Part-time Chairman

New EWCB chair to work three days a week for £UK150,000.
Elizabeth Ammon.

The Times.

Friday, 28 February 2020.

PTG 3040-15052.

The England and Wales Cricket Board (EWCB) has appointed the former England Football Association (FA) chief executive Ian Watmore to succeed Colin Graves as chairman.  The 61-year-old will officially take up the post in November in a part-time capacity of three days a week on a salary of £UK150,000 ($A295,725). Watmore’s appointment is for one five-year term and he will spend the coming northern summer “shadowing” Graves, whose own tenure was extended by five months so that he could oversee the launch of The Hundred.

Watmore is expected to prove a popular appointment, especially among the first-class counties, as he has a reputation for taking a collaborative approach. High on his to-do list will be to repair the damaged relationship the EWCB has with the 18 counties. Richard Thompson, the Surrey chairman, said that the counties had never felt more distant from the governing body.

Watmore is likely to be less hands-on than Graves but will use his role as head of the board of directors to hold senior staff, such as Tom Harrison, the chief executive, to account for his decisions.  It is unlikely, however, that he will make any radical changes to the domestic set-up and will support The Hundred, not least because so much money is tied up in it, although he has a remit to pull the plug on the tournament should it fail to meet its aims.

Other priorities will be to manage the brewing conflict with the International Cricket Council (ICC) over the future tours program. The EWCB, India and Cricket Australia are known to be unhappy about the ICC’s proposals to have a global T20 or 50-over event every year because that impacts on their own broadcast revenues (PTG 3032-15015, 19 February 2020).

Watmore started his career as a management consultant before moving into the civil service where he served as a permanent secretary.  In 2009 he succeeded Brian Barwick as chief executive of the FA and successfully managed the crisis caused by the collapse of Setanta by securing another broadcast deal. He resigned 18 months later, citing frustrations at being unable to get reforms through the FA council. He then returned to government as chief operating officer at the Cabinet Office and in 2016 became the first civil service commissioner.

How the life of a rookie county cricketer has changed.
Nick Hoult.

London Daily Telegraph.

Wednesday, 26 February 2020.

PTG 3039-15048.

The next intake of young county cricketers were given a simple message on Monday by Paul Farbrace, the former England assistant coach, as they start out on their careers.  “There has never been a better time to be a professional cricketer”, he told a room full of the brightest young talent in English cricket at the annual rookie camp run by the UK Professional Cricketers’ Association (PCA).

A total of 52 young professionals - 50 men and two women - spent a day attending five seminars at Edgbaston led by Farbrace, England players Rory Burns and Saqib Mahmood, along with practical advice on gambling addiction and how to stay the right side of the law when using social media.   This year’s rookies are the first to be employed on minimum wage contracts agreed last year between the PCA and the counties. County cricketers over the age of 21 will now be guaranteed a minimum wage of £UK27,500 ($A54,310).

The minimum wage was brought in after the PCA discovered two years ago examples of young cricketers being paid as low as £UK4,000 ($A7,900) for six month summer contracts while playing first team county cricket (PTG 2446-12362, 5 May 2018). Now in addition to the £UK27,500 minimum wage, rookie contracts for 18-21 year-olds will be worth a minimum salary of £UK18,000 ($A35,550). There is also a guarantee they will be promoted to the full contract of £27,500 if they play a certain number of first team games decided on a point system (four for a championship match, two for a T20) adding up to 20 points.

It is a far cry from Farbrace’s day. He started on £UK2,300 ($A4,540) at Kent in 1986 rising to £UK11,000 ($A21,725) a decade later at Middlesex. During his playing career he made a living in the winter months combining coaching with picking celery on a farm, two years as a postman and two years as a customs officer at Dover before qualifying to be a teacher.

“I earned more in winter teaching than I did in the summer as a professional cricketer for Middlesex”, said Farbrace, now head of cricket at Warwickshire. “We had first and second team changing rooms. You called all the first teamers mister. It is completely different now.  Now it has moved on to such a level the players are well supported. Counties should not be able to take advantage of a young player. We expect higher standards of them when they play so why should they not expect high standards from us when it comes to looking after them".

“Most [counties] are going for smaller staffs and better paid which is the way to go. You don’t want players on your staff who have no chance of playing first team cricket. You want everyone to feel they have a genuine chance and not stuck in second team cricket. These contracts mean you will not sign players for the sake of it”.

Over the course of ten years, 300 county players have attended rookie camps. Of those, 17 have gone on to play for England but many drop out of the game and while the rookies at Edgbaston yesterday are at the start of what could be great careers, they were advised to start planning for their post playing days. Part of the new rookie contracts includes provisions for players to attend personal development courses such as work placements, lessons on how to set up a business, how to write a CV or complete university education to help the transition out of the game.

The PCA will also now have access to every professional contract enabling them to build a database of average salaries and data to help negotiate future deals. 

Cricket has done a lot of work in the field of mental health and although it was not discussed on Tuesday, the PCA is now working closely with the Sporting Chance charity and is increasing its number of personal development officers, local points of contact for players looking for advice, from six to nine. The PCA was contacted by 85 members last year with mental health issues, which included 40 current professionals - both men and women - which represents just under ten per cent of the entire playing staff of the 18 counties (PTG 3033-15021, 20 February 2020).

“Life is different, the pressures are different and people are more willing to come forward now”, said Ian Thomas, the PCA’s director of development and welfare. “We have done a lot of work on taking the stigma away from mental health. We need to keep encouraging them to come forward. Our mental health care is a tough challenge for our charity [the Professional Cricketers' Trust] because the cost of the treatment is not cheap but we know how important it is".

“The rookie camp is about planting a seed. They might learn something today that might not resonate with them straight away but they might remember in three years time something that was spoken about today. There is practical stuff around understanding your contract, gambling awareness, anti-corruption and the law but it is about striking a balance. It’s about trying to inspire them but also make them aware of their responsibilities and pitfalls”.

Mahmood spoke about handling social media as a current England player and the standards expected at the top level around fitness and training, while Burns talked about persistence and waiting for your chance having spent years on the county circuit before his England debut in 2018.