No 92, June 16 - The Grumbler's County Cricket Newsletter
🔵 Lawrence moves to Surrey 🟤 New BBC deal 🟣 ECB hit back at Graves' comments 🔴 Cracking round of Championship games 🟠 Outgrounds looking lovely 🟢 20 years of T20 cricket
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There I was, soaking up the pre-Ashes coverage when Essex emailed me.
Normally that means big news, and so it proved.
Dan Lawrence had turned down a “strong offer” of a three-year contract and was off to Surrey.
Surrey, current title-holders
Surrey, who chased down 500 to win at Kent this week to go 32 points clear at the top of Division One
Surrey, who could already field two first-division sides from their squad.
We should be fair here. This is not the $urrey side who opened their chequebook and hoovered up everyone's spare talent 15-20 years ago. In my Cricket Paper column this season, I have written about my respect for their actions in recent years when they eschewed self-interest and stood up to the ECB for the good of the game. The Richards went from the Oval to HQ with my best wishes and hopes of turning around the descent of the county game.
Surrey’s financial power is down to their history plus astute business decisions, cricket and non-cricket, in the last decade. Every other county has lost a significant percentage of their members in that time but Surrey are breaking records. Of course, this is partly due to the preferential treatment members enjoy in terms of England tickets but counties such as Lancashire, Yorkshire, Nottinghamshire and Warwickshire should have some of the same advantages yet have failed to achieve anything like the same results. Surrey's 17,000 members now represent around a third of the total in county cricket. They are the only county I have ever applied to work for because they are the only ones to pay anywhere near a reasonable salary.
All that financial clout is going to count at some point. Given that, I would argue they have been huge underachievers for most of this century but they are now settling down for a prolonged era of success. Especially when so many other counties are going backwards and the only county to have won more trophies than them are in danger of going out of business. This is not like Man City as their revenue is organic and they are not under investigation for cooking the books. Also, their current side has a healthy quota of homegrown players.
Of course, money plays a role here too in coaching, backroom staff, facilities, scouting etc. It also helps them grab those rare but relished opportunities. When Ben Foakes was stupidly deemed dispensable at Essex, where did he go? Dan Worrall is an Aussie pace bowler not too far below Test level with a British passport, where did he go? They can get the best overseas players too and, unlike other counties, replace them with quality if they disappear early due to injury and international calls.
But this is sport not socialism. Everything is based on competition.
As an Essex fan, I was delighted when we signed Matt Critchley and did not think about what it did to Derbyshire. In both that deal and the Lawrence one, there were suggestions the contract offer to stay was larger than the one signed. Forgive my cynicism but this seems to happen a lot these days and it is a very convenient position that, broadly speaking, protects all parties. Or, to put it another way, if I was running their communications I would brief exactly the same thing safe in the knowledge that it is unlikely to be overly scrutinised.
In the last couple of weeks, I have pitched a column to The Cricket Paper on the introduction of some sort of formal transfer system in county cricket. I was against it but have changed my mind in the face of franchises snatching players for a few weeks here and there. By their very nature, they have to cream talent off the top because they cannot do the hard yards of development. It seems that counties can do nothing about it so they may as well take the money to fund the next generation.
Essex have been realistic title contenders in recent years thanks to an excellent youth system and, for me, have come closest to beating Surrey in the Championship this season.
But our other strength has been based on having excellent county players who are not considered good enough for England. Surrey fans have always argued they need a big squad due to all those international calls and, if there is a selection bias at play it actually works against their domestic ambitions. Maybe.
But, as a much-admired T20 player, Lawrence might be gone much of the time anyway, whoever he plays for. So should I be bothered?
Almost certainly not.
The truth is that players come and go. Always have, always will. Like all fans, I support a club or a county first. Then the players who play for them.
This is one of my problems with franchise cricket. The players come and go, but so do the teams. For 11 months of the year, they are merely WhatsApp groups. It all feels cheap, mass-produced and plastic.
The beauty of county cricket is that we can still revel in something that has become a sporting unicorn. A one-club player from the local area who rose through the ranks and stays through thick and thin.
These are our true representatives. We should cherish them.
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Blast and Championship News
Signings, contracts: Bashir (Somerset - 2yrs), Miles (Warwickshire to Durham - loan), Martindale (Nottinghamshire - 3yrs), Steketee (Yorkshire - 4 Champ games)
A picture from Southport from this account.
Nothing interesting happened in the Championship this week. Nope, nothing at all.
Here are some selected reports:
Surrey pull off biggest Championship run chase since 1925 (Guardian)
Worcestershire fall five runs short in thrilling draw at Sussex (Cricinfo)
With two balls left, all four results were still possible
Leicestershire complete superb final-day win against Gloucestershire (BBC Sport)
Joe Clarke hits career-best 229 not out as Notts draw with Warwickshire (BBC Sport)
On Tuesday, it was 20 years since the first T20 Cup fixtures in the UK. I am writing about it in my column in The Cricket Paper this weekend. Suffice to say, it is utter rubbish that county fans did not support the new competition. Yes, we may not have taken it seriously but 9,000 turned up at Hampshire on the opening night and I was among 27,000 for the first game at Lord’s the following year, the biggest county attendances (excluding one-day cup finals) for 50 years.
In fact, it was the support of English fans that provided the proof of concept for the rest of the world to jump on board. Do you think they would have been so enthusiastic if the most important cricket market back then had rejected it?
The 30-40-year-olds of 2003 are now 50-60 but, in the intervening period, it seems their opinions have become almost invalid.
Time does change people. But most of us were, and still are, open-minded to anything that supports the county game.
Here’s the creator of T20 talking earlier this week (BBC Sounds)
County cricket: Nottinghamshire and Somerset lead the way in T20 Blast (Guardian)
News, Views and Interviews
RIP to Ian Coates too.
Colin Graves: Former Yorkshire chairman says he never witnessed racism at the club (Sky Sports)
ECB ‘Disappointed’ After Colin Graves Claims He Never Witnessed Racism At Yorkshire
I saw the ECB's quick, strong rebuttal of Colin Graves' quotes before I saw the interview from which they came. It was an indication of the strength of feeling surrounding the racism at Yorkshire and, perhaps, the man himself these days.
But remember, less than three years ago he was chairman of the ECB. His voice was one of the loudest in shaping English cricket.
Back then the role of the communications team was to protect him. Now it seems their job is, in part, to protect the game from his views.
Graves is using the I-did-not-see-anything defence and rolling that into assuming nothing happened. Then, of course, nothing needs to be done.
Well, before I was married, I was not attuned to see a lot of the sexism in society. Now my teenage daughter has moved into her teenage years, my vision is even sharper. My wife and my daughter have taught me to look at society not just through a male lens.
I am never going to be as sensitive to the issue as the women in my family. And I do not agree with absolutely everything they say. But I am happy to have my eyes opened and see the view of someone else.
That is the difference.
Andre Nel: 'My mind wants to get angry but my body can't back it up' (BBC Sport)
Rare item of cricketing history goes on display at SS Great Britain (CricketWorld)
Cricket: children are the key to the future of the game, not broadcast rights (The Conversation)
Ashley Giles to return to cricket as Worcestershire CEO (Times)
Associate players are picking county over World Cup Qualifier. And why shouldn't they? (Cricinfo)
ICC to impose limit of four overseas players in T20 franchise teams (Times)
The Ashes, England and Australia: Test Cricket’s Last Stand (New York Times)
Ageas to bow out as Hampshire naming rights partner at end of season (Cricketer)($)
Finally, let’s end with some good news. Here’s the story. County commentaries are included in the deal. However, there is still no sign of a free-to-air TV deal for the tournament-that-shall-not-be-named. Damn it, nearly got through a whole newsletter without mentioning it.
The story of this newsletter
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