Exciting opportunity or Graves mistake?

By Grockle et al
April 15 2017

Somerset v the ECB? At the beginning of a possibly record making season for the county, we look at the changes that the ECB are determined to make to the world of cricket as we know it and ask.... opportunity or the death knell of a century or more of cricket history.

Somerset County Cricket club is a provincial professional unit.

They have a successful Academy system which brings a lot of the best young cricketers through from the counties of Devon and Cornwall along with the Gloucestershire setup. We hold the bottom line of first class cricket in the UK...there is nothing beyond us except talent that looks to us to provide a path from the West Country into the professional game.

Our T20 home matches are financially successful and enjoyed by a large number of local supporters and those coming up from the towns below us. We sell out most of our short format games in what is now a purpose built stadium which can cater for international short format games which WILL also sell out.

We can generate a crowd of 2 - 3000 people for a Championship match and usually have four figure crowds at these events.

What is unhealthy about our setup? A profitable, consistently high performing first class club with large amounts of its own talent who have been in the top flight of professional cricket for a decade? Strong local links, good coaching and a solid financial base

Well our management seem to think something is wrong because they have just voted to support the development of another competition by the ECB based nowhere near Somerset that will take some of our best players away from the crowd who support them. They seem to be happy with a plan that moves games in the 'premier' T20 competition in the UK some 1 to 2 hours away from a crowd keen to see that in Taunton and who presently do via the increasingly succesful Natwest T20 Blast every year. All this in three years time.

By 2020 our top players may be drafted to work somewhere else in the country for manufactured urban sides with no loyal fanbase whose only requirement seems to be that they play the game in Test match urban stadiums capable of holding large four figure crowds for at least a month in the middle of the present cricket season.

After taking terrestrial TV away from the youth of the country in return for a big cheque, the central management of cricket now seems willing to talk about the return of the game to the national box..... but are willing to schedule it in a way that the broadcasters require offering no flexibility to the present structure of cricket. Billion dollar deals at the expense of centuries of history seems a good deal to corporate ECB and a solution to the decreasing cricket participation rate were the direct result of Giles removing free TV access over a decade ago.

What does our club get in return for its unanimous support of this 'exciting' deal?

Well a 1.4 million pound bribe for being good boys and not rocking the boat for a start. Somerset can also continue their involvement in the popular Natwest T20 Blast tournament at the same time as the UrbanT20 (though Natwest sponsorship will be doubtful and the main players for the county may be playing for Leeds, Manchester, Birmingham or one of the London franchises unfortunately). It will be a second class tournament and as Somerset has no major urban conurbation that is the best they can hope for. They may get one UrbanT20 at Taunton while the rest will be in the mess of Bristol and the ghostown of the SWALEC so we can all look forward to that.

One day 50 over cricket will continue, for the short run at least, but with very little financial support from the centre one would imagine as it seems to have no long term future. It has already been marginalised as a format .

The ECB has promised county support in very convincing ways it seems (though non disclosure agreements whacked on the Chairs of the counties makes that difficult to confirm). Management seem very keen on the development of the 'Championship' but whether their definition of that term and the 18 counties definition are the same is somewhat in doubt.

However, they seem to have been very persuasive in meetings with the Chairmen.... though unfortunately not so effective in their interaction with present supporters of the game across the country. Especially in relation to their consultation of what one would imagine is a vital part of the the whole picture. Local supporters seem to see the levels of 'consultation' in a very different way to the ECB whose requirements of the representative officials of the 18 first class counties in this process seems to have been very well planned so as to provide very little chance for the officials to get a mandate from the members they represent.

Our own county officials have stated that this was a very difficult decision to make and they thought long and hard about it. Well that isn't entirely true because the decision to vote FOR the proposals seemed very very easy to make. There was only a need for a great deal of hand wringing if the county planned to vote AGAINST the idea.

Votes supporting the development of the scheme were required before membership was consulted. That led to a unanimous agreement by the chairs to allow the ECB to invistigate further. This vote was marketed by the ECB as a unanimous agreement from the counties for the Urban T20 scheme even though the wavering voices of chairs said it was nothing of the sort in insignificant local papers across the country....hardly heard in the cities of the UK as the ECB selling machine went about spinning its little heart out.

By the time the members got a say (if they did) it was too late to make any significant difference, the Minor County block had been bought to neutralise the main county vote and some chairmen breathed a sigh of relief as they found they could vote for the proposal and against the wishes of their membership and get away with it. They could say in outrage that it made no difference any more to oppose the plan while confirming their 1.4m pound payment. Fait accomplie, thanks very much and on with the gravy train.

Somerset followed this path, Middlesex didn't and others are weighing the options before following the easier path I assume. We particularly have sold our premier position because I believe we hope we can maintain our income streams because of our position at the wrong end of the cricket 'food chain' means we may have a possible local captive audience we may be able to fool into thinking they are seeing quality as we spread what we have left really thin, take the money and allow the ECB franchises to steal our better talent for their own uses.

At best we may become some kind of talent school for the urban franchises in terms of the short format. We will be degraded into the second tier of T20 because of location. All counties might lose the 50 over tournament which the governing body seems to have no long term interest in even though we will still have to compete internationally in global tournaments requiring it's specific talents and skills. No idea how they are going to plan that and I'm not sure they have either. All they seem to know is that is isn't a money maker with the media.... so of no commercial importance.

The four day game? The success in this new franchise venture may give it a longer life in its present format but it would be a mistake to believe that improved profitability will save it from the same cuts and changes. If an 8 franchise scheme works and makes money, why should the ECB want an 18 county championship complicating things. The UrbanT20 will probably ring the death bell of some disenfranchised counties anyway so a culling will probably naturally take place first. Then, it would surely make sense to the people who believe this is the future to urbanise the CC trophy as well.

If T20 is the first step to cricket appreciation then provide an Urban CC for the 'new audience' of the game to graduate to. Don't waste money on those you've cut loose. Concentrate your funding where it turns into money as your new goose lays those short term golden eggs.

So 2025 will be an interesting year in the history of cricket in this country. If UrbanT20 fails then it will about that time that the media will have jumped ship and those in power will be in deep trouble. If UrbanT20 is the saviour of the game then that will be about the time that the ECB's new plan for four (or even three) day cricket will be coming into the system and new chairmen will be trying to explain to the new membership that might be left in those counties who survive how hard they tried to fight but how difficult it was to counter the persuasive arguments of the men with their wallets out for the new long format scheme.

I would like to be watching cricket from my balcony in the flats above the Somerset Stand in Taunton but how can you make an investment of that size when the people who should be protecting the game locally and nationally can't disscern the difference between making maximum profit and maintaining a sport with a social contribution to make into a successful future?

I'll have to settle for less and pray that this is not the monumental mistake I think it is. I'll take my grandkids to the Tesco carpark and try to explain to them that the Asian kids playing floodlit T20 in the car park are playing on what was once a great cricket ground. I'll pray for the four day game and Test cricket while expecting the ECB to renege on their promises and concentrate it into something that will disappear in my lifetime as a meaningful domestic and possibly even global event.

There were other ways to move forward. They have been removed from the equation by the commercial and behind the scene actions of the governing body and by the naivety, misguided belief in the market and poor representation of county memberships by the officials in many of the 18 first class counties. Whether it would have made any difference we will never know.

In my own opinion the chairmen have been 'Gerrymandered' into a position where their significant power has been neutralised. They were then offered something they couldn't refuse and convinced that it was in everyone's interest to accept. Too many of them will do so with a sigh of relief that it is all over and a belief that they got away with misrepresenting the views of the majority of the membership they were there to speak for and that it is all 'best for business'.

History will show whether I'm right or they are. I'm personally hoping that it is them even though the local game I love will be sacrificed on the altar of profit if that happens. I think we are entering the last 10 years of Somerset as a first class cricketing entity so we'd all better make the most of it people. It makes this Championship season even more important.