August 9, The Cricket Paper

Finally, county cricket is back. Hopefully, this version is not the ‘new normal’ but it will suffice for now.

Yet the alarm bells are still clanging and, if the game is not united for the foreseeable future, then traditional domestic cricket could be a casualty of this pandemic. The timing of the outbreak could not have been worse. Lockdown was enforced with most teams deep into pre-season training and, later, the Government decreed that sporting spectators could not return until October 1, just days after the domestic season is due to end. “Cash-strapped” had long been the obligatory adjective for the county game, it is heavily reliant on matchday revenue and a vaccine for this disease is some way away. Make no mistake, this crisis could yet tip a few clubs over the edge.

Thankfully, the success of the trial event between Surrey and Middlesex last weekend put pressure on the powers that be to revise their ruling over crowds attending games. But so should the demand. Supposedly only one man and his dog watch county cricket and yet The Oval received 10,000 calls in the first hour of ticket availability. Either Fido fell asleep with his paw pressed on the re-dial button or members were truly desperate to see their teams play once more.

Such devotion is no surprise. I am one of those seemingly contrarian cricket fans who keeps a casual glance on the England team’s fortunes merely as light amusement between Essex games. There are more of my ilk than you might think but, to many, we are invisible and irrelevant. This column aims to give this group a voice.

For years, I have been tweeting as @The_Grumbler, a playful sobriquet digging into the ribs of those misanthrope members who revel in their role as the game’s squeaky wheels. Hopefully, I am more of the modern “realist-traditionalist” type you find belonging to The Cricket Supporters Association or reading County Matters fanzine.

Last season, the spectre of The Hundred inspired me to follow my team around the circuit one final time before everything changed. I wrote a book about the journey and Last-Wicket Stand was published at the end of July. Of course, the world was very different way back in good old 2019. On the opening day of last season, I saw Tom Westley, Simon Harmer et al spend a chastening afternoon in the field as Hampshire piled on the runs under slate-grey skies at the Aegis Bowl. On the same day this year, I watched videos of those two players decked out in hairnets and overalls cooking meals for key workers in hospitals across Essex and east London.

The upside of this truly terrible period is that it has recalibrated our view of everything, including how we really want to spend our time, money and attention.

Like so many county members, I let Essex keep my fees for 2020, even though there is a strong chance I’ll only see them play via live stream this season. I have tossed some coins in virtual buckets shaken by other counties too.

The game has been here before, of course. My county were kept afloat by such loose change in the 1960s and were only able to afford the lease on the county ground at Chelmsford thanks to an interest-free loan of £15,000 from the Warwickshire Supporters’ Association. This deal, the equivalent of around £240,000 today was secured by Essex captain Trevor ‘Barnacle’ Bailey at a dinner to celebrate Worcestershire’s title victory in 1965.

Similar qualities of stickability and entrepreneurship, bound by a spirit of altruism, will be required if county cricket is to navigate the choppiest waters in its long, long history.

* Read The Grumbler column The Cricket Paper, every Sunday during the season

Last-Wicket Stand

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