No 141, Nov 14: The Grumbler's County Cricket Newsletter
🟣 Cricket 'eats itself' 🟢 No international cricket on free TV 🟠 More franchise nonsense, MCC jump onboard 🔴 Middx woes continue 🔵 Lehmann takes reins at Northants 🟡 Duo leave Warks
It has been a chastening period for county cricket lovers such as myself.
Last week, I got a reply to my letter to Lisa Nandy, Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, you can see it below.
Of course, the campaign for governmental scrutiny of the ECB’s current strategy will not stop. (Add your name to this list and I’ll send you details). But time is ticking and little headway is being made. Somewhere in Whitehall, there is a computer with a Word document named something like “DCMS - ECB complaint fob off”. I have been sent slightly adapted versions of it by a number of readers who joined the campaign.
It is all very typical. Send the complainant back to the organisation they are complaining about. As if they were not the problem in the first place. But the DCMS can tick a box marked “completed” and, of course, that ferocious, snaggle-toothed cricket regulator is always there to ‘fight the power’.
So nothing changes. There has been no adequate scrutiny, explanation, communication or democracy throughout cricket’s march into the future. Late this summer, ECB CEO Richard Gould admitted the previous regime lied to the counties over the fundamental aims to win the initial vote… and nothing has happened.
No wonder so many are losing faith.
At the Cricket Writers Club annual dinner last week, I had a number of discussions over the upcoming franchise sales and the future of the county game. Without betraying any confidences, it was all bad news. It has left me almost bereft of hope and nothing since has replenished the reserves.
Stories are being spun.
We live in a country in which fairly burdened, intelligently-used taxes are somehow seen as a bad thing, rather than the route to redistribution for the 95 per cent after decades of rampant inequality.
In which the Premier League is seen as the apex of the UK sports industry when, in fact, it is now a rich spectators’ event owned by those outside this country, see graphic below.
And where the only route to saving cricket appears to involve weakening its last remaining foundations with an artificial event that, yet again, is being sold to rich people from overseas. This is not to say that greater growth, more money, foreign control and ambition are necessarily bad. Quite the opposite.
But, if unchecked and uncontrolled, they can undermine the essence of sport, especially in the UK where tradition and history are our USPs.
Or, to put it another way, if the Glazers are the answer to the direction of English cricket then you have to wonder what the question is.
And, once you know, utterly disregard those responsible for posing it.
All this leads people like me to consider throwing in the towel.
I am going through a spate of that right now. Since my last newsletter, I have resigned from my highest-paying job because the ratio of money-workload-pressure-growth just did not work. I have all but quit Twitter because of Musk’s toxicity and certainly left behind the idea of ever returning to the US (as I nearly did last year) after Trump was elected.
Here’s the Football Supporters Association on the growth of Premier League ticket prices in comparison to other items.
Yes, the product is much better but fans have had to pay for every penny of that improvement.
In the Premier League era, club revenues have grown by 3000 per cent but player wages have increased by 3800 per cent. Which is why the 20 clubs had a combined loss of £800m last season. That is £40m each.
This is where cricket - creaky, old, class-ridden, well-hidden English cricket - is going.
After 20 years of it dominating my working life and almost all my weekends, I quit Premier League football much more easily than I thought. And remember, it is omnipresent in UK culture. Cricket won’t be as hard.
I fear the New Year will bring a spate of ownership deals in the tournament-that-shall-not-be-named. We will see the cricketing equivalent of those back page pictures in which two rich, old fellas hold a football scarf in front of an empty stand and promise “the Premier League in five years”. Only for the fans to start singing “get out of our club” around 18 months later. And unlike cricket, there are fewer rich fools willing to take the club off their hands.
Once the ink is dry on those contracts the ownership groups can start to flex their muscles. Because, majority or not, they are not going to buy into these assets without a desire to sweat them.
Just look at the Rajasthan Royals graphic below. It is a blossoming multi-club cricket group, and they have been linked with bringing Yorkshire into the fold.
Here’s a thought. The Royals already have academies over here, even before buying into the English game. This allows them visibility over young English talent. With even greater power, what is to stop them from diverting the best of the best away from the international game and into their IPL-based talent pathways which may offer a more secure and lucrative career?
In the most extreme cases, they could even usher them into qualifying for India rather than England.
And how much is that different to Jacob Bethell’s origin story in the West Indies?
You can see those ruddy-faced pavilion dwellers spluttering all over their egg and bacon ties at the thought. But, as you will see below, the MCC members have voted with their wallets in the past month and, in doing so, cashed in the last vestiges of any moral authority.
English cricket has had to sell itself because it has failed to create and navigate its own future.
It is a crying shame.
PS
The dedication to my book denotes my father as the captain. I saw him standing at slip, doing next to nothing but guiding our team/family. Meanwhile, my Mum was the jack-in-a-box wicketkeeper, chirpy and involved in everything.
She died last week.
Here’s how I remember her at cricket. Again, it is from Last-Wicket Stand.
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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 | BlueSky
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.
Players - contracts, moves etc
Fateh Singh joins Worcestershire from Nottinghamshire on three-year deal | ESPNcricinfo
Former Pakistan spinner Zafar Gohar joins Middlesex from Gloucestershire | ESPNcricinfo
McCann commits to Notts with contract extension | Notts CCC
Kent bowler Nathan Gilchrist signs contract extension until 2025 - BBC Sport
James Harris signs for Glamorgan for another two years | Glamorgan CCC
Morley joins Derbyshire on two-year deal | Derbyshire CCC
Ben Charlesworth: Gloucestershire batter signs contract extension | BBC Sport
Matt Quinn: Kent bowler signs one-year contract extension for 2025 | BBC Sport
Jack White: Yorkshire sign pace bowler on two-year deal | Yorkshire CCC
Nick Browne & Jamal Richards: Essex pair extend contracts for 2025 | BBC Sport
Roman Walker: Leicestershire seam bowler signs new one-year deal | BBC Sport
Cobb and Cox set to leave New Road | Worcestershire CCC
Worcestershire: Josh Cobb exits after one season | BBC Sport
Amar Virdi: Spin bowler leaves Surrey after 15 years with club | BBC Sport
Warwickshire's Michael Burgess announces sudden retirement from professional cricket | ESPNcricinfo
This was a bit of a shock. Fine, fine county player.
Liam Norwell, Warwickshire former fast bowler, retires aged 32 | ESPNcricinfo
Northants name Australian Lehmann as new head coach on two-year contract | ESPNcricinfo
What a signing for Northants.
John Sadler announced as Men’s Batting Coach | Yorkshire CCC
Somerset announce Shane Burger to stay | Weston Mercury
The new women’s teams are starting to take shape. Lots of signing announcements everywhere. Here’s a few of them…
Derbyshire Men and Women to be aligned under Falcons banner | Derbyshire County Cricket Club
Essex Women announce first professional players | BBC Sport
Surrey lead the way in new women's structure – but other counties risk falling behind | Telegraph
News, Views and Interviews
Here’s the key piece of the past few weeks on the state of the game…
Special report: How cricket ate itself | Telegraph
Now, here are several pieces on the changes the ECB are making.
Given the first story, selling control of the English game makes no sense to me.
Yet again, it places short-term revenue over long-term resilience.
The H*ndred - MI, KKR and SRH among IPL franchises bidding for stake in teams | ESPNcricinfo
Chelsea director, Glazers and India’s richest family want stakes in £650m H*ndred teams | Telegraph
Avram Glazer and IPL franchises make bids for H*ndred teams | Times
Nice to see those cricket-loving, highly benevolent, in-it-for-the-sport Glazers are interested.
ECB hierarchy 'confident in our product' as H*ndred bids deadline looms | ESPNcricinfo
MCC take control of Hundred franchise London Spirit after landmark members vote | Telegraph
Meanwhile, this mega-rich English cricket organisation decided to secure themselves a huge slice of the franchise pie when they could have stood up for the traditional game. They were told in a pre-vote meeting ‘it was going to happen anyway’ yet there were few details. How does that work?
Like ‘it’s going nowhere’, these phrases are trotted out to secure compliance and presented as somehow organic. They are not. They are deliberate.
‘No details’ should mean a ‘no vote’. And a vote of no confidence in the leadership that backed it.
However, the ECB made a bet so big that unravelling it would be too hard and dangerous for a sport with such fragile financial foundations.
Honestly, if the MCC are not prepared to push back on this then the last remaining vestiges of their custodianship role have disappeared.
No more international cricket live on free-to-air TV as ECB fails to agree deal | The Guardian
When this was announced, I was contacted by an expert in the field.
They were angry because, in their opinion, it was clear that international cricket had been sacrificed in order to put an artificially improved figure alongside the tournament-that-shall-not-be-named in the column marked “media rights”.
If you look at football World Cups, Olympics, even the 2019 Cricket World Cup (the first live game on free-to-air television in over a decade), international sport on terrestrial cuts through. Not just the big tournaments, even England’s endless (and, for me, super dull) Nations League games were the 17th and 22nd most watched shows in the UK in the last weeks in which they were shown. The recent stellar growth of women’s football has been based on FTA TV. Now it is arguably the biggest growth area in sport.
ECB faces fight to reach Hundred sale target | City AM
“England cricket chiefs will do well to raise £200m from selling 49 per cent of the eight Hundred franchises, a source who has put together one of the bids told City AM.”
Remember revenues from the ‘49 per cent’ sales are distributed evenly across the first-class game. The 51 per cent sales, should they happen, overwhelmingly favour the hosts, who also receive annual money from staging the competition.
This is what it means:
Non-hosts will have one opportunity to re-shape their businesses and, for many, their grounds. There will be no more money after that and the franchise owners in you-know-what will be bending the game increasingly to their will.
Given the non-hosts’ to-do list, their share of a disappointing £200m (around £10m each) will not go far.
They will need to make a silk purse from a sow’s ear… or they will be left on life support with little hope of recovery.
Meanwhile, here are the voices of vested interest…
Kevin Pietersen: International cricket is dying because of franchises – here's how to save it | Telegraph
Hampshire sale is first of many in English cricket, says dealmaker | City AM
And here are the tales that may become familiar. While county cricket has been in perma-crisis for decades there was a sense they were all in it together.
Not anymore. Most of the haves seem to be happy to leave the have-nots behind.
And that will start to tell on the pitch very soon.
Middlesex cleared of improper conduct after discipline commission hearing | Middlesex | The Guardian
ECB updates Inspiring Generations strategy and launches action plans to detail next steps | ECB
Here’s the ECB’s updated strategy one-pager.
You’ll see the 2028 target - “18 high-performing inclusive and financially sustainable professional counties”.
I do not see how selling control of the product into which you have ploughed all your resources at the expense of the counties will achieve this, given that the owners will not care less. Unless it is the Derbyshire model - in the black but, in doing so, severely limiting your ambition.
The franchise owners will put in money to get what they want from English cricket. Just like the broadcasters have.
So what do you do in the winter | LinkedIn
Ex-England cricketer Devon Malcolm backs development in village | BBC News
David 'Syd' Lawrence: fundraiser for ex-cricketer living with motor neurone disease | BBC News
Richard Whittam KC to chair new Cricket Discipline Panel | ESPNcricinfo
Ramsbottom women’s XI make waves in men’s Lancashire League cricket | The Guardian
Long-serving Durham PA announcers retire after more than 70 years service | Durham CCC
Disputes Quick Read: Essex Cricket Club charged by Cricket Regulator | Taylor Wessing
A legal view on those charges at Essex
£35m ‘domes’ plan to save state school cricket under threat | Times
ECB should have made county talent pathway free, says Cindy Butts | ECB | The Guardian
In this, the ECB get some credit for their work in promoting state schools.
Welcome to Worcester: Can the Pears be cricket's answer to Wrexham? - BBC Sport
Someday soon, someone will do a documentary on the demise of English domestic cricket.
It should be portrayed as a heist.
Instead of Ocean’s 11, we could call it Harrison’s Bonus.
Or Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Richards.
Guy Ritchie can direct.
Controversial Kookaburra to feature in County Championship again but early season experiment axed | Telegraph
Hampshire Hawks Confirm Participation In Global Super League | Utilita Bowl
Global Super League: Cricket Australia block Ashton Agar and Chris Green from Hampshire stints | Cricketer
Hampshire's captain James Vince will also miss the tournament as he had already signed a contract with the Delhi Bulls in the Abu Dhabi T10 competition at the same time.
Shakib Al Hasan reported for suspect bowling action during controversial Surrey stint | Telegraph
Something has to give and it seems England’s results are also collateral damage in the new future.
Controversial Kookaburra to feature in County Championship again but early season experiment axed | Telegraph
Cricket at 2028 LA Olympics likely to be played in New York | Times
Finally…
Botham and Richards feature in this home movie footage from Taunton back in the day.
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English cricket will at the end of the process be owned by IPL franchise-holders. How can this be in anyone’s interest?