip | Cricinfo
Surrey’s festival of cricket drew a huge crowd – let’s extend it to every county | The Guardian
Jordan Cox: Essex batter has appendix operation | BBC Sport
James Anderson takes six wickets in 36 balls for Lancashire | Times
James Anderson: Lancashire return possible says head coach | BBC Sport
The Reddit thread on the County Championship games this week
Player news, signings and contracts
Tom Rogers: Kent sign Australian seamer for T20 Blast | BBC Sport
Paul Stirling: Leicestershire sign Ireland batter for T20 Blast | BBC Sport
Harry Duke signs two-year contract extension with Yorkshire | Yorkshire County Cricket Club
Archie Vaughan joins Rocky Flintoff in England Under-19 squad | BBC Sport
What is that stat about children of England players playing for their country too? Certainly, cricket seems to be one of the most nepotistic sports out there. See last story
Dan Weston’s work tries to take the bias out of team-building in cricket by looking at the numbers. Here’s his latest piece on giving opportunity to young players, a perennial problem in county cricket.
News, Views and Interviews
Ollie Robinson's England career is in tatters – he was the next Stuart Broad | Daily Telegraph
Councillors to discuss future of cricket at New Road | Worcester News
Vatican cricket team begins ‘Light of Faith’ UK tour | Catholic Herald
Clock cricket helps dementia | ECB
Sussex Cricket launches Hidden Disability Wristband | Sussex Cricket
This is a very nice touch from Sussex
Thirty years since Richard Johnson made history | Middlesex CCC
Introducing the Eurilait Speed Gun! | Somerset
This event took place this week.
Here’s the agenda. Here’s the list of contributors.
Here’s one report on what happened: Solutions to save Test cricket discussed at MCC summit | The Age
And therein lies the problem with cricket in this country and beyond.
It is looking to plot the future of the game using an agenda set by an elite few, posing questions from an elite few and finding answers from an elite few.
No one can be sure if the new cabinet will be better than the last. But it must help the country that its public v private school make-up broadly matches that of the nation it governs. We now have a housing secretary who lived in social housing, an education secretary who was on free school meals, a science minister who left school without qualifications and then studied as a mature student. Not a load of public school boys preoccupied with playing out their pubescent ego trips while 22 per cent of the country struggles to feed themselves properly.
Clearly, I was not at this event. But it strikes me that we need to hear a lot less from the likes of Strauss, Nicholas and Connor et al. They have had their turns to make change and, ‘quelle surprise’, they almost always back the incumbent and the powerful.
Forget all the bluster. The data suggest it was competence, fitness to govern and, most importantly, proper understanding of the public’s problems needing to be solved that caused the collapse of the Conservatives this week.
These have all been clear concerns for those steering English cricket. But we never get change at the top. `In the recent This is Entertainment podcast, the excellent if acerbic Marina Hyde preserved particular criticism for that organisation when assessing the media strategy of all the governing bodies in English sport. Their reputation runs way before them.
I found one example while reading Ben Bloom’s Batting for Time this week. It concerns the genesis of the tournament-that-shall-not-be-named. The ECB’s long-standing marketing agency attended every developmental meeting. Their role was ““championing the fan” and attempting to find a way ‘to help more people love cricket’”.
Err… so… you did not ask any actual fans to champion the fans then?
The current lot might not be the demographic you are targetting but, as the book points out, they may well be related to them or coaching them. And you are trying to find out what makes people love cricket in the long term. Not just turn up because of a marketing blitz or the fact it is a cheap night out. Maybe try and ask people whose opinions you might not like.
Instead, you chose an agency… well thought off and presumably armed to the hilt with survey data on fans perfectly segmented by demography and preference … who you employ… and like every agency are looking to retain the work.
Not really looking to ask the hard questions then, are you? Not getting down to the nitty-gritty. Not taking people with you. Not exactly thinking outside the box.
It is not really like Labour employing James Timpson to sort out prisons is it? Someone clearly committed to putting public service above profit. (That said, as was pointed out this week, we have effectively put a key maker in charge of locking up people.)
The quotes in the book from the agency's chief executive are the second most dismissive when it comes to traditional cricket fans. Bettered only by the ones that the Durham CEO had to row back on.
These sorts of cynical, elitist views have put me off trying to stay in the sports business industry. For me, this is not why sport exists. But I am clearly in the minority.
(Full disclosure: I have applied for numerous jobs with this agency over the years and got nowhere. Then again, if you read Last-Wicket Stand, you will realise that this applies to most of the sizeable and relevant sports rights-holders and agencies in the past few years. Oh, and I too am nice to clients in the hope of getting more consultancy work. This does not make you a bad person.)
And finally…
The story of this newsletter
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