High time for a newsletter.
While you wait, here's my favourite band of the moment with one of their finest earworms
11.03.2026 18:01
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High time for a newsletter.
While you wait, here's my favourite band of the moment with one of their finest earworms
If 250 is the new 200 in T20s then the laws need to be tweaked to rebalance bat and ball.
Been done numerous times and is one of cricket’s great strengths. (NFL do it a lot to engineer interest and reset dominance)
Because this whack, whack, whack ain’t for me.
"Siri, find the change most likely to make me completely wash my hands of England international cricket"
Me too
Delay, deflect, defend and then 'roll the pitch' with briefing. Just the same old 💩 from the English cricket leadership.
Let me know when Key is gone and I'll re-engage with England*.
(*Ashes and WC excepted)
Fielding on the boundary at Chelmsford, down at (Daddy) Long Leg
.
.
.
I'll get my coat
Story in the Times ($) CA about selling off 49% of BBL teams but creating a window in a prime month to shut out red-ball cricket.
See you later, cricket 👋👋👋👋
Aside from divorce payment, little being done to grow non-host counties. In fact, opposite - H*ndred kills Aug, squeezes Blast.
ECB want domestic game less dependent on them. But that kills a few small teams. See quote, need more help
NB 3/4 of EFL footy sides lose money too
If counties must de-mutualise & have owners then most of us would take Rod B, given his fine job at Hants.
But he was always v rare in cricket & now overseas money has taken over sports. He sold to them, like ECB did
They don't need 18 counties. End of.
?
What a day of world affairs.
Longing for an afternoon of watery sunshine when the most worrysome issue is whether Essex can somehow squeak another batting point.
About a month away now
Maybe county cricket clubs need a few plumbers to be voted on to their boards
Lots to digest here. So many unintended consequences already starting to stack up and the owners have not even begun to really shape the event.
Sadly, this is on the money
🏏 NEW County Cricket newsletter. Pls share and enjoy
🟣 County cricket's K-shaped economy
🟡 Yorks, Leics ink overseas stars
🟢 Big-name Aussies sign up for Blast
🟠 H*ndred problems
🔵 Sussex financial strife
🔴 Demutualisation at Yorks this year?
A root cause of U.K. cricket’s problems.
And nothing serious and structural is being done about it.
You have to ask why?
Might sack this one off and start a #curling newsletter.
Who's subscribing?
🏏 NEW County Cricket newsletter. Pls share and enjoy
🟣 County cricket's K-shaped economy
🟡 Yorks, Leics ink overseas stars
🟢 Big-name Aussies sign up for Blast
🟠 H*ndred problems
🔵 Sussex financial strife
🔴 Demutualisation at Yorks this year?
🥱
PS Red-ball cricket is a slow sport
This wonderful, enthralling #curling final shows the power of a slow sport #TeamGB
As a whole this #WinterOlympics has been a refreshing change from our enforced diet of overhyped, overcommercialised sport
Some real moments of joy between athletes over each other's achievements
ECB not only sold English cricket’s integrity easily and cheaply.
They screwed the existing game, including a Blast with record-breaking ticket sales despite no FTA TV or much marketing to do it
Shameful
Graves is quoted here saying: “We’ve got the demutualisation to try & do, which is hopefully going to happen in the next 12 months”
But "75 per cent of the membership must vote for it from a minimum 50% turnout. There are 5,000-plus voting members"
$ Link
www.yorkshirepost.co...
Brilliant analysis of a clever stitch-up. Say goodbye to 18 first-class counties because nine of them will be very much second-class with no chance of mobility
Note espec the point on how the system is designed to move young talent at non-hosts to hosts
substack.com/home/po...
Those caveats: much bigger market and TV deals, closed league - no pro/rel, trophy assets therefore stupid valuations in US (a mid-ranked MLS team just went for 2x Newcastle's price)
Interesting comparison chart
If you sold ALL the H*ndred franchises at the valuations the ECB achieved, you would struggle to buy America's cheapest ice hockey team
And hockey is struggling
Lots of caveats but we keep being told cricket is the world's 2nd most popular sport 🤥
Excellent Swedish #curling.
Any news from the Sussex meeting last night?
Not a good atmosphere to understand the issues and work together for a good solution
Boards often feel like fiefdoms and jobs for the boys but no-one wants their county in crisis
I love the idea of membership but, alas, we
need a new system
No idea what though
Hasten to add: don’t know the characters or this situation in detail
But v typical and not good
But county members meetings can be v accusatory in these circumstances, looking for scapegoats
Haranguing volunteer boards and poorly paid staff.