Here’s the report
BosworthBear wrote:
Here’s the report
I think the report as a whole is much more balanced than the quotes in The Guardian from one of its authors.
I quite liked this summary:
'Amid a global game increasingly centred around short-
form franchise cricket, and with an uncertain outlook for
the sport’s finances, questions have grown over whether
county cricket will remain relevant and can prove financially
sustainable.
Yet, compared to elsewhere in the world, in many ways
domestic cricket in England and Wales is admirably strong,
helping explain why – following investment from IPL team
owners, US tech billionaires and private equity firms into The
Hundred – a key question within the game is how the future
of the 18 first-class counties can be preserved, in the ECB’s
words, for “generations to come.” '
You say balanced my heart sank several times reading that propaganda puff piece
Somerset's Chair is outspoken and makes some interesting points:
“We don’t want less Blast matches ...we like the Blast and the players like the Blast.
If you take a home game away from us we not only lose substantial revenue, but also a key opportunity to inspire the south-west through cricket, so we are against reducing the number of Blast games, even if we turned out to be the only county who believe that.
Regarding the County Championship proposals we are also opposed to a reduction in the number of matches played. On this subject we have one or two supporters among the other counties.
A catalyst for change has been PCA player survey data indicating workload concerns. We are very sympathetic to this, particularly our players who play all formats but see this as a situation for the Club to manage in partnership with players and coaching and science and medicine staff – it is not the job of the fixtures.
There are also a number of players in our squad who would like more cricket rather than less."
Reasonable and fair rather than outspoken
Perhaps plenty of counties feel like Somerset's chair
I sure hope they do for all of our sakes. It should not be up to the eternal failure counties to dictate what the shape of county cricket should be like going forwards
Sean Jarvis CEO of Leicestershire said of today's meeting of county CEOs that there was a discussion but no vote. He expected the vote on the Blast to be held on Monday. The discussions on the county championship led him to believe that no reduction was where it was heading.
mad wrote:
You say balanced my heart sank several times reading that propaganda puff piece
I did have a look at the report and it's much more balanced than the quotes in the Guardian, but perhaps a little bland as a result. The report is described as "a first ever Financial Performance Index for the 18 first class counties" although I've been doing something pretty similar since 2018. They have Warwickshire joint 2nd on 2023 financial performance, whereas I had us 10th for the equivalent period. Trying to understand the difference, I think the report gives a lot of weighting to revenue. My approach doesn't include revenue as a criteria at all. I think Warwickshire is a good example of why it's best not to include revenue, we've built a lot of stands and expanded our ancillary businesses but profitability is about the same as it ever was. Next up, a new hotel.
It looks as though Warwickshire players are leading the way in the call for less cricket.
As well as OH-D speaking up as the PCA Chair, we have the following:
England allrounder Chris Woakes, the PCA's England Men's representative, said the call for change was not about playing "less cricket because they don't want to - it's about being able to produce the best cricket on the field as possible".
"Welfare is extremely important and not just players but coaches and staff," he said. "We need to get the scheduling right to give players the time to prepare, recover and make sure they're in the best state physically and mentally.
"The game is now played at a greater intensity and faster rate, especially in white-ball cricket. When you're having to play back-to-back games it's almost impossible to be at 100%. Having gaps between games and with safe travel is very important."
He hasn't played county cricket regularly for atleast a decade. And he's not shy of a franchise comp so..
As each sob story is trotted out one wonders why they don't have it written into their contracts as individual players that they'll only play a certain number of games in a certain timeframe. Then let the county clubs arrange salaries, fixtures and squads to cope with what players will or will not tolerate being able to put their bodies through. Squads are massive now, the loans system used like never before, rotation of playing squads is surely the answer as is unblocking the schedule so there is less travelling to do in mid season
mad wrote:
As each sob story is trotted out one wonders why they don't have it written into their contracts as individual players that they'll only play a certain number of games in a certain timeframe. Then let the county clubs arrange salaries, fixtures and squads to cope with what players will or will not tolerate being able to put their bodies through. Squads are massive now, the loans system used like never before, rotation of playing squads is surely the answer as is unblocking the schedule so there is less travelling to do in mid season
I agree with this; and it is in line with what I quoted the Somerset Chair as saying:
"We are very sympathetic to this [player workload], particularly our players who play all formats but see this as a situation for the Club to manage in partnership with players and coaching and science and medicine staff – it is not the job of the fixtures."
I find it hard to understand the players wanting time to prepare and recover and at the same time do not complain about the season having 4 different formats = c/c. blast, odc and hundread and then are happy to chase the dollar in the IPL etc. If needing a more spread out workload why have they jumped to play the Hundread?
A spread out playing the c/c and blast through the season would achieve that - 5 days a week cricket maximum and I am sure there would still be time to play the ODC games. Of course it would need the players to say they do not want to add the Hundread to an already full schedule!!
LeicesterExile wrote:
I find it hard to understand the players wanting time to prepare and recover and at the same time do not complain about the season having 4 different formats = c/c. blast, odc and hundread and then are happy to chase the dollar in the IPL etc. If needing a more spread out workload why have they jumped to play the Hundread?
A spread out playing the c/c and blast through the season would achieve that - 5 days a week cricket maximum and I am sure there would still be time to play the ODC games. Of course it would need the players to say they do not want to add the Hundread to an already full schedule!!
They want to play as little cricket for the most amount of money. Likes of OHD are doing future red ball specialist out of job because all they will do is reduce red ball cricket further and play the hundred in July August...maybe even June
Yeah it's a disgrace the county chiefs wheeling out the players to provide sob stories when what they really want is to clear the decks for June July and August so they can have wall to wall whackaball.
This'll be made up of 6 weeks of pre-hundred T20 stuff which will be kinda like where the domestic players get to be talent spotted and then 6 weeks of the hundred proper which will be mainly IPL circus show ponies and a few picks from the domestic game.
The new investors getting cold feet over the format and the fact it is only a month of the summer. They'll change the format that's the easy part. The clearing the decks of this annoying thing called proper cricket is what this sending the players out wailing is all about. Likes of OHD and Steven Croft at Lancashire likely being promised a few favours if they help to get this baby over the line and overlook the detrimental effect this'll have on county cricket more widely - overlook the nuance that some players would rather like more cricket to play especially proper cricket in summer months
Just let someone else play FFS Olly
Also..they will just drop the 4 day games in June and July so OHD and the like will be spending pretty much the entire summer playing 2nd cricket or the odd one day game
I wouldn't be offering players 12 month contract when they are only playing in April, May and September
I get all the arguments against 3-day cricket I really do. But 4 of them in June or July when the light holds until 8pm would be better than lopping off a couple of fixtures would it not?
What worries me most is games finish inside 2 days quite often or are all over as a contest by then. Nobody sets aside weeks in April to watch any of these games. Loads used to set aside weeks in June July and especially the school holidays to go away to watch county games at the seaside and all that has criminally been tossed away.
When they say 12 remember what this means is just 6 home games. 2 of these will be in quite often chilly and occasionally snowy April and 2 in September in fading light. One of the others will clash with a personal commitment leaving just one flipping home county championship game to look forward to in all likelihood and you have to pray a) the weather plays ball and b) the game survives as a contest beyond tea on day 2
What will happen, as it surely will, when people get tired of the repitition of the 16.4 format when every ball is an attempt at a 6. Same with the 20 over format where there is a bit of defensive played. In both these formats most games do not result in a close finish. The one thing proper cricket has that is lacking in the one day game - the side unable to win still has the draw to play for.
When people get tired of whakaball the numbers will drop especially viewing figures and then the sponsorship drops.................
What’s the progress looking like towards getting an SGM?
To be fair, I don't think that OH-D is doing favours for his county bosses. As Chair of the PCA, he is expressing the views of his members, with which he may or may not agree.
Exiled Bear wrote:
What’s the progress looking like towards getting an SGM?
I suspect that the numbers aren't there, which is a great shame.