Players who we may lose to the hundred

[jwb]

Perhaps we could encourage a guest poster of the day section to accommodate them

[bwildered]

The 16.4 competition will need the Counties more than ever for a regular supply chain of 96 .

[smandlej]

I don't get it.
On this page alone, four separate comments from four regular contributors on here, namely Andy, bobw, Pablo and IlfordEagle; all making complete sense in their excellent contributions, yet I have not heard one player, ex-player or pundit ( with the possible exception of Agnew) who has said a word against the 16.4.
So what is it, are they lying through their back teeth when praising the great God "100", or are we all genuinely missing something obvious about how it will become the best thing since sliced bread?

It's The Emperor's New Clothes effect, common these days.

Lynda

[SirChef26]

Would like to get this off my chest regarding the County game and the Hundred. It will probably contain a bit of devils advocate so apologies for what is probably gonna turn into an essay.

Bob is right, despite the rise of video games and the ability as a child to now make a living from playing video games (remember that kid from Essex winning half a million quid or whatever it was for playing Fortnite) this tournament will be a success I have no doubt. The power of the ECB's money, Sky, BBC and the sponsors such as KP snacks will not allow this tournament to fail even if it means getting half the crowd in on freebies for the first couple of years. You can guarantee that every school and cricket club in Essex will have access to free tickets for the Women's Hundred at Chelmsford and Sky/BBC will cream themselves when a good crowd then shows up and try to peddle the agenda that no one cares about their counties like they do the Hundred and it's all about the new show in town. The big names will attract people to the grounds and the office workers that plague the London grounds like locusts will ensure sell outs in all of their games.

I'm a believer in our current county game without a doubt. However I can understand why the ECB would want to see the back of the likes of Derbyshire, Northants and Leicestershire. They give each of these counties a fee of well over seven figures every year and none of them have produced an England player for years. They take money but give nothing back to the ECB, they get very small crowds and apart from providing healthy competition, are simply existing for the sake of it.

I don't believe the ECB would lump Essex in with these counties, our crowds stand up very strong for 4 day and 50 over Cricket. We sell out every T20 game and will do so again next year as people will naturally want to come and watch "the champions". We've produced top England players (and now coaches) in the modern era and are now consistently challenging for major honours in the domestic game. The massive noose around our neck which until fixed will always cast a huge doubt on our county status should the ECB go through with an 8-10 county cull in the next 5-10 years is the County Ground. I firmly blame the board for this. They fu**ed up the original ground development plans and still haven't made proper progress on any new development that will see our ground become fit for high level Cricket and a capacity fit for a club of our true size that currently sells out many games. I'm convinced we would sell out a 10-12k capacity stadium for T20 matches if Chelmsford could be expanded as appropriate. But I feel like the board doesn't have faith in our support which angers me. They don't realise how well placed our ground is. As someone who doesn't live in Chelmsford and travels in from London should I ever attend a game, trust me the ground is one of the best located in the country and so easy to get to, it's no coincidence our crowds hold up so well.

Then you have the Olympic Stadium shambles which again falls on the board. I've said it before and will say it again, using the OS for T20 Cricket was a truly golden opportunity to grow Essex CCC in a way that we could never dream of previously. To get well over 30k people in (a record for T20 in this country watching an Essex match (yes we would have sold that many I'm sure) and the opportunity to hook those new viewers to our club was a chance we'll never get again. It would have also forced the ECB once and for all to treat us a major county and not even considering putting us out to pasture in the future. They may have even offered us a franchise in the next 2-3 years! I don't want to hear any excuses regarding drop in pitch issues and problems with the diameter of the pitch etc etc. We've heard it all before and I don't buy it. West Ham and the council were more than accommodating and if we really wanted to do it, we would have found a way to make it work, just like MLB did with the baseball, even if it meant 250 played 250 in a T20 due to the smallest boundaries cricket has even seen. Sure we might have lost money hosting the event (on the other hand we may have turned a profit), but it would have been worth it for the new fans we would have gained that long term may have bought memberships, merchandise and become proper Essex fans who travel to Chelmsford for all forms of Cricket.

If the board want to ensure that Essex CCC still plays major domestic cricket in 5-10 years time they must bring Chelmsford up to standard in both facilities and capacity, no ifs or buts! As supporters our job is simple, all we have to do is stick together and continue attending Essex games as much as we can. T20 matches are a given for good sales but next year especially, we need to make an effort to attend our 50 over matches and show the ECB where our loyalties lie. Do not attend any Hundred games and give the ECB a reason to slit our throats in the future.

Should the very unlikely event occur that the Hundred falls on it's face and gets canned in the next few years, we'll survive. As the chairman is at pains to remind us, we are debt free and as fans we will continue to line the coffers by turning up to our home games in all formats of cricket. Sure we'll have to cut costs and slash the wage bill to make up for the shortfall in ECB revenue and unfortunately it will certainly mean the demise of a few counties solely reliant on the ECB handouts. But I'm an Essex fan and it's our future I care about. We will come through it together!

Sorry for such a long winded post, but I wanted to get it off my chest. I'm extremely worried about the Hundred cutting our major domestic competition life expectancy and it frustrates me that it doesn't seem like the board (who voted for this monstrosity) are singing from the same hymn sheet as our support. Simon Harmer said it best, we are not a small club and it's time the board acted like it.

[nat]

Sorry but you (and others) are wrong about the likes of Leics, Derbys and Northants. Many recent English cricketers have come through their ranks...and then moved on. This season each of these counties had several sellouts for their T20 fixtures. If the ECB stopped mucking about with the fixture list/league structures then the likes of these counties would have the chance to be more competitive. Remember that Northants got promotion from Div 2 of the CC.

[Slogger]

As an aside, one of my work contacts is very well connected with the business world in Leicester. He told me last week he'd been speaking to people involved at Leicestershire who told him they are in a parlous financial state. He contrasted that to the very well supported rugby union club (which he knows very well) and the football club. Apparently the cricket club doesn't connect with the Asian community and "gets very low crowds".

[squarelegumpire]

As an aside, one of my work contacts is very well connected with the business world in Leicester. He told me last week he'd been speaking to people involved at Leicestershire who told him they are in a parlous financial state. He contrasted that to the very well supported rugby union club (which he knows very well) and the football club. Apparently the cricket club doesn't connect with the Asian community and "gets very low crowds".

Underlines the desirability of encouraging participation in East London. I often wonder why there are not more Asian spectators in the Tom Pearce. They'd be very welcome.

[Postman]

As an aside, one of my work contacts is very well connected with the business world in Leicester. He told me last week he'd been speaking to people involved at Leicestershire who told him they are in a parlous financial state. He contrasted that to the very well supported rugby union club (which he knows very well) and the football club. Apparently the cricket club doesn't connect with the Asian community and "gets very low crowds".

I spent a very enjoyable day at Grace Road recently when they were playing Northants in the CC. By their standards it wasn't a bad crowd (it was a nice day, a local derby and Northants were in the running for promotion). But what most struck me was the presence of a squad of young Indian cricketers from Kolkote who were over here for some kind of international student tournament. They spent the morning in the indoor nets and mostly sat near me after lunch to watch the match. All the locals around me chatted to them and told them a bit about how county cricket works, the format of the CC etc-and one man even said "of course we [Leics] are the worst of the lot!"-but it was a genuinely good conversation. There didn't seem to me to be any lack of goodwill towards the Asian community and Leics have had plenty of Anglo-Asian players in their squads-eg Hassan Azad their opener who came second only to Sibley last season for total CC runs, plus their ex CEO Wasim Khan who is now running Pakistan cricket. My impression is that you don't find the Asian community in large numbers anywhere watching county cricket,  but more and more youngsters are coming through on the playing side, which is as it should be.

[Valentines Park]

I spent a very enjoyable day at Grace Road recently

I've always enjoyed my trips there.

If you ask me they contribute more to cricket than those parasites Notts.

[mawallace]

Then you have the Olympic Stadium shambles which again falls on the board. I've said it before and will say it again, using the OS for T20 Cricket was a truly golden opportunity to grow Essex CCC in a way that we could never dream of previously. To get well over 30k people in (a record for T20 in this country watching an Essex match (yes we would have sold that many I'm sure) and the opportunity to hook those new viewers to our club was a chance we'll never get again. It would have also forced the ECB once and for all to treat us a major county and not even considering putting us out to pasture in the future. They may have even offered us a franchise in the next 2-3 years! I don't want to hear any excuses regarding drop in pitch issues and problems with the diameter of the pitch etc etc. We've heard it all before and I don't buy it. West Ham and the council were more than accommodating and if we really wanted to do it, we would have found a way to make it work, just like MLB did with the baseball, even if it meant 250 played 250 in a T20 due to the smallest boundaries cricket has even seen. Sure we might have lost money hosting the event (on the other hand we may have turned a profit), but it would have been worth it for the new fans we would have gained that long term may have bought memberships, merchandise and become proper Essex fans who travel to Chelmsford for all forms of Cricket.

They could not make it pay for the Cricket World Cup due to a number of issues. I understand that the ICC and ECB wanted to use the stadium but could not as it would cost too much. If it would cost too much for the ECB then it would be too much for Essex as we would only be using for a smaller number of games.

https://www.independent.co.uk/sport/cricket/london-stadium-cricket-world-cup-2019-venues-stadiums-jonathan-liew-column-a8326251.html says it all!

Plus - remember - next yet the T20 will be mid May to July - can't see that working well either.

[Valentines Park]

Nice article.

Particularly enjoyed the digs at West Ham. 

[pablo]

Nice to see that even the Government in the guise of the Chief Medical Officer is aghast at the 100's promotion of unhealthy foods and mentioned this openly on BBC news this morning. Only the ECB could not foresee the incongruity of shirt advertising that seems to undermine the whole concept of sport,health and athleticism.

[IlfordEagle]

If I was a Kent fan, which thankfully I'm not, I'd feel as if Oval Invincibles is Surrey under another name what with the colours being very close to those of Surrey plus the 3 top picks all being Surrey players.

[Andy]

If I was a Kent fan, which thankfully I'm not, I'd feel as if Oval Invincibles is Surrey under another name what with the colours being very close to those of Surrey plus the 3 top picks all being Surrey players.

Oi! No bad language on here - it's K*nt.

[mawallace]

From Espncric info

English players have been conservative in their salary demands ahead of Sunday's inaugural draft for The Hundred, with only 19 of the 330 domestic players choosing to put down a reserve price.


While many of the big overseas names in the draft have opted for a base price of £100,000 or more, meaning they will have to be picked in the first four rounds if at all, only four English players - Joe Denly, Liam Livingstone, Samit Patel and Mark Wood - have dared to enter with a reserve price as high as £60,000.

Seven players - Ian Bell, Sam Billings, Morne Morkel, Liam Plunkett, Delray Rawlins, Olly Stone and Ryan ten Doeschate - have entered with a reserve price of £50,000.

Eight more - Kyle Abbott, Daniel Bell-Drummond, Gareth Harte, Richard Levi, Wayne Madsen, Hamidullah Qadri, Rilee Rossouw and Hardus Viljoen - have a reserve price of £40,000, while the rest have none, meaning they could go for as little as £30,000.


The vast majority of players with a county deal have put their names forward, meaning there are few notable omissions - though some red-ball specialists like Alastair Cook, Rob Yates and Nick Browne have not entered.

Those without a base price that can hope to be picked up relatively early in the draft include Ravi Bopara, Liam Dawson, Cameron Delport, Lewis Gregory, Tymal Mills and Reece Topley, while the overwhelming majority of recent stars in the T20 Blast are on the full list.