Sometimes it’s hard to escape the nagging feeling that the ECB appears to actively dislike its own sport. It’s also easy to think they are deliberately and specifically trying to kill county cricket, particularly in its four day format. It’s one of those thoughts that passes through a mind, dismissed as ludicrous, but re-appearing with every new announcement that appears intended to do exactly that. The Hundred, the marginalisation of the county championship to the edges of the season (and a rather odd celebration in some quarters when a couple of fixtures are not at those margins), the apparently deliberate disdain for its existing audience. The notion seems preposterous, but if it were to happen, it’s hard to believe the attempt would be done much differently to the way it is now.
There needs to be some full disclosure here: I am not and never have been a passionate adherent of county cricket – it’s been a matter of relative indifference to me except as a pathway to the international sides, while club cricket was always my focus, with a healthy (or unhealthy depending on who you speak to) disdain for the conduct of the counties over the years. To that extent, I don’t have an emotional bond to that strata of the game, more a recognition of how vital it is as a cog in the larger wheel, albeit one that could have been managed rather differently over the last fifty years.
And yet, at the same time, I also recognise how much it matters to many others, not least the other writers on this site, who have been spectators at many more games than I have, and who care about the tables and outcomes far more than I do. That’s just me, I don’t defend it, and I don’t propound it, it’s just how it is. And yet the finalisation of the format of the Hundred, to start the year after next, remains a subject to stoke my ire, due to the sheer arrogance of its creation and the dismissal of any opposition to it as somehow irrelevant. Few businesses can survive with such a lofty view of those who might attend, and since the ECB have gone down the route of being a pseudo-business in the first place, it’s a fair stick with which to beat them. New audiences are all very well, but existing ones are much easier to keep than winning brand new ones – indeed creating an entirely new market would be considered as nigh on impossible in equivalent circles.
Here, a reminder of why the Hundred is deemed necessary is worthwhile. There is already a T20 tournament in place, but the deal with Sky for exclusive rights to it meant that there was no chance of any of it being free to air. And the ECB have belatedly realised that their decision to remove any visibility for the sport has had catastrophic effects – the plummeting participation levels being one obvious result. Therefore a second competition was necessary, one that could be sold to free to air television, at least in part, while also flogging it off to pay TV for more money. I say sold, but the rumours are that the BBC are picking it up for peanuts, so desperate are the ECB to at least have some degree of public awareness it’s going on.
Having decided that a second short form competition is essential, the ECB were faced with a couple of problems – firstly to shorten it somewhat (although it should be noted that in all the early announcements it was stated to be a T20 competition, and presumably the BBC knew it), and second to give it at least some differentation from the Blast. Hence the mad scramble for something shorter and with different playing conditions. Likewise, the franchise idea came about by noting how other countries had fewer teams to make it work, and as a rather useful way of bypassing the counties themselves, given the feeling that 18 sides is too many. An irony here is that in football, the very strength of the game in England is that there are so many teams – something other countries view with envy. For cricket here it is deemed a problem, and not an opportunity.
Naturally, a smaller competition means that brand new teams need to be created, and thus the desire for city based franchises came along, preferably with a ready made audience who might affiliate with the urban centres in which they were based. The trouble was, it was still going to be just another T20 tournament, and one that might even make sense as a financial centrepiece, were it not for there already being a competition in place that provided that. So why not fiddle around with all the rules and make it “simpler” through various initiatives to render it vastly more complex? And here we are with the Hundred, a format no one really wants, and no one asked for, all to fit around a succession of requirements forced on the ECB by their own actions and their own long term goal.
The confirmation of five or ten ball “overs” to fit the decimal headline number smacks entirely of trying to force a game into a title, and while it is hardly sacrilegeous to change the number of balls (8 ball overs were a thing for many years – indeed in order to shorten what became T20 many clubs have for years played 15 x 8 ball overs in evening leagues), it is the attempt to present a solution to a mathematical problem of their own making as somehow revolutionary that generates sarcastic responses.
Still, it’s going to happen, and despite the self-imposed strait-jacket, it will doubtless cause some initial interest, simply as something new, and as an event. It may even catch on, given that the pressure from gambling broadcasters and governing bodies for ever shorter and more numerous forms of cricket is certainly there – as evidenced with T10 tournaments. If it does, then the question of what happens to the T20 Blast will come up, for that competition can be seen as something of an barrier to what the ECB wish to achieve here – sidelining the annoying self-interested counties and producing a competition that can attract international attention for the benefit of the self-interested ECB. It’s easy to be sceptical about the ECB’s motives (usually because being sceptical about their motives proves the correct attitude), but the current season structure is not going to be sustainable in the long term, and the creation of franchises moves the professional game in the direction that the avaricious will far prefer.
The other fly in the ointment is the county championship itself. Although it ought to be a proving ground for Test cricket, the changing nature of Test cricket itself (and the selection of short form specialists to the team) has rendered it less vital in the eyes of those who must be obeyed. It’s a nuisance – it takes too long, the crowds are small, and the counties need to be subsidised to play in it. Why would anyone want such a competition when there’s so much money to be made elsewhere? Thus, the heart of the season has been given over almost entirely to limited overs matches of one form or another, whether domestic or international, with the annoying red ball cricket kept out of the way, like an embarrassing uncle. Some might argue that it could be nurtured and helped, a format of cricket that needs assistance rather than contempt, but this is not the way the ECB do things.
Having in 2018 created a fixture list that managed to avoid any cricket on a bank holiday (people might go along and watch – can’t have that), for 2019 they have gone the extra mile, avoiding any matches at the weekend where possible, and ensuring that those who work for a living won’t have a chance of getting along to see any play. The sarcasm is justified, because there are only two possibilities here – firstly that the ECB are so completely incompetent that arranging fixtures at a time people might be able to go is something they’ve never considered, or that it is deliberate. Despite the feeling that ineptitude is written into the ECB’s mission statement, they can’t possibly be that lacking in basic ability, so it can only be on purpose. A deliberate decision to make the county championship even less accessible to spectators. A deliberate decision to make membership of a county even less attractive. A deliberate decision to turn away people who love the game.
Those who go and watch county cricket might be relatively few in number compared to other sports, but they are also very often the people involved in grass roots cricket, administrators and volunteers – those whose passion for the game exceeds the casual spectator by orders of magnitude. They get laughed at and belittled, including by some members of the press, let alone the ECB who are supposed to be on the same damn side, but these people have a disproportionate value to the game that goes far beyond them sitting isolated under a blanket at New Road. All ignored. All treated with contempt.
This scornful attitude is why those who insist the Hundred is given a chance are missing the point. It’s not that it can’t succeed, it’s not even that it won’t succeed, for even some free to air live coverage has a chance of generating interest far beyond the niche sport cricket currently is. It is that the ECB really do not care about taking those who love the game with them. They have no interest in trying to manage the 21st century commercial realities with the responsibilities that their supposed husbandry of the game of cricket in England and Wales ought to instil. The dash for cash is the primary aim, the actual game of cricket a cipher, not the end in itself.
Those who play up and down the country are irrelevant. Those who love cricket for the sake of the game they grew up with are irrelevant, unless they can be switch-sold and monetised. The game of cricket itself is irrelevant, it is merely a means. And that is the reason for the anger, not messing around with the rules, not trying to square a circle that wouldn’t be easy in any circumstances. It’s that they don’t care about you, they don’t care about me. That you played the game all your life is no more than a footnote, that you watch the game only of value in so far as you can be added up in revenue stream.
The ECB. The only sports governing body that regards the game for which they are responsible as a hindrance to their aims.
Being Outside Cricket 
If cricket Australia can wake up to their role as keeper of the people’s game then surely the ECB can be shamed into doing the same. Oops sorry they’re on a beach somewhere or locked away in ivory towers.
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That should be true, Baz. The fact that it isn’t (so far) happening can be put down to the supine, brown-nosing of the British cricket press. The fact that Vic Marks’ waspish, irony-laden articles are as good as the main stream media gets is a sad indictment. But we all knew that already. It’s enough to make you chew your own arm off in frustration.
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It’s amazing that it’s taken so long for T10 to take off but why couldn’t we just do that too? ICC could provide official T10 and T10I status. Game would last as long as a football match and help spread cricket across the globe. Yet they invent this nonsense complete with inconsistencies. I can’t even be bothered to moan about it even more though it needs it!
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The only governing body that has contempt for its game? What about FIFA, in the Blatter era? FIDE (world chess federation) which also has an unholy yen to abandon long formats. In favour of games that take 5 minutes. Good on TV. Rubbish.
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FIFA have actually grown the game of football around the world. Whatever their corruption, they have done that. The ECB have overseen a collapse in participation.
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FIFA are corrupt but ultimately competent. They understand that growing the game will give them more money to steal in the long run. They’re like the mafia, they never let their personal cut get in the way of growing the business as a whole.
ECB are equally corrupt but by comparison, totally incompetent. By comparison to FIFA they’re 2-bit hoodlums. They’re basically vulture capitalists, selling off the assets of the company they’ve acquired as fast as they can before paying huge consultancy payments to their wife’s offshore account mere minutes before filing for bankruptcy. They’re in it for short-term bucks.
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Once you understand all of this I find it near impossible to support the England team anymore. Not because I don’t like some of the new faces, but The England team are the shop window of “ECB incorporated.”
Cricket, as I have know it for over fifty years is finished. We are watching a deliberate, managed decline. The marginalisation of county cricket will in turn lead to the inevitable diluting of Test cricket because there simply won’t be the players who have the required skills to play it. Four day Test are already in the pipe line, which in English weather will lead to many draws. That in turn will demand ever more tinkering. I predict eventually 20/20 tests of two innings each side. The whole test match done and dusted in a day.
As for this new monstrosity, I do not agree that the ECB have come up with this to put some cricket on free to air tv. The last four years has shown they don’t give a stuff about those people who don’t have Sky. I believe they want to sell it to a new audience, and are using loss leader tactics of giving it away for free, in the hope it will catch on, and then they can sell it to satellite for big bucks later on. I think you will find they have patented the model in many countries so that if it does take off they will own the rights. Something they didn’t do with 20/20.
The destruction of the counties is a given, and it is diffficult to feel any sympathy for them as they sold themselves into oblivion for peanuts. Property developers will be eyeing up some of these grounds for development to houses. Many are in prime central location areas of cities. If cricket has to be completely changed to save it, I would suggest letting it die. But then my salary, and expense account doesn’t depend on it. I for one will not be watching the new tournament.
I watched a bit of the Aus V India the other night. Adelaide is a beautiful city, and it used to be nice watching the coverage with the background view. Now the new stadium looks like it’s being played at Twickenham. I’m obviously not the required target demographic.
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Wrong name, sorry it’s me Mark. I put my wife’s name in the wrong box, as it’s her email account.
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Does Sally know you use her e-mail account?
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Actually, in all fairness, I use Mrs. Q’s when I’m trolling around the dark web.
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Oh yes she knows. To be fair it started off as her account, but we just use it jointly for many things. It avoids our email accounts getting clogged up with stuff.
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The prose did seem somewhat familiar
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LOL
Which is a diplomatic way of Stevet saying we have heard it all before! Which is true. You run out of ways of saying the ECB are horrible for the five hundredth time.
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So why has the entire cricket media told us Roy is going to be in the test squad?
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Great article Chris.
As a bloke born in Plymouth, who subsequently moved to a part of Hampshire that means the Rose Bowl is all but inaccessible even compared to the Oval or Hove, County cricket only matters to me, like, a little bit. A smattering of Wezcountry affection for Somerset, hopeful of a pipeline of decent Test cricketers for the national side, hopeful that Hampshire might play an outground game or two for a nice day out…
What really worries me is that this isn’t just about the ruination of County Cricket, but also about binning off Test cricket. These snakes are now running the game completely for the $, and it seems that anyone who actually likes the game must be marginalised in favour of TV, ‘families’ (whatever that means), advertisers, shareholders, stakeholders (this phrase definitely does not include fans, just those with an actual, monetary stake) and CEOs.
What can we do?
How does one get ‘rid’ of the ECB?
What would come after the ECB?
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Is David Saker the Aussie bowling coach? If so, ha ha ha. Also everything else is misery.
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The King of Spain to become Director Comma Cricket…. do we approve?
I’m not asking if he can make a difference, as the force of gravity pulling the game down the plughole appears too strong, as aptly described by legglance above. But perhaps he could at least be nice about being powerless.
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A weak force for good. Better than the many forces of evil but likely to be overwhelmed – is my uneducated view. Essentially, it could be worse. Have you seen what Vaughan and Agnew have been flapping their gums about this week?
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I wish I could summon the energy to remind JA what many people think about his association with Waitrose and his supposed journalistic integrity when reporting on the Waitrose-sponsored England team, back in those innocent days . . . .
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Giles. I quite liked him, but he’s always struck me as the ultimate team man. Sometimes you need someone with a bit of individual thrust and vision in these posts, or it’ll be more of the cap-doffing same.
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What exactly does he do?
Strauss’s only major task for the last four years was to tell the selectors they can’t pick KP, and then try and explain it to the media.
That is not an issue now.
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I think you’ve summed up all we can be hopeful for, zeph.
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Really enjoying the Aus v India test match.
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Absolutely. Does anyone know why the 1st test wasn’t played in Brisbane? I wonder if Aus are regretting that…
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It has fallen behind the other venues, according to the local press in Queensland. Perth was always seen as the 5th of the top 5, but with the new Optus Stadium in place, and soul-less behemoths being judged on size not history, they got the India test, and Brisbane gets an Australia Day test match against Sri Lanka (where Canberra will also get a test – Hobart now must be a little piqued).
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Agreed. Lyon vs Kohli! The matches are inherently entertaining. It’s likely to be alive to the last day of the last game.
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