No 64, Aug 24 - The Grumbler's County Cricket Newsletter
No 64, Aug 24 - The Grumbler's County Cricket Newsletter
🟤Masood & Mike to Yorks 🟢Are Sky running English cricket? 🔴Members meetings over Strauss review 🔵Botham has his say 🟠Lancs fans are 'awkward' 🟣What did you do in cricket's civil war?
Let’s keep this brief. Time is short.
The current mood has been described as cricket’s civil war, see below. It would be nice to take a step back from that because, as the tweet below demonstrates, things are being pushed a little far right now.
By the next newsletter, we may know more about Andrew Strauss’ High Performance Review (which, incidentally, must be the name of prog rock trio somewhere). From there, it will be taken for a quick walk around county members before votes are cast and wheels set in motion.
The members’ campaigns at Lancashire and Yorkshire have made a difference, see below. You know my thoughts but, whatever your perspective, take an active interest, read around the subject and make a swift, informed decision. Voice an opinion at your county either way.
Apathy is the biggest enemy right now.
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Players - signings, contracts, departures
Signings: Masood (Yorkshire - 2yr), Mike (Yorkshire - 3yr), Finan (Leicestershire - 2yr), Gill (Glamorgan)
Contracts: Cobb (Northants - 2yr), Shiraj (Warwickshire - last 4 Champ), Crawley (Kent - 1yr), Carse (Durham - 3yr)
Departures: Eckersley (Durham - contract expired), Fell, Banton, Dell (Worcestershire - released)
Exit of stalwarts Stevens and Hildreth reminds English cricket what it is losing (Guardian)
“I was once told, off the record, that he had scored poorly in the personality tests England use to evaluate future players.
“Why that mattered more than the fact that Hildreth once scored 135 in a crucial Championship match against Nottinghamshire batting on one leg after Jake Ball fractured his ankle with a yorker, I’m not sure.”
Darren Stevens' white-ball Canterbury swansong takes Kent into play-offs (Cricinfo)
Groin injury ends Krunal Pandya's Warwickshire stint (Cricinfo)
The Campaign to Save County Cricket
The ECB have lost sight of county cricket's loyal support (Cricketer)
Paul Edwards’ pieces always have a special poignancy.
In this one, he laments the deep division in the game at the moment. As do I, but at the same time, it is very galling that those who have treated the county game with such disrespect, and show no signs of stopping until it is stone dead, are now calling for calm.
We remember the original announcement, then the silence, the confusion, then the string of confused announcements, the people saying 'it's not for us' then the stories of a boardroom 'ambush' and NDAs. Then, of course, the realisation this year that we were right to be so fearful.
But, alas, such pieces, don't matter. The self-proclaimed ‘disruptors’ justify their carnage as a 'cost of business'. They sell the sizzle and then, like Teflon Tom Harrison, are out the door and banking their bonus before the price is truly paid.
It's not just cricket, it's business and, shamefully, it’s Britain.
We used to be better than this.
Lancashire will give members final say on ECB domestic structure proposals (Cricketer)
Lancashire’s awkward squad ready to battle for county cricket’s future (Guardian)
This is a fair assessment of Lancashire Action Group and what they have achieved. “Awkward”, “irritant”- these are on the negative side of the coin. The positive side is “disruptor”, the ‘cliche de jour’ in business right now. See above.
My modus operandi veers more towards the collegiate. But, hey, it’s worked in the north-west.
Remember, there is precious little time between Strauss’ HPR going public and the counties voting on it. You can join the Campaign to Save County Cricket here.
First-class counties to vote on 14 Strauss review proposals in September 20 (Cricketer)
Here’s a twitter stream on Somerset’s meeting. Follow the thread…
This is both staggering and entirely expected. When this whole story fully plays out in some sort of modern whodunnit like The Usual Suspects, I’m thinking Sky might turn out to be Keyser Söze.
Certainly the tournament-that-shall-not-be-named has not been helped by the early return of Premier League football. Sky do not want ‘their products’ competing against each other.
Andrew Strauss: The Hundred will be here for at least another five years (Times) ($)
Criteria, criteria, criteria.
Something as pivotal as the tournament-that-shall-not-be-named must be clearly measured or it can never be managed.
As with its introduction, we know a bit about the ‘what’ but very little of substance on the ‘why’?
So I revisited the famous Inspiring Generations document. Have a look yourself
Here’s….
And here's….
OK, so…
A couple of points - in no way is the tournament-that-shall-not-be-named ALONGSIDE domestic cricket. It is standing on top of it with its foot firmly on its windpipe. Meanwhile, at the risk of mixing my metaphors and twisting the laws of anatomy, it is kneeing Test cricket in the nether regions and elbowing the Ashes into less popular months.
As for the measurement issues, criteria such as "belief", "perception" and "engaging" are suitably woolly. I have not written surveys for 30 years but I suspect I could write one that would give the answer I wanted here. Not that the ECB tend to share such key data anyway. “Attending” should be a more definite number but the ECB have not been transparent here either. Why do they describe tickets as “issued” and not “sold”, what is the true double-header attendance figure, why are crowds at you-know-what measured differently to the Blast? And why can we not have a better if imperfect) apples-to-apples metric such as total ticket revenue minus total marketing spend.
But, more importantly, how has all this been proven to such an extent that they should:
…extend the tournament until 2028
…with a deal excluding the BBC (the crucial free-to-air part)
…just before an new ECB chair arrived
…and with doubt hanging over the annual £1.3m payment to each county
Whatever your overall view, there are fundamental questions over governance, transparency and probity. Let alone for those of us with a clear view of the damage the event has done to the domestic game in less than two competitions.
PS: The opening two pages of the document are devoted to the 'vision' of Colin Graves and Tom Harrison. Look at their reputations now!
Sir Geoffrey Boycott: 'Why is a guy from cycling reforming English cricket?’ (Telegraph) ($)
Member Insights: The Reason Why (iSportconnect)
Interesting angle comparing the tournament-that-shall-not-be-named to LIV Golf, the controversial Saudi-backed event that is dividing that sport.
Ben Stokes: Taking away County Championship fixtures is not the answer (The Cricketer)
Nice to see Ben Stokes is NOT a corporate captain. This above and this story rather proves that. Although it has since been denied.
Speaking of which…
Battle for cricket’s future has already been won but Tests can still retain their shine (Guardian)
Excellent from Jonathan Liew.
"There is nothing wrong with feeling a certain wariness about the future, about the tyranny of money, about whether the thing you love might be dying. But this thing really is too good not to endure. Curiously, virtually everyone seems to agree on this point: in a sport where nothing seems to mean anything Test cricket means something."
But, of course, meaning is not visible on a balance sheet.
Why do we spend our lives and careers valuing the 'hard currency' of status and money but, in death, we only talk of the 'soft' virtues such as love, kindness and what our actions meant.
This, below, was on Annie Chave’s Twitter feed. Read the thread of replies for the full context. There are some caveats. But it tells us what we knew - the tournament-that-shall-not-be-named is eating the Blast’s lunch.
News, Views and Interviews
Inside the rise of the South Asian Cricket Academy (Wisden)
Daryl Mitchell: Ex-Worcestershire captain switches to football in retirement (BBC Sport)
Worcestershire County Cricket Club invite players of all backgrounds to join open trials (Worcs CCC)
Finally, cleanse your mind with this… and relaaaaaaaaaax
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Lovely stuff as ever! I missed one day of our (Hampshire) opening Championship match (v Notts) for a prior, interesting event but I keep making the point that not only was I following intently on my phone but as a Member (since 1961) my seat is paid for whether I make it or not. Some football clubs publish attendances including all season-ticket holders. Cricket should do the same.
Hello, I totally agree with you that it’s a very warped look at cricket. I especially agree that all the franchise cricket is just so that tv has some live sport to show. I’m a Northamptonshire season ticket holder and love all styles of cricket, but I need to be invested in it to get real enjoyment. Either at club or international level.
The current Test match is a case in point, that test cricket is alive and kicking and in an exciting way. Yet, on the 8-40 BBC Breakfast sport bulletin this morning all that was mentioned was the proposed Takeover of Manchester United, not a word about Stuart Broad’s remarkable spell. The BBC also think that they know best what viewers want. They are also, mainly wrong. Keep up the good work