Saw Alan Higham today from Lancs Acrion Group.

He had gathered impressive number of signatures for an SGM and to hold Warwickshire Execs to account.

However it’s too late to call one before Warwickshire vote at ECB so this will have to hold them accountable to members afterwards.

Unfortunately the constitutional changes a couple of years ago have marginalised Members with a closed shop Members Committee and 250 signatures now required for SGM.

But if we can get a critical mass we could regain some control which we traditionally had.

I think I saw Stuart Cain in the Members Lounge today but he didn’t stay long or speak to many members.

I guess it’s up to us if we want to be as brave as Lancashire. Surrey and Essex members.

I also saw Alan as soon as he came in and saw the literature he had and what his plans were/are. It was impressive and I hope our club takes some notice as I really do not want them to feel as though they speak for members when they never appear to ask us anything about things like the reduction in CC matches, etc.

Several familiar faces are on that committee. It is still imperative we hold the club to account even at this late stage.

I can see a number of counties responding to members "it wasn't us they made us do it" type of response but that simply will not wash.

Such an underhand sneaky deceptive way to procede by the ECB this is and it ought to be brought to the attention of criminal barristers.

On the Somerset forum a member made the following point which I feel is very pertinent;

_~~Ultimately?

There may need to be another set of votes .. a vote to put the ECB back in its box as the servant of the counties, not their bosses.

If the ECB lose the vote on the Strauss changes, they will throw an epic tantrum and threaten to cut the central grant. At that point, it would be time for the counties to take back control - by voting to remove such powers from the ECB - to make it a purely distributive body without such executive power.

The ECB is supposed to be an administrative body, empowered by the counties to do things like arrange fixtures, provide umpires, set up a framework for administering the rules etc.

Of course, before the vote on the Strauss changes the ECB Will inevitably try to offer a bribe to get the vote through. If, however, multiple counties have been bound by their members to vote against, then the bribe may fail.

Realistically, the members of the various counties have probably acted 4 or so years too late. They needed to bind their counties to have voted against the franchise garbage and, if that had succeeded? We wouldn’t be in this mess now, plus the ECB~~ would be much better off financially._

Warwickshire CCC Campaign update

Yesterday I visited Edgbaston and met almost 50 members, most of whom I had never seen before. Thank you to everyone who took time to speak with me. I have not had a reply from Stuart Cain but I understand that an announcement is due this morning.

The campaign team do not feel the assurances given by Stuart on behalf of the club are strong enough. We recommend that you sign a request to call a Special General Meeting of your club's members. So far 45 people out of 47 members asked in person at the ground yesterday have signed.

Please read this leaflet:
https://docs.google.com/file/d/1LLH_hmJymiMn_kgx62pJOSO7p-M-nNCo/edit?usp=docslist_api&filetype=msword

To sign the Warwickshire SGM request: please print and complete the form here
https://docs.google.com/file/d/10QtoMHr1YDFuHzDEMf9y8omTKpRd2ESx/edit?usp=docslist_api&filetype=msword7

We need 250 signatures to call the meeting. Please take some spare copies to the ground if you are going tomorrow or at the county game on 12-15 September. Most members are not online. Many will not know about the threat to county cricket. Please take every chance to speak to people at the ground.

Tomorrow at Welbeck Colliery, I will be helping 3 Notts CCC members collect signatures for a similar motion. I can come to Edgbaston afterwards and help any volunteers wishing to do the same around at your match in the afternoon. Please let me know if you will do this.

Once the forms are signed, please give them to the club office. Keep a total of the number of signatures that you have handed in and let me know. If you are not going to a match now this season, please post the form and again let me know.

Please also post a copy of this message on any on-line forum you know of, Facebook, etc and share as widely as possible.

An entire sport being cannibalised in front of us. I wonder the ECB/Sky even slightly appreciate how toxic this is. l'd be very surprised if critical voices on this matter get airtime. The cats cradle of conflicting interests across cricket's governance and media is truly insane.

Needs government intervention but it's as bad in that place frankly

I emailed Stuart Cain about the proposal to reduce the number of county championship games, here is his reply.

"Thank you for your email. We are supportive of the County Championship, but to date haven’t received any detail around the High Performance Review and potential proposals.

We should receive this information over the coming week and there are then a series of consultation sessions with all First Class Counties, the Professional Cricketer’s Association, broadcasters and fan groups. This will culminate in a final ECB proposal covering the entire High Performance Review – of which the domestic schedule is a part – around the 9th September.

With this in mind, we are announcing this morning an ‘Ask the CEO’ Member’s Forum which will take place during lunch on Tuesday 13th September (Day Two of the Somerset County Championship game). This will give us the opportunity to discuss in detail the proposals and take feedback. We are also arranging a Member’s Committee meeting for w/c 12th September to again secure the views of those nominated to represent the Membership.

These Member conversations, along with the views of the Director of Cricket, Head Coach and senior management within the Club will inform the view put to the Board and how the Chair of Warwickshire CCC will then vote.

Regarding your comments about an EGM, this is covered in the Club rules which are on the website ( https://edgbaston.com/club-rules/ ). I will also pick up your comments about the FCA with our Head of Finance, so thank you for raising.

I hope you can join us at the Forum on 13th September.

Take care.

Stuart"

Good that he responded and all very civil, but I took it as, we're voting yes to whatever the ECB proposes and the members can like it or lump it. Perhaps unduly cynical.

Makes the SGM request imperative. It's one way of pressuring the board to act in members interests.

If 250 is the golden number it should be achievable maybe not tomorrow but within a week or so.

They clearly think they are no longer a members club because if the constitutional changes a couple of years ago.

The members committee might as we be disbanded. They openly say they don’t want anyone on it who disagrees with Club policy.

I think an SGM is the only way to indicate serious disquiet at the lack of accountability.

They clearly think they are no longer a members club because if the constitutional changes a couple of years ago.

The members committee might as we be disbanded. They openly say they don’t want anyone on it who disagrees with Club policy.

I think an SGM is the only way to indicate serious disquiet at the lack of accountability.

For SGM's - the rules of the club are on the website. It seem to me (not a lawyer) that the forms go to Stuart Cain as Chief Executive. It's not entirely clear whether they need to go in a single block or if 250 members writing separately is sufficient. I'd guess 250 separate requests would be OK but probably makes sense to collate and send as a job lot to know where we stand on 250 total votes.

Thanks

Just read sales of Blast tickets this year totalled 494,828 and was 481,113 lower than was achieved in 2019.
The 16.4 with all the marketing sucked up from other areas of the sport and the advantage of free to air and its near exclusive August slot has in 2022 sold / given away for free a total reported to be 500,000

The outrageous hype around a new format that hasn't developed a new audience, doesn't fill grounds to any degree but merely consolidates an existing audience around a smaller number of more easily controlled corporate entities.