No 139, Oct 4: The Grumbler's County Cricket Newsletter
🟤 County Championship reviewed 🔵 Major player moves at Lancs, Middx, Notts 🟠 Hampshire sold to Indian group 🟢 Valuations of H*ndred franchise exaggerated? 🔴 Join the letter-writing campaign
That’s that then. Game over.
I was at Chelmsford on Sunday to see Surrey deservedly lift the County Championship trophy. For all their warm celebrations, it was a pretty bleak day. Cold and mostly grey with never a chance of a result. Essex members were probably outnumbered by visitors from south of the river. The home supporters had clearly given up the ghost this season.
My last act in every campaign is to take the same picture. It is looking across the pitch from the exit at the Hayes Close End, right behind where I used to sit with my late father until his death 20 years ago.
It is an act of melancholic, or at least sentimental, masochism, reminding me of better days. Then I always turn on my heels, zip up my coat and head home for winter.
But I worry about what I will return to next April.
First and foremost, I will be without my other parent. My Mum has been ravaged by dementia since the pandemic, the isolation accelerated its onset. In the last few weeks, she has become bedridden, incoherent and, so we are told, will not make Christmas. I went to Chelmsford straight from her care home on Sunday and watched the last overs of the season with my friend Chris, who played cricket with my Dad for years in the 60s and knew my Mum.
I do wonder whether this gradual, relentless but ultimately horrific loss has flicked some sort of switch marked ‘f**k it’ in my mind.
Until now, I have never been the placard-holding type. But here I am organising a letter-writing campaign against franchise sales in the tournament-that-shall-not-be-named. If it works I have mentally committed to get together a group of experts and ex-pros to go and see MPs in the Houses of Parliament.
Add your name to this list and I will email you details.
It has been another very decent season. County cricket always delivers. Surrey’s three-peat is the first in 50 years while the memories of Bracey’s catch, Leach’s lbw and Syd Lawrence’s tears will be etched in my mind for many years. Gloucestershire and Sussex won silverware that truly meant something. Worcestershire triumphed over adversity.
It is particularly important to cherish these moments because events this winter might make them hard to recapture.
George Dobell’s piece on The Cricketer ($) suggests he has arrived at the same desperate mental destination in which I have dwelt for some time. Regular readers will know I have nearly packed it all in several times.
Look below for my thoughts on the franchise sales (or the #BigFatPonziScheme as they might become known) and Hampshire’s sale to GMR.
County cricket as we know it is being banished to the basement and each of these moves places another padlock on the door. The ECB might hear the faintest sound of banging when they invite bidders to tea and a slice of money pie upstairs in the drawing room. But they have turned a deaf ear to so much in the game it will not matter.
If the sales go ahead as planned counties hosting franchises will soon dominate. The extra money will tell in the end.
Right now, apart from Surrey, it largely does not. The three other sides at T20 Blast Finals day were non-hosts. Essex and Somerset were the main title rivals throughout the season.
During Surrey’s three-peat, there has been little or no challenge from the other teams with a potential approaching theirs - Yorkshire, Lancashire, Nottinghamshire and Warwickshire.
But, as venue hosts, they are crucial in the ECB’s new world and, when viewed in the long run, will end up with most of the money. One chair I spoke to recently impressed me greatly with his support for the non-hosts but, unfortunately and crucially, the Surrey board (not the fans) seem to be looking after themselves now.
The tournament-that-shall-not-be-named has divided old and young, traditionalist and modernist, members from boards and the ECB from almost everyone without a vested interest, now it will split counties into rich and poor.
Think what you like about Lalit Modi and forget his analysis if you like, the numbers he posted were there for all to see. Ignore the defensive soft soap of Richard Gould, that spreadsheet has utterly exposed the ECB.
For once in this process, we know what they are actually trying to sell. This week, I have chatted with much better judges than myself and they broadly concur with Modi.
It does not add up. But then it never did.
And those who take the plunge will be unforgiving in their pursuit of a return. Especially if they feel they have been sold a dud.
So for once in my life, I am sounding a rallying call over the winter.
For Mum.
Add your name to the list to join the letter-writing campaign
NB This will be the last of the weekly newsletters. It will be fortnightly until the season starts.
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.
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County Championship clear-up
County Championship 2024 awards: the final word on the season | The Guardian
The five county cricketers of the year | County Championship | The Guardian
Lancashire change County Championship divisions for the seventh time in 13 seasons | King Cricket
Archie Vaughan emergence and evergreen James Anderson – my season highlights | Times
Yorkshire: Outgoing coach Gibson proud of fixing 'broken' club | BBC Sport
Freddie McCann: Teenage batsman being compared to Alastair Cook | Times
Surrey’s ‘three-peat’ – and why target is now to become even more four-midable | South London News
Mark Alleyne: Gloucestershire boss 'disappointed' with season despite trophy - BBC Sport
National Counties Products in England Lions Squad | National Counties Cricket Association
Highest ever finish for Worcestershire since two-division split - Worcestershire CCC
County Championship Division One roundup: All four remaining games end in a draw | The Cricketer
County Cricket – The Finale – 2024 | 365 Sporting Days
Players - moves, contracts and news
Distribution of County players across different formats by team
Wicketkeeper-batter Chris Benjamin joins Kent from Warwickshire | ESPNcricinfo
Ned Leonard signs for Glamorgan County Cricket | Glamorgan CCC
Northants secure Matt Breetzke services for red and white ball cricket in 2025 | Daventry Express
Chris Green re-signs for Lancashire Cricket | Lancashire CCC
Middlesex to sign highly-rated Surrey prospect Ben Geddes | Telegraph
Conor McKerr and Ben Geddes to depart Surrey | Surrey CCC
Walallawita to leave Middlesex | Middlesex CCC
Jadyn Denly: Kent all-rounder signs two-year contract extension | BBC Sport
Sammy King and Dane Schadendorf extend Nottinghamshire contracts for 2025 at Trent Bridge | CricketWorld
Sol Budinger: Leicestershire batter signs new one-year contract | BBC Sport
Harry Moore: Derbyshire fast bowler signs new three-year contract | BBC Sport
Dan Douthwaite Extends Contract with Glamorgan Cricket until the end of 2026 | Glamorgan CCC
Timm van der Gugten signs for another three years | Glamorgan CCC
Australian leaves Yorkshire and retires from cricket aged 29 | Bradford Telegraph and Argus
Worcestershire to Retire Number 33 Shirt in Honour of Josh Baker | Worcestershire CCC
Joe Leach donates his County Cap to Heritage Group | Worcestershire CCC
Ashes 2025: Australian Dan Worrall could play for England in Test cricket series | The Age
County ins & outs - signings, departures and rumours | BBC Sport
Follow player signings for 2025 with our county ins and outs page | ESPNcricinfo
News, Views and Interviews
Hampshire sell majority stake to GMR Group, owners of Delhi Capitals | ESPNcricinfo
Indian takeover will make Hampshire first county with foreign owners | Times Sport
Kevin Pietersen helped to broker Hampshire-GMR deal | ESPNcricinfo
Delhi Capitals owner buys majority stake in Hampshire CCC for £120m | Hampshire | The Guardian
Hampshire County Cricket chairman calls takeover 'landmark' day | Daily Echo
The news was finally confirmed this week. Cue the usual ‘end is nigh’ stuff from the traditionalists. On the other hand, Hampshire chair Rod Bransgrove said “There are no losers from this deal”.
My view is somewhere in between.
Firstly, we must pay tribute to where Bransgrove has taken Hampshire since 2000. He put in a reported £15m of his own money to keep them alive, demutualised, moved them from a ramshackle home to a modern stadium with multiple revenue streams. They now host major games and, soon, an Ashes Test. He has been prepared to take on many foes, especially the ECB, to push his side forward.
Supposedly, the deal is £120m and, though there is a debt of around half that, one presumes Bransgrove and his backers will make a sizeable profit. But he took a big risk, built something better and secured his club’s future. All accounts suggest the good of Hampshire CCC was paramount. He will argue this move will take them to another level and that may well be true.
But then no one has been worried about Hampshire’s future recently, precisely because of Bransgrove’s balls, money and leadership. I disagree with him on many issues but he is one of the few in county cricket who has created proper, lasting change at a county. As a businessman, this deal settles any argument on the overall benefits of his tenure.
Undoubtedly, GMR Group have positive aims too. The UK is a big market and Hampshire will be a major asset to their group.
But they will never be above Delhi Capitals in their thinking, and we should not expect them to be. There could be benefits in being second-best in their sports section, but GMR Group has interests in airports, major energy utilities, highways, and urban infrastructure.
It is doubtful they will own Hampshire for as long as Bransgrove and I would venture theirs will be a very different direction. When they do sell in, say, 10 years’ time will they put Hampshire’s interests first? Will they care about the values of those taking over?
New foreign ownership in UK sport rarely goes seamlessly. I have worked extensively in sport in the US, the Middle East and South-East Asia. Each time, I made some wrong turns, though my roles were well below board level.
One thing that working in the industry overseas provides is an appreciation of the unique nature of sporting culture in this country.
Every foreign owner says they ‘get it’ but they never really do.
And as for the purchase of the franchise hosted at Hampshire, despite all the posturing, that must go to GMR too. Surely this will have been discussed and hands shaken, which means the Cricket Regulator should be looking at the ECB breaking their own process rules.
In addition, if Surrey and MCC do not sell their 51 per cent stakes then GMR might just have secured the most valuable outright ownership in the tournament-that-shall-not-be-named for a knockdown price.
Lalit Modi pours scorn on 'overambitious' Hundred in leaked financial projections | ESPNcricinfo
The Hundred - ECB plan huge wage hikes, increase in overseas player limit | ESPNcricinfo
Mervyn King: Selling Hundred to subsidise counties isn’t sensible | Times
English cricket to clamp down on players' franchise league involvement
From Everton to the Hundred: How to put a price on a sports team | Daily Telegraph
PCA chief says counties will be 'discerning' about players' franchise availability | ESPNcricinfo
At last, the sale of franchises in the-tournament-that-shall-not-be-named is coming under sustained scrutiny.
Lalit Modi lifted up the first rock last week by releasing the official forecasts.
The leak is embarrassing enough but the valuations look beyond optimistic.
Jarrod Kimber’s podcast (see video) went through the evolution of the sales process. It smacks of a desperate attempt to salvage something from a set of poor decisions by a previous regime. Well, I suppose they are ‘rich decisions’ for some.
Kimber and Mervyn King, interviewed in the Times, both ask a rarely posed question - what happens to the counties when this money runs out?
Because the Sky money from 2005 has not been enough, neither has the £1.3m bribe annual payment from you-know-what, nor the new broadcast deal.
The sales represent a big injection of money for counties, many of whom are desperate, but it is a one-off. After this, there is nothing much to sell and, more importantly, the ECB will have nominal control with the franchise owners becoming the power behind the throne. And they will be looking for the event they were sold so hard to not only meet but exceed those pie-in-the-sky projections.
The game has lurched from crisis to crisis for decades but the success of this solution is predicated upon it not suffering another major shock for the foreseeable future.
Of course, the elite players who hog the headlines will get a massive pay rise (see above), the execs and broadcasters will do very well too. The host counties will thrive but the non-hosts will have five to 10 years to revamp their businesses.
If they fail then they may not survive. If they succeed then the best they can expect is secondary status behind the hosts.
By then, the current decision-makers will have left their roles with a lovely press release, a bulging bank balance and perhaps a trip to Buck House for an honour.
If you look at the above and surmise ‘I do not want that future but county cricket simply does not pay its way’ then I entirely agree.
This is the frank discussion that county cricket should have had more than a decade ago.
The modernists will say the game would not have listened. That may be true. But it is not for a governing body to bully through a solution without proper consultation with all stakeholders or due process.
Yet that has characterised this event throughout, it is still going on and it seems everyone is accepting it. We are all still shrugging our shoulders.
ECB CEO Richard Gould dismissed Modi’s criticisms because he had previously made a bid for the tournament. Something the entrepreneur disputed but certainly the architect of the IPL is not an independent observer though his figures are official and there for all to see.
However, Gould is not independent either and has entirely u-turned from his original position on this event. Five years ago he was the biggest critic in the county game. Why should we trust him either?
Having a chummy persona and being bound by the poor decisions of others does not insulate him from complicity. The Richards are driving this through. This is on them as much as anyone else now.
This piece in the Telegraph in the wake of Modi’s revelations reads like a press release for the ECB. Even ending with “the proceeds of any sale will be spread throughout the county game”. This is true for the 49 per cent sales but once the 51 per cent owned by the hosts are added it just makes the rich richer.
These early sales may be the last benefit county cricket obtains from the existence of the tournament-that-shall-not-be-named. Which is why it needs to be resisted or at least reframed much more fairly.
Warrington Town Hall commemorates Lancashire Cricket's first ever fixture | Lancashire CCC
What is the future for cricket teas? | Cricket Yorkshire
Adam Hollioake: ‘I walked out on cricket 20 years ago. I want to be back’ | Surrey | The Guardian
Private schools deserve credit for developing English cricket stars | Times
“This is not some blithe and blinkered apology for a system that beyond cricket is obviously and inherently unfair,” writes Steve James.
But what follows is pretty much that.
Yes, the system works well for those who attend public school, some are there on scholarships and many families make major sacrifices to send their kids.
But it is still just seven bloody per cent of the population.
Simple maths tells you this is a huge opportunity to which the vast majority do not have access. So yes, public schools do a great job in talent creation for the seven per cent and they are increasingly doing a great job in areas such as music and football for the same seven per cent. These two were traditional ‘hail mary’ get-outs for working-class males.
I am a little tired of column inches being given to the defence of public school influence. Especially when it is so often written by their former pupils.
I know I have said this before but I only write it in response to yet another article.
Where are the state school-educated writers from state school-educated families with state school-educated kids offering such eloquent and consistent defences of an entirely unfair status quo and lauding their lack of privilege? Except in a ‘didn’t need it’, inverted snobbery kind of way, the answer is nowhere. Maybe it is because journalism is even more public school-dominated than cricket.
The article adds that the ECB have a State Schools Action Plan coming next month. They have had decades to attack this issue and it seems as broken as ever.
And remember, we are talking about cricket in 93 bloody per cent of the population.
Explained: Why Worcestershire Didn’t Get A Points Penalty For Too-Wide Bat, But Essex Did | Wisden
Leicestershire launch new supporter feedback group | Leicestershire CCC
Inside the making of TNS' serial winner Danny Davies
Middlesex’s future at Lord’s in doubt after failing to agree long-term deal | The Guardian
Alec Stewart: New part-time Surrey role for ex-England captain - BBC Sport
Alec Stewart: Stars playing for name on their back, not the badge |
And finally…
The story of this newsletter
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I have just emailed Dame Caroline Dinenage, Chair of the DCMS and Wes Streeting, M.P. for Ilford North about the 'Referral of the sale of the franchises in The Hundred for investigation by the DCMS'.
First meeting of the new UK governments consultation committee for cricket is on Oct 22nd ,18:00. Info from Peter Bedford MP following my letter to him