No 157, June 6: The Grumbler's County Cricket Newsletter
🟣 T20 crowds well down 🟢 Counties 'must apply' for H*ndred cash 🟠 Bashir set to leave Somerset 🔴 Cheltenham festival under threat 🔵 The story of Bethell's England switch 🟡 Blast prices too high?
As I write these words, Middlesex and Kent are playing on the telly under grey, foreboding clouds at Lord’s. At least, Sky Sports have remembered that the T20 Blast is on and they actually have the rights to show it.
But an inclement Thursday night during exam time is far from the spectacle anyone in county cricket wants or needs. And a far cry from the buoyant Blast of 2019.
This week, the indomitable David Griffin of Derbyshire tweeted his thoughts on the cannablisation of the Blast crowd. He sent me his figures, see below.
It is pretty stark and very worrying for non-host counties. Especially, after the Essex board told members this week that, far from a windfall immediately landing in a bank account to ‘secure the future of the game for a generation’, the money from franchise sales is held and controlled by the ECB. It is earmarked for counties’, either as reserves or infrastructure projects, but staggered over time and, most importantly, has to be applied for. And they noted that, should the ECB’s priorities and leadership change (as they have in the past decade), it is feasible that the promised funds might not be available. So they will be getting in their paperwork asap.
They can not do that yet because, of course, the deals are not actually done.
Can anyone stop the T20 Blast going out with a whimper? | Observer
Between 2019 (English white-ball obsession’s apex) and 2024, county cricket lost 222,000 fans across the County Championship, One-Day Cup and Blast, a 14% decrease. The shortest format lost fans at an even greater rate – 18%. Over the same period, Middlesex’s Blast sales at Lord’s have dropped 40% (108,144 to 64,351) and Lancashire’s average Blast attendance has almost halved (10,000 to 5,500).
This should be a worrying sign but, as ever, our cricket media are sanguine.
Honestly, you have to hand it to the ECB. They have managed to neuter the cricket regulator (the football one might actually be able to hold the powerful to account, hence the ongoing rows over it) and have won an award for deals that have not been signed off and may yet involve major concessions to do so.
Personally, I don’t think I can get past the lies and manipulation to get the tournament over the line. It has left me increasingly disenchanted with the sport. Naively, I thought it was better than that.
Those with greater resilience are now turning to the schedule. The Essex meeting said, as ever, the ECB are offering little to no detail on proposed changes. A couple of county memberships have secured agreements for binding votes. Others are trying but some county boards are wriggling to avoid being held to account by members
Supposedly, the ECB are happy to let the counties decide.
Honestly, they do not even have the guts to properly plunge the knife having mortally wounded their opponent.
They have engineered a situation in which, over the course of a decade, the key short-form event has gone from a growing T20 competition involving 18 first-class traditional and largely member-run counties in the prime months of the season to, in all likelihood, a T20 played in seven cities by eight temporary franchises controlled by overseas owners.
A number of weakened, perennially squabbling counties have been bullied and bribed with their own money to create the space. Control has been snatched and sold.
Certainly, a new audience has been engaged and the money welcome but counties were slowly getting them anyway. Similar backing would have accelerated this process markedly. The REAL motivations - hacking the system for bigger, quicker external funding and wresting traditional county control - has handed the keys of the game to overseas investors. The new world will sustain seven of the hosts counties and the MCC will get a bump they do not need, the non-hosts have been given a ‘golden goodbye’ payout.
Now we learn even that is subject to application and the whims of the ECB.
With that, they must make county cricket solvent. Something they have never been able to do with any consistency. (See news on Cheltenham this week)
Last year, one of The Richards, frankly I can’t remember which, held up Gloucestershire’s wonderful success in the Blast as an example of the ongoing competitiveness of non-hosts in county cricket.
Fast forward to this week and the big counties are ready to pounce on the out-of-contract talent in Bristol. Here’s how the situation was reported.
It is increasingly common for players to move from so-called smaller counties to wealthier Test grounds. That trend could be accelerated in the coming years, with host venues taking control of their Hundred teams, potentially widening the gap between the haves and have-nots.
The perceived attractions of bigger counties are not only that they are able to pay players more, but also provide better facilities for training, while deeper squads mean their workloads can be managed better.
The tournament-that-shall-not-be-named has overstuffed an already difficult schedule to bursting point.
Clearly, the only solution is to cut Championship games, they have the least financial value and take up the most time. But the ECB are not controlling and manipulating this situation as they have done with so many others in recent years. Instead, they are happy to use entirely valid arguments over player workload as a diversionary bullwork. (Just look to see how they fill the schedule with games in years to come, see football)
It is like playing Monopoly with someone who has redrawn the board to entirely their advantage, given themselves a fat stack of hotels on their own favourite properties and, most importantly, controls all the money coming in and out of the bank.
But they tell you they are playing a fair game by allowing you to throw your own dice.
It is the engineering of this situation that I have been moaning about for 157 newsletters.
I said I would not write about it anymore.
But, as predicted, some chickens came to roost this week. It pissed me off.
And, as John Lydon once sang, anger is an energy.
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PS 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.
News, Views and Interivews
County cricket: Lancashire, Sussex and Somerset lead way in T20 Blast | Cricket | The Guardian
‘It would be better as a T20’: Welsh Fire’s Sanjay Govil questions Hundred format | The Guardian
Cheltenham Cricket Festival 'may not survive' rising costs - BBC News
Gloucestershire face exodus with nine players potentially heading for exit | Telegraph
Somerset won't repeat rubbish issue after residents complain | Somerset County Gazette
Shoaib Bashir set to leave Somerset when contract expires | ESPNcricinfo
Shoaib Bashir: England spinner open to leaving Somerset - BBC Sport
A few years ago, an expert said to me that Shoaib would become one of the world’s leading spinners or soon be lost to the game. First choice for England but cannot get in the Somerset side, like wicketkeepers, we now expect our spinners to bat at No7 or 8.
Experience the mellow allure of county cricket in England | The Canberra Times
Jofra Archer back in county cricket fold before Test return | The Argus
Book Review: Cricket's Black Dog: The Story of Depression Among Cricketers by Andrew Murtagh | Peakfan’s Blog
How England lured Jacob Bethell away from West Indies | Telegraph
I have never been comfortable with this story.
Yes, it is hardly the first and it will not be the last. England are not the only team who do it but, of the major nations, we seem to do it the most. And we barely chastise ourselves even though it should be considered a huge slap in the face for our pathway.
And, more to the point, how can the Windies have any hope of returning to anywhere near their former glory if richer nations actively steal their best talent?
The story of this newsletter
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Excellent stuff , good to see you back on angry form. I did wonder about the source for the attendance figures. Surrey do a very good set of accounts for members with some of the financial disclosure replaced with things more likely to interest members - like attendance figures. These show 100 attendance at the Oval in 2024 of 105k compared to the 128k on the chart so over 20 percent lower. It would be good to say it shows Hundred crowds are overstated and the ECB is capable of that but Surrey also report lower Blast attendances than shown in the table so perhaps two sets of figures.
You may be interested in
sideonviewcricket.substack.com/p/the-sale-of-the-hundred
I don't think it is that as the Surrey accounts break down attendance by game and the 105k figure includes the eliminator, or is there an eliminator and a quarter final? Also Surrey figures include members so it's not the difference between attendance and those who paid for that specific game. I added up the numbers again (just in case) and I'm still coming up with 105k - very odd. I did see something about county championship attendances for 2024 broken down by county where the Lancashire figure was, apparently, way overstated.