Nottinghamshire AGM 2018

Nottinghamshire AGM Monday 26 February 2018 County Hall Nottingham

Chairman’s Report – Richard Tennant
Senior players made a large contribution to the teams on field success during 2017, and special praise was given to Chris Read.
Off the field a £722,000 loss in 2016 led to a £279,000 profit in 2017, which emphasised the importance of having a test match. Nottinghamshire have been granted a test match for four of the five years covering the period 2020 to 2024 and now the club can start to look at future development plans for upgrading Trent Bridge. Nottinghamshire were also pleased to be chosen as hosts for the 50 over final from 2020 for five years and also being allocated one of the new T20 franchises for the new competition due to start in 2020.
The awarding of a ‘white ball’ only contact to Alex Hales for the next two seasons has now made the club aware that they will need to adjust the squads for both red and white ball cricket to best serve the team.
There was a tribute to the outgoing president Peter Wynne-Thomas. Also to Bill Taylor who will be leaving the committee, having served since 2009, and more recently been chairman of cricket.

Nottinghamshire Accounts by Paul Ellis (Treasurer)
In summary Cricket Income was up by 61%, Commercial Income by 27% and Costs increased by 14%. The club had returned to a surplus in 2017, and he stated that the club always reports a deficit in years where there is no test match at Trent Bridge. The Budget for 2018 is expecting another surplus.
A question was asked about the level of Net Current Liabilities and ‘Long-Term Debt’ which have increased from £11 million to £15 million. Lisa Pursehouse stated that these figures were partly due to advanced ticket sales for two sold out ODI’s and for good sales so far for the first two days of the 2018 test match.
Another question was asked about the William Clarke Stand being an eyesore and that the capacity must be increased. Richard Tennant answered this to state that priorities had changed to become strategic and that the club had to fit in with the ECB demands. Increasing the capacity of Trent Bridge cannot be achieved easily and at a suitable cost within the clubs business plans.

The Director Of Cricket Report - Mick Newell
The number one target for 2017 had been to achieve promotion back to Division 1 in the Championship, but needless to say the season had surpassed all expectations, as the club had not won two trophies in a season since 1987 during Rice and Hadlee era. Nottinghamshire had been very close to a third trophy. Nottinghamshire had benefited from the availability of two international bowlers for the early part of the season and just managed to get over the line in September.
The challenge for Nottinghamshire is now to get more players at International Level. He then paid tribute to players who had left the club notably Brendan Taylor, Greg Smith, Michael Lumb, Brett Hutton and Chris Read. Read would be back as a part time coach and the club had decided to offer the vacant wicket keeper duties to Tom Moores. There would be a new captain for the first time since 2008, with the appointment of Steven Mullaney for the Championship and 50 over competitions, and that he had the respect of all his colleagues in the dressing room. There were two new players in Chris Nash and Paul Coughlin and both were expected to play in all three formats of the game, and in Coughlin’s case there were high hopes for him as an ‘all-rounder’, and that he was a very good fielder. Finally the club had high hopes for the bowler Matt Milnes, who had also played club cricket for Plumtree.
There would be a further announcement on the overseas player to play in the 4 day cricket in the coming days, but the club were definitely after a batsman to bat in the top three.

Peter Moores - Head Coach

At the start of the 2017 season Peter Moores had challenged the squad to be better in three areas
Firstly to be better in the key moments of the game. Secondly they need to re-find the desire to improve. Thirdly the team had to improve fielding and physically.
The big challenge now is to retain the drive and hunger to move forward. The last game of the season stills stands out to him, and that the team was under the cosh at Sussex, but a fabulous partnership between Chris Read and Billy Root had helped add to the belief within the dressing room.
He thinks it is very important that the club attempts to breed its own players and that the first five games back in Division One will be massive. Steve Mullaney carries great respect across all three formats of the game. The club has also deliberately waited before deciding on the overseas player but they definitely need a batter, and that Mick Newell is working on this signing.
The club will be going on a pre-season tour earlier this year, but needed to get back early in order to be used to English conditions, but the players must be prepared to put a guaranteed shift in all games.
Questions were then asked to PM & MN.
Firstly the question of the new contract given to Alex Hales. MN stated that was the way the game was moving, although he did think that it might have come twelve months early, but he expected a lot of players around the world to do similar. Nottinghamshire are light on batsmen with only six on the staff and that will increase to seven with the overseas player. PM’s view was that Jake Libby had had a challenging year last year, and that we could do with a couple of left handed batsmen. He admitted that we do not have the depth or cover, and that the club definitely had to strengthen the top three.
Another question was asked why some of the first team squad had been training in Oman. PM stated that conditions there were good and that they took a few youngsters and a few senior players including Steven Mullaney. He also stated that he thought the club had some very good players in the 15 to 17 year old age group, which he had high hopes for.

Strategic Update – Lisa Pursehouse
The return to the first division had been achieved at the first attempt following a restructure amongst the coaching staff within the club. Steve Birks had been awarded the groundsman of the year for both his four day and one day pitches, and that he was disappointed that his belter of a pitch had not been used for the rain affected ODI.
The club had put the primary focus into the ‘High Profile Packages’ which was especially required following the ECB’s decision to decrease the number of home test matches a season from 7 to 6. Nottinghamshire had pushed very hard to obtain an Ashes Test Match. LP also stated that during the period 2020 to 2024 that Test Matches have only been allocated to six venues.
Trent Bridge has also been granted the opportunity to host one of the new T20 franchises.

People also need to be aware that there is a changing landscape for Domestic Cricket and whilst the traditionalist believe in County Championship cricket the club must take into account the needs of the younger generation. Therefore the new T20 competition will be targeting a new audience which will include Asian families, women and children and it will also return cricket to free to air TV. A women’s T20 competition will also run alongside the new T20 competition. The aim is to improve the experience at all levels of the game and we cannot be protected from change. Any change must be for the enhancement of Trent Bridge.
The first question asked was from a Nottingham Rugby Club fan who repeated his question from the AGM of 2017 re the plans for improvements at Lady Bay. The answer was that there was no update as the club still awaited a response from the Rugby club on how they planned to finance any changes.
The next question was what are the clubs plans to develop Trent Bridge? LP stated that the club was not able to do anything until they knew what games would be awarded to Trent Bridge for the next five years. The club would shortly be undertaking a review of a number of things for example, competing on the pitch, better toilets, a better shop, and it was not just about building stands.
The next question was had the club thought about offering a Testimonial game to Steve Birks? The answer was no, but it would be considered.
The next question was about the relationship between Nottinghamshire and the new T20 franchise?
LP said it was not Nottinghamshire and the players could come from anywhere via a draft. Further information would become clearer in the next two months, when the teams are named.
The next question was whether the emphasis on the work on the new media centre was too much. LP stated that the idea was to use the centre for ‘Revenue Generation’ for anything that is pitch-facing. The work undertaken was required to maintain the minimum requirements of staging international matches and was linked to governance required by the ECB. The next ECB AGM is in May 2018 and any decisions taken at that meeting could force the club to make more governance changes. The first Members forum of 2018 will be held shortly after this AGM and any requirements will be discussed at that meeting.
The next question was what is the final cost of the new developments at Trent Bridge? LP stated it was on budget at £7.4 million.
The next question was is the pavilion still fit for purpose for an international venue. LP stated that the pavilion is on the list but the last time it was investigated the cost of an upgrade was £32 million and the club did not have that amount of money. Any future development work would have to be phased.
There followed an update on the Recreational Game and the Community and Development Programme. This was provided by Tim Eatherington, and three of his team namely Mandy Wright (Community Trust Manager), Matt Wood (Elite Pathway Manager) and Mark Clifford (Community Projects Manager). All were presented in excellent detail, especially the progress made by the various age development teams and for women’s cricket. Special mention was given to groundsman Martin Cassidy for his work at Hucknall Cricket Club.

Ballot for Election to the General Committee.
There had been six nominations and the successful candidates were Darren Bicknell, Ray Dawson, Richard Stevenson and Richard Tennant.

President for 2018.
Thanks were made to the outgoing President Peter Wynne-Thomas and the Committee had decided to nominate Bill Taylor for this position for 2018.

Election of Honorary Life Vice Presidents
This honour is not awarded regularly but the club have decided do offer this to two long serving officials in Club Cricket namely Richard Martin (Bassetlaw League) and David Richards (South Notts League).

JAG