Used to love his Far Side cartoons. Definitely an outside the box signing.

The daffodils are pushing up, spring is almost here and my review of Warwickshire's 2022 annual report and financial statements is here if you are interested.
(https://sideoncricket.blogspot.com/2023/02/warwickshire-2022-annual-report-and.html)

If you're just a bit interested, it was a very good year.

RB

Yes I was surprised by Yorkshire as they are a well supported county, but only 3k members is correct. And Notts was > 8k as recently as 2018, but has fallen since with a big drop off in 2020, a slight uptick in 2021 but not back to 2019 levels.

An interesting article. Us county members get it in the neck don't we? Watching cricket, spending money - we're ruining the game. One point, there's a line in the article "There are only around 70,000 members across 18 clubs – the exact figure is a closely guarded secret". This is piffle. County membership numbers are publicly available information and can be accessed by anybody with an internet connection. Or you could look at my blog, http://sideoncricket.blogspot.com/2022/11/county-members.html which sets it all out in a table. Cricket in England has many strengths and a few weaknesses, one of those weaknesses is lazy, ill - informed journalists. (George Dobell and one or two others are obvious exceptions, but overall standard is low.)

Per cricinfo, Pakistan have a white ball series in April - May, Hassan Ali wasn't in the Pakistan world T20 squad, but if he was recalled he'd miss that first chunk of the county season.

Hah, shows what I know, signed for all of the Blast and CC up to July. You never know how fast bowlers will work out but he did well at Lancashire last year so I'm optimistic.

Derbyshire have less than 1,000 members so I guess their powers that be thought it worthwhile upsetting them for a cut of the gate money. I'd say it was worth a try - they can always shelve after a year if it doesn't work.

He did well at Lancashire and would be good to see him sign for us. I'm a little sceptical that will happen.

Headline in The Times for a column by Elizabeth Ammon "Andrew Strauss’s proposals dead in the water after county revolt". A bit thin on definite statements (or named sources) but says we will stay at 14 games in the CC and Blast with most likely change a bit of compression of The Hundred to get a round of the CC in August.

The Dailies Mail & Telegraph both have him coming to us. Then again, it ain't necessarily so.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/cricket/article-11341571/Durhams-time-leading-wicket-taker-Chris-Rushworth-makes-surprise-switch-Warwickshire.html

The Lancashire website includes the following statement "For this reason, our preference remains to hold a Members’ Forum with a binding vote once, and only once, we have a concrete proposal emerging from the ECB-led discussions with the First-Class Counties."

So I think the board is still claiming it will ballot members on any ECB proposal. I think the issue at Lancashire is a breakdown of trust where some members simply don't believe the board will have a vote and wanted an upfront commitment to 14 CC games, plus some internal reforms.

Thanks Gerry, thanks mad.

On the members committee I checked the rules and there is no election. All new representatives have to be proposed by the member's committee and if the committee propose one member for a vacancy there is no election. The members committee does not represent the interests of the members.

I wonder if, in the circumstances, mad, it might be worth serving the notice for a general meeting? There's a long lead in time between the chief executive receiving the notice and having to call a meeting, you'd hope Stuart Cain wouldn't take advantage of that but.... Also now we have the hood up I think there's a good case for revising the rules to make it clear it is the members who control the club, not the board.

I have a couple of questions. Does anybody know if it's true that there enough signatures to call a Warwickshire General Meeting?
Secondly, the club's website announcing the next member's forum described the Members committee as "the elected vehicle for gathering the views of Members". Is this true? I have no recollection of being asked to vote for who goes on the committee.

I was very pleased to see Rob Yates get a hundred after a miserable season. If we could play every day like it was the last day of the season - we'd lap the field.

I don't like the idea of a 6 team division 1 & I'd drop my membership if it happened as I wouldn't get to many games. But at least it would give the competition some much needed competitive integrity with each team playing the others twice. The parallel feeder divisions is an obviously stupid idea only there to try and get the vote of the rubbish counties who don't want to be stuck in division 3. Similarly friendlies in August.

On balance I don't see the change having a big impact on the performance of England men's teams. Reducing the number of games probably harms the Test team - but only a bit & all players being eligible for the 50 over competition probably helps ODI performance, but only a bit. In the circumstances hard to see why bother.

Most important to me is that Warwickshire should vote on the basis of what the Members want. It's too important to be decided on by people with a rugby background - who didn't watch county cricket before they came to Warwickshire and won't watch it once they've moved onto something else. If they can't appreciate they have roles in a membership organisation they need to go.

All excellent points. I particularly agree that announcing proposals on the 9th for a vote on the 20th is clearly an attempt to push through proposals without any proper debate or consideration.

I'd be in favour of playing first class cricket in August but I think playing friendlies is the worst idea sine the hundred. It would have to be CC. I also think a CC reverse draft would be a good idea, identify the 150 best four day players in the country and exclude them from the hundred draft and add an ECB supplement to their county salary. So say Sam Hain, who has realistic England aspirations in the two longer formats, would play CC for Warwickshire (and get a few £ in his Christmas stocking) &, say, Ethan Brooks, would go to Welsh Fire. I don't even think the hundred would lose much by the deal as I don't suppose many people are making a decision to go to a 100 game just to see Sam.

That's good news. I'd just say, looking at the Club rules the club has (I think) 84 days in between receiving support from 250 members for a requisition for a SGM before it has to hold the meeting. So if you think the format of the season is something members should vote on rather than the board reaching a decision (after consultation or "consultation") I'd suggest still sending those requisitions in as it could be December before the meeting is held.

I filled mine in this morning and emailed to Stuart Cain as not sure if I will get to Edgbaston again this season. The rules give the club 84 days (if I've read that correctly) before holding a meeting.

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.