No 158, June 15: The Grumbler's County Cricket Newsletter
🟣 Blast catching fire 🟢 Lessons from South Africa's WTC win 🟠 Latest county transfer rumours 🔴 Bashir linked to three teams 🔵 Notts, Yorks make key signings 🟤 Middx name hon life-presidents
The Blast has hit its straps. While overall the crowds are well down from their 2019 high, there is still interest.
Thursday is the new Friday for the working TWATS so it was no surprise to see The Oval all but full for Surrey’s last-ball victory over Kent. Then Taunton was sold out for the Spitfires’ high-scoring win on Sunday afternoon.
I have written before about the special nature of the English sports spectator, whose deep reservoir of passion means that the Paralympics and Mixed Doubles final are sold out as well as the Olympics and Men’s Singles.
The cricket punter is no different. It is something the ICC realise, hence the World Test Championship final is likely to be staged on these shores for the foreseeable future. (See this story below). Of course, the crowds at Lord’s were full of residents of this wonderfully multi-cultural nation who proudly fail Norman Tebbit’s cricket test but there were hordes of English fans when I went to the WTC final between India and Australia at The Oval two years ago.
Other countries do not act this way.
Multicultural England ideal place for final that is reviving Test appeal | Times
From 2000 to 2018, an English summer typically staged seven England Tests, but the ECB then rowed back from that as the game braced itself to accommodate the arrival of the Hundred. Six became the norm instead.
But far from using a natural advantage based on deep roots of meaning and identity, the ECB’s mismanagement has meant they are now being told what to do by overseas owners about their own calendar, see Sanjay Govil’s interview above. If that is how investors think they will get a return on that huge outlay, then they have every right to ask. But remember, the deals have not even been completed yet.
And leaves you in a spiral of searching for more and more money instead of making sporting excellence the sole goal.
Which, taken to recent extremes, takes you here.
As the quote above spells out, the ECB have already voluntarily weakened the very notion of Test cricket in this country by going from seven to six matches per summer. So we are left with a single Test against Zimbabwe, which may have possessed many redeeming features, but, as a contest, was a non-entity.
Contrast that with the deep pride displayed by South Africa in lifting the WTC on Saturday. The players were winning for themselves, those who had narrowly failed to get over the line in previous world finals and, most importantly, for their country.
As an English cricket fan, you can only feel jealous of that.
It has been 20 summers since I had that emotion about English cricket. While the 2019 World Cup win was great, by then, the suits had captured the game and the team felt corporate.
We know that the new World Test Champions will not play a red-ball game at home next year. Their cricket authority has also plonked a franchise tournament in the middle of their season and sold all the teams to overseas owners.
Setback suffered in formalising proposals for new men's domestic schedule | The Cricketer ($)
Middlesex to vote on County Championship and T20 Blast cuts | City AM
Keep the County Cricket members happy, or it might be Auf... | Observer
The difference is that England are part of the so-called Big Three, with the money and power to shape the game. Or at least, have some influence over the really Big One!
But that is where English cricket is now.
Beholden to others and having shaped the domestic game so fundamentally, through “bullying and threats, secrecy and often just plain lying”, they are now standing back and allowing others to squabble over the position of the ‘deckchairs’ on the ship they have been steering.
So we are left in a ridiculous position where English cricket is perfectly suited to host the pinnacle of the red-ball game but there are few signs of them having a team capable of playing in it.
Meanwhile, they are actively marginalising the domestic version, which, imperfect though it may be, remains our breeding ground for all forms of the game, but especially Test players.
South Africa’s win was fabulous. But it showed how English international cricket has become a foreign country to me.
PS I realise I am going back on my plan of writing intros. Can’t help myself. My annoyance is currently overwhelming my self-discipline.
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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.
Player, coaches - signings, contracts
Shoaib is linked with three teams who, on the face of it, would seem his least likely destination. But a case is made for each.
Pakistan international Shahzad signs for Worcestershire | Worcestershire CCC
Tilak Varma signs a short-term deal with Hampshire | ESPNcricinfo
Welsh-born Pakistani Spinner Imad Wasim Joins Glamorgan for the Vitality Blast | Glamorgan CCC
Mohammad Abbas: Pakistan bowler agrees Nottinghamshire extension | BBC Sport
This is a major statement of Nottinghamshire’s title ambitions
India batter Gaikwad signs for Yorkshire from July until end of county season | ESPNcricinfo
Another important, and presumably costly, signing for a host county.
But when you know there is money coming in every year from hosting fees, you can feel more confident in opening the wallet.
Fynn Hudson-Prentice: Derbyshire re-sign Sussex all-rounder for T20 Blast | BBC Sport
Hunt signs new deal until 2027 | Sussex Cricket
Ethan Brookes: Worcestershire all-rounder agrees new contract | BBC Sport
Lewis McManus: Northamptonshire wicketkeeper extends contract | BBC Sport
Rory Kleinveldt to leave Northamptonshire | Northamptonshire CCC
Raphy Weatherall: Northants paceman begins stress fracture rehab | BBC Sport
News, Views and Interviews
County cricket: Northants and Somerset keep winning in T20 Blast | Vitality Blast T20 | The Guardian
T20 Blast: Somerset, Surrey and Glamorgan win in South Group | BBC Sport
Tim Lamb: Ex-ECB chief says counties must see 'bigger picture' - BBC Sport
Listen to this interesting Unofficial Partner podcast on the history of Cricinfo for a very telling anecdote on Tim Lamb, who was in charge of the ECB from 1996 to 2004. I have a personal experience, similarly one-off and long ago, that was broadly the same.
His time in charge coincided with a period in which English cricket accelerated towards mediocrity and irrelevance. Meanwhile, the Premier League went in the opposite direction, certainly from the money-first perspective that is now running the ECB. Though not mine.
But, given its calendar, a massive threat to the health of county cricket.
Gatting, Emburey and Bryant named as Honorary Life-Presidents | Middlesex CCC
Cricket ball colours explained: Do white, red, and pink balls behave differently? | BBC Sport
World Cricket Connects asks the eternal question... but where are the answers? | The Cricketer ($)
This event is my new pet hate in cricket. It is 90% made up of all the same people who have been running the game forever. Yet it is telling itself it is being disruptive.
“In attendance for us was David Gower, who had to ask for an invite from his old Hampshire team-mate, and he shared my frustration. "Although the matter was indeed discussed, the overall impression that I took away from the day was that the decline of long-form red-ball cricket is just an inevitability," he wrote. "We were told, 'Cricket must remain relevant to the next generation.' Well, fine, but you don't have to euthanise it for the rest of us in the process."
And, of course, you have the world’s most influential player saying this.
Derbyshire Cricket: Monday musings | Peakfan’s Blog
Free tickets for Content Creators Cup! | Derbyshire County Cricket Club
The curse of modern cricket – young stars who can’t get a game... | Observer
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