Michael Atherton in the Times

 

Downtrodden county diehards deserve to have their voices heard

Forgotten fans are plotting a grassroots revolt against the Strauss review, which they say threatens the first-class game

Michael Atherton writing for The Times

A first-class county cricket club invites applications from persons with first-class cricket experience for the position of Captain of the County XI. The position will carry a salary in accordance with experience and an allowance to cover expenses — Write Box J.961, The Times E.C.4.” The Times 1964

It was almost 60 years ago that Lancashire County Cricket Club placed an advertisement in this newspaper’s personal column for a captain to lead them out of the doldrums. “We are exploring every avenue in the hope of unearthing a good captain and I do not think we can be criticised for advertising,” the then chairman, TE Burrows, said. “Something good may come out of it.”

Sadly, The Times failed to unearth a Lancastrian Mike Brearley and Burrows was not long for high office. He and the rest of the out-of-touch committee were overthrown by a young thruster called Cedric Rhodes via a special general meeting. “It was Lancashire’s lowest point in their history,” said the club’s historian, Reverend Malcolm Lorimer, the darkest hour coming before a dawn led by the great fast bowler, Brian Statham.

Next Wednesday, Lancashire will hold their first special general meeting since that point in the mid-1960s, although the nature of the debate will be focused around the future of English cricket as much as the specifics relating to the county, who have just completed a strong season. Indeed, all around the shires a small revolt has been growing among county membership in the face of the potential reforms pushed by Sir Andrew Strauss and his high-performance review.

As well as at Lancashire, extraordinary general meetings (EGMs) have been called at Yorkshire and Nottinghamshire. Enough signatures from members for EGMs have been gathered at Somerset, Glamorgan, Warwickshire, Gloucestershire and Surrey — although they have yet to be served on their respective clubs. Each of these clubs may have their own particular issues, although it is the possible future direction of the game that has given members a cause around which to coalesce.

Through the Cricket Supporters’ Association, via petitions and online newsletters, resistance is forming. Alan Higham, a seasoned supporter of county cricket and the national team home and away, is attempting to coordinate efforts of members across the counties so that their voice is stronger together. He describes it as a bottom-up, grassroots campaign to save first-class county cricket.

Higham is a Lancastrian who is a member of the Red Rose county as well as Surrey and Hampshire. He is well known to those of us in the press box who tour with the England team in the winter, and he reckons he might have visited close to 50 Test grounds over the years he has supported the England team. Like many, Higham is someone who has put his money where his mouth is, and thus deserves to be heard.

It was more than a decade ago that I first wrote about Higham’s determination to have the voice of the paying supporter heard, after he sent me a long email about the spectator experience at Test cricket in England. The gripe then was not existential but everyday complaints of which most paying spectators will be well aware: high ticket prices; the cost of food and beverages; slow over rates; a lack of information on the giant screen (this was when DRS was taken to television screens but not relayed live at the ground) and a general lack of respect from ground authorities.

More recently, though, those dissatisfactions have hardened, as first-class cricket has diminished and been pushed to the margins of the season, so that supporters are often forced to sit through the longest days in the coldest weather. “Cricket fans feel downtrodden by the authorities,” he said on the Oborne and Heller podcast last week (his hour-long discussion is well worth a listen), to the extent that “people have almost given up.” They have not forgotten that the County Championship was diminished in 2017, only for a fourth format to be introduced shortly afterwards.

The present pushback is based around two existential fears. The first is for first-class cricket, which has gradually been reduced in volume and will be reduced further to ten County Championship matches and thirteen first-class games in all — if festival matches in August are included — should the high-performance review be voted through. Squeezed increasingly by limited-overs formats, this is a hill on which this group of supporters will make its final stand.

The second fear is around the control, ownership and identity of elite cricket in this country. For right or wrong, many of these members fear that the high-performance review proposals would be the thin end of the wedge for the traditional 18-county structure. They worry that reforms, with a six-team first division, would inevitably lead to a reduction in the number of competitive counties; that those below the top tier would drift into irrelevance.

Furthermore, should the Hundred franchises be sold to private investment in due course, what would the future of county cricket be then? Would a club like Lancashire survive or be consumed by the Manchester Originals? Could the profit motive of privately owned franchises live happily alongside those member clubs that act not as co-operatives but with their social and community purpose?

These are the arguments presently swirling and which will dominate the autumn months. Of course, strength in numbers is not what it used to be across the county game, with membership across the board having declined from about 70,000 to 46,000 since 2005. And, because of that, it would be hard to argue that they are representative of the cricket-loving public at large, especially those who enjoy the limited-overs formats. Nevertheless, they have been loyal supporters, who have been with the game through thick and thin. The game should never be afraid of diversity of opinion.

While Strauss needs 12 of the 18 counties to vote for his reforms, all but three counties are member-owned and therein lies the nub: although county membership has fallen significantly at every county bar Surrey since 2005, those that remain are more than likely to be those who love first-class cricket above all. The cry goes out for a miracle worker to try to bring it all together and find a peaceful path forward. Maybe the ECB should advertise a position in The Times.