SPIN talk to ECB Chief Executive David Collier

Is there too much T20? Will there still be 18 counties in ten years’ time? What went wrong with Stanford? The ECB’s chief executive gives a rare, full-length interview on the state of the English and world game, exclusively to SPIN.

Story: George Dobell

SPIN: How close did you come to playing first-class cricket? What were your own playing highs and lows? Was there a single moment you knew you would not make it as a player?

David Collier: I had played a few County 2^nd XI matches and represented England Universities, but in truth I was never quite good enough to play first-class cricket .

There were two highlights of which I have happy memories. One was taking six wickets – and four in five balls – including John Wright and Geoff Miller when I was playing for Loughborough University against Derbyshire’s 1^st XI. Another is taking 170 wickets in a season for my local club side in Leicestershire. Perhaps my greatest disappointment was losing in the semi-final of the Club knock out for Colchester at Gosport and therefore missing out on the Lord’s Final .

In those days of second XI cricket, overseas players were required to play a qualification period and at that time players such as Michael Holding , Paddy Clift and Wayne Daniel were regularly playing second XI cricket. You knew then there was a big gap to bridge to become a professional cricketer!

Why did you chose a career in cricket administration?

Playing second XI cricket and club cricket in Leicestershire during Mike Turner’s long and highly successful period in office at Grace Road taught me a great deal about the fact that, aside from a playing career, there were great opportunities in cricket management. Having been a student on the first Sports Science and Recreation Management undergraduate course at Loughborough, our group had the opportunity to mix with high quality athletes and future administrators in a range of sports.That course provided a wonderful background and the inspiration to make a career out of sports administration .

When you add to that a life long love of cricket from very early days attending the Scarborough Festival and being a regular attendee at county matches, then cricket administration was the dream job.

You’ve worked at Test Match hosting counties and non-Test hosting counties. Presumably this has given you an appreciation of the differing challenges facing both types?

It certainly helps in my current role to understand the different pressures on those counties. For a Test Match hosting county one of the key challenges is to develop a world class venue which wins the right to stage major matches. The internal communication at those venues is why it is important to invest in the venue, ensure the facilities are used 365 days a year and not be fooled by the additional income which arises from those major matches by investing disproportionately in other current expenditure areas. At non-Test hosting counties the increased focus is on good husbandry – managing more limited income earning potential with a tight expenditure budget – and hence there is an even greater focus on the operation of the county teams.

I also think the fact that I have been lucky enough to be an international hockey umpire and now a Tournament Director of events such as the Commonwealth Games hockey in Delhi has given me an insight into the pressures we place on match referees and umpires. They do a great job for cricket .

What do you consider your greatest achievement as ECB CEO?

On the playing side we have won our first ICC Global Event, three men’s Ashes series, two women’s Ashes Series and two Global events. Our disabilities teams are going from strength to strength. I am proud of the fact that, in 2005, we had negative financial reserves which put all levels of the game at risk if we had suffered an unpredicted event. Now we have £20 million of reserves.That business best practice was extended to provide first-class counties and county boards with a four year memorandum of understanding to give all our members the opportunity to produce sound medium-term financial plans.

In the recreational game we have increased investment at local club level to nearly 30% of our income and we have the largest volunteer programme in sport in Nat West Cricket Force. The other achievement of which everyone at ECB is very proud is that we staged an exceptional ICC World T20 in 2009 and have been rewarded with the Cricket World Cup in 2019, the World Test Championship in 2013 and 2017 and the ICC Awards in 2011. To win five global events in one decade is unprecedented .

Any regrets?

I believe we failed to persuade other nations that the introduction of an ICC Global Event annually when set alongside the emerging IPL and Champions League would create a log jam in fixture programming. We lost that argument a few years ago but it is pleasing that progress has been made in those discussions in the past year .

Do you think there will still be 18 first-class counties in 20 years?

Our Articles of Association provide the 18 Counties with the opportunity to play in all ECB competitions. Those counties have to manage their business within the constraints of the MoU and their income earning potential to sustain their future. I often reference the fact that the 18 counties provide an infrastructure which allows us to market our major matches possibly more successfully than any country in the world. Our Test Match crowds rely not only from support form their local city but from neighbouring counties and areas further afield so sustaining 18 counties has benefits for a number of reasons but we do have to carefully manage the volume of cricket which we play. Cricket is part of local communities – festivals such as Cheltenham, Colchester, Scarborough, Oakham and Liverpool are highlights of the year – all our counties play a major role in the development of the game .

In retrospect, is there anything you would have done differently over the Stanford episode?

I believe that many people forget that Stanford had been recently knighted, that Forbes referenced him as one of America’s leading entrepreneurs and that he had worked successfully in helping to promote West Indies cricket as well as many other sports. At the same time we were faced with a severe threat from unauthorised cricket and it was important we were competitive in the rewards we could provide to players. The area which I would do differently is to retain greater control of the marketing of the launch and series.

You have increased investment in England teams. Why is that a priority and does it include the cost of sending families on tours? Presumably, while monitoring costs, the feeling is that a successful England side is an essential foundation for the game in England and Wales?

The fact is that broadcasting demand outside India focuses heavily on international cricket. As a result 80% of our income arises from broadcasting and sponsorship income. Going back to 2005, we had not won an ICC Global Event, our Women’s cricket was emerging as a potential world class team and then we had a very poor tour of Australia in 2006 which resulted in the Schofield review. We raised the level of investment in England teams to 20% of our income which made our investment competitive with Australia and South Africa. That enabled us to develop the world’s best performance centre at Loughborough, to build the world’s best women’s team, to regain the Ashes in 2009 and retain them in 2010/11 and to win three ICC Global Events. The cost of family provision is a very low percentage of that investment but given that players can be away from home for 200 days a year with modern schedules I do think it is responsible and good management to provide for family visits in particular over the Christmas and New Year period. Our club and county infrastructure relies on funding to continue to provide a conveyor belt of increased participation numbers and high quality potential England cricketers. That investment comes from the international format of the game so investment in England teams formed one of the four key pillars of the two strategic plans which were published in 2005 and 2010 .

Giles Clarke seems to come in for a great deal of criticism in some quarters. Do you think he, you and the ECB gain the credit you deserve for the huge increase in participation over recent years and the revenue coming into the game?

It is a fact of life that sports administrators are in a goldfish bowl and every decision is analysed usually with the benefit of hindsight. Having been involved in professional cricket for over 30 years I can look back at the period when I started at Essex in 1979. At that time cricket was criticised for being slow to react commercially and when you look back at archive footage you see Test grounds half empty.

Giles received a resounding level of support when he stood for a second term in office and that was largely due to the fact that those who are closest to the game recognised the massive progress that has been made with MoUs, with income generation, in filling international grounds, with developing England teams, with lowering support costs as a percentage of our income, with developing club cricket and participation levels, in creating world class facilities at our venues, with investing in women’s and disabilities cricket, to enhancing government and international relations and to ensuring that the government often quotes cricket as the most successful National Governing Body.

Within the ICC and at international level our relations are very strong and it is a testament to the esteem in which Giles is held that he has been appointed by ICC to work with Pakistan, the West Indies and Afghanistan on their development programmes. Without volunteers, not only Giles but also our other Non-Executive Directors, cricket would not be as healthy as it is today and they deserve more recognition and credit.

ECB has led sport in England with increased participation numbers and you have ambitious plans for coaching and developing facilities at clubs. Why did you choose to invest in those areas ?

We doubled participation in cricket over a three year period and you only have to go down – as I do – to my local club to see the results. Many local clubs have now had to close their books to new junior members. Quite simply we do not have enough facilities or coaches to cater for increased participation in future years at the same level. This is a message we have been communicating to the Government and Sport England for some time. As a result we set up the England and Wales Cricket Trust to invest in local clubs – we partnered with Sky to deliver coaching programmes – we initiated Nat West Cricket Force to enhance facilities at local clubs and to engage 85,000 volunteers – we set up a Coaching Association and Officials and Umpires Association — we recognised the importance of volunteers with the OSCAs (Outstanding Service to Cricket Awards) and we made Enthusing Participation through investment in coaching and facilities a key pillar of our strategic plan.

Quite simply, without Club/school links and volunteers, sport cannot develop in the UK. It is the heartbeat of the future of our sport and my role and that of the Board is to leave a legacy which is more vibrant when we leave than when we joined. It is a key part of my role which is often unseen. In fact I reckon that I spend more time on recreational cricket than I do on County and International cricket combined.

The first-class counties currently receive about 30% of the ECB income. Is there scope to increase that proportion?

It is actually much higher than 30%. The Vibrant Domestic game as one of our four key pillars receives over 40% of our income. Given that we have a commitment to the government to raise investment in Enthusing Participation to 30% and England teams receives approximately 25% the percentages are unlikely to alter. What ECB and the Counties must do is to continually seek new avenues for income earning potential to further invest in our game and increase the overall size of the cake rather than the relative proportion of expenditure.

How much money is spent on women’s cricket? And the top level in particular.

Investment has trebled in the past six years. The ECB funds coaching opportunities with the excellent Chance to Shine scheme, operated by the Cricket Foundation, for our women’s teams which I know our players have greatly valued. We now have training camps in India and regular overseas tours. We have double-header T20 matches with internationals and televised county matches. We have a dedicated Director of Women’s Cricket who represents ECB within the ICC. We have created academy teams and a high quality domestic infrastructure so there is no shortage of investment and that is reflected in the fact that over 40% of the 1 million schoolchildren introduced to cricket by Chance to Shine are girls.

Recent county results suggest that counties are experiencing significant losses, with the auditors expressing concern over the ongoing viability of the business of at least one. Does the ECB have a plan or a position should the worst happen to a county?

It is a fact that all business and all sports have been negatively impacted by the economic climate. For some of the non-Test hosting venues salary costs form a high proportion of their expenditure and this does take more than one year to correct when the economic climate becomes more challenging. Fortunately the MoUs provide a medium term surety of income which has increased by a much higher percentage than inflation so counties can now develop sound business plans which then require strong financial management to return to profit.

Income earning areas such as corporate hospitality have been hit and counties are revising their plans accordingly. To assist that work, ECB recently appointed Gordon Hollins as Managing Director of County Business and one of Gordon’s key roles is to facilitate the sharing of best practice amongst the Counties. The County to which you refer has taken corrective action which we applaud. The ECB policy is clear that counties run their own business operations and therefore ECB is not a lender of last resort for any county.

We have seen with domestic Twenty20 cricket that more can mean less; that expanding the jewel in the domestic crown to 16 games resulted, for the majority of counties, in diminishing returns. Given this, is there not a danger that the revised Ashes schedule which will result in 15 Tests in 27 months between 2013-2015 will mean Ashes Tests begin to suffer the same fate?

It is not a correct assumption that there were diminishing returns with 16 games, indeed a recent independent review demonstrated that all but one county increased net returns, however ECB and the counties are concerned regarding the sustainability of a high volume of Twenty20 cricket.

The Ashes issue is unique for the period 2013 -2015. Future Tours Programmes take almost a decade to plan. Indeed we have recently finalised the plan for all the ICC Full Members for the period through 2020. One of the concerns which was highlighted following the Schofield Review is that the current cycle results in the Cricket World Cup being scheduled immediately after an Ashes tour as both are on four-year cycles. Add to this the introduction of the IPL which caused the rest period between the Ashes in 2011 and the World Cup being reduced to a matter of a few days and I think you will appreciate why we want to break that cycle. In order to break that cycle we need to bring forward an Ashes series during the period 2013-2015 before we can revert to the standard four-year cycle. The period 2013-2015 is the first opportunity we have to break that cycle. I strongly believe that the experience of this winter has proven that decision to be thoroughly justified as it is unreasonable to tour Australia and then go straight into a World Cup .

The system of counties bidding to host international games would appear to have driven several to the brink. Was that the inevitable consequence of introducing a competitive process? Do you think the current situation (of nine grounds vying for international matches) is sustainable?

The system of bidding was developed as a result of international grounds expressing concern re competition opportunities. The Major Match Group process has been a great success in increasing investment in facilities, providing fair returns from major matches and increasing the return from major matches to all levels of the game. That said, the ECB and Major Match Group is acutely aware that venues are investing significant capital and hence need medium term certainty of matches at a fair return especially given the current economic climate. For almost a year now a consultation process has been taking place with all ECB members to modify the process. Proposals have now been put forward and we are hopeful that these will be implemented in 2011 for a four-year period. Inevitably with six or seven Test Matches each year not every venue can stage a Test each year so the increased certainty also enables venues to draw up realistic plans for investment over the medium term and decide whether they wish to focus on staging specific matches such as ODIs and T20 internationals .

The county championship has worked well in recent years. Why are we considering changing it?

The two Division structure has brought about increased competition and the close finish in 2010 was a great advertisement for the LV= County Championship. We do, however, strongly believe that the current volume of cricket is unsustainable. It results in the fact that we frustrate supporters by not having consistent start days for LV= Championship matches as well as having too many one-day matches in a condensed period. Team England support greater rest and preparation for players but as you indicated earlier, cCounties also need to preserve and generate greater income to sustain their operations. The non-international hosting venues derive the majority of their income from one-day cricket, especially T20 cricket. We also believe that the CB competition should ideally have a regular place in the calendar for Sunday cricket.

A 16-match county championship requires 20 slots because you have an unequal number of counties in each Division hence two Counties must miss out in each slot. We must also accommodate festivals, UCCE cricket and tourist matches. A 20-slot calendar means that we have to commence in the first week of April and finish in late September. A 14-match championship results in an equal number of counties in each division, hence all counties can play in each slot although we must still allow for festivals, UCCE and tourist matches. This results in a requirement for 16 or 17 slots which presents the opportunity to schedule more regular start dates, to begin and end the season on more appropriate dates and to enable all counties to play in the final round of matches. It retains the benefit of competition between two divisions and means that with, say, ten T20 matches we can schedule consistent start days for the Clydesdale Bank competition. It is a difficult choice and this is why there has been extensive consultation with all areas of the game on this subject .

Were you surprised by the reaction to the five proposals for domestic restructuring circulated in early 2010?

Not at all – this was the start of the debate and consultation period and it is only when you get into the devil in the detail and produce detailed fixture schedules and the impact of various formats that you appreciate the issues and benefits for players, spectators and counties .

The county season is currently finishing 10 days earlier than in the past to accommodate the champions league. Is the subsequent fixture congestion worth the trouble?

That is a wrong assumption. We are still finishing the season on the same weekend in 2010 and 2011 as we have in the past. Indeed county teams did not participate in the Champions League in 2010 for that reason. The problem we have had in 2010 and 2011 is that 16 LVCC, 16 T20 and 12 CB matches is unsustainable and requires a week one April start to accommodate the full schedule. That is now widely recognised and is a positive sign for a possible restructure and enhancement to the season.

Best of SPIN: The making of Andy Flower

First published in the May 2009 issue of SPIN magazine

Interviews with Grant Flower (brother), Henry Olonga (Zimbabwe team-mate), Ronnie Irani (Essex skipper) and Roger Newman (mid-90s Oxford University director of cricket who gave Flower his first job in coaching) by George Dobell

Grant Flower We started out together in the back garden. I’m two-and-a-half years younger and spent a fair amount of those years bowling at him. There was never much coaching, so we had to fend for ourselves. Our dad was a big influence, though. He instilled the idea that we had to work hard, though it pretty much only extended to the sports field. We were always much more orientated towards sports than school work.

Roger Newman I got to know him when he played for West Bromwich Dartmouth in the Birmingham League in the mid-’90s. He was overseas player and I was chairman of cricket. There was an incident that struck me very early on. After getting himself out for about 70 to a poor shot, he went into the dressing room, looked into the mirror for some time and then spat into it. He was so disgusted with himself.

GF Andy was training to be an accountant. It wasn’t until he after he had spent a year playing in the Birmingham League that he considered taking up cricket professionally. It was a very important time. There’s a bit of pressure on you if you’re the overseas pro; you’re expected to bat through and win games. I think it helped him mature and realise what a good player he could be. He also realised how much he enjoyed playing cricket and how many opportunities there are for professionals here.

Henry Olonga As a player, he led by example. I made my Test debut under Andy’s captaincy [in 1995]. I was only 18 and, no thanks to me, the game saw Zimbabwe win their first-ever Test, against Pakistan. Andy scored 150 in that game, as well as keeping wicket and captaining.

GF Our stand (of 239) against Pakistan – a record stand for brothers in Test cricket – is certainly the highlight of my career and I know it’s special to Andy as well. But there were times when we really struggled as a side. There was a Test against South Africa [in 2001] where Andy scored a hundred in each innings [142 and an unbeaten 199] but we still lost by nine wickets. It really doesn’t say much for the rest of us, does it?

HO His method? Hard work. There’s no magic. He’s not the most talented player in the world, but he had unbelievable levels of concentration, he was very fit and he worked harder than anyone.

Ronnie Irani I first came across Andy on England’s tour to Zimbabwe in 1996. That was the ‘we bloody murdered them’ tour. He was by far their best player and we were punished for underestimating them. We didn’t give him, or their team, enough respect and he proved us wrong.

GF England were a bit patronising towards us; particularly [coach] David Lloyd. But it did us a favour, really. We were spurred on as a group of players. It suited us to be the underdogs. Andy used that to inspire him.

RI He’s a thinking cricketer. Remember that last Test, when we should have won, but they kept bowling wide and the scores ended level? I bet that was his idea. It wasn’t against the rules at the time and it saved them the game.

RN I was director of cricket at Oxford University and asked Andy to be the coach. He was 28 by then. He had been playing Test cricket for four years but no county had come in with the offer of a contract. Andy was going to come over and play as a league pro again. But we gave him the opportunity at Oxford. Why did I pick him? Well, I thought he would know what it was like to be the underdogs. He was used to being in a team that had to punch above its weight.

GF His best innings? He scored a double-century against India in Nagpur [in 2000] when the ball was turning square. He attacked them and reversed the pressure. It was a top innings and saved the Test. As a batsman he was up there with the very best.

HO To become the No 1 rated batsman in the world is an extraordinary achievement for a guy playing in a struggling team. Those two hundreds in a Test came against a really fiery South African attack. And we still lost heavily. He was outstanding in India, too. He dominated against their spinners, on their pitches, and made himself into a superb player of spin bowling.

GF I don’t think all those hours of facing my bowling in the garden helped much. Let’s face it, it’s not as if I turn it. He just did a lot of extra work. He used to get guys to bowl at him on dry parts of the outfield so he could practise against the turning ball.

RI We – England – had no answer to his batting. He could play every sweep possible and there was nothing we could do to stop him. He was technically fantastic and an absolute rock in terms of concentration.

RN We didn’t have the strongest Oxford side. Only Mark Wagh and James Averis went on to enjoy careers in the game. But, thanks to a good team spirit, we beat Duncan Fletcher’s Glamorgan the year that they won the championship. We were set about 275 in 57 overs and people assumed we wouldn’t go for it. But Andy said, ‘We’re going for them and we’re going to get them.’ And we did. We won by five wickets. He had such authority that everyone believed him when he spoke like that.

HO As a player he just kept improving. I remember when we used to train as a team and net sessions would end and we’d all go. But he and Grant would just keep going. He set the benchmark for professionalism.

GF He was always stubborn. Incredibly stubborn. I’m sure that helped him become such a determined batsman.

RI It was Graham Gooch’s idea to bring him to Essex [in 2002] and it was an absolute inspiration. He’s as a good an overseas player as the club has ever had – up there with Allan Border, Mark Waugh and Ken McEwan. Gooch knew that Andy was a fighter and he knew he was a winner. We saw him as an all-rounder who could bat at three or four and keep wicket while James Foster was away at university.

GF He was a very tidy ’keeper. Obviously there were times when the work load of batting, captaining and keeping wicket became hard, but it was the way he liked it. He became No 1 in the world when he was doing all three. He loved to be involved in the game and he felt that watching the ball out of the bowler’s hand helped him keep his eye in. He really missed it when Tatenda Taibu took over.

RI He’s underestimated as a wicketkeeper. He was top class. Really, he was as good as anyone I played with or against, including Jack Russell. Ask Gooch; he’d agree with me: Standing back he could catch pigeons and his work standing up to my bowling was the reason I was called back into the England team [in 2002]. Without him, I’d never have got back into international cricket.

HO With England, he’ll be particularly strong on fitness and mental toughness. As those are areas that England have been quite weak, you might see quite rapid improvement. He’ll give one or two of those England players a bit of a wake-up call.

RI Lots of overseas players work very hard on their own games. Andy probably took that to a new level, but the real difference with Andy was what he did off the pitch at Essex. He was the perfect team man, always thinking about other people and helping them with their games. He threw himself into club life and his team ethic was second to none. There was no talk of him coaching before he joined us, but he went to work with the youngsters straight away. Undoubtedly the likes of Ravi Bopara, Ali Cook, James Foster owe him a hell of a lot.

RN He worked incredibly hard and hated losing. Once at Oxford, after we had been easily beaten by Nottinghamshire, someone suggested a game of football between the sides. We lost again, about 4-0, and then all went to have a shower with the thought of heading home. But Andy had other ideas: he sat everyone down to dissect the game of football. He was unhappy about the lack of effort from some of the guys. ‘It’s only a game,’ one of them said. ‘You don’t get it,’ Andy said. ‘It’s about winning. You must never, never accept losing.’ That was the mentality he took to his cricket.

RI He could adapt to any situation. If you wanted to someone to grind out a hundred to save a game, then he was your man. But if you needed someone to smash 100 in 70 balls, he could do that, too.

GF People will know where they stand with Andy. He was brought up to be honest and he’s not afraid of speaking his mind.

RN He had a game against the MCC coming up and wanted some extra practise. There was no-one else around so I bowled to him. After a while he asked me to bowl from 18 yards. Then 15. And then 10. He wanted to replicate the pace of professional bowlers. After an hour or so, I was exhausted. ‘How much more?’ I asked him. ‘Just another hour,’ he said. What other people thought of as hard work, he thought of as a warm-up.

RI He will insist the players are very fit, and quite rightly. But I don’t think he is as fanatical about that as some are suggesting. It’s winners he’ll want most, so he’ll be looking for guys with the right skills; not just guys who can run marathons or the 100 metres in 11 seconds.

GF We were always very keen to be the fittest we could be. We figured that, if we were fitter than the guys we played against, we’d have an advantage. And, later on, we thought we should set an example to our team-mates. We always tried to work a bit harder than the rest. He won’t take any excuses over poor fitness. How can there be any? There have all the time and all the support, in terms of physios and trainers, that anyone could need.

RI He’s old school. He lives, breathes and talks cricket. He was always happy to talk to the opposition at the end of a game and offer them any advice he could. The England boys will learn a lot just by talking to him.

HO The way he stood up to Robert Mugabe should demand the instant respect of every England cricketer. But then there’s his record as a player. That should demand instant respect from all England players, too. And he’s a nice guy. He’s the whole package. They’re lucky to have him.

RI He doesn’t suffer fools. He puts the mileage in and he expects others to do the same. The England squad will soon find out that he will not tolerate any slacking.

HO He wasn’t a naturally political person. He was drawn into the black armband protest [against President Mugabe, at the 2003 World Cup] by a combination of frustration and patriotism. If you’d asked him about politics only a few years previously, he would have said, ‘I’m a sportsman; all I want to do is play cricket.’ But it hurt him to see our country falling apart and our to see the demise of our sport. He watched the farm invasions and the economy collapsing and he felt he had to do something. He’s a true patriot.

GF It was a huge decision to stop playing for Zimbabwe and leave the country that we love. We talked about it a lot, but it was probably harder for him as he had a young family. Life isn’t ideal, though, and we were very lucky to be able to play county cricket.

RI He’s a streetwise coach, very good at identifying talent. He won’t just judge on playing ability; he’s a big believer in character. He’ll look them in the eye and decide whether they’re up to it under pressure.

HO Andy approached me with the idea for the black armband protest, because I was the senior black player.

GF I wanted to join in the black armband protest. I spoke to Andy and Henry about it, but they felt it would be more powerful if it was one white guy and one black guy. There were several white guys prepared to do it, but only one black guy. It took a lot of guts.

HO We informed the rest of the team on the morning of the game. Andy called a team meeting about an hour before the start. We had released a statement to a friend of ours in the media, Geoff Dean of The Times, so there was no going back. Vince Hogg, the chief executive of the Zimbabwe cricket board, implored us not to go ahead with it. He warned us that we were putting ourselves in danger. But we knew the risks. We knew we could be in danger and Andy knew it was the end of his international career.

GF He comes from an environment where you are brought up to speak your mind and keep things simple. His mental strength is one of his strongest characteristics. You can see it in the way he has pursued his career.

HO Maybe I was a bit naive. I knew there’d be some reaction, but the anger did take me a bit by surprise. I received some nasty emails and then was tipped off that the police were gunning for me. I left the country and I haven’t been back. It will be interesting if Andy has to go back to Zimbabwe as coach of England. He’s a British citizen now, so I presume he’ll be safe. But there’s radical element out there that is still mad at us.

RI He’ll know which coaches he wants. I’ve no idea who he plans in bring in, but he worked well with Darren Gough at Essex and I’d love to see them together again.

HO Ten years on, I’d like to think that all our team-mates would say ‘Good on you.’ They weren’t all supportive at the time – one has been very derogatory – but I think most of them would reflect on everything that has happened and at least understand why we did it. Our intentions were good.

GF I’m proud of him and I know he’ll give the job his best shot. But if it doesn’t work out, he’ll dust himself down and move on. He’s very strong mentally.

RN Andy is a loyal person and he was right behind Peter Moores. I imagine he thought a great deal about walking away from England, as he didn’t want to be seen from benefiting from Moores’ departure.

RI I just hope they allow him to make the important decisions. There are quite a lot of people involved with the management of the England team and I’m not sure what they all do. They’ve picked the right man in Andy; now they need to back him.

HO He has changed. He’s matured gracefully and he’s become a much more rounded man. He’s experienced a bit more than cricket and it’s made him wiser. I just hope they give him time. England have lost a lot of their best players in quite a short space of time and they need to rebuild. They couldn’t quite finish off the West Indies in a couple of games, but at least they got in a position to win. Andy will take them the extra mile to win those games.

GF I am slightly concerned about the press in England. They are relentless and there’s a bit of the tall poppy syndrome. But Andy can look after himself. He’ll be honest and most people respect that. He was a bit unsure whether he wanted the job ahead of the West Indies tour, but he enjoyed it very much and was very keen afterwards. I think he’d always have had some regret if he hadn’t accepted the job now.

RI He’s the right man for the job. If he had been allowed to have both hands on the reins over the winter, I’m sure England would have done much better. He’ll still only be as good as the cards he’s dealt, but I believe that, under Andy Flower, England can win the Ashes.

RN He has his work cut out as England coach. I hope he is given the authority to go with the responsibility. All I can say is that, when things are tough and everything looks hopeless in cricket, there’s no-one I’d want beside me more than Andy Flower.

HO Kevin Pietersen can look up to Andy as a coach. I’m not sure you could say that about Peter Moores, could you? You can imagine Pietersen asking Andy to show him how to play the sweep; he wouldn’t have done that with Moores, would he? Andy is a nice guy, a decorated cricketer and a qualified coach; what more do you want? England have got themselves a good man.

IPL In Full Swing

We are nine days into the IPL and so far it has not disappointed. The tournament has boasted close games, full stadiums, record television audiences.

Lalit Modi would have licked his lips when the first three matches of this tournament were last-ball thrillers. The organisers couldn’t have asked for any better way to get the massive ball rolling. There is nothing easy about keeping the world interested in every game when there are so many games but it feels like Modi and his team are on top of things.

But the length of this tournament is a little testing. Especially considering it is just too bloody hot to play cricket at this time of year. 60 matches in 45 days is more cricket than even nutters like me can handle. But so far so good as the public lap up the show. One may have predicted that the novelty may have worn off but IPL 3 is generating television audiences that are up 35% on IPL1.

Today the announcement was made that the two successful bidders for additional IPL franchisers are Sahara and Rendezvous Sports World. They will be based in Pune (a two hour drive from Mumbai) and Kochi (the capital of Kerala – God‘s country). The two successful bids for teams were accepted at prices in excess of 300 million dollars each and take the number of teams in the league from eight to ten.

I have just had a chat with some of  the tournament organisers and it seems most likely that next year’s tournament will follow the same format – home and away round robins to establish semi-finalists who then play either in the final or the third place playoff. With eight teams that gives 60 matches. With ten teams it gives 94 matches!

25% more teams gives over 50% more matches. And that probably means over 50% more advertising revenue. Only time will tell whether the BCCI kill the goose that laid the golden egg but for now it is hard to deal with the realisation that this long tournament will consist of 94 matches! Blimey that’s a lot of Twenty20.

Next year the player talent pool will be diluted, fans will care less about each and every game and the BCCI will make more money. There will also be even more injuries. But the show will go on. This season the BCCI expects to make a profit of 750 crore rupees, 35% more than last year. It’s a profit of close on 200 million dollars after the franchises have taken their shares of the revenues. But it’s really much more than that because the present value of future income streams to the IPL brand is immeasurable. And you can safely expect it to grow.

Something I have noticed is that crowds have become increasingly partisan. Yes, spectators are up for a good show but they seem to care more and more about their home side. This is especially true in Bangalore, Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata where full seas of red, blue, yellow and purple shirts go ballistic in the stands. It has taken a couple of years but fans are now supporting their teams and not just their favourite players.

But I can’t help but assume that the player re-auction that will take place before IPL 4 will undo so much of the fan loyalty that has taken three years to build. Imagine Manchester United and Chelsea giving up all their players and going to auction top see who will play for them for the next three years. The notion is ridiculous but any other method will be deemed unfair to the two new franchises. And they have paid big dollar for the privilege.

SPIN and Hugh Morris

Hugh Morris

In the May 2009 edition of SPIN, we published a piece containing negative comments about Hugh Morris, the managing director of England cricket.

SPIN is happy to clarify that no suggestion of impropriety or lack of professionalism by Hugh Morris was intended and we are happy to apologise for any offence that might have been caused.

As the only independent cricket publisher, we have a duty to say it as we see it but, on this occasion, the tone of our piece was too harsh. In particular it didn’t reflect the efforts of a decent man doing his very best in a tricky job. It’s only fair that we put the record straight.

T20 offers way out of ECB’s TV crown jewels impasse

Children need to eat fruit, right? And they need heating. And houses. And shoes. Look, I’m no expert, but it seems to me they need masses of stuff. It would probably be cheaper to be a crack addict than a parent.

Yet the government has never insisted that Tesco give away oranges to children. Or npower give away electricity. So I’m not sure why they feel they can insist that the ECB effectively give away their most valuable assets ‘in the public interest’.

On the face of it, the decision to recommend home Ashes Tests return to free-to-air TV seems like good news. As Michael Vaughan made clear in his recent autobiography, it was the chance exposure to Test cricket on TV that inspired his love of the game. Many of us can identify with such experiences and there’s little doubt that the long-term future of cricket would be best served by allowing the greatest number of people access to it.

But life isn’t that simple. By preventing the ECB from selling TV rights to the game’s most lucrative series on the open market, the government would actually be jeopardising the game’s viability.

Sound hysterical? Well, the current TV rights deal is worth £300 million to the ECB over four years and, if ECB figures are to be taken at face value, they would expect revenues to fall by up to 50 per cent under the proposed new arrangement. Even conservative estimates suggest the figure would be in excess of 20 per cent.

What would the effect? Well, consider how the counties are funded. Or how their academies and development programmes are funded. Or where the money comes from to pay for many of cricket’s coaching initiatives and grass roots projects. It is, I’m afraid, largely earned from TV rights. Most pertinently, consider what would happen to all those counties who have just borrowed millions in order to fund ground redevelopment schemes. Any threat to their income could have catastrophic consequences. Whatever the long-term benefits of free-to-air cricket, the short-term costs make it almost impossible to bear.

Maybe the effects of free-to-air cricket are somewhat overstated, anyway. After all, the Grand National is shown free-to-view: has it ever made you saddle up a horse and point it in the direction of a hedge? Have years of exposure to the Boat Race had you building a raft and taking it round the Surrey Bend? 

Besides, I’m not convinced that some of the free-to-view channels deserve a helping hand. While Channel 4’s coverage was admirable, it’s worth remembering how they interrupted coverage to bring us horse racing and how they insisted that the start time of Tests were brought forward to accommodate Hollyoaks.

The BBC hardly deserve any favours, either. They already have the advantage of a £3 billion hand-out from license-fee payers, yet have failed to even bid for cricket packages of late. 

It would be nice to think that, if the government believe it’s so important that the nation sees cricket, then the government would pay for it. But even the most ardent cricket lover would surely have to admit that there’s no way the tax-payer should be paying for such things.

But perhaps there is another solution. Not only could a free-to-view highlights Test package be utilised better, but it’s possible that Sky could show some games free-to-view, perhaps on Sky 3.

In the long-term, however, the solution might be to forget the Ashes as the cornerstone of this debate. For the best part of 20 years, there was nothing more likely to put a youngster off cricket than watching England suffer another thrashing at the hands of Australia. Besides, selecting it as cricket’s only ‘crown jewels’ event perpetuates the myth that England-Australia is the only event that matters.

Instead, I’d offer domestic Twenty20 matches to a free-to-view audience. The format might offer more mass-market appeal anyway, while the brevity of games could be more appealing to broadcasters. Ideally I’d like to see an FA Cup style knock-out (incorporating the minor counties) almost given away to a free-to-view broadcaster. The long-term effects would surely counteract the relatively minor loss in income and increase support for the county game. And we wouldn’t have to wait until 2016 for it to happen.

English cricket faces split over plan to axe older players

The ECB is facing a serious backlash from professional cricketers over plans to field more young players in domestic competitions.

The disagreement concerns incentive payments designed to encourage counties to field two players under 22 and three more under 26 in Friends Provident and County Championship cricket. From 2010, counties will be rewarded around £80,000 if they maximise the incentive opportunity. Those payments will rise year-by-year and are expected to be worth £200,000 per county, per year by 2013. Those are sums that many clubs will be unable to ignore and several have already committed to embracing the scheme to its full potential.

That could well limit the opportunities for more experienced players. The ECB already pay incentives for counties fielding English-qualified players, but cap those payments at a maximum of nine per side in order to allow room for two non-qualified players, be they overseas or Kolpak registrations.

That leaves only four places per side for England players aged over 26. As a consequence, county players are deeply concerned. Many of them feel the plans will dilute the quality of county cricket and threaten their livelihoods. The possibility of a strike has been mooted.

While Vikram Solanki, the chairman of the PCA (the players’ union), makes no such threat, he does make it clear that there are serious reservations over the issue. “There are good cricketing reasons to suggest this will not help English cricket,” Solanki said. “Merit should be the only criteria for selection. Unless that’s the case, the quality of English cricket will be diluted. It seems artificial to force this upon counties. If young players are good enough, they will play anyway. But if you force them in too early, you may damage their development and cause resentment in the dressing room. We’ve seen the damaging effect of quotas elsewhere.

“Young players can learn a great deal by being around experienced players. When I started, I batted inbetween Graeme Hick and Tom Moody. Fine, they’d make it in any system. But I also learned from the likes of David Leatherdale and Stuart Lampitt. That was hugely valuable for me and I’ve no doubt that any young player will learn from playing with and against experienced professionals.

“This system will make it much harder for late developers, too. We’ve seen the likes of Michael Hussey and Marcus North come into Test cricket in their late 20s and do well, but this system will make that much harder for English players.

“I don’t doubt that the intentions behind this are honourable, but the ECB are trying to solve a problem that will no longer exist. One of their motives is to reduce the number of players in county cricket who are not qualified for England. But the work permit situation will change this winter and make it vastly more difficult for non-qualified players.

“The other concern is that this will increase the divide between the richer counties and the rest. While the clubs with Test grounds might be able to ignore the incentives, the smaller ones can’t. It’s likely to artificially inflate young players’ wages, discourage them from going to university but then, potentially, leave them in a very difficult position in their mid-20s if things don’t work out.

“It is felt by the PCA that their was a lack of consultation,” Solanki continued. “There is a concern among players that these plans will not benefit cricket in anyway – in fact they’re likely to harm the game – and there will also be implications for cricketers of a certain age.

“We want to express those views and voice our members’ concerns. At this stage I don’t know what can be done, but we do need to canvas the opinions of our members and see what they think. Then, at least, we can have discussions with the ECB.”

There will be some mitigating features for the smaller counties. A salary cap will be introduced from the start of next season, with no club allowed to spend more than 1.85m per squad, per year. That figure is still some way in excess of the amount paid by most clubs, however, so will come as scant consolation.

Sir Allen Stanford and West Indies cricket – an inside story

First published in the April issue of SPIN magazine. Subscribe today and get a free copy of the Cricketers’ Who’s Who worth £18.99 (UK readers only)

A key member of the coaching team that helped the Stanford Superstars beat England in last November’s $20m challenge match has been speaking to SPIN about Sir Allen Stanford’s ill-fated involvement with West Indies cricket.

Julien Fountain, the side’s English fielding coach, believes the Stanford project had great benefits for West Indies cricket – and that the intensive training camp ahead of the 2020 for 20 challenge has had a lasting impact on the West Indies side, which went on to beat England in the recent Test series.

“The players realised what they are capable of if they do the right thing. They gained an awful lot from that environment and I think they’ve held on to some of the feelings. It was a very positive experience. 

“The West Indies had had a pretty poor run of form leading up to the series, where we’d always come out second best. I think that everybody realised that this was an opportunity that we could really put West Indian cricket on the map and say, ‘We’re not quite as bad as you think we are’.”

The Stanford side won by ten wickets, having bowled out England for 99. “We did get the impression that the whole week – the whole competition – meant a bit more to us. We’d been through so much preparation, that I think everybody in our squad really realised that ‘Now is the time’.

“I think it showed that West Indies cricket can be successful, given the right environment, back-up and organisation. 

“Afterwards, everybody was just stoked that we won the $20m game and that we didn’t just beat England, we absolutely crushed them. Winning the money didn’t register for a little while. It was just that we’d achieved what we wanted to achieve.”

The ECB’s dealings with Stanford came to an end in February after the US Securities and Exchange Commission accused the billionaire financier of “a massive fraud.”

Stanford sponsored inter-island Twenty20 tournaments in the Caribbean in 2006 and 2008 and, briefly, funded four professional island teams. His deal with the ECB was to have seen the annual $1m-a-man challenge match with England, plus an early season T20 quadrangular in England and a Stanford team in the new-look Twenty20 Cup. Stanford, who denies any wrongdoing, has now had his assets seized by the US authorities, as he stands accused of an $8bn fraud.

Fountain, now working with the Ireland team in their World Cup qualifying campaign in South Africa, could not confirm how
many of the players had re-invested their $1m prize money with Stanford organisation – but thinks that at least one player had. While some players and coaches were written cheques, others had accounts opened for them in the Stanford International Bank, with the money deposited there. 

“Sir Allen made a big thing about his financial advisers talking to us to ensure that the money was invested wisely,” says Fountain.  “They were very keen for us to keep the money in house. The advice was very plausible. And you’re sat there in this luxurious bank: huge, beautiful tables, big flat screen TVs, big glass, chrome and leather. They said, ‘Listen, the market is really volatile and you don’t really want to invest in stocks and shares now. If you want a simple, safe thing, just open these accounts, we’ll pay you the interest and it’s as safe as houses’. They were offering rates of nearly eight per cent interest in these ‘safe’ accounts, even though most other banks were offering three per cent.

“One of the younger guys said, ‘I live with my mum. I’ve got no need to touch it, I’m just going to live off the interest, thanks very much’. Interest on a million dollars would have paid him about $80-90k a year. A huge annual wage for doing nothing, so he had no reason to touch it.”

Did the players have any inkling that there was anything untoward about the Stanford organisation? “Not at all. We found out when everybody else found out.” says Fountain. “It was such a positive event, so it’s such a shame it has gone horribly wrong. If all of his rhetoric had come to fruition, it would have provided so many great opportunities for young West Indian cricketers – and been such a shot in the arm for West Indies cricket.”

The Superstars squad featured several young semi-pro players who had never played for West Indies. The Stanford project gave players from smaller islands a shop window to progress their career and it’s the affect of the scandal on this aspect that Fountain finds most disappointing.

“Some of the new and young Stanford players tried to get county contracts this winter but got absolutely no feedback. You can understand that: one game doesn’t make a career. But they played out of their socks; hopefully that would have kicked on with more games for Stanford. It may have taken 12 months or 18 months but all the kids who were no-names would have risen to the top and got opportunities. Sadly now, you’re back to the old days which is unless you get selected for the West Indies, nobody wants to know you.”

First published in the April issue of SPIN magazine. Subscribe todayand get a free copy of the Cricketers’ Who’s Who worth £18.99 (UK readers only)

Flintoff returns from IPL, faces knee op

England talisman Andrew Flintoff is to undergo knee surgery that will put him out of the game for up to five weeks.

Flintoff returned from the Indian Premier League today (Friday) to undergo surgery on a torn meniscus in his right knee.

Flintoff had been appearing for Chennai Super KIngs in the IPL when he felt discomfort in his right knee. The Chennai medical staff immediately contacted ECB Chief Medical Officer Dr Nick Peirce.

Scans were taken of the right knee in a Durban hospital and they detected a slight medial meniscal tear in the knee and after these scans were viewed by Nick Peirce, radiologists the surgeon it was decided that Flintoff should return to London.

Flintoff, whose career has been interrupted by four ankle operations and one for a hernia already, will undergo an operation early next week. Surgeons are confident that he should recover from the keyhole surgery within three to five weeks.

Flintoff’s participation in the IPL, ahead of England’s busy summer schedule, was the subject of some controversy. However, Peirce said that the injury was not the result of anything that had happened during Flintoff’s three games in South Africa: “This sort of degenerative injury though is one that could have happened at any time any where.”

Hugh Morris, England Cricket Managing Director, added: “Andrew has been extremely unlucky with injuries but if there is one saving grace it is that the injury has occured now rather than on the eve of either the ICC World Twenty20 or the npower Ashes.

“Having the surgery now means that Flintoff should be available for both those events although he is certain to miss the npower Test series against the West Indies.”

England announce their team for the first Test v the West Indies, next Wednesday.

If Flintoff returns to action in five weeks’ time, it will give him precisely seven days’ grace before the start of the ICC World Twenty20.

Coach Andy Flower: the secret history

The man who gave Andy Flower his first job in coaching has been speaking exclusively to spincricket.com about the new England team director.

Roger Newman was director of cricket at Oxford University in 1997 and appointed the Zimbabwean keeper-batsman as the student side’s head coach.

Under Flower, the team went on to beat Duncan Fletcher’s Glamorgan side, months before they won the county championship. 

Flower had first got involved in coaching back in 1995 – again at Newman’s behest. “Andy was playing as a pro for West Bromwich Dartmouth in the Birmingham league – he’d been recommended to the club by his Zimbabwe team-mate Dave Houghton who had been the pro the previous year,” recalls Newman.

“At that point I was coaching Warwickshire under-17s and I asked him if he’d like to come and do some part-time work for me. He struck up an instant rapport with the lads and showed immediately the sort of qualities he shows now: his ability to relate to people and he had a very good knowledge of the game. 

“Then in 1996, I was asked to be director of cricket at Oxford and I appointed Andy as our head coach for 1997. Apart from Mark Wagh, our captain, James Averis was the only other player who went on to play professional cricket. It was a very young, inexperienced team – but I think Andy’s time with Zimbabwe had showed him that if you work together as a team and have a common goal, the sum of the parts is much stronger than the individual abilities. 

“I know Andy always refers to that win over Glamorgan as one of his happiest moments in cricket.

“Andy was 28 by the time he came to Oxford. He had been playing Test cricket for four years but no county had come in with the offer of a contract. Andy was going to come over and play as a league pro again. But we gave him the opportunity at Oxford and he didn’t play in 1997.

Offering clues as to how a Flower-led England side would be organised, Newman went on. “Andy realised the importance of working as a team: it was a similar situation to Zimbabwe: we were always going to be the underdogs. That was one of the reasons I chose him. He was used to being in a team that had to punch above its weight. 

“Andy stressed to everybody the importance of the whole team pulling together both on and off the pitch. The Varsity match at Lords’ was drawn – Ed Smith played for Cambridge – but that was a fantastic moment for Andy: to walk into Lord’s as head coach of Oxford University. 

“Andy insisted on a very professional attitude, even though the team were part-timers. He said to them once that they were profesisonal cricketers who happened to be students. Everybody responded to him. At least half the team scored their maiden first-class fifties that season. We played 11 first-class matches; it was the last-ever season when university cricket was taken seriously, I think. 

“After we lost to Notts, we played them at football on the outfield – and lost 4-0. Andy gave the team a good talking to after that. People were going, ‘Come on, it’s only football.’ Andy said: ‘It’s not about football, it’s about winning.’

“Against Durham, we were facing defeat and our last man, James Bull, had a broken hand. He’d told the others he couldn’t bat but Andy said to him,’Come on, you’ve got another hand’, it was different. Out of respect for Andy, James said he would go in and have a go.

“Andy’s belief was that you had to be technically sound – which comes from practice – but you also needed good cricket awareness, tactically, plus the ability to want to succeed: mental toughness, the will to work hard.

“Provided he’s allowed to do the job the way he wants to – and I’m sure the ECB will allow him the control he wants –  I have no doubt Andy can put together a team who meet all three requirements: he has an ability to spot people who are technically good and to make them better. He has the ability to improve them tactically – how to control matches whether you’re batting or fielding – and he will only accept people who really have the will to work 100 per cent at their game at all times.

“Andy has experience, enthusiasm and expertise. This is the best appointment the ECB has made in a senior position in cricket for many years.”

‘I was stabbed in the back by Lancashire’

Hampshire’s new all-rounder dominic Cork has been speaking to SPIN magazine on the eve of the 2009 season and reflecting on the manner in which he was let go by Lancashire last season.

Cork, 37, for whom 2009 will be his 20th season in the county game, says that Lancashire stabbed him in the back, when they told him he was no longer required last July.

“I was told that my future was completely and utterly secure at Lancashire and then I was really back-stabbed and got rid of,” says Cork. “I got released and I was told that I still made their best team! That was from Mike Watkinson, the coach. Told I was no longer required in July but could I still carry on playing for the first team until the end of the season?

“Lancashire have not won a trophy in a decade. You do the maths. Is that down to players or coaching or the club? They got rid of Cork, Law and other players before that. How many of the coaching staff got released? ”

Cork, whose interview is a part of Spin’s bumper pre-season preview in the May issue on news-stands from April 10 (Good Friday), denied that older players such as himself were denying younger players opportunities in county cricket.

“I’m a believer in bringing youth through but you also have to have a balance in a side between older and younger guys. You need those experienced players. I’m not just saying that because I’m 37. You need that balance. 

“The ECB is trying to give counties more money and recognition for playing 11 England-qualified players under 24 – well, that’s all well and good, but look at who’s been successful in county cricket in the last few years: Hick, Ramprakash, van Jaarsveld, Gough. They’re not winning the PCA MVP awards because they get extra points for being old but because they are the best players. 

“You can’t say, ‘Let’s get rid of them’ and go with a 19-year-old who might not be successful anyway because he’s not been shown how to do it. 

“I’m a big believer that you need the right mix. Members don’t want to pay to see 12 youngsters get hammered every week. They want to have success and trophies.”

• The full interview with Dominic Cork appears in the April issue of SPIN, in the county preview that also features exclusives with Michael Vaughan and Peter Moores as well as a full team-by-team guide.

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