England: Discord brewing as internationals head for overload (25 Sep 1998)

Friday 25 September 1998

Discord brewing as internationals head for overload

By Christopher Martin-Jenkins

SEVEN Tests and 10 one-day internationals a season are to be proposed by the England and Wales Cricket Board at next month's meeting to discuss the structure of the game from 2000. It is part of a package which in the view of one influential county official could make the meeting at Lord's on Oct 13 and 14 "the mother and father of all cricketing bloodbaths".

The meeting of the First-Class Forum, comprising the 18 first-class counties and MCC, is consultative: no decisions will be taken until the forum meet again on Dec 2 and 3. But the situation is complicated by negotiations over new television contracts with the BBC, BSkyB and other companies.

There is already a fear that the board may be using the prospect of more international cricket to raise the stakes in the television dealings and that the county clubs will then be given the choice of accepting either a substantial hike in matches or a reduced income. Andrew Walpole, a media spokesman for the ECB, confirmed to Electronic Telegraph yesterday that 10 one-day internationals and seven Tests will be proposed as part of the five-year plan beyond 2000 which will be presented to the forum by Tim Lamb, the chief executive, but he stressed that the meeting was to debate the issues, not to present the counties with a fait accompli.

"That's what we are looking at, certainly," said Walpole. "It would reap more income to be ploughed back into the game. But we are aware that it would have a knock-on effect, for example on players' contracts and benefits. We are certainly not in the business of dictating what will happen and telling everyone to sign up for something they don't want. Our job is to maximise the potential of the game."

Tuesday night's speech by the ECB chairman, Lord MacLaurin, hinted at the link between more international cricket and a greater income from television. ECB officials had identified a need for a further £300 million investment, he said, "to improve facilities for spectators and develop the kind of talent we need to sustain a winning England team".

The empirical evidence overseas, notably in Australia, India and Pakistan, is that an over-emphasis on international cricket leads inevitably to less interest in domestic games and a consequent loss of income at this level. It also leads to the best players becoming virtually full-time international cricketers. Such a programme would not only increase the burn-out factor already being experienced by the likes of Michael Atherton and Darren Gough - fast bowlers would be particularly stretched - but would also make the recent decisions by Lancashire and Essex to appoint England players as their captains nonsensical.

John Crawley and Nasser Hussain are potential successors to Alec Stewart but if the wider international programme were to be accepted, neither would be available for county cricket for the better part of the four months in the middle of the season from 2000 onwards.

There will be pressure on the Board to stage more home Tests because of the need to give wider opportunities not just to Sri Lanka, who have yet to play more than a single Test on any visit to England, but to Zimbabwe, yet to play a Test here, and possibly in the not too distant future, to Bangladesh and other emerging countries. But a county official from one of the Test grounds said frankly: "They are fooling themselves if they think they will sell all the seats for extra games. It is hard enough on some provincial Test grounds selling tickets for the first two days of a Test as it is."

More international cricket each season is only one of several potentially contentious issues which will be under discussion next month. There is also the future structure of the first-class programme: whether championship matches should be reduced; regional cricket be introduced; conferences considered; what day of the week different competitions should commence and allied issues. John Carr, the ECB's cricket operations manager, will be presenting proposals to the delegates.

These will have to tie in with the conclusions of the committee set up earlier this season under the new Sussex chairman, Don Trangmar, on whether England players should be contracted centrally to the Board. They are likely to suggest a compromise by which players continue to be employees of their county clubs but are leased to England for what looks likely to be a very substantial part of each season.

Every four years the distribution of the Board's central pool to the Test and non-Test grounds is the subject of a tug-of-war which is due to be resolved again this autumn. Only three counties - Lancashire, Warwickshire and Nottinghamshire - own their grounds and even they object that the ECB take all the gate money for redistribution to the counties. By contrast, the "smaller" counties do not have the chance to stage big games - next year's World Cup excepted - with the lucrative spin-off revenue from advertising and hospitality.

A few counties - notably Durham, Glamorgan and Hampshire when their new ground is developed - could expect to stage internationals and even Tests against relatively minor countries as part of a larger international programme. But they would have to work even harder to sell their own county matches.

Asked for a reaction yesterday, Sussex's pioneering chief executive, Tony Pigott, said: "Whatever is decided by the end of the year it is up to the county clubs to go out and sell it. Even if we don't like aspects of the changes, it will be important to be positive and present a unified front."

Source :: Electronic Telegraph (https://www.telegraph.co.uk)