No 159, June 22: The Grumbler's County Cricket Newsletter
🟣 Championship returns 🟢 Blast reaches halfway 🟠 Signings for Hants, Yorks, Gloucs 🔴 Middx sack Johnson and appoint Vilas 🔵 Yorks all-rounder moves to Warks🟡 Schedule rows rumble on
County Championship - previews
Click on each team for a different preview
Duke out as County Championship switches to Kookaburra ball | Observer
Division One
Durham vs Sussex
Jofra Archer: England bowler set to make red-ball return for Sussex against Durham - BBC Sport
Essex vs Hampshire
Tilak Varma: India white-ball batter signs four-game Hampshire deal | BBC Sport
Paul Walter: Essex all-rounder agrees new contract until 2028 | BBC Sport
Jimmy Adams: Former batter named Hampshire's One-Day Cup head coach | BBC Sport
Warwickshire vs Somerset
Corey Rocchiccioli: Warwickshire sign Australian spinner on short-term red-ball deal | BBC Sport
Rocchiccioli the latest Aussie spinner to sign county deal | cricket.com.au
Worcestershire vs Surrey
Nottinghamshire vs Yorkshire
Ishan Kishan signs short-term deal with Nottinghamshire | ESPNcricinfo
Jordan Thompson to Leave Yorkshire CCC | Yorkshire CCC
Pakistan International Abdullah Shafique Signs for Yorkshire | Yorkshire County Cricket Club
Division Two
Gloucestershire vs Derbyshire
Australia Test spinner Todd Murphy signs with Gloucestershire - ESPN
Murphy signs up for county stint but won't use Dukes | cricket.com.au
Leicestershire vs Glamorgan
Lancashire vs Kent
Anderson to captain Lancashire in Harris' absence | Yahoo Sports
Northamptonshire vs Middlesex
Dane Vilas to take charge of Middlesex as interim first-team coach | ESPNcricinfo
Tim Robinson: Northamptonshire sign New Zealander to replace Matt Breetzke | BBC Sport
Rory Kleinveldt To Leave Northamptonshire | Northamptonshire CCC
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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 Interviews
Next stage in finalising new men's domestic calendar reached as proposals are agreed | The Cricketer ($)
Best of luck, everyone.
Over the last decade, the old order has been fundamentally changed. The ECB have blown up the long-standing domestic landscape, divided the game, deliberately impoverished non-hosts and then bribed them with their own money to act against their long-term interests.
In 2019, we had a thriving county-based T20 at the centre of the season. In the next year or so, it will have effectively been squeezed out by a franchise T20 run by overseas interests.
While the execution, PR and morality involved have been reprehensible, you really do not need to bother when you hold all the cards and you stick to two guiding principles - court external investment, neuter all county influence.
Now, to relieve the pressure they created, the Championship and Blast has to be cut.
But, rather than take full responsibility for what they are doing, they are leaving counties to manage their members’ ire and hiding behind the PCA’s concern over player workloads.
Cowards.
Stuart Hooper to leave ECB over rugby rebel league role | Telegraph
This is rich. Rugby’s new franchise event feels very like the tournament-that-shall-not-be-named, except it is being led by an outsider body. Similar emphasis on money over tradition, ripping up the old order and disguising that redistribution of more money to the few as growing the game, all with the same stench of deceit and skullduggery. Only with the ECB, the smell came from the inside.
Can’t Get There From Here | Rain Stopped Play, inspection at 3
County cricket: Northants and Somerset sitting pretty in T20 Blast | Cricket | The Guardian
Durham: Codi Yusuf thanks county after receiving first SA Test call-up - BBC Sport
Anthony McGrath: Yorkshire head coach calls Durham defeat 'embarrassing' - BBC Sport
Sun Stops Play In County T20 Clash As UK Heatwave Intensifies | Wisden
David ‘Syd’ Lawrence’s brave race against time to tell his remarkable story | Sport | The Guardian
Study sparks alarm over decline of cricket in Yorkshire's state secondary schools | Yorkshire Post
Well, here’s a part of the problem that creates the above.
The group pictured below have charged itself with shaping the future of cricket. We can presume that gender and race were considered in its composition.
Say there are 100 people in the picture below. If it were strictly representative of English society*, while 50 would be women, 93 would have been educated at state school.
Even then, a truly representative group would ensure the remaining seven would have 7% of the influence and 7% of the power.
Yes, I am aware it is WORLD Cricket Connects, not English. And maybe I am stretching a point but what I am saying is this
When it comes to diversity, we only consider that which we can see. And even that is considered too ‘woke’ these days.
It is a very thorny problem, full of narratives designed to keep the status quo. But until we solve it, the game will not change and not represent anything but a small strata of society.
Therefore it will lack relevance
But this involves the powerful ceding some of their authority.
Strictly controlled membership, away from public scrutiny, full of the same old people yet considering itself progressive, World Cricket Connects represents everything that is wrong with the game.
Essex County Cricket Club pictures show match 100 years ago | BBC News
Finding the edge: How Badger & Combes produces live-streamed coverage of county cricket for LancsTV
Make sure this is the diary…
The story of this newsletter
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