Death by 100 Cuts

Death by 100 Cuts

Just type in nottsccc into your URL bar on your favourite web-browser and see what happens… it used to be the case that you got redirected to “trentbridge.co.uk”, especially if that was a path regularly trod on your machine, or the search engine would helpfully ask, “Did you mean Trent Bridge?”

So why is the West Bridgford based county the only county cricket club to not have its own identity in some part, or shorted form, in its own web address or Twitter @?

I don’t know, but increasingly I find it irritating and can only speculate the rationale for decision taken back in Derek Brewer’s tenancy.

Could it be to avoid confusion with Nottinghamshire County Council? If so, why do most other counties not have similar issues with their CCC county cricket clubs and CC county councils?

Could it be to avoid confusion with Notts County FC who have also claimed the hashtag #Notts as their own? I seriously doubt it as the use of the word “cricket” in our name would eliminate that conflict immediately.

Hang on a moment, what do a significant number of cricket punters look for online, perhaps they are the 80+% happy with the way Notts CCC are run and of the ticket pricings from the spring poll by The Cricketer, their perhaps only search online once or twice a year… 

… Test Match or ODI tickets. They perhaps search for venue; Old Trafford, Edgbaston and Trent Bridge. Old Trafford has further complications, being not even a unique venue name in the same city but Edgbaston manages to separate commercial venue Edgbaston from the cricketing Warwickshire CCC, they’ have even separated Birmingham Bears, so why can’t Trent Bridge?

On Twitter @TrentBridge has 86.5K followers, so why do they follow the account of a venue?

To get news of when Lisa’s office windows got cleaned or when Tom lost the keys to the Dixon Gates padlock? No, I would again only speculate, they follow that account to get news of Nottinghamshire CCC that is why in bold lettering it says Nottinghamshire CCC (blue tick). If followers wanted news about the England coach, they would surely go to a first-hand source such as the ECB, it’s nothing to do with Notts CCC or Trent Bridge. We will no doubt get posts on the website today about Gurney and Hales winning trophies in the Caribbean (and well done to them), at least they used to be our players – we just hire them now the same as their other teams that they play for do. Yes in October, it’s a quiet time at the cricket club, there appears to be no news of necessary firing or hiring after last season’s debacle, so it is legitimate to post stories about what “our players” are doing

So what is irritating this follower of @TrentBridge so much, the wedding event in the DRS, the constant barrage of incitements to dine or drink at Restaurant Six or England this or England that – well all of that, it must be cricket withdrawal symptoms, but what has prompted this piece is the wall to wall propaganda about The Hundred.

You cannot blame the Trent Bridge marketers for exploiting Nottinghamshire CCC and its 86.5K audience of followers, using an established brand to publicise the name of a widely an unwelcome brand. There was a day or two last week when if you went to either the Notts CCC website or Twitter stream, all you could see was Trent Rockets and Joe Root. Is this not diluting the Notts CCC brand? I went to each of the other 7 cuckoo hosting clubs websites and Twitter accounts but didn't find anything like the same Hundred Invasion, any mention of The Hundred was otally absent from several.

Most critics of The Hundred warn of a great divide between the 8 counties with a pop-up franchise cuckoo and the 10 counties that don’t; the 8 will get stronger, richer and more powerful attracting the best players, whereas the 10 will lose influence, their better players moving away and counties eventually withering and join the minor “National Counties”, but I see a more immediate threat to Nottinghamshire’s identity.

If you go to @TrentBridge and all you see is Trent Rockets, what becomes of Nottinghamshire CCC? It’s happening online now but next August if you visit Trent Bridge in the physical world, you won’t see Notts Outlaws or Nottinghamshire CCC playing either, it will be Trent Rockets again.

Is the identity of our club under attack, from marketers in house and at the ECB, it certain looks like it? How long will take before the cuckoo hatchling does what all cuckoo hatchlings are genetically programmed to do and kick out the original resident of the nest, permanently?

Dear @TrentBridge can we have a @NottsCCC or similar please and definitely a @TrentRockets so we can choose to follow or not.

Save Our County

#OpposeThe100

Harry