County cricket proposals 'dead in the water', says ECB chief executive Richard Gould
- Published
Rory Burns led Surrey to the County Championship title in 2022
Proposals to alter the structure of domestic cricket are "dead in the water", says England and Wales Cricket Board chief executive Richard Gould.
A review led by Andrew Strauss proposed cutting the number of matches in the County Championship and dedicated windows for the white-ball tournaments.
Changes to the schedule would have to be supported by at least 12 of the 18 first-class counties.
"They did not get through the procedures we have," said Gould.
Speaking on the eve of the new County Championship season, former Surrey chief executive Gould added: "The 18 counties have a right to decide what their season looks like."
The high-performance review led by former England captain Strauss was commissioned on the back of the 4-0 loss in Australia in the Ashes of 2021-22.
It produced 17 recommendations with the aim of making England's men the best team in the world in all three formats within five years.
The ECB was able to adopt 15 of the recommendations, but needed the support of the counties in order to make the alterations to the domestic competitions.
The proposed changes included cutting the number of Championship matches from 14 to 10, creating a top flight of six teams, playing the One-Day Cup in April, reducing the T20 Blast from 14 group matches to 10 and leaving The Hundred as the only white-ball competition played in August.
It was initially agreed there would be no changes to the 2023 season, but Gould has now admitted there will be nothing different in 2024 - and perhaps not at all.
"At this point I would say they are dead in the water," he said. "We have to consult with people. We can't just impose. There are many ways in which we can drive forward towards success."
Gould suggested that part of the reason for the lack of change was the upturn in fortunes of the England Test team, who have won 10 of their past 12 Tests playing a radical style under captain Ben Stokes and coach Brendon McCullum.
"Those recommendations came about as a result of performances delivered 12 months ago," said Gould. "We are in a slightly different position now.
"The way we have seen the England men's team perform over the past 12 months would suggest there were other issues in play as well, not just structure. I'm not going to get hung up on structures, because every time there is a reversal in the Ashes, there is always a review."
With no alteration, the domestic schedule remains congested. August will see The Hundred played alongside the One-Day Cup, but there will no international cricket in that month as England's Test summer ends in July and white-ball internationals do not begin until September.
It is a pattern that is set to be repeated in coming years, with international cricket in August largely limited in part to ensure it does not clash with The Hundred.
Gould was previously a critic of The Hundred during his time with Surrey. He now says the competition has been a "significant success" and will have a "long future" beyond the ECB's current broadcast deal to 2028, but admitted the "consequences" of the competition will need to be looked at.
"We will look at August again," he said in relation to the lack of international cricket played at the height of summer.
With regard to domestic implications, Gould said: "There will be issues in terms of the unintended consequence of The Hundred, in terms of finding purpose for some clubs which aren't wholly engaged in cricket in the way they'd like to be in August. Those are the issues that we have now got to address."
Another recommendation of the high-performance review was an "evolution" of central contracts and match fees for England's men in order for the national team to compete with the increasing number of opportunities in franchise leagues.
Gould confirmed England managing director Rob Key will now have the option of offering multi-year deals to players, rather than the current 12-month contracts.
There will be increased flexibility on when contracts can be offered - the current system of annually awarding deals means a player like Harry Brook is without a contract despite establishing himself as an England regular after the last round of contracts was announced - and fees for individual match appearances will increase.
"We are going to have to take different approaches in how we contract our players," said Gould.
"We will be trying to tailor contracts to the needs of each individual in order for us to secure their services for when we need them.
"We don't have a choice in this. If we don't secure the services of our best players, the media rights will drop. We cannot afford not to have our best players available when we need them."
Gould, who left a role with Bristol City Football Club to join the ECB, was speaking days after the Cricket Disciplinary Committee upheld a number of charges of racism at Yorkshire in relation to allegations made by Azeem Rafiq.
Gould called the disciplinary process "a culmination of a lot of issues over a long period of time which had become poisonous for the game".
The game now waits on a report from the Independent Commission for Equity in Cricket (ICEC) and the ECB's own review into dressing-room culture at professional level.
"I'm sure when the ICEC report lands it will be very helpful in laying bare to us so that we are under no illusions in terms of the communities that we have not been engaging with to the extent that we should have," said Gould.
"We need to make sure that we do become the most inclusive sport in the country by being able to demonstrate that we are wholly representative of the communities within which we sit.
"We know we have huge challenges, but also great opportunities to change the sport. Championing inclusion and winning back trust are going to be key."