The 20th edition of the UK's domestic T20 competition is about to get underway. Can you remember your first game? 

One of mine was T20’s debut at Lord's in 2005. I arrived a little late and had to climb right up to the ‘nosebleeds’ in the Grand Stand to get a seat as 27,509 had turned up to see Surrey beat Middlesex despite Lance Klusener’s agricultural efforts at the end. The event had been seen as a frivolous oddity in year one but, as this report suggests, to say that county fans at that time failed to support the new competition is simply wrong. Twenty years on, these same supporters are now being portrayed as dinosaurs because of their opposition to the tournament-that-shall-not-be-named. But, as exemplified this week, it ain’t the format that’s the problem.

You would think the 20th anniversary of such a game-changer would merit headlines. But what we've seen are reports saying that ticket sales for the Blast have been cannabalised by you-know-what. That event is in year two and fans with a casual interest now fully understand what it is. You can’t blame the uninitiated for not appreciating that everything about it is artificial, especially the ticket prices. This is one of the many factors that have eaten up the ECB’s reserves and, despite everything, cost remains the casual fan’s primary driver of purchase. The Blast has a better roster of players this year but we know what will receive the greater hype. That is why the tournament-that-shall-not-be-named will continue to make a loss in itself, and when you add the inevitable erosion of the existing game, this represents a destructive double whammy.

'Blast off' is Act Two of the season. Act One, the first six rounds of the Championship, has been welcome but, as discussed below, left something lacking. Hopefully, that will work itself out. Over the past half-century, English cricket’s survival has been based on three traits - rebalancing the play, re-inventing the formats and, despite everything, the capacity to muddle through.

This time, the situation seems much more serious and the questions existential. However, a good Blast will certainly help.

• If you like this newsletter (and you can afford it) please consider buying me a coffee. Full explanation at the bottom. All coffee buyers are name-checked in the next edition. Also buy my book, Last-Wicket Stand, see bottom for links.

☕️ Buy The Grumbler a coffee ☕️

The Blast begins

Vitality Blast 2022: All you need to know as the T20 tournament returns for 20th season (Sky Sports)

T20 Blast 2022: All you need to know (Cricketer)

Joe Root: England batter to play Yorkshire's first three T20 Blast games (BBC Sport)

Overseas players for the 2022 Vitality Blast (ECB)

T20 Blast fixtures 2022: Full schedule, dates (Cricketer)

The Sky schedule

Inside Sussex's white-ball juggernaut (Cricketer)

The Championship 

County game has much to consider as early-season Championship dishes up thin gruel (Cricinfo)

This is spot on from the ever-excellent David Hopps. Perhaps our collective enthusiasm for the preservation of the Championship has blinded us to this season’s problems. A glut of runs has made for too many boring games. Whether it is the weather, the pitches, the balls or eight points for a draw, too many final days have been played out merely waiting for a handshake. As I have said many times, the Championship and probably the counties are sunk if they ONLY exist to serve the international teams. A situation created to encourage batters to preserve their wickets in tough conditions has ended up with opposing captains employing spinners or part-time bowlers as the quicks will be pointlessly ground down. Of course, cricket is an equilibrium. A tilt towards the bat can be addressed by rule adaptations, ball tweaks and, most importantly, the development of skills. But, right now, as an attraction, the Championship is losing the head of steam built up over the past few years.

If we only had 10 franchises then this batter would have been out of the game by now. This is the point being made here (County structure allows space for players to grow that franchises could not accommodate (Cricketer). After being let go by Hampshire and Nottinghamshire, Ben Compton came into this season batting in the last-chance saloon. He deserves his spot in the County Select team to play New Zealand on Friday.

County Championship team of the week (Cricketer)

Englandwatch: Lawrence tons up and Stokes impresses with ball (wisden) 

Wisden’s County Championship team of the tournament so far (Wisden)

County cricket talking points: two sides pull away in each division (Guardian)

Player moves, contract and injuries

Player signings/contracts: Robinson (Durham - loan), Kelly (Northamptonshire - contract), Rutherford (Leicestershire - T20), Pollard (Surrey - T20), Malan (Middlesex - Champ, RL50), Kerr (Derbyshire), Madsen (Derbyshire - contract)

Speaking of Madsen, here’s the Stumps, Umps and Beer Pumps podcast with the ‘Derbyshire Don’

Jason Behrendorff, Chris Green join Middlesex as Shaheen Shah Afridi, Mujeeb Ur Rahman bow out (Cricinfo)

Handscomb leaves Middlesex (Middlesex CCC)

Injury news - Stone, Norwell (Warwickshire), Lakmal (Derbyshire)

Hassan Ali: ‘Wasim Akram told me to play county cricket. Finally I’m here ’ (Guardian)

News, views and interviews

Counties blame The Hundred for 'very slow' ticket sales for Vitality Blast (Telegraph) ($)

T20 Blast ticket sales struggle as ECB ‘puts the Hundred first’ (Times) ($)

No runs, no wickets and little hope - do Leicestershire deserve to survive? (Telegraph) ($)

Every parent knows that saying “I told you so” never helps. But sometimes you do it anyway. 

Several counties, including Somerset, Essex and Hampshire, have announced their Blast season tickets have sold out. The hardcore clearly still love the ‘product’ (sorry, but that term is needed here) and, in 2019, the casual fans felt the same way as ticket sales for the group stages were up 15 per cent year-on-year and 47 per cent over the previous five years. Even the opening week of sales for the following year’s event had shifted a record 65,000 tickets. Meanwhile, Surrey chairman Richard Thompson revealed 50 per cent of their T20 buyers were new to the game. 

It was a stone-cold success. So what changed?

The ECB introduced a new event that was ‘theirs’ then abused their role as regulator and commercialiser of the sport by giving it every advantage possible to engineer success. In the first year, ticket prices were artificially low, the buying window was earlier than the Blast and the marketing budget vast. Then there was the coverage on BBC television. The event is only played during one month yet it is positioned more prominently than county cricket on the BBC sports website all year round. This year’s draft was held days before the Championship began, guess which got more attention? 

Promoting it (and, crucially, covering Covid losses) has hollowed out the ECB’s reserves from a reported £70m to £2.5m, it has crowded an already-packed schedule and divided the game. The cash-strapped counties did not have to vote for it but some of the tactics to get sign-off were dubious. The £1.3m per year sweetener was reported to be half that once the ‘opportunity cost’ was calculated. Now, all too predictably, it is whittling away at the county game’s main revenue stream. 

The introduction of the tournament-that-shall-not-be-named is an existential threat to the structure of the game in this country. So now we have a writer like Scyld Berry, who has always appeared to have cricket’s best interest at heart, asking do a county like Leicestershire ‘deserve to survive?’ It is a fair question and it could be applied to another three or four counties at least. But it should have been posed before introducing a new, highly disruptive event. No-one at the ECB possessed the bravery, honesty or leadership qualities to pose it. Nor have they had the guts to let counties go under when they can’t pay the bills over the past couple of decades.

So now we have a fudge where the ECB seem to be hoping a few teams slowly suffocate after being starved of air. And they seem non-plussed when they are accused of having their foot firmly on the county game’s windpipe.

No doubt - the counties have been part of the problem, change is necessary and the ECB have one of the toughest jobs in English sport (much of it their own fault).

But legacy fans are not like the BBC, who are reliant on the government for funding and hounded for any misstep, so they are not showing the tailbacks of lorries on the M20, properly holding the PM to account over his Northern Ireland u-turn and all the other painful results of the shameful spin over Brexit. 

Cricket supporters remember what they were told when the tournament-that-shall-be-named was being made up as it went along. They recall the “it’s not for you" statement, the much-discussed separation between franchises and their host venues and, of course, the ‘this will save, not destroy, county cricket’-type quotes. That is when the ECB actually spoke, of course.

It was crap then and it is crap now. 

The only thing I’ll say about the oft-remarked comparison between the-tournament-that-shall-not-be-named and Brexit is that people actually voted for the latter. (I am fiercely opposed to both and, in my opinion, the Leave campaign was based on lies but, still, they won the majority). There were no calls for you-know-what before it happened, in fact, the ECB was lauding the success of the Blast. The tournament-that-shall-not-be-named remains a toxic mess forced through by a few executives. It has always appeared that much of its vocal support has come from those who gain most from its existence. It has been notable how David Lloyd switched camps so quickly after leaving Sky, its main broadcaster. 

There will be much more pain to come from this event and, who knows, Leicestershire might well go under in a few years. Followed by a handful of other counties. It might even come to pass that the existing system is pulled off life-support and replaced by 10 or 12 franchises.

If so, then it is almost certain I’ll never pay to watch another cricket match. If Essex are not playing in the competition, the cricket is a diversion not a passion for me. The IPL, CPL, Big Bash are all fine but, it’s ultimately disposable television. England games are important but the in-stadium experience is too corporate, too busy and just too damn expensive. 

Leave a comment

NB: While we are talking about Scyld Berry, his proposal for the Championship is similar to mine. Two divisions of 12, with the extra six teams composed of minor counties (I know, I know) even though the lower reaches might be part-time. 

Lancashire Cricket and Emirates sign long-term partnership extension (Lancashire CCC)

Forgive the pun, but this has flown under the radar. A seven-year deal with Emirates Airlines says something about the Lancashire brand and, we hope county cricket. It was noticeable that their men and women’s teams spent time in the UAE for pre-season. 

This is a company with a long history of sports sponsorship at the highest level - Arsenal, Milan, Real Madrid and the FA Cup are the highlights in football but it extends down and into many other areas.

The length of this deal is heartening as county cricket is not considered ‘premium’ these days. Yes, Surrey have Kia, a major car company, but Essex’s Championship shirt sponsors are a local scaffolding company and last year’s RL50 kit was fronted by Iqoniq, who went into liquidation at the start of 2022. 

Like it or not, sponsorship is critical in modern sport. It was only their departure that finally pulled ex-FIFA president Sepp Blatter from his ivory tower and, just last year, Yorkshire’s reputational hit saw brands bolt for the door threatening the county’s very existence. 

That is why I always ‘like’ or ‘retweet’ posts about Essex getting a new deal. It’s easy, the brands love the support and it helps the game. I urge you to do the same.

☕️ Buy The Grumbler a coffee ☕️

Social media spats do unfair disservice to county game (Cricketer)

Daryl Mitchell scores 135 for Ombersley in big win over Kidderminster (Worcester News)

Joe Clarke expresses 'embarrassment and shame' over WhatsApp messages (BBC Sport)

Surrey repay £70,000 in furlough money after making £5.4m profit (BBC Sport)

This is genius and quite magnificent. Yes, Surrey are the richest county going but they did not have to do this and there are plenty of similar companies who benefitted much more from the furlough scheme (as well as others who blatantly ripped it off) who have never thought about reimbursement. (Sidenote: why aren’t the huge supermarket chains, who benefitted greatly from the pandemic, helping the small high street shops, who barely survived? And don’t get me started on the energy companies). 

This move has the mark of Surrey chairman Richard Thompson all over it. He is quoted in the piece. It came out a day or so after Teflon Tom Harrison announced his departure as ECB CEO after pocketing his share of a £2.1m bonus yet presiding over 62 redundancies during Covid. Thompson is now favourite to become chair of the ECB and, though almost certainly not planned, this move serves as a stark indication of the difference in their moral compasses.

Warwickshire advertise for a gardener (Warwickshire CCC)

Warwickshire need someone 12 hours-a-week to "support the growth of our own ingredients on-site". It is a very nice idea and hopefully more than just lip service. Every gardener has to battle with insects and slugs, this one might have an extra pest to deal with - drunken fans at T20 Blast finals day trampling all over their carrots. Best get the netting down early that day. Thinking about it, ask the groundstaff if you can borrow the rolling covers.

Speaking of jobs, here’s a couple for budding journalists.

Digital Media exec at Gloucestershire and Multi-media exec at Warwickshire

Save Village Cricket - Bayford and Hertford Cricket Club issue 'rallying cry' as it fears for the future of the game ahead of 70th year (Herts Mercury)

This is not county cricket but it is important. Participation is a problem for village clubs everywhere. There are lots of global factors like time, attention spans etc but the loss of cricket on free-to-air television and in primary schools have surely been a multiplier in England. This story led to the creation of this Twitter account. 

Anyone who has read Last-Wicket Stand will know I have not picked up a bat since my father died almost 17 years ago. I have a ‘thing’ about it. Now my kids are older and doing their own thing, perhaps I should reconsider.