No 132, Aug 8 - The Grumbler's County Cricket Newsletter

🟢 Hants set to be sold and what it means 🔴 Listed - every player who's out-of-contract in 2024 🟣 Graham Thorpe remembered 🟤 Yorks search for new coach 🔵 Surrey to catch Fisher? 🟠 Durham sign Gay

Aug 08, 2024

A starting gun was fired just after I sent the last edition.

It was reported that Hampshire’s sale to the Delhi Capitals group was moving rapidly towards a conclusion.

This could be the first county purchase and therefore different to the flogging of franchises in the tournament-that-shall-not-be-named. But, in key areas, not that much. The game is not only being unshackled from its traditional moorings but also from this country.

I am nervous about writing such sentences for fear of accusations of xenophobia. But I have worked for overseas owners in the Premier League and in sports across the US, Middle East and south-east Asia.

Unlike the Clacton Toad, I am really talking about control, not dog-whistling about nationalism. And, specifically, losing dominion over many things I hold dear.

Let me explain…

Jacob Bethell was written about in glowing terms this week. He is a brilliant talent and maybe the ‘next cab off the rank’ in a year or so. The story recounts how he had deep family roots in Barbados. “Growing up, it was West Indies,” he said. But he came to Warwickshire’s attention, a scholarship at Rugby School was arranged through an ex-player and, hey presto, a quality player is developed and assimilated. The poor, old Windies miss out on a talent they can ill afford to lose (just look at the one-sided Test series recently) but, given the education and earnings path available through the UK system, you cannot blame Bethell.

This is a thorny issue. Clubs and countries have done this forever. Remember the Jofra Archer qualification furore and the race row it sparked among cricket journalists? That is an important discussion but it is not the focus here. Though I would argue England are the historic leaders in acquiring and assimilating cricket talent because we have had money and, at the same time, often underperformed so we turned to external shortcuts.

No, my assertion is that if rich overseas owners assume control of the franchises and clubs that underwrite the finances of the UK game then cricket in this country will cede critical power at the very time when the sport is undergoing global, systemic shifts.

The IPL will be the mother ship offering the mother load for all multi-club groups from the Indian subcontinent therefore the resources will be pointed that way. Just like Manchester City are the focus for City Football Group.

It is assumed that if IPL owners buy franchises in you-know-what we will see big-name Indian internationals involved for the first time. And if it was in their interests, for qualification, brand purposes, politicking or even to gain favour with the BCCI, it would be within their power to ‘do an Archer’ or ‘a Bethell’ with a player who has grown up in the UK. That sort of reverse journey back down the traditional colonial route would get the Daily Mail going, wouldn’t it?

That is, of course, if international cricket matters in the future.

The other question hanging over all the impending sales is where the money goes. Paper talk says the Hampshire deal is £120m for the Utilita Bowl, the Hilton hotel and a golf course but there is a debt of £60m, some of which is explained above.

Of course, Hampshire have been a private club since 2000 when Rod Bransgrove reportedly stopped them from going out of business. He has invested £15m of his own money and stepped down earlier this year having turned them into forward-looking franchise hosts. Risk and reward are the basics of capitalism. Bransgrove deserves great credit and a share of the spoils for his custodianship of Hampshire.

Yet sports business is a different version of capitalism because you are dealing with irrational, loyal fans not logical, discerning customers. This devotion is often exploited. Our sporting institutions should be important community assets but many owners only employ this notion when it suits them. Or the can profit from it.

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Whatever you think of him, Colin Graves has also used his money to keep Yorkshire going. We have been told consistently they would have gone bust without him. Although this has been disputed.

This report suggests the Raj a sthan Royals’ interest in Yorkshire has been revived. Therefore Graves is likely to push forward with his plan to demutualise the Headingley club. A complete u-turn on his previous assurances. He is currently making assurances that no one would profit from the sale. In May, he wrote the following:

I would like to state on record that in the (perhaps unlikely) event that any financial upside emerged from ongoing refinancing efforts for either myself or my family trust, these amounts would be donated in full into a charitable trust supporting Yorkshire recreational cricket, both men’s and women’s.

If this trend of demutualisation rolls out across the remaining first-class counties (minus Durham and Northants who are already private clubs) it means the end of membership and, in future, we will all be season ticket-holders.

If this sounds all very ‘football’ then it is.

Sports business will say this is a good thing. Because… well… that sport is really rich isn’t it?

In truth, football defies all the laws of financial gravity for a tiny few at the headline-grabbing end and, everywhere else, constantly tip-toes across a financial tightrope while trying not to peer down into an abyss of eye-watering, club-ending debt.

Here are the highlights from a recent report on UK football finances.

Just skim through and see what stands out - 85 per cent in debt, hugely indebted to owners, over half of clubs have serious disquiet about remaining a going concern in the next year, there are words like “precarious” and “house of cards”.

The key driver has been spiralling wages. For every £1 earned by a Championship club last year, 95p was spent on player wages, down from £1.02 the previous year. That is not a sensible business. But it is where the ECB’s strategy is taking us.

Apart from owner-funding, the only way to pay your way has been ever-increasing media rights. However, as this excellent primer in the Economist explains, this is starting to show signs of ‘topping out’ and may buckle at some point. Then again, I have been fearing this for the last 10 years and, like driverless cars, it is always five years away.

I have always thought you-know-what is a Trojan Horse designed to unhook the game from traditional ‘anchors’ such as membership and the first-class system. The old guard resisted change so a few executives barged through, put a bomb under the whole thing and then fled the scene with a nice bonus in their back pocket before it exploded.

This, they argued, is ‘the only way to get the outside investment required to grow the game’. However, as Richard Gould revealed last week, they did not admit this at the time. This brings better infrastructure, shoring up business models but, primarily, pays the players much, much more.

However, the flipside of opportunity is risk.

Not only from the type of sporting sharks that constantly circle football clubs and the money they take from the sport but the loss of control that might mean UK cricket suffers the sort of powerlessness the West Indies have endured over the past few decades. The ECB say they turned down Bridgepoint’s bid for a stake in the entire event because it would give away too much control. So they are selling the franchises instead. But look across global sport, leagues are continually pushed around by the self-interest of rich owners.

If we sell our clubs we will lose the special nature of membership. That is sad but something I can live with if the upside is sufficient. It is a broken system anyway.

It will also make some rich men even richer. Unfair and annoying but no different to the rest of the UK's highly unmeritocratic society. Just look at our water or our trains.

However, the loss of control could see UK cricket effectively consumed by those who do not have its best interests at heart.

The ECB have justified their every move with pound signs.

But history tells us that he who pays the piper always calls the tune.

Player news, signings, contracts

Durham set to sign Gay after opener turns down Northants contract extension | ESPNcricinfo

Michael Jones: Lancashire re-sign Durham batter from next season - BBC Sport

Michael Jones to join Lancashire on a long-term contract | Lancashire Cricket Club

Matthew Fisher: Yorkshire bowler to leave club at end of season - BBC Sport

Surrey to strengthen bowling attack with move for Yorkshire quick Matthew Fisher

“It is expected that Somerset seam prospect Sonny Baker will join Hampshire, while there is uncertainty over the future of out-of-contract opener Ben Compton at Kent.”

All-rounder Beyers Swanepoel expected to have Kent stay cut short this season after earning South Africa A call-up | Kent Online

Ed Middleton: Leg-spinner signs two-year extension with Gloucestershire - BBC Sport

Pace bowler Matt Taylor signs new two-year deal at Glos | Gloucestershire Cricket

Nathan Smith: Worcestershire all-rounder to miss rest of season - BBC Sport

Gloucestershire's Miles Hammond Charged With Abusing Spectator During West Country Derby | Wisden

A friend has been asking me - where is the decision over Feroze Khushi’s bat? Why does it take so long (compared to Hammond’s charge, for example)? Who is on the committee deciding this? These are good questions.

A 10 or 12-point deduction could yet decide the title (yeah, I know) but the possibility has been hanging around since mid-May.

Jacob Bethell: England's new star could have played for West Indies | Telegraph

Here is an updated table of contracts produced by The Scarlett Pimpernel on Reddit. It was posted on August 3 and is very, very good, only a couple of small things I can spot. Don’t know who this person is but I have ‘sought him here and sought him there’…

Mickey Arthur: Derbyshire CEO Ryan Duckett backs head of cricket | BBC Sport

Ottis Gibson to leave Yorkshire at end of season | Yorkshire County Cricket Club

Alarming lack of English cricket coaching talent a sad indictment on game | Telegraph

News, Views and Interviews

A true great at odds with the world – the Graham Thorpe I knew | Times

Clear-headed and clinical: Graham Thorpe was the type of batter captains crave | Cricket | The Guardian

Sensitive, warm and a wonderful team-mate: my friend Graham Thorpe | Times

I interviewed Graham Thorpe a couple of times. He was based in Farnham when I was working on the sports desk at the Aldershot News. I was aware of his somewhat troubled reputation. The first Times obit explained it the best.

He was always at odds with the world.
Why was unclear. He believed that it was connected to the hierarchical system at Surrey where (when he started out) capped and uncapped players occupied separate dressing rooms and the resentment this engendered in him.
Class, rank and upbringing have always mattered more in cricket than they should, and in the England side Thorpe’s batting peers — the likes of Hussain, Stewart and Mike Atherton, men who captained him during his first and more troubled period in the Test team from 1993 to 2002 — were either grammar school or university-educated. Thorpe was a comprehensive schoolboy.
This difference fed his cussed determination.

All this aside, Thorpe was a pugnacious, quality batter who stood out and fought hard in a generally poor era for England. Rest in peace.

New cricket ground stand plans go before committee | Brighton and Hove News

Sussex County Cricket Ground: Council to vote on redevelopment | BBC News

Part of a former cricket pavilion near Wells is now a charming home | Somerset Live

Home runs: The growing Australia-USA cricket crossover | cricket.com.au

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Lee

Aug 11

In the UK you have a plethora of laws about what you can do with certain buildings because they are deemed vital to the community and then heritage listed. I really feel like the simple and totally justifiable way for the community to regain some control over their local sporting clubs is to have some kind of heritage listing for them too, where the Govt can step in and prevent x or y being done by the owners the same way they can with old buildings

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