Greedy Lord's set Alarm Bells Ringing

Did Lisa and her co-CEOs at Edgbaston, Headingley etc, factor this in when they handed the ECB total control over the game's future?

If you nurture a culture of greed, you get greedy schmucks!

Watch the dominoes start falling when the "wrong venues" for the plastic eight franchises are announced in the autumn. Unsustainable loans coming to light, bail-outs and fines to punish dissenters, Durham style. 

MCC ready to fight for two Lord’s Tests.

Elizabeth Ammon.

The Times.

Friday, 19 May 2017.

PTG 2140-10851.

The Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) is to seek reassurances that Lord’s will continue to stage two Test matches each summer after it was revealed that the number of home England Tests is to be cut from 2020 (PTG 2137-10831, 17 May 2017).  As part of an overhaul of English cricket, which will include a return to free-to-air television for the first time in 15 years, home Tests will be reduced to six per summer and five during Ashes summers  (PTG 2140-10851 above).

A number of counties have expressed surprise at the revelations, which came from a tender document that was sent out to leading broadcasters by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) as part of the bidding process for international and domestic cricket rights between 2020 and 2024. The ECB had refused county executives permission to view the confidential document.

Revenue from international matches is a significant source of income for the Test match grounds and counties are nervous that a reduction in the number of matches will mean a substantial loss in their income.

The Oval, the home of Surrey, has a staging agreement in place until 2022 that guarantees at least one Test and one One Day International each summer. If Lord’s is granted two Tests per summer and the Oval continues with its agreed one, that will leave the other seven Test venues with only three matches between them.

The majority of counties outside of London who host international fixtures have taken out substantial loans to develop the venues. The repayment of these loans is based on a projected amount of income from leading matches. One county executive said there is concern within the banking sector about the potential viability of these or future loans based on the situation at Durham and the reduction in income from fewer international matches.

The northeast county were stripped of their Test-match status after a £UK3.8 million ($A6.6 m) bailout by the ECB having spent money on improving their ground to international standard (PTG 1938-9747, 5 October 2016). From 2020 some of the potential losses from the reduction in those games will be off-set by the extra £1.3 million ($A2.3 m) each county have been guaranteed from the new eight-team T20 competition (PTG 2100-10643, 10 April 2017).

Richard Gould, Surrey’s chief executive, said: “We have a proven track record of high attendances and excellent facilities and we are confident that we are in a strong position to continue to host at least one Test a summer even in years where there are only five”.

An MCC spokesperson said: “We are comfortable with the case we have made to hold two Tests per year at Lord’s. We have always had strong ticket sales. Lord’s is a place where people want to watch cricket and where cricketers want to play”.

Test matches and other leading fixtures scheduled between 2020 and 2024 are likely to be allocated in the autumn by the ECB’s major match group. The venues of matches in the new T20 competition will be decided at the same time and will be taken in conjunction with whichever broadcaster is appointed.