Like many English cricket fans, I fear for the future of the county game. Unlike most, I am spending a few hours each week trying to do something about it.

You may remember that late last season I wrote a column bemoaning the lack of promotion around the Bob Willis Trophy final. We knew well in advance that this showpiece game would not receive the live television coverage that had been widely expected but, less than 24 hours before the first ball was bowled, fans were still waiting for official confirmation of how to watch along.

In the end, the audience for the live stream was heartening, something we have seen mirrored throughout this season. However, such stories of missed opportunities fuel the feeling among traditional fans that one of the domestic game’s main problems is that it is not marketed correctly… or at all.

From here, they usually segway seamlessly into a rant against The Hundred. A portion of the anger surrounding the new venture is based on the fact the ECB has backed their baby so heavily in comparison to the existing competitions. In 2019, it was reported that each franchise game had a marketing budget of £100,000, compared to the £80,000 Surrey spent on their entire Blast campaign the year before. Heaven knows what the figure is now.

In some sort of personal protest to the entire situation last September, I compiled a page of preview stories ahead of the Bob Willis Trophy on my website, spent a tactical tenner advertising it to cricket fans on Facebook and Instagram, receiving some decent traffic and nice comments as a result. However, to really test the hypothesis of ‘under marketing’, I needed more data.

So, in the deep dark recesses of last winter’s lockdown, I vowed to produce a county cricket email newsletter throughout 2020, every week during the season, every fortnight outside of it. As I discussed in these pages a few weeks ago, there is a blossoming array of podcasts and YouTube channels right now. But there was a gap for an independent digest of news, views and information. I promised it would be free forever and your data would never be misused. Apart from that, I have been making it up as I go along.

So, on Wednesday, I pressed send on the 19th edition of The Grumbler’s County Cricket Newsletter, exactly halfway through my year-long experiment. Here is what I have learnt so far.

Firstly, there are precious few sources of free, quality, easy-to-access written content. Of the newspapers, only the Times and Telegraph commit real space to county cricket and they are behind a paywall. I rely on Cricinfo and the unlocked stories of the two main magazines, Wisden and The Cricketer but their premium, and presumably best, content is blocked off. The official county sites provide little more than puff pieces but their match previews have proved popular. My metrics show fans want form guides, team news and quotes from the coaches. Alas, the county bloggers publish rarely and few of the local papers cover their team in real depth.

As you might expect from digital media, the most popular content is visual. My Tweets of the Week are normally picture-led and I always link to a couple of YouTube clips, an old game and an interview. If I was merely interested in clicks, I would just post these. My readers adore those grainy Gillette Cup finals and Sunday League games presented by Peter West or Tony Lewis. Nothing gets more traffic.

Now I like to think I know what I am doing in the area of digital sports content. My primary job is consulting with sports clubs and rights-holders all over the world on how to engage their audiences. One of the newsletters I designed for a major football club received a merit award from the Webby’s, the digital version of the Oscars. But, I’ll be honest, no matter what I do, my county cricket newsletter just will not grow at a decent rate. I amassed 225 subscribers within the first week but the figure has only grown to 350 since then. My page receives 600 to 1000 weekly views but that is not enough to justify the time I spend on it. I laid this situation in stark terms in Wednesday’s edition and, to be fair, the audience responded by sharing the newsletter widely and subscribers spiked. That is the value of creating community but, at this rate, it will not continue into next year.

So, right now, this is another tale of abundant goodwill and positive intention in county cricket hamstrung by a lack of audience and uptake. Clearly, the ECB have much more obvious experience of this over many areas and many years. Then there is the intransigence and inertia of the old guard. So many believe the powers-that-be have decided the old game simply will not sell so they created a new one. For me, The Hundred has always been the wrong answer to the right question. Namely, how can we transform English domestic cricket for the better and create a product that is attractive to traditional fans and future generations?

I have been trying to do my bit every week, all year. I have learnt a lot but, let’s face facts, it remains a very hard sell.

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* This article first appeared in The Cricket Paper, get it every Sunday or subscribe here

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