No 142, Dec 4: The Grumbler's County Cricket Newsletter
🟣 DCMS and ECB exchange key letters 🟢 Lancs new ground takes shape 🟠 The fixtures are out 🔴 Silverwood back at Essex 🔵 Hollioake to become Kent coach? 🟡 Notts, Warks, Lancs and Hants signings
Before we start, here I am on BlueSky. I’m doing Threads too but less on Twitter these days
Now where were we?
In the last exciting episode of the Grumbler vs the ECB, the letter-writing campaign to the DCMS was continuing, (sign up here if you want to get involved). I was receiving various different versions of a classic ‘fob off’ reply from many of you.
If you read between the lines they all go something like this…
“Dear Sir, We appreciate your opinion. Now shut up and go away”
But then this happened…
Dame Caroline Dinenage (DCMS Chair) wrote to the ECB, see letter here
Then this…
Richard Gould (ECB CEO) responded, see letter here
It was a typically weak reply to some pointed questions. So I will be contacting Dame Caroline and the chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Committee on Cricket to try and set up meetings.
As per advice from football pressure groups, it will be a couple of cricket-minded sports business experts and a couple of ex-international players.
I do not expect anything to happen if we do sit down. And even if it did, I have no faith in the ECB in doing anything but what the hell they want.
Still, I was buoyed by Dame Caroline’s letter and have put this book on my Christmas list to keep me going.
Let’s see how it goes.
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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/Coaches moves, contracts etc
Shan Masood: Pakistan captain to play for Hampshire in Global Super League | BBC Sport
Daniel Sams: Notts Outlaws sign Aussie all-rounder for T20 Blast | BBC Sport
Hell of a Blast signing for Notts. MVP in 2023
Tom Latham: Warwickshire sign New Zealand Test captain for 2025 | BBC Sport
Adam Hose: Worcestershire batter signs new contract until end of 2027 season | BBC Sport
Ben Aitchison: Derbyshire seamer agrees 2025 deal after injury issues | BBC Sport
Roderick signs till end of 2027 campaign | Worcestershire CCC
And on the coaching side…
Chris Silverwood given the nod to replace Anthony McGrath at Essex | The Cricketer
As an Essex supporter, this is the obvious and best choice.
Durham: Scott Borthwick to become player-coach | BBC Sport
Spriegel and Brooks added to coaching staff | Kia Oval
Former New Zealand international Larsen to leave Warwickshire role | ESPNcricinfo
Former England leg-spinner Salisbury earns full-time role at Middlesex | The Cricketer ($)
Kent offer Surrey legend Adam Hollioake head-coach job ($)
County fixtures released
Who can smell freshly mown grass?
Rothesay County Championship fixtures 2025 | ECB
ECB to continue with controversial Kookaburra in County Championship | The Guardian
PCA criticises 'baby-step' progress in improving domestic schedule for player welfare - BBC Sport
News, Views and Interviews
I suggest you watch this. There was heavyweight ECB representation on a panel at Lancashire with lots of important questions asked, new details given and some points showed more positive intent for the county game. (That said, my take on this event seems to be sunnier than those who actually attended. Wonders never cease, huh?)
Once again, Richard Gould talked about the game having not lost a county and not intending to. He also discussed developing the Blast, the county pathways being the best in the world and the difference between ‘maximising and optimising value’, even the importance of membership as the ‘resilience’ in the game
Any county fan can get on board with that.
But the fact remains the county game will always be fundamentally undermined by the presence of the tournament-that-shall-not-be-named. And the stated plan that its revenue will underpin the long-term future of the traditional game, particularly the non-host counties, is unrealistic, especially as overseas ownership is critical to the game’s development.
Modern sports business works to get rid of costs and dependencies (just look at Jim Ratcliffe slashing his way through Man United right now ). If I were an overseas franchise owner I would pay lip service to the established structure but, as soon as I arrived, work to develop my own talent pathways (see this story), grow the event window and lobby behind the scenes to cut the money going to the county game.
And given the cash they have to wash through the system and the power this bestows, the ECB will not be able to control them. They have turned themselves into cricket’s King Canute.
Yes, they will cite cast-iron contracts. But the Premier League have those and yet Man City’s lawyers have tied them up for years while winning trophies and a cabal of big teams are tilting all the major revenue streams their way. Vested interests in the House of Lords are even trying to delay and inhibit the introduction of the Football Regulator. In short, a more powerful brand of owner has made the Premier League an increasingly impotent organisation and the FA are almost irrelevant.
Read this fascinating opinion piece by a former Worcs chair on the growth tournament-that-shall-not-be-named - He wrote the report revealing the event was making a loss. This was very different to the info the ECB was putting out. And guess what? Nothing happened.
An illuminating moment in this forum came at 43:30. There was a critical question calling out the ECB’s projected growth figures in the budget for broadcast revenue and true allocation given to you-know-what. Gould blathered and then made a joke subtlely undermining the questioner, all very Boris Johnson. Then Lancashire chair Andy Anson disagreed with the questioner’s assertion that media rights were plateauing. Lancashire CEO Daniel Gidney made a very important but entirely unrelated point that the original £1.3m payments for you-know-what are being kept and rolled into the budget. Certainly a good thing and, if we believe Gidney, an example of support from the ECB to the county game. But it was a side issue in this context.
Media rights have underpinned the growth of sports over the past three decades. But the widespread feeling is that they will be flat-ish for the short to medium term. If that is true the ECB’s projected numbers do not work. Then there is the issue of the real split between international cricket and you-know what in the figures. This, in reality, is what it is really worth.
The panel could or would not answer these crucial, informed questions and the show moved on.
Typical.
Richard Thompson: ECB chair on Hundred sale, race and Bazball | City AM
Thompson reveals ECB's '£350 million minimum' target for Hundred sales revenue | ESPNcricinfo
More than half of Hundred teams may give away controlling stakes in sell-off | Times
Trust me, all the indications suggest the questioner was correct and rights fees are not set to grow significantly in the next five years or even drop with inflation. A recent study of “league and competition heads, suggested only 2 per cent of sports expect their media rights to grow significantly in the next few years”. The outgoing ICC chair warned of dwindling media rights in cricket and their current deal might be halved in the next cycle meaning the game is “sleepwalking off a cliff edge”.
The Premier League had to give away more games to get the same money in the last deal and, perhaps as a result, recently made a move that opens the door for a direct-to-consumer streaming channel (aka PremFlix). If that happens then the future of Sky Sports must be in question and where would that leave English cricket? For me, the only way the tournament-that-shall-not-be-named makes anywhere near the projected television revenue is if Indian players are involved. And that remains extremely unlikely.
Sports as investments - wake up to the shake up - Sportcal
If you are interested in this area. Here’s a good article about some of the issues. One very experienced observer says the sports bubble may be set to burst soon. This has been predicted for forever. But certainly, there is a drive for different sports products for new, younger audiences - F1 sprint races, the Baller League, the Kings League, influencer boxing matches and, yes, the tournament-that-shall-not-be-named.
Not that they are all going to work or even get the TV deals they want.
To re-iterate, the product itself has never been my problem. And there is a logic to the notion it could be used to support the wider and traditional game.
My issue is that, in reality, it won’t be and, anyway, history suggests that the ECB cannot be trusted to deliver what they say. With the sales process, they have ended up putting themselves into a position of relative powerlessness due to their desire to get quick investment into the game.
This is because of earlier mistakes, lack of strategy and mismanagement by…. the ECB.
Subtlely blaming the problems on the “last lot” is just part of the ridiculous roundabout this sport has been riding for years. This is why Gould can talk about not losing a county safe in the knowledge that his term is almost certain to be over before it ever happens.
Another key moment in the forum came after just over an hour when Lancashire were asked why the issue of franchise sales had not gone to a member vote. It was interesting that the first place they went to was their legal responsibility having been voted onto the board and the strategic imperatives this involves. Then there was the implication the issue was too complex for the membership to understand, adding that this was the ninth event the club had held on the matter.
Vikram Banerjee, the ECB’s Director of Business Operations, added it was “not the vote that matters… the amount of listening is what counts.”
Well, actually, both matter.
Clearly, if counties or the ECB were confident they would win a vote they would hold them. It would shut up most of the doubters and this blog would be a lot shorter.
It is frankly ridiculous to suggest traditional fans have been listened to over any aspect of the tournament-that-shall-not-be-named or members have been given any semblance of influence since they effectively kyboshed the Andrew Strauss report. And remember they were called ‘fleas’ for that intervention.
Of course, the points about fiduciary duty and complexity are fair. As are issues around a board weighing up the ‘art of the possible’ and the ‘best of a bad situation’. Members should be able to vote on a board and trust them.
But, in truth, boards often feel like closed shops or fiefdoms.
Again, I will say there were important positives mentioned in this Forum. It was not all disheartening to someone with county sensibilities. But it was not a listening exercise. It took the usual approach - here is what we have decided and we are going to defend it using some facts, some bluster and half-truths.
Look back to recent statements from counties and they all talk about a lack of detail around franchise sales. The ECB have trumpeted the agreement on “a direction of travel”. It has been unacceptably vague for such a pivotal decision in the sport’s future. One that could decide the interest many of us take in the game going forward. Ally that with the ongoing lack of trust in the dealings of the ECB and Sky and you have a recipe for the arms-folded harrumphing disgruntlement most members seem to almost enjoy.
Gould said the membership model will not bring in much-needed investment into English cricket, which is true. But, he added, they are the “resilience of the game”. In this instance, that involves them trying to hold the ECB or their county to account, revealing their real intention or even getting a say on what is going on.
But, in truth, they can’t.
As this forum showed, even when the membership knows more than the panellists, they are brushed aside. And external investment with purely capitalist intentions seems to be much more important, anyway.
If members are not going to be heard over this issue then there is no point to the membership system anymore.
It reminds me of the title of a book written by a former Mayor of London.
Not that we actually get to vote.
P.S. I look forward to the ECB bringing their execs to a few counties who will NOT benefit hugely from franchise sales in the months to come. Or Essex, who are not on board with the sales process.
English players threaten legal action over ECB bid to limit No-Objection Certificates | ESPNcricinfo
Players express 'anger and resentment' as PCA holds crisis talks over ECB NOC policy | ESPNcricinfo
England ban players from appearing in Pakistan Super League | Telegraph
In keeping with some of the comments made in the Lancashire forum, I see this as the ECB trying to protect the Blast (or for the last story the Championship). Of course, I am behind this. Put simply, no Blast, no Second Division counties.
But, while greed and self-interest should be called out, I understand the players’ position given the way cricket has evolved in the UK over the past decade.
Because counties have been allowed to become the fallback or the safety net. The dowdy housewife left at home to look after domestic matters while you play away with someone much more attractive.
The money and the glamour lie elsewhere for the best players. But if it all goes wrong you can go back to one of the 18. And even if you pop in and out you can use their infrastructure, something Alec Stewart has ‘called out’.
It started 20 years ago with the IPL taking county players after the ECB missed the open goal of commercially exploiting the T20 format they invented. Now, to cover that error, all the emphasis is on a franchise tournament in the middle of the season which, it has been decided, is the vehicle for driving the game forward. And overseas owners will seek to steer it in their own direction or they will move their attention elsewhere.
My experience in franchise sports in the US showed me some owners act in a sub-optimal manner, needing arm-twisting to invest, happy to let one team drift to push their resources elsewhere, stripping assets ahead of a sale or just losing interest.
For me, the revolving door of player movement undermines my interest in franchise cricket.
It does not work to be cheering on Player A in this event one month and then having him cast as the villain when competing against my favoured team in the next. The franchise circuit feels like an ensemble cast in a travelling theatre show. They move from city to city playing a different role in a different costume each time.
It is the anathema of sport for me because there can be no emotional investment.
And, right on cue…
Saudi Arabia to launch professional cricket league: SACF chief | Arab News
…something like this has the potential to blow up the salary scales in cricket
Kevin Sinfield is a bloody hero. So is Syd.
Seven all out! Ivory Coast record lowest men’s T20 cricket international score | The Guardian
Hampshire caught up in ‘sportswashing’ T20 row despite green claims | The Guardian
Ben Warren named MVP at Business of Cricket Awards | Somerset
This chap is a star of the county circuit. I could see it five years ago when I interviewed him for my podcast.
Super50 Cup: Both sides forfeit final with no winner declared - BBC Sport
My rum-soaked afternoon inside the world of Joel Garner | Telegraph
Agent charged for offering bungs to sign players | The Cricketer ($)
Don Bradman 'baggy green' cap sells for £245,000 at auction | BBC Sport
ECB bans county coach for ‘inappropriate sexual behaviour’ with player | Telegraph
How Durham bucked elitist trend to become the working-class county | Times
Clearly, there has been a lot going on here. Taking shape now.
Major milestone reached for Lancashire Cricket's new second home at Farington | Lancashire CCC
Pitch completed at Lancashire Cricket Club's new second base | BBC News
Edgbaston Stadium rejig plushy hotel plans | Coliseum
City unites to save the future of Worcester cricket | Worcester Observer
New Road future - Hope cricket club can stay at ground | Worcester News
Gloucestershire CCC – CEO Recruitment Process | Gloucestershire Cricket
Delhi Capitals Cricket Academy Inks Landmark Partnership | Delhi Capital
Just like England nabbed Jacob Bethell from the Windies, I can see stellar English talent being taken into the IPL system in the future. This will be to the detriment of the England team and expect a barrage of complaints.
It's absolute carnage: Inside county cricket's battle for overseas players | The Cricketer ($)
Surrey claim top Grounds Team award for third consecutive year | Kia Oval
Carlos Brathwaite holds nerve as Lahore Qalandars beat Hampshire Hawks | BBC Sport
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