No 97, July 22 - The Grumbler's County Cricket Newsletter
🟤 ICEC chair presses ECB on inclusion 🔵 Botham pushes back 🔴 Hope of new T20 event 🟣 What 'growing the game' really means 🟢 Somerset's Blast triumph 🟠 All the moves and contracts
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In an open letter to ECB chair Richard Thompson this week, Cindy Butts - the chair of the Independent Commission for Equity in Cricket (ICEC) - said the game has "largely been run by, and for, the benefit of a small minority".
This point has been made a lot.
And, given the response to the ICEC recommendations is being considered right now, I make no apology for returning to the issue.
The report talks of Type K - "White men, educated in private schools, who are straight and cisgender, and do not report a disability".
This common connection subtly allows the same sort of men (and women actually) with the same accent more likely to go from school cricket to the pro game. Then, maybe, from the pitch to the commentary box or the coaching set-up or the executive level.
I am not saying this group are all unqualified, lazy or without talent. If that education is not squeezing out every drop of ability then you have wasted your money. And it is not just about cash anyway. Confidence and connections are just as important. This grants this small minority the grace to fail and still move forward.
So much of life is about resilience and reaction.
When I was interviewed for the board at Essex, I walked out thinking I was the ‘wrong sort’ so, when, as expected, I did not get the club's preferred status, I pulled out. They did not want me so I was never going to push the issue. My school education left me believing opportunities are mainly for others so it is best I sit in the corner, keep my nose clean and shut up. There’s a good boy. OK, I am writing this but I never post pictures of myself and tweeted as The Grumbler for over a decade before revealing my name. You would not be reading this at all had I been able to fully resurrect my busy career after a wrong move a few years ago. But enough woe is me, I am Type K in all but education. Yet that means I am not in the seven per cent of the UK that controls so much, especially cricket.
One of the biggest problems in modern society is the failure of the rich and powerful to share wealth after the mood of post-war benevolence dissipated in the 1970s. Two generations further on, we seem powerless to stop the dismantling of the greatest, most altruistic institutions that blossomed in this period. When pertinent questions are asked the thrust of the answer is about growing the pie, not slicing it a different way.
And there is a reason that these scenarios are not probed more deeply.
Only this week, in areas much more important than sport, we allowed the griping of a Dulwich College-educated, former banker about his personal account at a highly-selective financial institution to be presented as an issue of national importance. Meanwhile, an Eton-educated charlatan who was sacked from his ‘birthright’ job for incompetence and lying was not being properly held to account over how he mishandled a mega-crisis that killed tens of thousands and kept us captive in our homes for the best part of a year.
But they have the self-importance to see their needs as everyone’s needs. Plus the accent and oratory to style it out.
I look at the Ashes right now and should see hope for cricket. But many of the fans at Old Trafford without deep family ties will have been first turned onto the game because of the 2005 series. Cricket has allowed itself to be partially hidden ever since because the powers-that-be wanted more money going into a sport they were simultaneously happy to shrink.
Even my O-Level maths can work out what is going on here.
It also tells me that allowing seven per cent of the population to dominate a sport is neither fair nor healthy. But they need to get out of the way - actively and consciously.
And that will not happen because, well, they are “the right sort” aren’t they?
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Player moves, contracts and other news
Moves: Jones (Lancashire to Worcestershire - 3yrs), Brown (Worcestershire to Derbyshire), Hamza (Warwickshire - overseas, 2 games)
Contracts: Ahmed (Leicestershire - to 2027), Bracey (Gloucestershire - 2yrs), Reece, Came (Derbyshire - 2yrs)
Derbyshire Batter Madsen To Play For Italy (BBC Sport)
Prithvi Shaw's County Stint Delayed Due To Visa Issues (Times Of India)
Gloucestershire not expected to seek replacement for Snell (Cricketer) ($)
Linde Leaves Kent, Sussex Agree Rawlins Contract Termination (Cricinfo)
Milnes Recovery On Track As He Returns To Bowling (Yorkshire CCC)
County cricket: Alex Lees is the first to 1,000 runs in Durham charge (Guardian)
News, views and interviews
Somerset Hold Nerve To Seal First T20 Blast Title Since 2005 (Cricinfo)
T20 Blast: Somerset see off Essex to win trophy for second time (BBC Sport)
Somerset's Lewis Gregory says trophy win is 'a special feeling' (BBC Sport)
Bodhi To Cheer Somerset On At Finals Day (Somerset CCC)
T20 Blast team of the tournament: Who joins James Vince and Matt Henry in our XI? (Cricketer)
Is Cricket Racist? Review – The Answer Can Only Be One Thing: ‘Very’" (Guardian)
Ian Botham Slams Cricket Racism Report He 'Threw Down On Floor' After Reading (Mirror)
Ian Botham: I threw racism report on the floor, it was nonsense (Times)
Does English Cricket Have The Will To Put Its House In Order? (Cricinfo)
Ex-Essex player Jahid Ahmed: Racism probe being dragged out to protect accused (Independent)
I have not seen the Channel 4 show “Is Cricket Racist?” yet but it is on my list.
The attitude of Ian Botham to the ICEC Report is entirely expected and I would bracket this into my ‘don’t listen too much to star players’ views about running the game’ argument.
However, Botham is chair at Durham and, as such, he should not be dismissing a thorough report that included 4,000 respondents.
And, of course, there is more to come out about the game’s recent past.
Katherine Newton’s report into racism at Essex needs to be published as soon as possible. As Jahid Ahmed says, delay is a tactic. However, every time I have heard club CEO John Stephenson talk on the matter he has expressed exasperation at the lack of progress too. As publication nears, expect some stories to seep out, like the disgraceful one about Danish Kaneria above.
As with Yorkshire, my approach is getting everything out as quickly as possible and as transparently as possible (stories of heavy redaction concern me) then treat the wrong-doers with a measure of the tolerance you wish to see in the rest of society.
‘Never again’ messages must be sent out. But we need to create pathways to redemption too. If you ostracise a section of society then do not expect them to align with your values anymore. Many will deliberately go the opposite way. Good people do bad things all the time and vice versa. The concept of ‘cancelling’ a person on the basis of a handful of admittedly terrible deeds or choices is the attitude of a sanctimonious society.
Be it Yorkshire, Essex, or any misdeed, allow people the latitude to say “sorry, I was stupid, I did not realise, let me improve and move on”.
And Essex have other problems too…
Shaun Udal: I’ve faced some really dark days after Parkinson’s disease diagnosis (Independent)
Michael Burgess and the oddities of loans in County Cricket (Will Symons)
Leicestershire to report Worcestershire over contentious dismissal (CricketWorld)
Kieron Pollard: Lots Has To Happen For Me To Pick T20 Blast Over MLC (Cricketer)
When Pollard says that Major League Cricket has "people who understand how to grow the sport" does he really mean people who know how to pay the players the most money?
Of course star salaries are important but, in football, for every Saudi League, there is a Chinese League. As someone who worked in Major League Soccer (an organization often called a pension plan for fading stars), I am very aware that it is important to pay the right money for the right type of player. That means those who can give as much, or even more than they can take.
These are rare. But you want players who buy in for the long term and work towards a 'win: win'. For example, let us consider the deal that took David Beckham to LA Galaxy in 2007 on a salary of $6.5m, a 70 per cent cut on this previous deal. Still, it was good for his global stature and put the league on the map. However, it also allowed him to buy part of a future franchise for $25m, a deal he enacted over a decade later with Inter Miami when the going rate was $500m.
Now, he is using his connections to develop the side despite poor form plus numerous logistical and stadium issues. It is doubtful they would have got Messi without him and, given money is luring so many players to Saudi, the MLS sorely needed his star power.
Cricket club raises £10k after weed killer attack leaves pitch destroyed (ITV News)
Greatest Living Northamptonian' And Former Cricket Scorer Passes Away (Northants Live)
When someone dies, if they receive long, heartfelt and continued tributes then they must have been a decent person. We do not criticise those we did not like when they go, we just do not talk about them as much. I had never heard of this chap before he passed away but the eulogies have been legion.
Somerset County Cricketer's Son Wins Wimbledon Boys' Tournament (Somerset County Gazette)
OK, so I left this story to the end for fear of a little too much soapbox…
Plans to replace Hundred and Blast with new T20 competition (Times)
“One proposal, which has growing support, is to scrap the eight Hundred teams and the 100-ball format and replace it with a T20 league featuring the 18 counties — and perhaps some of the National (formerly minor) Counties — but with a different ownership model that allows for private investment.
“The eight Hundred teams are wholly owned by the ECB but a future model could include shared ownership between the ECB, the counties and private investors. Early indications are that the split could be one third each and would allow the counties to partner with a local business or another local sports team to raise capital investment and allow for increased salaries.”
Let's look at the positives here.
Change is needed, change is good and, from the array of stories coming out, there is a serious discussion going on about changing the tournament-that-shall-not-be-named.
Quite how they will turn the hype up to 11 with a straight face when it starts next week I do not know.
But it will happen.
As I have been banging on about articulating for some time, the introduction of this event has given English cricket serious problems in so many areas - governance, finance, relationships, scheduling etc. The think tanks and brains in jars got it badly wrong (but they still got their bonus and other cushy positions, see intro). Even the one unabashed positive, the women's version, has an element of a happy accident about it.
As I said, we need to revisit who runs the game because the same mistakes happen again and again in English cricket. Same accents, same suits, same results.
But maybe now is not the time to explore all that again because the flip side of a problem is an opportunity.
I am open to pretty much any solution that grows the game for everyone in the long term. For me, that means emphasising our country's cricketing strengths (nationwide county structure, deep roots of support thanks to history and tradition) and facing them towards the future.
Formats and the need for a veneer of modern fan engagement have never bothered me. One of the weaknesses of the pro-Hundred lobby is they have amassed behind a poor solution because it is the only one presented when, in fact, there are many.
There is little to no detail in this story and there have been few real follow-ups. But I am intrigued by the idea of counties co-owning franchises with outside investors. This gives them skin in the game as well as a driver to make change. We have seen similar solutions pitched before.
I have previously written that a portion of cricket's leadership is smarting after the 'fleas' stymied the Strauss Report. I expect they will put in place changes that ensure it cannot happen again. Lancashire have tried already. An ownership change such as the one proposed here could be the stalking horse. Watch out.
It is easy to paint counties and their members as reactionary and ultra-conservative because many are.
We need a strong fans organisation to step up here, inserting themselves into the narrative and taking a role in the creation of a new future.
That means the powers-that-be opening up a meaningful dialogue with the moderate majority of supporters who accept that muddling through is not a strategy.
And finally, just so we all know this exists…
The story of this newsletter
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