No 40, Jan 27 - The Grumbler's County Cricket Newsletter
County fixtures are out, finally | ECB questioned by DCMS again | Rebuilding Yorkshire | Why youth cricket is too expensive | Yorkshire and Surrey coaching moves | All the signing and contracts
Hello. Sorry, this is a late and rather angry newsletter. The release of the fixtures (finally) is normally a reason for joy and wistful thoughts of sunny afternoons by the boundary. However, we appear to be an angry little nation right now and this is reflected in our summer sport. The fixtures only served to revive the debate over the future of the English domestic game, then the DCMS Committee poured more petrol on the dumpster fire presided over by the ECB in recent years. It is very easy to draw parallels between the leadership of the country and the leadership of cricket right now.
Just because they can hang on (thanks to a mixture of powerbroking, shifty manouevering, PR tricks and apathy), does not mean they should.
And even if they are pushed through the exit kicking and screaming, more of the same will be just as bad.
Moves and contracts
Players: Neesham (Northants), Renshaw (Somerset), Siddle (Somerset), Pattinson (Nottinghamshire), Shah (Gloucestershire), Sakande (Leicestershire), Balderson, Hartley (Lancashire)
Gareth Batty delighted with "unexpected honour" of Surrey interim head coach role (The Cricketer)
Ottis Gibson to take over as Yorkshire's head coach (Cricinfo)
County Cricket schedule
County Championship gets midsummer boost as 2022 fixtures are announced (Cricinfo)
More red-ball matches in June and July as County Championship schedule is unveiled (Cricketer)
County cricket structure tweaked for 2022 as ECB accepts change is on way (Guardian)
The fixtures are.. out? (Peakfan)
“It is all pretty disheartening for yours truly. Were I a conspiracy theorist I would reckon they are starving us of cricket so we watch the Hundred. Truth be told, I would give up cricket rather than watch that.”
County cricket structure tweaked for 2022 as ECB accepts change is on way (Guardian)
OK, so we have our fixtures now and there is some swing towards red-ball preparation in the schedule. I like the County Select XI fixtures too. But it started off a debate around the compromises needed to make it all work. Even Jonathan Agnew, hardly a revolutionary, is now arguing for franchises while others want fewer counties. This is the debate the introduction of the tournament-that-shall-not-be-named has sparked. It was not nearly so high-profile before. Many of us predicted this (just read Last-Wicket Stand) and believe it was deliberate. This loss-making event now seems ‘a given’ and ‘unmovable’ in the key period of the season. Why? Because they backed it with almost all their reserves, PR’d it to Pravda standards and got it on free-to-air TV. The so-called success is down to that resource allocation and, shock horror, the game of cricket itself because it is so little different to T20.
We now have serious questions over the future of county cricket coming after the introduction of a radical new event conceived without debate by a handful of execs. We should have had serious questions over the future of county cricket leading to, if necessary, a radical new event conceived in a spirit of openness and collaboration. It is so predictable, so shameless, so deceitful and so typical of leadership in modern Britain. And that is the ‘con’ I will never forgive.
Bob Willis Trophy future up in the air after omission from 2022 fixture list (Cricketer)
Leicestershire CEO Sean Jarvis questions need to make county game smaller (BBC Sport)
Ashes: Replace County Championship to save England Test team - Jonathan Agnew (BBC Sport)
County cricket does not need fewer teams (Wisden)
Stuart Broad: It’s important not to disrespect county cricket (Wisden)
This Red Inker podcast is an intelligent discussion on the reform of county cricket and looks at a number of solutions. It is based on Dan Weston’s blog. He is the recruitment analyst for Leicestershire and Birmingham Phoenix, Here’s a podcast I did with him on his journey from professional gambler to ‘Moneyball’ guy.
The Yorkshire Racism debate
For the most part, I have huge respect for the work of Lord Patel and the approach he is taking.
Of course, the game must assist him in rebuilding the club. However, I take issue with the lack of punishment meted out to Yorkshire. They have not been relegated and, as you would expect, Lord Patel is pushing hard for them to retain their highly-profitable international games. However, George Dobell’s report suggests the ability to fully fund their pathway players is dependent on hosting England again. This feels something akin to blackmail and the two should be separated. They are simply not linked.
Have a look at David Brooks thread, below. The former Sussex CEO is comfortable with strict sanctions, believes the club would survive and, most importantly, a season without England games would mean they do not forget their ‘institutional racism’.
This is spot on. The relegation of Durham is still fresh in the mind and I am sick to death of sport punishing financial or commercial misdemeanours less than ‘crimes’ on the social and ethical side.
Yorkshire CCC, cricket and sport must remember what has happened.
This week’s, DCMS committee went as usual - Teflon Tom Harrison clinging on and desperately trying to justify his record when his regular presence at the House suggests his competence must be questioned. Even the barely briefed MPs (at the start one MP said ‘Glamorganshire’ was in his constituency) have easily held him to task. Then someone else says something very stupid that reveals a deeper problem and headlines are created.
This time, the opening salvo from Julian Knight on Colin Graves was something to behold. The Costcutter king likes to style himself as a straight-talking reformer, prepared to rattle some cages. When he appeared at the DCMS committee before, he told MPs on the record that fans were consulted about the tournament-that-shall-not-be-named. This is clearly untrue in any meaningful sense. Despite being asked, he has not appeared over the Yorkshire racism scandal and the influence of the Graves Trust was criticised by Knight this week who then told him to “put up or shut up” and stop shooting from the shadows.
His response will reveal the true character of a person who, in my opinion, created damage and destruction within the English game.
Former Yorkshire cricket boss accused of 'substantial and ongoing interference’ (Examiner)
Fresh furore underlines cricket's urgent need for diversity and governance reform (Cricketer)
'Black people don't like cricket' Middlesex chief in shock remarks during racism hearing (Express)
During the committee, Harrison and his colleagues were desperate to avoid further examination into the resignation of Mehmooda Duke as the Leicestershire chair. They cited the need to protect confidential conversations.
You can see why after this story (above) broke an hour or so after the committee closed.
The Telegraph says Duke "...quit after being left “traumatised” following attempts to coerce her into endorsing the game’s response to its racism scandal, she has allegedly told MPs." She felt “intimidated”, “coerced” and “maneuvered” by the ECB.
Honestly, how can these people sleep at night?
The final word on this all goes to Ed Warner, a former chair of UK Athletics who has thrown his hat in the ring for the same role at the ECB.
In this piece entitled Wanted: Someone to Stand up for English cricket, he reveals two little nuggets.
The ECB chair role has still not been advertised four months after Ian Watmore’s resignation
During the Ashes, sources say ECB CEO Tom Harrison stayed in a better hotel than the players, who remember, had spent much of the last two years in Covid bubbles. As Warner writes, “who does he think he is?”
Other stories
Mike Atherton is another voice who is worthy of the highest respect. However, he wasted a column arguing a minor point about the influence of family over public school in reaching the very highest echelons of the game.
He spent time in the comments suggesting those disagreeing had misinterpreted his piece which, as a journalist, clearly suggests either you have not expressed yourself well enough or you are putting a side issue front and centre.
Professional cricket was not such an exclusively public school sport when I was growing up. If your first thought is “scholarships” then you are merely hiding the problem. The idea that highly-talented teenage cricketers from council estates have an equal chance of being whisked away to Millfield or Felsted with all expenses paid is clearly misguided.
It also does not help that the sports media are increasingly drawn from public school too. I can’t remember reading a tacit or implicit defence of public school dominance in cricket and the UK in general from someone who did not go there themselves. From the seven per cent who do, there is often awareness, a little guilt, some excuses but not much change. They just carry on running the show from on high.
This is a huge issue that I am glad has come to light. It is linked with the above because the current situation is a block to mass participation. But I am not entirely comfortable about it being raised by two players who benefitted from a big uplift in wages due to central contracts and, from my seat on the sidelines, often looked after themselves rather than the game. Likewise there are many current high-profile players who talk widely about the good of the game while doing very little to benefit it and everything to maximise their pay packets. Change normally involves some sort of sacrifice.
Rob Key puts it better here:
Chris Adams and Tony Cottey join Cricket Committee (Sussex CCC)
2022 Young Writers’ Competition Now Open (Surrey CCC)
Tweets of the Week
A couple for the stattos but worth examining.
Finally…
Something to cleanse the palate. The end of the 1984 Championship season. Nottinghamshire falling three runs short of the last-day victory they needed to take the title, Clive Rice head in hands in the dressing room, Essex boys listening on the radio and celebrating. And all presented by Alistair Burnett on News at Ten BEFORE the football. Better days.
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