House of Commons ECB v County Cricket Supporters

Written evidence submitted by Oppose The Hundred

HOUSE OF COMMONS DIGITAL, CULTURE, MEDIA AND SPORT COMMITTEE

Inquiry on Capitalising on the success of English cricket

Meeting with Colin Graves, Chairman, England and Wales Cricket Board and Tom Harrison, Chief Executive Officer, England and Wales Cricket Board

23 October 2019

Briefing note by Oppose the Hundred[1]

                                                       

SUMMARY

•     Oppose The Hundred welcomes the opportunity to submit written evidence to the House of Commons Digital, Culture, Media and Sport select committee and believes that the appearance of Mr Graves and Mr Harrison on 23 October provides the committee with a very rare chance to question them publicly on their highly controversial plans for a new form of cricket to be introduced in the summer of 2020. 
•     Cricket has been played throughout the country for more than 200 years and has evolved into a number of different formats. The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) has an important role in developing the game but also safeguarding its traditions. In many ways, it has discharged its responsibilities very effectively, for example, in its support of the grass-roots game.  
•     However, the introduction of The Hundred – a new format of limited overs cricket played by newly created teams – is a fundamental, and potentially damaging, change to one of the country’s greatest national sports and an important part of British culture.
•     The Hundred is an unnecessary fourth format of a game, which no other cricket-playing country will play. It is being introduced at a time when T20 Blast cricket - the most recently introduced format - is generating increased interest, and filling grounds. The 2019 season was a record breaking one for the T20 Blast competition across the country.
•     Concept development and implementation of The Hundred has (deliberately) disregarded existing followers of the game and the traditions of cricket in claiming to seek new audiences to safeguard the future of the game.
•    The new competition will only be played in seven cities and therefore is widely seen as likely to damage interest in existing important centres of the game away from these cities, such as Kent, Durham and Somerset.
•     The deliberate downgrading of the domestic 50 over competition in 2020, less than a year after England won the 50 over World Cup, and the undermining of the domestic T20 competition at a time when it appears more popular than ever, seem likely to damage interest in cricket, rather than increase it.
•     The ECB has presented no evidence to justify the need for a major change to the structure of the game, which has been developed in a climate of secrecy and suspicion.
•     There has been almost no external challenge or scrutiny of developments, despite the implications for a major national sport. In part, this is because of the lack of genuine consultation, the drip-feed of information about future arrangements, and a desire to avoid criticism, but also because the existing county clubs are financially dependent on the ECB.
•     There is widespread opposition to The Hundred from lovers of cricket, based on genuine fears for the future of the game. The opposition is from people who fully accept that the game must continue to evolve, but do not consider that this ill-thought through and ill-conceived format is the answer to the challenges that the game faces.

MAIN BRIEF FROM OPPOSE THE HUNDRED

The current cricket landscape

The game of cricket has developed as a commercial sport over the last 200 years and in that time has constantly adapted to meet the expectations of its players and spectators. Those running the game have made a number of major changes as the game’s appeal has waned, most recently in the 1960s, with the introduction of one-day cricket (40,50,55,60 overs a side versions at different times), and in the early 2000s, with the introduction of an even shorter game (20 overs a side - T20), which is often played in the evening. This latter format has now grown into a highly successful form of the game world-wide. The World Cup for the 50 over format has just been held with huge success in the United Kingdom, and was won in dramatic fashion by England. In 2017, the England’s women’s side also won their World Cup (50 overs).

Despite these developments, the longer form of the game maintains a significant place in the game, with Test cricket (over 5 days) still seen by many followers of the game and professional cricketers as the ultimate challenge. Traditionally, Test cricketers have been drawn from the ranks of county cricketers, who gain suitable experience by participating in 4-day county cricket, organised in the UK in the County Championship. Although these matches are rarely well attended (because they mostly take place during the working week), they continue to produce players with the skills necessary for the continuance of Test cricket.

The best players in the world are generally accomplished in all formats of the game (for example, Joe Root of England, Virat Kohli of India and Kane Williamson of New Zealand), although the skills required are different. To date, the formats of the game have been run in parallel – with the same clubs (in the UK representing counties) competing in each form of the game. The shorter formats have clearly influenced the longer forms in recent years; for example, the standard of fielding and the style of batting in Test cricket has changed considerably in recent years, influenced by exciting developments in one-day cricket). The extent to which the more aggressive form of the game (T20 Blast) is influencing test cricket was seen most dramatically in the recent Leeds Test match, with the English victory over Australia secured by the English cricketer Ben Stokes with a style of batting rarely seen in Test cricket in the past.

Cricket has always struggled to be financially viable. Its popularity has been maintained since the 19th century, but has fluctuated over time. Most recently, it is widely accepted that the decision by the ECB in 2005 to sell to Sky the exclusive television rights to live international cricket has had a very damaging effect on the visibility of the game in this country. The long-term decline in the game in state schools has also limited the game’s exposure and levels of participation. As a result, local clubs in many parts of the country have closed or struggle to attract new members.

Nevertheless, cricket is followed by many millions of people, often via the press and the internet during the working week. The Men’s World Cup final win in July 2019 and the drama of the Leeds Test win against Australia in August 2019 have shown the excitement and attention that the game can still attract, with front page headlines in late August.

T20 Blast county matches have generated huge interest in recent years, with Lord’s and The Oval in London filled for county games, something which has rarely happened since the 1940s. The attendance at the Middlesex v Surrey match in August 2019 was 27,773, a record. In September 2019, the BBC reported that T20 Blast ticket sales in the season just finished were at record levels, with nearly 950,000 people attending the 133 matches involving the 18 county sides. The average attendance for T20 Blast group matches rose 15% in 2019 and was up 47% in five years. Surrey County Cricket Club has just had its most successful T20 season ever (attracting an average of 23,000 people per game), July 2019 was its strongest ever month for sales, and gates were up 12% on 2018. Lancashire County Cricket Club broke its record for a match against a side other than rivals Yorkshire, and had a 34% increase in sales on the previous year. Somerset County Cricket Club’s T20 matches were sold out, as were six of the seven hosted by Sussex County Cricket Club.

Introduction of The Hundred in 2020

As well as first-class cricket (played since the second half of the 19th century), limited over cricket (50 overs a side) and T20 cricket (20 overs a side), the ECB is now introducing a totally new form of the game (The Hundred) to English cricket (for both men and women) for the 2020 season. This format will, as the name suggests, consist of matches between two sides with innings of 100 balls each. This combines elements of the short-form T20 format with innovations designed to speed the game up even more. The purpose of this is to keep the game to a length which can be guaranteed to fit within TV schedules. The idea was first proposed in 2016 but details of how the game will be played, what teams will compete and what they will be called, and who will play for and manage the sides have been released slowly. Allocation of players to sides through an American-style ‘draft’ will take place on 20 October 2019 and the competition will start in the middle of the summer of 2020.

The main arguments in favour of The Hundred have been that it is ‘a fresh and exciting idea’ which will appeal to young people and attract new audiences, including those who currently have little or no interest in cricket; that the English T20 competition has not proved sufficiently successful (compared to the competitions in India and Australia) and therefore needs to be refreshed; and that a competition with simpler rules is needed to protect the future of cricket.

From the earliest announcement of the proposal, there has been strong opposition from many quarters, ranging from scepticism as to whether a new format is needed, to fear for the consequences for cricket as a serious sport. Criticisms of The Hundred include:

•     The manner in which the new format has been developed and the limited information shared. This has been characterised by being a slow drip feed of details, considerable secrecy, and several about-turns, suggesting a lack of confidence in proposals or a testing out of responses.
•     The failure of the ECB to provide any evidence that there is a demand for a further format, apart from TV companies (who may be fickle customers if it proves less successful than hoped). It is therefore unclear why the ECB thinks there is an untapped audience who will find the new format so much more compelling than T20 Blast cricket.   
•    The disregard for regional centres away from major cities where the game is hugely popular and a distinctive part of the local identity. For example, the team linked to Somerset will be based in Cardiff, and followers of cricket in Kent will presumably be expected to support one of the two London-based sides or the Southampton-based side. It is difficult to see why many people would build up an affinity for teams so far from their homes, or would be willing to travel long distances for a deliberately short form of the game.  
•     The complete disregard for many existing followers of the game. The ECB has stated it is quite deliberately seeking a new audience and has dismissed opposition as coming from those who it is not seeking to attract anyway. It is hard to think of any other sport whose governing body has treated its most avid followers so contemptuously. It is not an exaggeration to say that many lovers of cricket feel completely alienated by these developments, and see the manner in which change is being introduced by stealth as representing an existential threat to the game. 
•    The disregard for the impact of the new format on existing forms of the game – including relegating first class county cricket even further to the margins of the season (April and September, making it more vulnerable to the weather (as it proved this September), and debasing the current 50 over competition by ensuring that most of the country’s top players will not be involved from 2020. David Gower, former England captain and long-time cricket commentator, recently described the timetabling of the English game as ‘a complete mess’, and the new competition will only add to this.
•     The impact on the women’s game, which has grown enormously in popularity in recent years. There is widespread concern about the replacement of the highly successful Women’s Super League with the Women’s Hundred competition, and considerable uncertainty about the consequences for players and the health of the game just as it had become more visible.
•     The likely impact of the new format in narrowing the skills base amongst players and making the game very formulaic (as happened with limited over cricket in the 1980s). Many followers of cricket fear The Hundred will very quickly damage further the longer form formats of cricket, which will lose a lot of the nuance which gives them appeal. There are already signs that many contemporary cricketers, who are successful in the one-day formats, do not have the skills for longer form cricket, for example, being unable to sustain a longer innings. There is also a visible lack of high-quality spin bowlers in the game.

Scrutiny and transparency

Much of the criticism of the ECB’s approach to introducing The Hundred has related to the lack of real consultation and the inability of the existing county clubs to express any real challenge to the proposals. In part, this is because they are financially dependent on the ECB and have therefore not been able or willing to comment publicly. An exception has been Surrey County Cricket Club (which has 13,000 members) which has consistently voiced concerns about The Hundred, including the playing conditions and the forecasts of audience figures. There have been reports that this opposition has not gone down well with the ECB.

As a result, the ECB has not been held accountable for developments in any meaningful way over its plans. Despite being the custodian of the game of cricket, it appears to be willing to sacrifice longstanding aspects of the game’s appeal, and many of its existing supporters, for what may be short-term financial gain. In the past, cricket administrators have been criticised for being amateurish and financially naïve. However, they were generally seen to have had the interests of the game at heart. It is unclear whether the current professional administrators and marketing executives within ECB have the same commitment to the game. The evidence is that they do not see themselves as guardians of the traditions of the sport and, as a result, they have different agendas to those who watch the game.

Lines of questioning

Against this background, we consider there is a very pressing need for the ECB to answer some very basic questions about The Hundred and its possible consequences for the future of cricket in the United Kingdom. We have set out a few questions below which the committee may wish to use.

•     How will introduction of a completely new and untried format help build on the interest in cricket generated by the well-established 50 over World Cup win?
•     How will The Hundred help generate the kind of players who have just won the men’s 50 over World Cup and only recently been the top Test cricket playing country?
•     How much money have you invested in The Hundred to date, and how much more will you be spending to launch the competition?
•     What will the success of The Hundred look like? And over what time frame?
•     How long have you given yourself for The Hundred to be a success? What will you do if it proves less successful than you were expecting?
•     What will be the financial impact of The Hundred on cricket as a whole, if is not as successful as you expect?
•     What evidence do you have of the existence of a new and receptive audience? If it does exist, how will you seek to maintain it?
•     Why have you been so unwilling to publish the research that you have carried out which presumably justifies such a radical new format for cricket?
•     What assessment have you made of the potential impact of The Hundred on existing forms of cricket in terms of skills?
•     What is your vision for the first-class county game and Test cricket in the future? How does the introduction of The Hundred feed into that?
•     Do you see a long-term future for the existing country cricket clubs and the County Championship?
•     Why are you downgrading the current 50 over domestic competition just a year after England became the World Champions in this form of the game?
•     Why could you not have invested the same amount of money as you are putting into The Hundred to make the T20 competition even more attractive?
•     What does your financial model for The Hundred depend upon? TV revenue? Numbers of people attending? Refreshment sales?
•    Why do you think there is so much opposition to The Hundred amongst those who are long time followers of cricket and amongst many well-informed commentators on the game? 
•     What efforts have you made to involve existing followers of the game in the development of The Hundred?
•     Do you consider many existing followers of cricket to be obstacles to your future vision for the game?