Update

[squarelegumpire]

So apparently all eighteen counties have signed media rights deeds to enable the ECB to include the new T20 competition in the next media rights negotiations.

So Essex have sold out their membership and the wider cricket watching public.

Turkeys voting for Christmas.

We may find out tonight at the AGM.

If the next round of media rights negotiations includes a decent amount of free-to-view coverage of ‘proper cricket' I shall be very happy.

[nat]

So apparently all eighteen counties have signed media rights deeds to enable the ECB to include the new T20 competition in the next media rights negotiations.

So Essex have sold out their membership and the wider cricket watching public.

Turkeys voting for Christmas.

...
If the next round of media rights negotiations includes a decent amount of free-to-view coverage of ‘proper cricket' I shall be very happy.

Dream on.

[firehazard]

Down with this sort of thing.

[Andy]

Down with this sort of thing.

Careful now.

[firehazard]

The Chair was on BBC Look East yesterday, and said that he wants to get the views of members about all this. He said that there would be a members' forum one evening, and (possibly) also one at lunchtime during the Lancashire match.

[jimmy]

The Chair was on BBC Look East yesterday, and said that he wants to get the views of members about all this. He said that there would be a members' forum one evening, and (possibly) also one at lunchtime during the Lancashire match.

Isn't it a fait accompli. If people don't like it they will say, "we take your views on board and will take them into account along with the other stake holders".

[squarelegumpire]

The Chair was on BBC Look East yesterday, and said that he wants to get the views of members about all this. He said that there would be a members' forum one evening, and (possibly) also one at lunchtime during the Lancashire match.

Isn't it a fait accompli. If people don't like it they will say, "we take your views on board and will take them into account along with the other stake holders".

The Chair made it clear that he and our Committee were not happy about the plan. When asked whether Atherton, who wrote in the Times that everyone was in favour, was right or wrong, our Chair saod that Atherton didn’t speak for everyone.

Having said that, I think the ECB are hell-bent on doing this, as the see it as a massive cash-cow and a means of making cricket more widely watched. It must have escaped their attention that ‘minority’ sports which were featured in the TV  London and Rio Olympics are getting more participants, whereas those which are which are only on Pay TV are not!

[mawallace]

If nothing else Essex are getting mentioned a lot in the press re the new formats. Even the Sun!

https://www.thesun.co.uk/sport/3201130/essex-twenty20-ecb/

Did John really say he would take the member's views into account at the AGM? i thought that was Thursday's meeting was about!

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/cricket/article-4358344/Elitist-Twenty20-ruin-says-Essex-chairman.html

[nat]

The ECB - they know the price of everything and the value of nothing.

[Andy]

The ECB - they know the price of everything and the value of nothing.

No, they don't actually know the price, they make it up.

[IlfordEagle]

Well that's it then the wonderful ECB has sold the Counties down the river, buying them off with the promise of £1.3m pa each until 2021, what happens after that?
I reckon more & more players will specialise in T20 in future bearing in mind the riches on offer, let's hope some of them go to the existing County T20 but I doubt it!!
TBH I really cannot see that many current T20 fans & certainly not fans of the longer game following Franchises - I certainly won't!!
I wonder what price structure there will be for match tickets as they must be cheap enough to attract fans but dear enough to make a profit, nothing has been said as yet!

[squarelegumpire]

If nothing else Essex are getting mentioned a lot in the press re the new formats. Even the Sun!

https://www.thesun.co.uk/sport/3201130/essex-twenty20-ecb/

Did John really say he would take the member's views into account at the AGM? i thought that was Thursday's meeting was about!

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/cricket/article-4358344/Elitist-Twenty20-ruin-says-Essex-chairman.html

There wasn't a lot of discussion at the AGM; it was made clear that the meetings on 28th and 6th will be important. However I didn't get the impression that the Chairman had a divided meeting.

[tonk]

Less can be more-I dont watch all the IPL games and did not watch all the Big Bash -you can have too much of a good thing -think the only ones that will make out of it will be the 20/20 "specialists".

[Valentines Park]

Murdoch's attempts to introduce Rugby League franchises failed, for example.

In this country.

It worked to an extent in Australia & the Big Bash is the template the ECB are obviously cribbing.

[nat]

I had to laugh when one of the proponents of the city-based T20 said that the £1.3m per year the counties would receive would allow them to develop the game in their locality.

I know where the £1.3m will be going and it won't be for the wider benefit of the game.