No 61, Aug 3 - The Grumbler's County Cricket Newsletter
🟢Major moves announced - Howell, Milnes etc 🟣Yorks change captain 🔵Royal London Cup is not an 'alternative' 🔴What Dr Who tells us about the demise of county cricket 🟤Loads of pessimism, sorry
In 1989, after five years of concerted effort, Michael Grade got his wish and Dr Who left UK television screens.
Despite a decent viewership of 7m when he took over as Controller of BBC One in 1984, Grade wanted to cut the long-running, much-loved sci-fi series. ET had just stormed the country’s cinemas and the cult show’s dodgy effects looked old and tired by comparison. Meanwhile, the latest Doctors, Colin Baker and Sylvester McCoy, had put the series into an odd and somewhat comedic groove.
Grade argued the show was too scary for younger viewers, something rather at odds with McCoy's humourous tone. But he still looked for a later slot. He settled on one on Monday nights at 7.30pm, which just happened to be up against Coronation Street, the most popular show on UK television. Grade had gone by the time the plug was finally pulled due to dwindling audiences. But the show, which was expensive to produce well, had been drained of investment since his arrival and, at that point, there were plans for Grade’s baby, Eastenders, to move from 100 to 150 episodes per year. That would cost money.
The comparisons with county cricket are clear. The early tactics - neglect, underfund then marginalise - have already been enacted. Soon they will have a couple of years of data that 'proves' the success of the tournament-that-shall-not-be-named in comparison to the Blast.
I suspect that Strauss' stitch-up High-Performance Review will not ‘cancel’ county cricket but merely make a few major cuts then allow it to bleed out. However, the result will be the same.
Yet, of course, Dr Who would come roaring back.
Fans kept the flame burning before another BBC Controller, Lorraine Heggessey, got behind a reboot and childhood fan Russell T. Davies was brought in as showrunner. It reappeared in 2005 with better casting, scripts and production values, simply because they put someone in charge with vision, care and a true love for the concept. Dr Who has since regained its role as an iconic British show, winning a legion of new fans, a clutch of awards and lucrative sales overseas.
All this shows that the views of a few key individuals can kill something and concerted fan power is capable of reviving it.
However, should it effectively disappear, county cricket can not be ‘rebooted’ as easily as a TV show. Already, there are realistic fears it will never regain full health after being left on life-support by the ECB over the past few years.
That is why I urge you to read this and consider joining the Campaign to Save County Cricket.
Unless someone out there has some special sort of sonic screwdriver to hand, it seems the game's regeneration depends on us.
☕️ When I started this newsletter I made two promises, it will be free forever and your data will never be misused. If you like this newsletter (and you can afford it) please consider buying me a coffee. All coffee buyers are name-checked in the next edition. Also, there’s my book, Last-Wicket Stand.
Royal London Cup and County Championship
New faces, overseas influence and old heads... Royal London Cup things to watch (Cricketer)
I thoroughly enjoyed the Royal London Cup last year. Those players left behind at their counties turned into a group of Dads and Lads who revelled in the competition for entirely different reasons. There were lots of joyful debuts and a fair few last hurrahs. And it was played at some lovely outgrounds as the main HQs were being used.
However, having two domestic tournaments running concurrently makes coverage tough. Last year, the Cricketer outsourced their podcast to the crew from County Cricket Matters. This year, the excellent domestic cricket show from TalkSport has taken a break.
It has taken only 12 months for the tournament-that-shall-not-be-named to put domestic cricket utterly in the shade.
One-Day Cup 2022: All you need to know about county cricket's alternative to The Hundred (BBC)
This headline tells you a lot about the BBC’s approach. If you go here, you'll see the black navigation bar at the top. In terms of importance, it reads left to right. Throughout the past year, the tournament-that-shall-not-be-named has been in front of “Counties”, even though it is only played during August.
So presenting the One-Day Cup, an event that goes back 50 years in its various iterations, as “an alternative” to something that has occured once and only exists few a weeks a year indicates they will be in full Pravda mode again. Unfortunately, the BBC has been outgunned for years, especially in sport, and the threat of reducing the license fee has neutered them as an arbiter of objective news and vehicle for holding power to account. Meanwhile the chase for viewers and listeners means they must promote their own products to the point of ridiculousness. A couple of years ago, Liverpool beat Manchester United on a Sunday afternoon to go top of the Premier League table but six of the top seven stories on the BBC Sport website were about their Sports Personality of the Year awards ceremony later that night.
In the world of post-truth politics, we need a BBC with teeth more than ever. And in sport, less of the self-promotion please. The UK's much-valued national broadcaster should be better than that.
County cricket: three-horse title race as Championship takes a break (Guardian)
County Championship team of the week: Who joins Anuj Dal in our XI?
Rory Burns: Surrey "allowing ourselves" to dream about County Championship title (Cricketer)
For me, Surrey are the best side in the Championship but Hampshire and even Lancashire might run them close. The game with Essex saw Surrey in trouble a couple of times but Will Jacks’ 150 followed by sparkling second-innings spells from Kemar Roach and Dan Worrell tore through the visitors middle order as they looked to set a decent chase. Essex have not had a second overseas player for the past four Championship games and they felt the absence at The Oval. Is that a sign of the times even for middle-ranking counties?
Player moves and contracts
Moves: Milnes (Yorkshire - 3 yrs), Roelofsen (Essex), Evison (Kent - 3 yrs), Hose (Worcestershire - 3 yrs), McManus (Northamptonshire - loan made permanent), Howell (Hampshire - 3 yrs), Chappell (Derbyshire - 2 yrs)
Contracts: Billings (Kent - 3 yrs), Sanderson (Northamptonshire - 3yrs), Proctor (Northamptonshire - 2 yrs), Brooks (Somerset - 1 yr), Maddy (Warwickshire - rookie), Stewart (Kent - 2 yrs)
Jonathan Tattersall named Yorkshire captain (Cricketer)
Hampshire make statement signing with Benny Howell rejoining on white-ball deal (Cricketer)
Lots of moves have been announced in the past week or so but it is hard to discern a trend. Benny Howell’s switch to Hampshire suggests the talent is going from ‘small to big’ counties. That has been happening for decades but the pace may have increased in recent years.
Yorkshire’s financial concerns are upsetting the market. Tom Kohler-Cadmore and David Willey will be off the wage bill next year while, from this distance, Milnes for Patterson seems a like-for-like exchange albeit with less experience and less expenditure. If Gary Ballance switches allegiance to Zimbabwe then you have to assume he will not be retained as he will be an overseas player. Tattersall seems a strange appointment as captain given that he lost the gloves to young Harry Duke and was sent out on loan a couple of seasons ago. Still, it all suggests that money is tight at Headingley and remember they have not yet been punished for the racism claims over the winter. Maybe the £50,000 fine Essex received for their own racial discrimination issues has prevented them bringing in a second overseas player? See above.
News, Views and Interviews
The rising power of T20 leagues and the death-knell for international cricket (Telegraph) ($)
Mike Atherton has talked about peripertetic year-round contracts for IPL players recently and, purely from the perspective of those teams, it is the logical move. They have been collecting franchises in different leagues for a some time, a la Manchester City in football. All the franchises in the new South African T20 were snapped up by them and Indian money is largely backing Major League Cricket, which I think could turn into a significant league. You can see the best players hitting runs in the sun year-round in the near future.
If the extension of the TV deal with Sky and, with it, the cementing of the tournament-that-shall-not-be-named sees the end of county cricket as we know it. Then this move may see the end of the red-ball game as a whole.
If the schedule means India cannot or will not play Tests then the Ashes will the only long-form cricket worthy of a decent television deal. And anyway, why would the best players be allowed to play by the IPL franchises or want to because of the boost to their bank balance?
Cricket's format war is here, it's time to pick a side (Edge of the Crowd)
Kunwar Bansil: I loved Yorkshire, but I was brutally axed. Why won’t they listen to me? (Times) ($)
Worcestershire: Another change of structure planned at New Road as Paul Pridgeon stands down (BBC)
English Cricket Is Ruined By Its Good Blokes (Full Toss Blog)
Lots to unpick in the 'good bloke' idea. Class, sexism, nepotism - let's just start there shall we?
In my experience, the sport business ‘suits’ are very much alike. They talk about the game but think about the money.
And while they are doing that, over the years and decades, these things occur…
Following the money: Youth cricket’s elitism problem (Wisden)
County members' survey emphasises desire to retain levels of first-class cricket (Cricketer)
A revolution is under way to save county cricket – and it's about time (Telegraph) ($)
Let’s end where we started - the fight to save county cricket.
The Cricketer piece has some critical detail. Notably, the key meeting on Wednesday, August 3 to discuss proposals to cut Championship games and the counties’ hard line over the Blast. Also, incredibly, Richard Thompson may not get the ECB chair role because he has previously voiced his opposition to the tournament-that-shall-not-benamed. Along with Richard Gould, Thompson has made Surrey the richest and most well-run county on the circuit. Gould lost out to Teflon Tom Harrison for the CEO’s role and look what happened. If Thompson is overlooked too then it will be a huge blow to the county game. Yet again, all this shows the ECB board is the real problem.
As George Dobell implies, 4,000 people pushing back against change will be dismissed in the wake of 500,000 tickets sold for you-know-what. (Of course, history would suggest we can’t trust those figures but they are winning the PR war).
Moving on, frankly I worry when I agree with Simon Heffer, see Telegraph piece. For me, his bluster is well-meaning but falls into that ‘reactionary’ bracket that is ridiculed and dismissed, wrongly, by those favouring the tournament-that-shall-not-be-named.
Not everything old is tired and useless, not everything young is revolutionary and worthy of unquestioning support.
Look at the profile pictures of those who tweet in support of county cricket. So many buck the trend of the old and jaded.
But, being honest, I do not know how we row back from here. Even if the Save County Cricket campaign achieves its aim of forcing clubs to take on as policy the opposition to a reduction in Championship games, I do not know how that plays out. The television deal has been agreed so you-know-what will continue or you risk alienating Sky and losing the millions they plough in to the game. That would surely see the end of the ECB (no bad thing) and plunge the game into further turmoil.
But if Save County Cricket has no effect then I can’t see how the domestic game survives in anything like its current form.
Classifieds
Join the Cricket Supporters Association, it’s free
County Cricket Matters - Buy the magazine direct or on Kindle
98 Not Out - Weekly Cricket radio show and podcast
Yes, I am still plugging my book on county cricket and midlife.
Buy through Amazon or through me for an autographed copy
🇬🇧Amazon | ✍️ Autographed copy 🏴☠️ Indy bookshop | 🇺🇸 USA | 🇦🇺 Australia
Just a quick note. This newsletter was proposed as a one-year experiment during 2021. I am going to continue with it - weekly in the season, fortnightly outside. It is free forever and your data will never be misused. But I am opening it up to digital tips partly because it takes me hours and, in an ideal world, I’d like to return to sports writing full-time and make more cricket content (videos, podcasts etc). The modern way of doing that is coffee tips. It is basically busking for writers. Please feel free to contribute if you want to and you can afford it. Click here to tip.
My monthly coffees: Gary Prail, William Dobson, George Dobell, Long Leg, Kevin Roome, John Lucey, Sophie Whyte
Coffees since last edition: David Harrison, David Mitchell, Bob Christie, Malcolm Lowrie, John, Paul
Scan this QR code with your phone camera to get links to all my content.
