It’s March, which means your county should be playing friendlies by the end of the month. There’s a cold snap coming this week but the evenings are getting a little lighter, the mornings are sunnier and the temperature will start to turn soon.

Clearly, cricket is coming.

The past fortnight has seen the best and worst of English cricket. Odd as it may sound, England’s one-run defeat to New Zealand qualifies as the former. As head coach Brendon McCullum said afterwards: “We don’t mind losing as long as we give ourselves a chance to win.”

It’s the lack of cynicism I love the most.

Of course, McCullum’s England are well in credit after a string of fine wins but this was only the fourth time a Test team had lost after enforcing the follow-on. Yet we all marvelled at the type of game this sport can produce. Never mind the result, just enjoy the cricket.

At its best, the Test game is a long, boozy, expensive banquet at a top restaurant. It is about the flavour, the ceremony, the skills, the atmosphere, the company and the luxury of time. It is worth the wait.

In contrast, franchise cricket is a meal on a short-haul flight - a mini-version of something reminiscent of sustenance but jam-packed with artificial additives. When hungry, I will scoff it down readily enough but it is rushed, cramped, overpackaged and consumed elbow-to-elbow alongside people with whom you would never choose to dine.

It is plastic, single-serve cricket.

When you finally extract it all from the packaging, you realise there is not much of value to consume.

The Cricket Discipline Commission hearing into racism at Yorkshire represents the worst of the game, if not the country. Check my previous blogs about my outlook and there are posts below but I’ll wait until the conclusion before commenting in full.

My fear is that there will be no conclusion. There have been too many delays, too many mistakes, too little governance and two big camps created. I predict no-one will learn anything, let alone change their position.

I hope I am wrong but we see fudges everywhere in modern Britain. In the confusion left behind, the group normally best placed to seize the initiative is the one that was in charge when it all went wrong. They appear to be at fault but delay, dispute and doubt are effective methods of avoiding a guilty verdict and retaining control. However, they can not prove innocence therefore bitterness and suspicion fester.

This is one reason why nothing changes.

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Players, Coaches, Signings and Contracts

Signings: Henry (Somerset - Overseas - 7xChamp, Blast), Maharaj (Middlesex - Overseas - 8xChamp, Blast), Edwards (Yorkshire), Stubbs (Durham, T20), McDermott, Ellis (Hampshire - Blast)

Contracts: Gleeson (Lancashire - T20 2yr), Overton (Somerset - 3yr), Donald (Hampshire - 1yr), Organ (Hampshire), Richards (Essex - first senior contract)

Paul Stirling set to miss England Test as he locks in Warwickshire return (Cricinfo)

County stint to fast-track 'sponge' Murphy for Ashes (Cricket.com.au)

Todd Murphy has been linked with a move to Durham.

Johnson, Madsen, Manenti sign up for Berg's Italian Job (Cricinfo)

This is standard practice for any smaller nation trying to improve its standing in an emerging sport. Parachute in talent with familial connections or the right passports and get some better results. At the same time sow the seeds of player development and try to move on from there.

Mark Alleyne set for Glamorgan white-ball head coach role (Cricketer)

Yorkshire County Cricket Club give former Essex bowler top academy job (Telegraph & Argus)

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Here are some of the reciprocal arrangements at counties for the 2023 season: Lancashire, Hampshire, Essex. I’ll add more when I have them.

'He Needs To Play County Cricket': Ex-India Cricketer's Advice To KL Rahul After Poor Show (Republic World)

Indian cricket seems to be thinking the county game is a place for older players to regain their form. You could argue Pakistani cricket believes the county game can toughen up and refine their younger talent.

I am happy enough with that. It is a role the Championship can fill, providing purpose and adding attraction. Of course, some Australians are already coming over before the Ashes, albeit with short, specific and selfish aims.

But has the England set-up ever had a stable, mutually fulfilling relationship with county cricket in the central contracts era? Yes, we have seen players return to recover their form, with diktats over how they can be used. And we have seen it pulled this way and that in response to Test fashions and endless ECB reports. But it seems to be seen as a tool, used for a time to adjust something much more important and then tossed back in the box.

For me, it should be the foundation of the entire game in this country. When it is strong, everything above and beyond it is strong too.

It was so disheartening to see stories on Harry Brook's wonderful and rapid rise from state school, via a public school scholarship mediated in some areas as "look, the system works". Yes, scholarships do skew the figures regarding the public school domination of English cricket. But remember, if the game truly reflected the nation then 93 out of every 100 players, executives and board members would be state school-educated.

Yes, some talent is plunked and nurtured on the manicured lawns of private school cricket but so much is never even given a chance to explore the game. And even if their interest is piqued, they will have to give up weekends to start playing at club level where, if it is anything like my early experience, they will be left rooting around the bottom of a musty leather bag for the last of the communal kit, trying to hone their skills on rutted council-prepared strips and changing in whatever facilities are still standing after the local vandals have had their fun.

A few years ago, Felsted School, a regular supplier of talent to Essex, held an evening event entitled "Exploring county cricket as a career". My Year-11 son and his friends barely know it exists. There is little youth culture and community around the game at his school, which is far above the rancid Essex comp I attended.

The system works for those who created it and cricket will never regain its former sporting and cultural resonance in the UK until that changes.

Essex and SACA agree three-year arrangement (Cricketer)

Counties send scouts to watch SACA session as scheme continues to unearth talent (Cricketer)

It is shocking that we have to lean on the SACA and ACE programmes for talent, despite their excellence. Neither has been driven by the ECB. They declined to bankroll the former and the latter was initially funded as much by Sport England. Even a subsequent injunction looks poor in comparison to those executive bonuses.

Recently, George Dobell revealed the SACA scheme cost less per year than the £60,000 Teflon Tom Harrison spent on PR consultants ahead of the DCMS Select Committee hearing into racism allegations at Yorkshire. What a disgraceful waste of resources.

But, even if you ignore all the privilege, the lack of funding, greed and politics, when we do find a jewel in the dust where do they go to fulfil their talent…

…the county pathways.

News, Views and Interviews

Colin Graves close to Yorkshire chair return after winning support of board over financing (Cricketer)

Embattled Yorkshire are facing record losses of around £3million with the club at risk of administration as they face paying compensation to former staff and significant legal fees relating to the Azeem Rafiq racism scandal (Mail)

I may try to get #DontHeadToHeadingley trending if Graves is re-appointed as I will not spend a penny there to watch Essex or England under his reign. His corrosive spell as ECB chair virtually created a civil war in domestic cricket. The bulldozer approach of the organisation he led bred mistrust among the rank-and-file support. Meanwhile, he has been called out by the DCMS Select Committee into racism in cricket and accused of being a “roadblock to change” at Yorkshire. He denies this but, as the article points out, there are question marks over his reaction to racism allegations at Essex when he was at the ECB. Of course, The Graves Trust has held up the club over the last few years. But proper altruism does not come with strings attached. This article says “£15m is owed in October 2024… the majority of board members are prepared to back a return for Graves on the basis that he would delay the repayment”.

At the time, the appointment of Robert Key made little sense seen through the lens of the evidence-based decision-making that underpins modern sport. He seemed to have little of the requisite experience and qualifications. But, up to now, it has worked spectacularly well. In this podcast with Mark Butcher, Key talks about his tenure so far, arguing that his thinking was different because he has not been brought through the ECB system.

This chimes with me. I used to apply for jobs at cricket’s governing body but gave up years ago. Firstly, they appeared to be an organisation who have lost all sense of good governance and care for their sport. Sporadic interactions with staff left me distinctly unimpressed; too self-satisfied and self-serving, too accepting of the approach from on high and dismissive of any dissent. The usual shield put up by a sports organisation under pressure. Secondly, they tended to recruit from within, so there was no point.

These two are linked.

Rob Key still seems to believe the way to save county cricket is the tournament-that-shall-not-be-named. Taken to its logical conclusion, the new event will kill it. Should you-know-what survive, the next few years, having sucked up so much of the resources, papered over its cracks and leeched the talent from the existing structure, then the ECB will see that as a mandate for it to take over. When it has grown enough and sucked the last breath out of the county game, it will bury the carcass.

As Key himself pointed out, the system we are all criticising is producing great players who are leading English cricket’s revival. Which begs the question, why are we not supporting it and improving it, instead of replacing it with a system that can only support a section of the game?

Northants skipper Luke Procter backs change to Championship points system (Northampton Chronicle)

Alec Stewart returns to work at Surrey after leave of absence (Cricketer)

County Championship umpires to trial cameras – and assist England player selection (Telegraph)

Glamorgan Cricket: County record small loss in 2022 (BBC Sport)

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Clearing the Lime Tree (Kent Cricket Heritage Trust)

The Lime Tree at Canterbury was one of those utterly unique tales from county cricket. It was so disappointing when it succumbed to disease. Here’s the story of those who cleared it.

Bristol City and Gloucestershire Cricket pay tribute to Colin Sexstone after former chairman's death (Bristol Live)

Warwickshire appoint Amiss as new club president (Leamington Observer)

Lancashire Cricket Club new Farington ground plan approved (BBC)

Surrey commit to Net Zero by 2030 (Surrey CCC)

How a Derbyshire lady inspired Ian Fleming's James Bond (Great British Life)

The daughter of a county cricketer inspired the author.

The art of watching County Cricket in April (Guardian)

Yorkshire Racism Scandal

Yorkshire plead guilty to data deletion in wake of racism allegations (Cricinfo)

This stinks.

"It was discovered that emails and documents, both held electronically by the club and in paper copy, had been irretrievably deleted from both servers and laptops and otherwise destroyed.

"After a thorough independent investigation, it was established that the deletion and destruction of documents date from a time period prior to the appointment of Lord Patel and relate to the allegations of racism and the club's response to those allegations. The club is not prepared to conjecture publicly as to why this occurred, who was responsible or the motivation for doing so."

Regular readers will know I am very concerned about the upcoming Newton report into racism into Essex and the effect it will have on the club. The Yorkshire scandal started earlier but the pace of progress has been much slower. There have been cock ups, conspiracies and, it seems, lots of key actors denigrating the problem, blaming the victims and plunging their fingers in their ears while going "la, la, la".

 

In comparison, Essex have addressed the issue with greater urgency, determination and less infighting. But that is not saying much. The Times are reporting names will be redacted but that will either fuel more rumours or they will get out via some other means.

The tone of the statement about the departure of Azeem Akhtar really concerned me. So, after an exhaustive process, the new chair was appointed then stepped back after a few days due to the "emergence" of historic social media posts. Now he has resigned.

But, according to this, no one has done anything wrong. Everything in the shop is tippity top. Therefore, we assume, this chain of events is entirely normal.

It is a worrying trend I see in public life these days. There is a failure to accept any culpability or responsibility, presumably for fear of bad press and loss of reputation.

Whereas in real life, every good person has done bad things. And vice versa.

How have we got to the stage where we can’t accept this?

Azeem Akhtar resigns as Essex chair despite being cleared by investigation into anti-Semitism (Cricketer)

Azeem Akhtar resigns as Essex chairman despite being cleared of antisemitism (Times)

"A spectacular failure": Campaign Against Antisemitism slate Essex investigation into former chair (Cricketer) 

ECB lays out case against Yorkshire defendants as CDC hearing begins (Cricinfo)

Yorkshire racism allegations: Timeline ahead of this week's public Cricket Discipline Commission hearing (Sky Sports)

Adil Rashid pressured into backing Azeem Rafiq, says former Yorkshire bowler (Times)

Michael Vaughan: Yorkshire cricket racism hearing is 'terrible look for game' (BBC Sport)