Something to quiz Stuart about on Monday

Doesn't solve the issue of too many formats and absence of Championship cricket in July August and there's lots of assumptions in the piece too.

New Hundred format and private investment in English cricket move a step closer
ECB chiefs' preferred idea of expanding tournament to 18 teams will go down well with counties, but less so with investors and broadcasters

By Nick Hoult, Chief Cricket Correspondent and Will Macpherson, Cricket News Correspondent 8 September 2023 • 6:33pm

Changing the format of the Hundred and the possibility of private investment in English cricket moved a step closer on Friday when the England and Wales Cricket Board was given the green light to take new proposals to the counties.

Richard Gould, the ECB chief executive, and Richard Thompson, the chairman, will now meet with counties to discuss their two ideas: private investment in the eight Hundred teams eventually increasing it to 10; or replacing the competition with a pyramid tournament involving the 18 counties across two divisions, similar to the current Blast.

The second proposal, described by insiders as an ‘investible pyramid’, is preferred by Thompson and Gould and would see teams shared equally by private investors, the county and the ECB. They believe it will unite the game and end the division between the counties and the Hundred. However, it will face major opposition from the Test grounds who currently host franchises and mean ripping up the Hundred and starting again.

The other option, to sell the current eight Hundred teams to private investors, would copy similar franchise models around the world, and attract interest from India, Saudi Arabia and investors in the United States. A third option of just selling the entire tournament was turned down last year when private investors Bridgepoint offered £400 million for a 75 per cent stake, but could also still be a possibility.

Two days of ECB board meetings ended on Thursday with Gould and Thompson given permission to take their ideas to the next stage – a meeting of all counties is scheduled on October 4 – and then stakeholders such as Sky.

It comes on the back of the most successful Hundred competition since the tournament began three years ago with healthy crowds and broadcast figures.

The 18-team model will be popular with county supporters. The ECB and the county would own the teams with invites to private investors to buy in. The host county would manage ticket sales, marketing and managing the players, decentralising the competition from the ECB which currently controls all those factors in the Hundred.

But investors will be put off by promotion and relegation while broadcasters are cool on an 18-team tournament that involves a huge increase in fixtures and believe county brands are now totally irrelevant to younger audiences. A two thirds majority of the 18 counties will have to agree for any changes to be implemented.

The support of Sky will be crucial. Without their buy in, a new tournament will be hard to make work given the lack of competition in the UK broadcast market for cricket. The counties currently receive £1.3 million per year from the Hundred, funded by the Sky deal. Sky could ask for a refund if the competition is changed before 2028, when their deal runs out.

Selling the Hundred franchises, or the entire competition, to private investors is the only realistic way English cricket can compete with other leagues for talent and keep England players from the clutches of IPL teams. Also discussed at the board meeting were pay rises for the England men’s team with multi-year central contracts to be offered but no increase in match fees, which had been expected.

The offers will be put to the players over the weekend and early next week. Mark Wood this week told Telegraph Sport he could turn down an England central contract to cash in on T20 leagues. He is not the only player considering such a move

Certainly with games barely lasting a couple of days recently puts a dampener on any enthusiasm about renewing at the prices they're charging. There is an urgent need to re-instate two divsions of nine meaning 8 home championship matches so that forking out £245 can then be argued as reasonable for the privilege.

Currently it is 7 home CC games, some hit and giggle (I can normally stomach about two of those) and 4 glorified Second XI One day cup games plus the bonus Quarter Final matches which they've had to throw in lately and reciprocal membership with a number of counties which is very hit and miss as to whether you get chance to take advantage of. I managed a day at Derby back in May saw Henry Brookes take a stack of wickets. Reciprocal membership would be quite good if there was lots of cricket in June, July and August to make use of it

Traditional memberships used to offer decent value say £150 (excluding Blast games) you wouldn't mind the CC games only lasting 2 days quite so much then

A far better day for Bears today. Excellent from behind win secured just after 5.30. A fine unbeaten century from Nikhil Gorantla backed up by a gritty 50 from Godleman and Ethan Brookes upping the tempo with 47

I think the difference in strength of the teams was quite stark when we played Surrey in April

The weird thing is the two counties who can get near them at the moment are Essex and Hampshire and we beat them both in May.

The blocky nature of the season worked in our favour in 2021 but seems.to have scuppered us since the blast phase this year

Let's hope rumours of appointment to view for the Blast and CC are true and we get more of a rhythm going next season and fewer long gaps

Plus looks like we have Worcestershire to look forward to playing hopefully we get two games versus them

Tea on day 2.
Halfway stage of the match
Durham 357
Warks 278

See how Milo, Booth, Haydon (who I like the look of) get on now against Durham 2's likely playing Bazball for a session

Not sure it's possible to get two overseas of the requisite standard anymore. We'd probably have to get two for the first half of the season and two different overseas players for the back half

Ethan Brookes should clearly have been selected for the Surrey game

Encouraging half century from Kai Smith to get the seconds out of a hole but then he holes out to deep backward square.

Durhams keeper Hayden Mustard on 12th man duties walked round earlier sporting a proper shiner took a blow in the warm ups and had to go for an x-ray this morning

Why are Durham seemingly able to produce so many properly quick bowlers

Sadly confirmed Heath has now passed away.

Just 49 very sad

RIP

Assuming he survives a tough looking test tour down under this winter he'll be captaining the Windies against Bazball this time next year

It's a no brainer for him he gets to play at Lords, The Oval and Edgbaston during his stint with us

Maybe we get him for the early part of the season but depends on their schedule

He's just played a major role in maintaining Knowle and Dorridge's lead at the top of the Birmingham League with 1 Saturday to go next week with an unbeaten century to steer his side home at Barnards Green.

Only Moseley can stop them now - they have to beat Shrewsbury and also hope very decent Kenilworth Wardens side upset K&D

We are letting a good young player go it has to be said

Excellent news. Really rate him. Ithink we could be in for this Cox who's left Worcestershire today aswell?

Gone to emerging side Leicestershire

There's this from the YEP in case anyone is unable to stop throwing up from all the hype that's accompanied the denouement of this years 4th format

https://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/sport/cricket/the-hundred-makes-ditchwater-look-interesting-chris-waters-4272295
While regarding the rise in attendances and viewing figures at this year’s Hundred with consequent suspicion, amid a general propaganda machine that might have embarrassed Joseph Goebbels, there is also the question as to whether the Hundred is actually any good.

Also read a good comment by a fella on the Yorkshire CCC White Rose forum thought it was worth sharing encapsulates much of what I think has been wrong with the schedule and how to fix it. The fact that TV isn't covering the county formats any more ought to free the counties to arrange fixtures as they used to be arranged before Sky TV ruined comps like the Sunday League

County cricket needs to be bolder and stop compromising. At the moment it's allowing itself to become irrelevant.

Sky, the ecb, the central contracted players have no interest in county cricket so why should we throw away everything we have for their benefit?

The counties need to set out a traditional schedule which appeals to it's core audiance and go with that. To me the core audiance is the newly retired, children and club playing adults, who often have children interested in the game and are themselves children of people connected to the game. There remains a lot of people who actually want to watch red and white ball county cricket.

I'd unblock all competitions, play 16 county games and 16 t20s during the season. T20s on a Friday, cc starting Sundays. These would be pretty much fixed.

Players have always missed games due to other commitments, so what. Get on with it and go with what's available. Geoff missed a lot of Yorkshire games to play for England, games played with the stars missing isn't new, it's been happening for 100+ years. Don't worry about it.

If a player wants to go to a t20 league, let them go, play with what you have. If Jason Roy wants to spend part of his summer in the USA, good luck to him, play the next available. So many of us on here commented how much we enjoyed the 50 over game v Surrey at York, that should be our template going forward. Currently it's the tail wagging the dog!

At the moment we don't have meaningful comps. This will ultimately kill the county game. The cc restarts next week, and how many of us know whose top of the league or pushing for promotion? I've little idea. It's the 50 over semi finals today, I didn't know until this morning, that can't be right!

'The players won't like it... ' so what, play somewhere else. We'll actually find most aren't good enough for that and will stay.

At the moment every player, partly because they have an inflated opinion of themselves, believes county cricket is a stepping stone to something better. It might be, but county cricket should be bold enough to make sure it's something in its own right. Only if it believes in its self will it survive.

news of the twos
@newsofthetwos
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3m
Second SEC century of the year for Warwickshire’s Amir Khan against Gloucestershire. It came off 141 balls with 14 fours. He was well supported by Kiwi Jakob Bhula who has played 12 First Class games for Wellington. Bhula, who made 67, played for MCC Young Cricketers in 2018

A lot of the background rancour might be related to all the uncertainty about contracts and the split between those picked for hit and giggle franchise formats and those not picked. He also seems to really want to bring through and work with young players I think that's a plus.

It's a volatile time for the game, we did well to help maintain some semblance of calm and normality by getting the powers that be to just ease up on the Barmy proposals Strauss was the figurehead for last autumn but change as ever is baked into county cricket so a lot will depend on what the landscape looks like going forwards. Will Warwickshire even need a full time coach 12 months of the year in position like him going forwards if they only exist as a sports team for 3-4 months of the year and then are hibernating while the franchise circus takes centre stage? We'll just hire consultants to fill roles for the short-term. It's a horrendous thought but just feels like that's the way the game is going

Yesterday's game which is perhaps best forgotten and three sides are in red-ball action
Seconds playing a 4-day match away down at Bristol CC - Chris Rushworth took a wicket yesterday, interesting that Jake Lintott has joined the game today to get a feel for the red ball again
Under 18's in their final 3-day match away at Taunton Vale - Isaac Maddy in the side but hasn't had a bowl they're up against it down there and play the same opponents in Sunday's 50-over final at Kibworth CC
and today a 2-day EPP match has begun at home to Lancashire

go well all you Bears

Time of year a factor in more ways that one. Interesting that captain and OHD handed over their shirts. Maybe I'm reading too much into that but feels potentially symbolic

The fall out from today could be massive. I know all this will have perhaps been sorted already but it will come to a head today.
OHD off to Pears perhaps Rhodes relinquishing the captaincy, what of Briggs and Burgess?

So does a reserve day get activated if e.g. there have only been 60 overs possible in the game today (50 first innings, 10 second innings)?

Not used to reserve days anymore

Any more making the short trip over from Warwicks?

Woakes is so far down the rabbit hole with strength and conditioning. We'll only get him back if it's 100% in his and England's interests to let him play 6 weeks out from.his squad duties at the world cup. I think we just have to accept that with Woakes.

Did he play any 4th format cricket this year?