No 81, Mar 21 - The Grumbler's County Cricket Newsletter
🟢 Essex, Kent, Leics overseas signings 🔵 Full pre-season schedule 🇺🇸 Major League problem for county cricket? 🟣 Leics £60m stadium plan 🔴 Middx financial crisis 🟠 Social media abuse in cricket
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County cricket is being played in the UK again. Well, it would be if it was not so flipping wet and cold.
Here’s a handy schedule of all the pre-season fixtures.
The preview pages are under construction too. Gone are the days of big sections in newspapers (though Reach are doing a printed product) but blogs are filling the gap manfully and 18 counties is a lot to review.
Cricket Draft | Cricket Ramblings
Here’s a graphic explaining the span of the season. Click into the thread for more numbers by the ever-excellent RedBall Data man about the uneven fixture list and the problem of congestion. You can see why Major League Cricket, currently in late July, will be a major problem if it expands.
The next newsletter will be published on the eve of the season.
If this edition is a microcosm, it will be the usual mixture of self-interest, threats, controversy, criticism, social issues, rage against the machine and nonsense.
Plus a bit of cricket too.
I can’t wait.
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Player/Coaches - Signings, contracts etc
Signings: Singh (Kent - 5 Champs games, June/July), Sutherland (Essex - 11 Champ games)
Peter Handscomb signs deal with Leicestershire ahead of WTC final, Ashes (AniNews)
They add Cameron Bancroft (Yorkshire) and Todd Murphy (Durham) may follow.
Contracts: Smith (Gloucestershire - 2 yrs), Currie (Sussex - 1yr), Dawson (Hampshire - 2yrs), Helm and Eskinazi (Middlesex, 3 yrs), Baker (Worcestershire - 3yrs)
Keshav Maharaj ruptures Achilles while celebrating wicket (Cricketer)
Abdullah Shafique's move to Leicestershire torched at the 11th hour (Cricketer)
Big blow for Northants as Emilio Gay is ruled out for start of the season (Northampton Chronicle)
Lancashire bowler Richard Gleeson undergoes surgery on fractured wrist (Cricketer)
Liam Dawson eyes injury return in time for County Championship start (Cricketer)
Tom Curran suffers back injury, expected to miss start of T20 Blast (Cricinfo)
Alex Lees takes over as Durham white-ball captain (Cricketer)
Mark Alleyne set for Glamorgan white-ball head coach role (Cricketer)
Ian Bell: Former England batter to remain on Derbyshire coaching staff (BBC)
News, Views and Interviews
This is hugely ambitious from Leicestershire, a county always considered 'among the first against the wall' should the domestic game look to contract.
Like many sporting organisations, they are looking to develop their venue in order to financially support the primary business. Part of this will be continuing to host concerts and events then adding an education element, including the world's first MBA in cricket.
Broadly speaking this is no different to your local non-League football club who make more money out of the social club bar and a few 'do's' than they get through the turnstiles. Or Tottenham Hotspur, who deliberately constructed a £1bn new stadium so they could host NFL games and major boxing cards as well as football games.
Multi-use complexes have to be the future for county cricket. The move to the Ageas Bowl has changed Hampshire's stature and security. Durham would have gone the same way but for their shabby treatment by the ECB.
While franchise cricket wants the game to be city-based, surely there is value in some clubs moving the other way and developing multi-sports hubs that could become regional centres of excellence. I don't want Essex to leave Chelmsford but I'd accept it if they built a great facility in the north of the county whose costs were shared with a football club, associate businesses etc and could be East Anglia’s sports academy.
ECB seek urgent clarity from Middlesex over state of county's finances (Telegraph)
Middlesex admit to financial concerns as ECB monitor club's status (Cricinfo)
Of course, Middlesex have huge restrictions in this area as, to put it in the words of this piece, "their revenue streams are almost entirely through cricket". No Michael Buble concerts for them.
So when a mistake over pension payments puts them in a financial mire there are few levers they can pull.
Middlesex issued a statement in response to this - I liked this communication from the CEO. Quick, clear, detailed and reasonable. Not the ‘no problems, no blame’ nonsense we are increasingly being served. It adds context while accepting their position and the important issues they have faced.
When I lived in the US, I watched a baseball game from the Colorado Rockies new rooftop bar.
There were accusations that the facility was making the stadium feel like a great pub with a great view of the mountains and there just happened to be a baseball game going on. But this is the modern sports events business. Die-hards fans are there whatever. Those with a high net worth and half an interest want top quality ‘experiences’ with a twist and the atmosphere created by even an average match moves the emotions way above the ordinary.
The Rockies bar was in downtown Denver and briefly became ‘the place’ to hang out. I'd doubt Edgbaston is central enough to create ‘a scene’ but the view of the city and the ground is spectacular. Therefore it is saleable.
Also, I applaud this.
Sensory room means Warwickshire cricketer's son can watch him play (Warwickshire CCC)
Will England's ‘Bazball’ cross over to county cricket this summer? (Northampton Chronicle)
A new start after 60: Sepsis almost killed me – but I survived to invent a new sport (Guardian)
ECB and PCA on collision course with players set to be banned from Major League Cricket (Mirror)
MCC agrees compromise on Lord's hosting Oxford-Cambridge, Eton-Harrow matches (Cricinfo)
MCC back down after revolt about Eton v Harrow at Lord's (Telegraph)
Eton v Harrow and Oxford v Cambridge games to remain at Lord’s until 2027 (Guardian)
While there have been some welcoming voices, how many commenters without a public school background have supported this reinstatement? Then again, diversity of class is becoming a huge problem across journalism as well as cricket.
The game itself is easily ignored and the peculiar, particular nature of Lord’s and the MCC membership means they can do what they like. But if you allow this just please spare me the nonsense about your commitment to inclusivity. See tweet below.
Somerset sign biggest ever partnership deal (Somerset CC)
Somerset sign Vic Marks for 2023 (Somerset CCC)
But Teflon Tom Harrison, the ECB MD at the time of the DCMS committee on Yorkshire (and responsible for many other governance issues, laying off 60 staff and subject to an investigation into his own conduct ) negotiates a unilateral TV deal with Sky, gets a huge bonus, leaves and lands a big job in rugby.
And Darlow’s replacement is Clare Connor who, in my opinion, is far too closely associated with the Harrison regime for the deputy CEO part of her appointment.
Clare Connor appointed ECB deputy chief executive officer (Cricinfo)
The pool of leading executives at the top of cricket seems very small and, from this distance, does not feel representative.
Which brings us to Andrew Strauss and this…
Jarvis says Leicestershire would have lost £250,000 a season had the two key proposals been accepted. He adds, quite understandably, that if the Strauss Report was prompted by England’s failure at Test level in the Ashes then where is the praise for the current system after the stunning revival under Brendan McCullum?
Yorkshire board backlash puts Colin Graves' return on the backburner (Cricketer)
Sir Stephen O'Brien to remain Essex chair (Cricketer)
Hunt elected Notts chair as Broad takes presidency (Notts CCC)
Speaking of the same old faces at the top of the game, it was very pleasing to see Colin Graves' bid to return to Yorkshire blocked, for now at least. But there are 15 million reasons why he might still be appointed.
This quote from the piece suggests, he never went away. "A former Yorkshire chair, Roger Hutton, alleged that Graves retained a strong influence on the club and effectively prevented him from sacking staff ultimately sacked by Patel."
Interesting.
One of the most important elements of the CDC hearing were reports that Lord Patel claimed the ECB instructed him to sack 16 members of staff. Something they strongly deny. (George Dobell’s piece, see below, says this was actually mis-reported and Patel said the ECB had asked him to ensure the old regime at Yorkshire were not involved in the governance process)
It is a crucial nuance in a saga that has been about as subtle as someone deliberately taking a dump in your garden. Which is exactly what happened to Rafiq.
Along with the prompt payment to Rafiq, the sacking of those staff is perhaps the key criticism thrown at Patel's tenure at Yorkshire. Both have been left with important question marks after the CDC hearing. I must admit I had previously missed these wrinkles in the story and I have been looking.
Kent CCC 2022 financial results confirmed (Kent CCC)
Best of luck to Kent chair Simon Philip in trying to put the genie back into the bottle regarding negativity on social media. But cricket and its public have to try harder. As this newsletter has grown, I have got more flak. It comes to anyone who puts their head above the parapet. Unlike Elizabeth Ammon, I am more a muter than a blocker, but if you are not going to engage in a civil manner then you are gone. We've all had moments we regret on social media but, as I have said before, county cricket's accessibility is its strength. Clubs and players must keep the dialogue open and members must play their part.
In terms of fan engagement, I'd flip the switch. I would designate a player to answer half a dozen questions via Twitter during play each day. Tweet in questions to the club feed and get video messages as a reply. Communications teams could manage it and if they are in the field all day then a coach could cover it.
Vaughan denied 'due process' in Yorkshire racism disciplinary, claims lawyer (Cricinfo)
Robin Smith says ECB should have called an independent Yorkshire inquiry (Cricketer 365)
Yorkshire board backlash puts Colin Graves' return on the backburner (Cricketer)
I could not agree more with George Dobell in his assertion that the CDC hearings are difficult, painful and, in the short-term, unlikely to clear up the stain of racism at Yorkshire County Cricket Club.
However, this nettle must still be grasped.
Just look at the stories above.
The Eton-Harrow game is back on, the 'right sort of person' is back in the right sort of job at the top of the game. After all, they were born to lead weren’t they? Heaven help us, even the Marxist-Leninist cabal that is Goldman Sachs is telling us social mobility in the UK is worryingly poor compared to the rest of the world.
But we still think we are a special nation.
Well, we were when we cared and shared a bit more.
However, nothing tends to change in the UK without a persistent push or a good hard shove. Actually, you need both. Without the constant pressure, the old, familiar frameworks find their way back and, without the occasional aggressive moment, the system starts to get used to the strain.
The most recent saga of racism in English cricket has been horrible and it is far from over. It has been hampered by those happy to ignore it, brush it under the carpet and then delay due process until we have moved on.
But I'll take all those feet-draggers over those who suggest there is nothing to see and, indeed, the victim is the problem.
There are no winners here but history will judge some more favourably than others.
Finally, forget all the racism, sod all the class warfare and take 10 seconds to think about little Florence Dunn…
Rest in Peace.
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