This might be worth a listen tomorrow evening - it's open to Somerset members but also to the rest of us who are just interested in the topic:
https://somersetcountycc.co.uk/news/club-news/reminder-somerset-ccc-and-the-future-of-cricket-virtual-forum/
This was an interesting session even for a non-Somerset supporter.
Key points (for me) were:
A lot of emphasis on the importance of the link with Sky – 90% of the ECB’s income comes from Sky. And, for better or worse, Sky like The Hundred. It also seems that Sky get a lot from cricket – of all the women watching sport on Sky, half of them are watching cricket. Also, of the top ten most watched Sky Sports events in the last year, 5 were cricket matches.
Regarding the 2024 season, it was said that there will be nine rounds of Championship cricket with meaningful weekend play (i.e. not just day four).
There was much stress on the changing face of world cricket – there are 17 domestic T20 competitions worldwide which, with the international programme, make it pretty well impossible to bring in overseas stars for a whole season. Also foreign investment into the English game is likely to happen – the Saudi Arabian budget for investing in sport is £300 billion.
Even for a well supported club like Somerset, the reality is that members and supporters are essential but not sufficient - other sources of income are needed.
And harking back to the problems last season with the ground at Taunton that ruined the Bears match – they have had a secondary drainage system installed; and though the grass is growing back well, they have asked to play away from home in the first two Championship rounds.
Slightly increases the likelihood that Edgbaston will host first round or two so hope everyone gets a nice Xmas jumper or three. Worcester will have made a similar request to be away opening couple of rounds as per usual.
Two new teams they're expecting to add to the Hundred. Can't see it being all that popular for the hierarchy at Edgbaston. Would drain potential watchers of the B'ham crisp packet team who live in the South Midlands. Ditto if Durham get a team and it's impact on Headingley. Half empty stands incoming for this weird ass format methinks
Question we have to ask ourselves is why should Taunton get a team in this and not say Worcester or Leicester let alone Kent or Essex? And will they still be able to contain this thing within the confines of three/four weeks? Can some double headers become triple headers?
Second Division with "theoretical" promotion
Does seem a tad OTT for a comp that exists for 1 month out of 12 to have such high stakes but has to be preferable to closed shop 8/10 with rubbish teams representing Wales and Brum and soon to be added to by Taunton Tesco Cheese Twists and Chester le Quality Street (The Purple One) having no incentive whatsover to improve on abject failure from the season prior
The Grumbler is worth subscribing to if anyone hasn't yet. I'm a bit more optimistic than the writer here but I do think members need to be given a voice and a say in what the shape is to come from 2025.
Crucial period over the winter when the powers might well be thinking nobody is taking any notice now the fixtures are out
The Chief Executive of Durham labels county members as Luddites:
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/cricket/2024/03/25/luddite-members-killing-county-cricket-durham-ceo/
It's an interesting article. The Durham chap is clearly a bit odd - he also refers to county members as the lowest common denominator but Durham doesn't have any members. Later on in the article Richard Gould, current ECB chief executive and former chief executive of Surrey says the issue is more of counties moving away from their members and membership numbers dwindling as a result. It's an interesting point, the last set of filed accounts showed Surrey with 19,000 members, that's double the number in 2018. For other counties the numbers are either flat or have declined over the period.
He might be right in that members insisting on , in the main, the county championship will kill the game. However, their pursuance of the fast buck and sinking all in to the money spinners like The Hundred will definitely kill the game of cricket by changing it out of all recognition. What will they do when the public and TV get bored with the repetitiveness of The Hundred?
The big money spinner in the UK is the Test Matches. Continual reduction in the amount of CC played combined with the ever increasing slog cricket will reduce the quality of test cricket which in turn will reduce its attraction.
Those running the game need to be very careful what they wish for.
I received an insight into the future of the 18 counties in my email this week. At one time, I was a member of Somerset and they still send me promotional material. This week's was an invitation to book for a number of "exciting" events that they are planning this year. These appeared to consist of a DJ session featuring Craig Charles and a succession of shows by tribute acts. A bit naff, I thought, but then I realised that they have to find something to do with their cricket ground. They are not a venue for The Undead so the ground will be virtually unused throughout the summer. Better look for something other than cricket.
Once the administrators get the smell of money in their nostrils, those of us who care about quality or (God help me!) tradition might as well pack up and find something else to do. I've seen the future and it's coming sooner than we might like.
Oh, and by the way, I see England are now bottom of the World Test Championship league table. Really working this slogball, innit?
UrsaMinor wrote:
I received an insight into the future of the 18 counties in my email this week. At one time, I was a member of Somerset and they still send me promotional material. This week's was an invitation to book for a number of "exciting" events that they are planning this year. These appeared to consist of a DJ session featuring Craig Charles and a succession of shows by tribute acts. A bit naff, I thought, but then I realised that they have to find something to do with their cricket ground. They are not a venue for The Undead so the ground will be virtually unused throughout the summer. Better look for something other than cricket.
Once the administrators get the smell of money in their nostrils, those of us who care about quality or (God help me!) tradition might as well pack up and find something else to do. I've seen the future and it's coming sooner than we might like.Oh, and by the way, I see England are now bottom of the World Test Championship league table. Really working this slogball, innit?
My penultimate sentence and your final sentence says it all.
It would seem that Richard Gould doesn't see things in the same way that the Durham Chief Executive does:
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/cricket/2024/04/02/richard-gould-ecb-luddite-members-county-cricket-durham-ceo/
Unfortunately this is one of 2 Luddites who's called it a day.
Faced with 42% of our CC cricket this year being played by the end of April and long periods at Edgbaston in the following months bereft of anything meaningful to watch we reluctantly decided to give up our membership of 34 years.
It was a painful decision for us but I suspect TPTB aren't shedding any tears at a couple more 60+ members walking away.
We've put the money we've saved towards a nice break in May and we'll be dialling in our support via the live feeds this year.
This is how exactly how I feel
Well said!
The ECB, no doubt influenced by the dismal cricket played at Durham, are conducting a review of the future of the game - one of those reviews where the result is known in advance - i.e. the number of four day games will reduce from 14 to 12.
Sky says:
"Discussions with the Professional Game Committee, a county-led body, the Professional Cricketers' Association, supporters, and commercial partners will take place over the next eight to 12 weeks in the hope of finding a solution that appeals."
If anyone spots how the ECB are planning to hold discussions with supporters, I would be interested to find out.
I thought the point of the Hundred and franchise sales was a cash injection that would help protect the county game?
To me protecting the county game means maintaining county cricket and the county championship - apparently not
Agree. That's what we were told.
But, it's clearly obvious the networks want baseball - three hour games with 'big hits' which get the fans in. They're not just ignoring red ball county cricket - they sneer at it. Their red ball solution would be a Sheffield Shield style competition involving only the test venue counties, plus Glamorgan because it is officially the 'England and Wales Cricket Board'.
Says it all when we found out that the crisp thing was designed for 100 balls because the BBC(!) wouldn't accept a T20 franchise competition because that would mean moving the 10pm News or Newsnight.
We will end up with 12 red ball games
4 in April, May and September
With June July and August for the blast and an extended hundred competition
Nothing to do with quality, just commercial.