There’s just no escaping the coronavirus. It’s a crisis; it’s a scourge; it’s a bluebottle in the ointment. The pandemic is destroying lives, wrecking lifestyles, and causing huge anxiety and uncertainty. And cricket, of course, is not immune.
It’s all such a shame. Last summer was a great year for English cricket. We had the World Cup triumph, the now famous miracle at Headlingley, Jofra Archer bursting onto the international stage, and the heartening news that participation actually rose for the first time since 2005. Meanwhile, The T20 Blast continued to attract record crowds.
This year, however, has been a complete disaster. Ben Stokes being named as the Wisden Almanack’s Leading Cricketer In The World is the only positive I can think of. Otherwise it’s been grim.
The prospect of no cricket being played at all this summer – an eventuality I think is quite likely – is harrowing for the sport. Counties will be struggling to pay the bills like never before. And, much as I believe the Hundred is a terrible idea, many clubs were relying on the £1.3 million they expected to receive. Thus far they’ve banked half of this but whether the remaining £650k turns up is anyone’s guess. Where’s the money going to come from if the tournament doesn’t even take place?
The prospect of no T20 Blast cricket is also an enormous concern. Income from Blast crowds and ECB handouts is what sustains the counties. Without it they’re in deep shtook. Although the ECB is wealthy enough to compensate the counties and keep them afloat, they’d don’t have a bottomless pit, and it’s tricky to gauge how much support they’ll be prepared to give.
I’m reluctant to engage in pessimistic speculation, but maybe this could be the year when we finally see one (or more) of the smaller clubs fold. Indeed, those who believe that English cricket could do with losing a county or two might even be rubbing their hands in glee. There have even been scare stories that as many as 70% of counties could go bust – although I don’t believe this myself.
The future of The Hundred is also up in the air. This week George Dobell wrote that the whole idea could be scrapped altogether. Why? Because the ECB may not be able to afford a project that’s expected to lose money for its first five years. So much for Colin Graves’s boast that The Hundred was already making a profit because of the broadcast windfall.
Whilst I’d welcome The Hundred being scrapped altogether (i.e. postponed this year and then abolished permanently when a new chairman comes in and reassesses the situation) it’s hard to feel overjoyed when it occurs in such desperate circumstances. The competition was always poorly conceived and an unnecessary gamble but nobody wants to see English cricket skint.
The incoming ECB chairman will certainly have some tough choices to make. Unfortunately the identity of this man is now up in the air too. Until this week we expected Ian Watmore, the former non-executive director of the English Football League, to take the reins if / when Colin Graves mercifully departs for the ICC. However, Watmore is currently facing accusations that he went behind Sky’s back in his role at the EFL – something which allegedly amounts to misconduct.
If it turns out that Watmore knew several championship clubs were exploring the possibility of breaking away from the EFL – a move which would’ve reneged on their £595 million broadcast deal with Murdoch’s lot – then this creates a rather awkward situation for the ECB. After all, Sky are English cricket’s ‘strategic partner’. They’re entwined and committed to one another. Therefore Watmore’s suitability for the role is suddenly a big question.
The Watmore controversy just about sums things up at the minute. English cricket just can’t catch a break. One imagines they’ll be keeping a close eye on the antibody tests currently being conducted. If – and it must be a big ‘if’ – they find out that coronavirus is more widespread than initially thought, and most cases are asymptomatic, then this crisis might end much sooner than expected. Indeed, we might actually see some cricket this summer after all.
On the other hand, if the antibody testing (which is being conducted on cross sections of the population rather than merely those showing symptoms) reveals that less than 10 percent of people have been exposed, and we’re still miles away from herd immunity, then social distancing could continue for several months. If this is the case then I doubt we’ll see any live sport (of any kind) for the foreseeable future – unless they’re non contact sports played behind closed doors.
As supporters all we can do in these difficult times is cross our fingers and hope for the best. We’ll return to our natural environment – watching live cricket with a pint in our hands, keeping tabs on live scoring updates, and discussing play with fellow cricket fanatics – one happy day. It’s just hard not knowing when that day will come. All we know for certain is that there will be no cricket before July at the earliest.
In the meantime, I’ll do my best to keep TFT readers’ spirits up, immerse myself in as many cricket documentaries as possible – Fire In Babylon is next on my list – and pray that everyone stays safe and healthy.
This could be a long haul. And I don’t envy anyone (either in government or at the ECB) currently making big decisions in a world so full of uncertainty.
James Morgan
I share your opinions of The Hundred. In terms of the counties generally, I indicated in one of the series of posts I am currently doing relating to ‘all time XIs’ (https://aspi.blog/2020/04/15/all-time-xis-staffordshire-born-plus-bonus-feature) that I think the promotion/relegation principle introduced to the first class game in this country needs extending so that there is interchange between first class and minor counties. I find it hard for example to accept that Leicestershire, stone last among the first class counties in five of the last ten seasons, have an inalienable claim on first class status.
Good article that James, sad and worrying times now and into the future I fear.
Sport, as the leading interest on this planet, the thing that binds us globally more than any other activity, even if most of it revolves around footie, has an uncanny ability to bounce back after setbacks. The amount of soccer clubs that go into administration, yet are rescued by some last minute deals are too numerous to mention. I expect the same to happen with cricket. Once we get back to relative normality, which may well be next year, I would expect sport to be in the forefront of huge public interest and participation for some considerable time. I believe sell out crowds, eager to make up for lost time, will turn out to watch even relatively minor events, like county cricket. It will be a lot easier to motivate public interest in helping things along after such a long break away from their passions.
So nil desperandum, at least it’s not pissing down. Concentrate on bonding with wives and kids as well as getting the jobs done in the house and garden you’ve been putting off every year to make way for sport.
I’ve converted my back yard into an allotment and even the missus is interested in the results. It’s all pretty much guess work at the moment but my dad was a keen market gardener, as were so many after the war, so I remember enough to get along. Instead of Stokes my hero for the moment is Monty Don. Bring on those leeks I say, I can fight off those damned slugs and snails in the trenches.
However my new Nemesis are our local cats, who think I’ve just opened a public loo for them.
So, as you can see the changes in lifestyle brought about by the pandemic can have a positive slant for us all, even cats.
It can be worse. I have just regravelled our drive. Our two cats are very grateful.
Why do cats dig a hole, do what they have to do and then cover that hole from every other direction. I’ve had cats all my life and can’t remember one that didn’t do this.
I now have a super soaker permanently loaded and ready for action.
Thanks to James for keeping the articles coming despite the lack of any actual play. Certain other cricket blogs aren’t bothering which says a lot about what they’ve become.
I wouldn’t assume it’s a small county that’s most likely to go under. Richard Thompson made just this point recently. It’s the counties with Test grounds that are most exposed. Middlesex and Surrey only furloughed their staff recently so are presumably quite strong financially and Hampshire and Yorkshire have their sugar daddies – so it seems it might be the likes of Warwickshire, Lancashire, Nottinghamshire and Durham where there might be the most serious trouble. I seem to recall reading the former’s finances were quite fragile not too long ago (although with the associations to Giles and Farbrace I wouldn’t imagine the ECB would like to see them get too many adverse headlines). One could usually rely on the local council as a final backstop to prevent a county going under but I wouldn’t be so sure of that in curent circumstances. The ECB will apparently get £12m in insurance if the WI series is called off or played in front of empty stands which happens to be almost the exact amount of the second tranche of 16.66 payments.
If we end up with a revamped Blast rather than the 16.66 out of all this, it would be one good thing. There’s clearly something of a power struggle going on about it at the moment and it’s too soon to say what the result will be.
I think there will probably be some cricket this summer although whether it’ll be worth watching is another matter. The antibody tests are so problemmatic (like inaccuracy rates of up to 80% and the inability to distinguish between different types of coronavirus) they don’t have much to do with anything except as propaganda. The great timebomb under the game, in my opinion, is more the probable restrictions to international travel. These have the potential to change the game as we’ve known it.
I think the Warwickshire financial issue mainly relates to the loan from the local council they took on to redevelop the ground.
If you have not seen Fire in Babylon you have a real treat coming. The best sporting documentary of them all. Vastly superior to Senna, which received all the plaudits around that time. Better even than When We Were Kings about Ali/Foreman. It manages to combines the sport with the social context in a way I have never seen elsewhere. And that the Aussies get the role of the baddies just makes it even better.
But on the coronavirus issue, I have already written off this year. And for once I lay no blame on the ECB. They are helpless before the incompetence of a government which was told to test, test, test nearly 3 months ago, and which was left rudderless when the Benny Hill tribute act that passes for a PM went off on an extended holiday in January and early February. It is times like this that I look to the Germans and thank the Lord that they have not grasped cricket. If they ever did take to it we would be toast. I did try to explain to my former colleagues in Munich that any nation which likes to dress up in leather shorts and wear silly hats would surely feel at home at Lords, but they seemed impervious to such logic.
When I was at uni I met someone who was (at the time) Germany’s most capped cricketer. He played for our indoor thirds. He’d learned everything he knew about playing cricket from coaching manuals and it showed. He executed every shot with ruthless textbook efficiency.
They do have some decent players, but almost all expats. I used to despatch graduates to Munich to do a turn at Global HQ. One of them played for Munich (who play in the EnglischerGarten) and ended up winning national medals. I was told that they saw Llubljana as a local derby!
Good stuff.
I was watching a bit of Sky Sports Mix the other evening which featured European League Cricket. However as most of the players from every country I saw playing were Asian it didn’t seem to be particularly European. The standard was decent club and although it was only a 10 over slog I found it interesting enough. Some of the grounds were really lovely, reminiscent of South Africa. It was just nice to watch cricket I hadn’t seen before.
If it’s better than ‘When we were Kings’ I look forward to it.
My favourite is still the basketball classic, ‘Hoop Dreams’ about the fortunes of 3 talented youngsters looking to graduate to the professional game. Just about every setback imaginable gets covered and despite their undoubted talent there is pretty downbeat and uncertain ending.
The only thing we do know is that the future is very much full of maybes, possibilities, perhaps and might happens.
If you look at the movement globally the virus has diminished somewhat in China, Spain and Italy. Ok if you like it’s on a downward trend. Perhaps it is time limited to something like 3 months? Of course we could get a part 2. I can see perhaps the Tests being played behind closed doors later, but I would be very surprised if the Gov’t allows big crowd sports events for at least a month after the worst is over. I don’t even see the Blast happening let alone the 100. And we don’t know if the Windies or Pakistan will even come. I’d be ecstatic if we started in August, but I reckon based on my assumption of how long this virus might last, a few games in September is more likely. Which could be a few County Championship stand alone games, simply based on a far less risky 2000 people spread around the Oval, rather that a 26,000 full house for a T20. You could make it members only even.
As an aside Wimbledon 17 years ago took out insurance against a global pandemic cancelling the competition! Only sporting body to do so apparently.
Actually in some ways no cricket is not so much a problem for me. Presently stuck in Argentina where a 3 week trip is now in its compulsory 7th week! I’m well but want this slow to react to anything Gov’t to get of It’s arse and get us home.
Stay well folks and keep posting.
One idea which I haven’t seen mentioned yet is the possibility of asking Sky and the BBC to televise the Blast rather than the Hundred. I can’t imagine Sky will be too pleased about simply losing a year of matches which they’ve paid for, so this would seem to be an obvious solution which would partly offset the loss of gate income for the Blast.
Sky and the BBC were due to televise 34 games I think between them–which is one Blast game in four even it’s played as a full competition.
Of course, it might have the undesirable side-effect for the ECB that the TV companies see that the Blast is a television-worthy competition in itself….
As I mentioned in a post over a month ago, Tony Harrison still won’t let go of his favourite toy! Despite all the potential losses this season, he states today, ‘We need the Hundred more than ever.’
Given that it is due to make a loss for the foreseeable future and an obscene amount of money has already been thrown at it, who or what is going to pay for it? I fear that traditional cricket lovers know the answer.
I think Harrison has got a much too easy ride on this–as has Teflon man Graves, whose term should be summarily ended on Wednesday if the Hundred is postponed, since that’s the only reason for extending it.
Yes, both the incidence and the scale of the disruption caused by Coronavirus was difficult to foresee. However, a LOT more questions should be being asked about the ECB’s general financial situation. Part of the reason that Coronavirus has been such a disaster for the ECB is that they’ve managed to fritter away getting on for £100m–which to me is a totally obscene amount–on vastly overpaying and overhiring managers and consultants, and on the Hundred, which is essentially an egomaniacal, vanity-project white elephant.
Harrison’s logic this week beggars belief. It’s essentially “by investing so much money in a completely speculative megaproject which doesn’t have any research to show that it will be a financial success, we’ve brought our organisation to the brink of financial ruin even without Coronavirus. Therefore, that shows that the project whose success is very far from certain is even more necessary in order to get out of this financial mess.” That is the attitiude either of a Grade A conman or a moron.
Actually, it’s completely the opposite. The very worst thing to do in a time of financial crisis is to plough ahead with a project which even its creators say will lose £35m over the next five years–and which has no research to show that it has any likelihood of making money after that. (One unexplained point in all this is how exactly a board which was down to its last few million of reserves was planning to absorb a £35m loss for its new competition).
The Hundred absolutely has to go for good, and Harrison needs to go with it. I’m simply not impressed by the logic that he should stay because his handling of a crisis which was substantially created by him and Graves has been, on the whole, reasonably good. This kind of situation is EXACTLY what the ECB’s £80m of reserves five years ago was supposed to be for–even by their own account.
Harrison’s pronouncements during the day have lessened the hopes of the 16.66 being scrapped. He seems to have gone out to double down on such ideas.
Meanwhile the idea of playing in Abu Dhabi seems to be growing. Putting players on airliners to play in the ME as a healthy option by a supposedly cash-strapped board is insane. Sometimes I think the ECB would decamp entirely to Abu Dhabi if they could take Lord’s with them.
your news are very good Cricseen Updated News for cricket CricSeen
ICC seriously debating banning sweat and saliva on the ball but allowing artificial agents like wax or shoe polish.
It’s almost like we’re being programmed to see everything human as toxic and everything artificial as good.
One dumb sentence about Trump excepted, good stuff from Vic Marks about the 16.66.
I’m still need some convincing that he and other hostile journos like Paul Newman would be so hostile if their counties were franchise bases.