No 91, June 8 - The Grumbler's County Cricket Newsletter
🟤 Golf is 'bought', will cricket be next? 🟠 All the Blast news 🟢 What price loyalty in cricket? ⚫️ De Lange injury 🟣 Graves quits Yorkshire chair bid 🔴 The story of wobble seam 🔵 David Emery RIP
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Look at this screengrab from The Guardian’s homepage on Tuesday night.
The two lead stories were not about cricket but every fan of the game should be deeply concerned about their ramifications.
The merger between LIV Golf and the PGA tells us a very wealthy benefactor can effectively buy a sport and the conscience of its leading executives if the price is right. Meanwhile, the demise of London Irish, after the financial failures at Wasps and Worcester Warriors, warns us of the perils of unsustainability and, yes, relying on the potential of that wealthy benefactor.
The problem is that, in my opinion, cricket is there for the taking.
I like to think I have been well aware of the dangers. I have spent the last few years fretting about the tournament-that-shall-not-be-named. I wrote a book about what I thought might be the last chance to see the County Championship in its natural habitat. I produced a podcast on the growth of Major League Cricket before the start of the 2022 season.
However, the real threat may be the strategy and/or whims of a decision-maker from Saudi Arabia. Earlier this year, it was reported they were planning a T20 League to rival the biggest and best. According to this podcast, they tried to buy F1, having already purchased Newcastle United and a world heavyweight title fight and, this week, put the biggest four football clubs in their top domestic division under state control in order to build a Super League. One of them has just signed Karim Benzema from Real Madrid on a salary of almost £20,000 per hour.
PER. HOUR.
Apart from common-or-garden ‘sportwashing’ (here’s a podcast I did explaining that), such purchases are being used as means to protect their long-term wealth and power given the upcoming challenges in the global fossil fuel market. Their money allows them to do it their way. And that they will.
Supposedly, PGA Golf tried to resist this. It was reported that Rory McIlroy turned down £400m and Tiger Woods around £650m while receiving assurances from the leadership that their sacrifice would be rewarded in the long term.
I see no such resistance in cricket. Thus far, anyone suggesting the march of money and the players’ right to enrich themselves should be questioned has been dismissed as a dinosaur, naive or both. The overwhelming lesson from golf this week is that they are right. Simon Heffer’s piece, below, laments the loss of loyalty in the game. You can almost imagine the agent’s guffaw as he turns his attention to moving on his latest cricket client.
I wrote last week about the stories constructed by the rich and powerful to keep them rich and powerful. For some, the takeaway from this week might be ‘if you can’t beat them, join them’. Especially after reports of glee from those who took LIV’s money and have now found their moral inferiority to be justified.
Certainly, you can see stories of Saudi Arabia’s human rights record being sidelined by media organisations looking for access to any of the sports in their portfolio. Then again, I have consulted in the UAE in the last few years and, in the past, worked for Murdoch newspapers. Does that make me a hypocrite in all this?
Of course, the UK government continues to do business with Saudi Arabia and, in a lesson in the power of sport, the delay in the Newcastle deal was considered a threat to the wider relationship between the two countries.
I worry that all this fuss doesn’t matter. I worry that everyone will watch and forget. Newcastle are in the Champions League and golf will move forward with some spectacular new events.
I worry that cricket, the world’s second-biggest sport and a key route into the Indian market, is next.
I worry that if Wasps, London Irish and Worcester Warriors can go under this season then why not Yorkshire or Middlesex, who have both made headlines for their precarious financial positions?
And I worry that no-one will notice if they do.
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Blast and Championship news
Sussex Sharks lose by 10 wickets after a jam in Hampshire (Brighton and Hove News)
Peter Hatzoglou gets hostile reception in Cardiff to play for Glamorgan (Mail)
County cricket: Somerset last team with 100% winning record in T20 Blast (Guardian)
Ben Mike beginning to flourish at Yorkshire CCC | Yorkshire Post (Yorkshire Post)
Signing: Shipley (Sussex - Four Champ games, replacing Pujara)
News, Views and Interviews
Yorkshire: Colin Graves criticised by club after pulling out of chair bid (BBC Sport)
Members Update - Yorkshire County Cricket Club" (Yorkshire CCC)
Colin Graves pulls out of running for Yorkshire chair role (Cricketer)($)
“Colin indicated that the terms of his return as chair would require total control of the board and executive. This would run counter to that process, as well as the best practice governance requirements set out in the County Governance Code that were agreed by all counties in 2019.
"Colin also makes a number of allegations about the board's actions in regard to finances which are unfounded and indicate a distinct lack of understanding of the current position of YCCC. The short and long-term financial wellbeing of the club remains the board's priority, and we will not be distracted by speculation which is unhelpful to our primary objective of securing the future of Yorkshire County Cricket Club and making it a welcoming club for everyone."
It is very rare to see quotes like this coming out from a sports organisation, especially when they owe their family Trust the little matter of £15m. Clearly, Yorkshire feel Colin Graves was trying to take over in a way they thought unhealthy for the long-term future of the club. We know he has form. After refusing requests to attend the Select Committee into claims of racism at Headingley, he was told to "put up or shut up" by MPs. And, of course, he helped push through the tournament-that-shall-not-be-named along with Teflon Tom Harrison amid talk of NDAs, a lack of consultation and accusations of threats (which he denies). Incredibly, he then told another Select Committee that supporters had been consulted on the competition.
In the past, Graves has complained that he is being judged by people who have never met him. This is true. I have never met him. But next year, I will be asked for my opinion on whether Rishi Sunak or Keir Starmer should run the country, and I have never met them either. Or the candidate who will directly receive my X.
Public life means coping with public perception. That involves standing up and responding to scrutiny, especially if you want power in the emotional world of county cricket.
Meanwhile, Oli Slipper confirmed as next chair of Surrey (Cricketer)
He is a major name in sports digital content and helped launch the streaming platform, DAZN.
The H*ndred offer official chai partner free deal (Cricketer)
My understanding of sports marketing is that you should never give away something you will want to charge for in the future - tickets, sponsorship deals etc. This is because it frames the product as valueless in the eyes of potential purchasers. The only caveat is if it has strategic significance and can lead to future growth. For example, the Premier League charged very little for overseas television rights back in the 1990s in order to grow long-term interest. Now, they are worth more than the UK rights.
For me, it is a stretch to say this new deal is strategic enough but it is the Indian market so there may well be some knock-on effects.
If I were the ECB, at the start of this season I'd have courted a contra deal with solar companies to effectively make grounds fully functional demonstrations of the product. Cricket is associated with sunshine and giving away considerable collateral and, say, an executive box on a number of match days as a showroom would be a fair exchange for reduced energy costs in the long term. Then again, this assumes we have counties working together and a governing body willing to put them anywhere but the bottom of the priority list.
The H*ndred bigger and better is another shot across the bows for county cricket (Cricketer)
When stories of the possible demise of the tournament-that-shall-not-be-named emerged a few weeks ago a knowledgable friend texted saying "I hope they start renegotiating that TV contract with Sky".
Then it went quiet.
Then stories came out doubling down on you-know-what, including interviews with both Richards.
Now, this is complete and utter speculation from me... but perhaps they DID have those conversations and Sky told them they wanted to continue. A contract is a contract after all.
While most of the driving forces behind the tournament-that-shall-not-be-named at the ECB have gone, that is not true for Sky. They will have started planning their long-term schedule and acquisition of other rights once Teflon Tom Harrison had hurriedly negotiated that deal before he left.
I am still searching for someone to give me a similar example of corporate hand-tying but an outgoing executive team. And I’m still waiting for a valid explanation of why it was done at that point and without the free-to-air element. The only part we can all agree is beneficial to men’s cricket in this country.
In the circumstances it would be ridiculous for the Richards to criticise that deal but, as I wrote at the time, unless they can weaken its terms and influences then I think it could be the death knell for county cricket.
Loyalty in cricket has survived for 150 years – until now (Telegraph)
A lament from Simon Heffer on the chasm that is about to open up in cricket. You can hear the tiny fissures cracking under our feet right now.
It seems increasingly obvious that social contracts with an implied long-term "greater good" will struggle in a society without patience. In the last 30 years, “streamlining”, “hollowing out” and “flipping” have become business vernacular designed to mask the deliberate myopia of making a fast buck and ignoring the consequences.
Meanwhile, the NHS, the greatest British invention since the Industrial Revolution, has fallen prey to the myth of internal markets. And nationalised industries have become a byword for inefficiency yet it seems OK to sell them off to private enterprises that constantly need government bailouts but still manage to pay their shareholders massive dividends.
In this regard, my teenage children's frame of reference is social media where, according to those influencers driving Lamborghinis in Abu Dhabi, the path to the promised land is paved with cryptocurrency, NFTs and lucrative side hustles that can be summed up in a 15-second post.
I do admire their utter lack of interest in wage slavery though. Why would they want a 9-to-5 job when they see a society rewarding good intentions and hard work with an infinitesimal chance of true social mobility? You may as well earn an enjoyable and fulfilled minimum wage, pay rent forever and hope for the best. The destination is the same but the journey is much more pleasant.
The social contract between supporters and athletes is that if you play for my team and give your all, I'll be interested in you and I'll care about you. Pictures, autographs, awkward conversations, yeah sorry about those but it is all coming from a good place. In the old days, if you served us well, we would throw coins in the bucket for your benefit year as a retirement gift. Loyalty and excellence might even mean you get a stand named after you.
Either way, even after you have stopped playing, I will still be interested if you stay connected with my club. Because, you know, supporters support. We will still be polishing your ego and making you feel your contribution mattered because… well... it did for us. Even when we are criticising, we care because it all mattered.
The sad part is that cricketers are now chasing money without meaning. And, believe me, the true value is not the same. Even some of us 'muggles' without magical sporting talents have been in jobs where we believed in the business and ones where we did not. The pay may be just the same but there is greater pride when you feel you work for a higher cause.
Loss of standing is tough to take for all of us, especially men, preening peacocks that we are. It drives the meltdown that often follows a sharp dip in our career if we made the all-too-common mistake of allowing work to define us. For most, it is the midlife crisis that happens when you realise your career (and life) might have peaked. For athletes, it is the often destructive years post-retirement.
I wonder what former franchise players will feel like in 10 years’ time with all that cash in the bank and wall upon wall of framed shirts from faceless, identikit teams.
But you know what? I won’t care.
Remembering Cricket at Bramall Lane (Sheffield United)
Ex-England captain takes on ECB in dramatic battle to recover lost income and legal fees (Crictoday)
Not sure how I feel about this.
English cricket has neglected spin bowling for years – no wonder there is no Plan B (Telegraph)
The Story Of The Wobble-Seam, The Ball That Changed Cricket (Wisden)
And finally…
First and foremost, David Emery was a nice man. He was also good to me.
I’m sure he would admit he was an “old-fashioned newspaper man” and, in many ways, The Cricket Paper is an old-fashioned newspaper. However, when it returned recently from a year-long hiatus, there was a noticeable affection for the product. Once I was on board, he took a strong interest in my column and listened to my ambitions of returning to cricket writing full-time. In 2021, he invited me to the Cricket Writers’ Annual Dinner, bought me a drink and said he was going to put my column in for one of the awards. “I doubt you’ll win but your stuff is worth it,” he said. Remember, I am middle-aged not straight out of journalism school. Grey hair does normally get such backing and, coming from someone with his pedigree, it meant a lot.
But yet again, first and foremost, David Emery was a nice man.
Here’s an obit from the Cricket Writers Club
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