"Siri, find the change most likely to make me completely wash my hands of England international cricket"

Delay, deflect, defend and then 'roll the pitch' with briefing. Just the same old 💩 from the English cricket leadership. Let me know when Key is gone and I'll re-engage with England*. (*Ashes and WC excepted)

Fielding on the boundary at Chelmsford, down at (Daddy) Long Leg . . . I'll get my coat

Story in the Times ($) CA about selling off 49% of BBL teams but creating a window in a prime month to shut out red-ball cricket. See you later, cricket 👋👋👋👋

If counties must de-mutualise & have owners then most of us would take Rod B, given his fine job at Hants. But he was always v rare in cricket & now overseas money has taken over sports. He sold to them, like ECB did They don't need 18 counties. End of.

What a day of world affairs. Longing for an afternoon of watery sunshine when the most worrysome issue is whether Essex can somehow squeak another batting point. About a month away now

Maybe county cricket clubs need a few plumbers to be voted on to their boards

Lots to digest here. So many unintended consequences already starting to stack up and the owners have not even begun to really shape the event.

Sadly, this is on the money

🏏 NEW County Cricket newsletter. Pls share and enjoy 🟣 County cricket's K-shaped economy 🟡 Yorks, Leics ink overseas stars 🟢 Big-name Aussies sign up for Blast 🟠 H*ndred problems 🔵 Sussex financial strife 🔴 Demutualisation at Yorks this year?

A root cause of U.K. cricket’s problems. And nothing serious and structural is being done about it. You have to ask why?

🏏 NEW County Cricket newsletter. Pls share and enjoy 🟣 County cricket's K-shaped economy 🟡 Yorks, Leics ink overseas stars 🟢 Big-name Aussies sign up for Blast 🟠 H*ndred problems 🔵 Sussex financial strife 🔴 Demutualisation at Yorks this year?

This wonderful, enthralling #curling final shows the power of a slow sport #TeamGB As a whole this #WinterOlympics has been a refreshing change from our enforced diet of overhyped, overcommercialised sport Some real moments of joy between athletes over each other's achievements

ECB not only sold English cricket’s integrity easily and cheaply. They screwed the existing game, including a Blast with record-breaking ticket sales despite no FTA TV or much marketing to do it Shameful

Graves is quoted here saying: “We’ve got the demutualisation to try & do, which is hopefully going to happen in the next 12 months” But "75 per cent of the membership must vote for it from a minimum 50% turnout. There are 5,000-plus voting members" $ Link www.yorkshirepost.co...

Brilliant analysis of a clever stitch-up. Say goodbye to 18 first-class counties because nine of them will be very much second-class with no chance of mobility Note espec the point on how the system is designed to move young talent at non-hosts to hosts substack.com/home/po...

Interesting comparison chart If you sold ALL the H*ndred franchises at the valuations the ECB achieved, you would struggle to buy America's cheapest ice hockey team And hockey is struggling Lots of caveats but we keep being told cricket is the world's 2nd most popular sport 🤥

Excellent Swedish #curling.

Any news from the Sussex meeting last night?

More trouble at Sussex. Chair resigns on the eve of their big meeting. So CEO & chair who presided over the probs will not be there to answer for them. Usually this leads to a debate full of ‘not us, it was them’ answers & ‘let’s move on’ attitude x.com/sussexccc/stat...

Until listening to this, I did not know what to think about the Sussex situation. But here's the ex-CEO with some very woolly and holey arguments about the current situation on the county game Quaffing deep on the ECB Kool-Aid

Sod, cricket. Frankly that is a shambles in England I am officially switching to pithy commentary on #curling

Getting very messy, very quickly at Sussex. Also Cricketer reported Middx may demutualise to get them out of their current problems. And there was me thinking county cricket was being saved

Teflon Tom Harrison - putting the fans first again

The fact that Mickey Arthur is going to spend at least six years of his career trying to build up Derbyshire when he surely has other options gives me hope for county cricket And, as a fan of a non-host team, I am grasping at any straw right now

Depressing yet poignant read. Everyone seems to be shrugging, accepting Indian global leadership & going along with the more-more-more arguments pushed by those who always want more, more, more English authorities in the last 20 yrs wasted big advantages www.thecricketer.com...

🏏 New County Cricket newsletter. Pls share & enjoy 🟣 Results from the county fans survey 🟠 Pigott, Gifford RIP 🔴 New presidents at Essex, Kent & Lancs 🔵 Bashir, Ali & all the player moves 🟡 Essex celebrate 150th anniversary 🟢 Medames de Middx

Cricket teams warm up with football. Should ice hockey teams warm up with cricket like Coventry Blaze? www.tiktok.com/@cove...

🏏 New County Cricket newsletter. Pls share & enjoy 🟣 Results from the county fans survey 🟠 Pigott, Gifford RIP 🔴 New presidents at Essex, Kent & Lancs 🔵 Bashir, Ali & all the player moves 🟡 Essex celebrate 150th anniversary 🟢 Medames de Middx

60 days

Starting work on the next Grumbler newsletter now. It will include the results to my survey about fans' attitudes to the county game 392 respondents, really good spread across all teams

When Rob Key reviews Rob Key’s work it’ll be interesting to know what he thinks of Rob Key saying ‘There wasn’t any formal action taken’ over Wellington incident. And ‘we’ve had 4 years with none of these issues’.

Over the past decade, the ECB have lied consistently and strategically to get what they want so, hey, what’s good for the goose….

Learnt today that Itchykoo Park was based on Valentine's Park, Ilford. Site of some of the greatest days in the history of Essex CCC The memories, as they say, are all too beautiful

Benko in Lions white-ball squads but, if reports are correct, could be leaving Essex to get red-ball cricket opportunities. Hope he stays.

🙏 Community help needed: Can anyone create intelligent visualisations (graphs, charts) for the newsletter from my County Cricket fan survey data. Form below. 390 responses on a Google spreadsheet. V interesting responses. Want to do it justice

Saw bits of BigBash & SA20 finals today Last overs reminiscent of final scene of Truman Show. Not "good afternoon, good evening & good night" But after the hyped climax, the viewers immediately reaching for remote to find next show Disposable sport youtu.be/-_zYn-HHcyA...

Spot on signing

Essex have teased that they are announcing a South African overseas tomorrow Any thoughts? Remember, Elgar is not an overseas so could be Champ or Blast

Why we don’t improve #2 Post Ashes, likes of Cook, Harmison suggested improvement lay in ECB resetting its relationship with county cricket. Can’t do that with Key. Then again, ECB entire strategy marginalises it. It’s sold. Only way we beat Aussies is if CA sells out too.

RIP Norman Gifford. A huge figure in county cricket back in the day wccc.co.uk/news/norm...

This, right here, is why we don't improve. Don't act, get briefing, delay, 'roll the pitch' for the status quo, look for any reason to keep the insiders inside... AAAAAANNNNNNDDDDD... nothing changes

Hell, yes. Take my money.

“Sussex are understood to have been one of five counties in the red zone of the ECB’s ’red, amber, green’ sustainability ratings that assess each club’s financial position last season, and their problems have worsened since.“

@essexcricket.bsky.social is 150 years old! @thegrumbler.bsky.social joined in the celebrations… open.spotify.com/episode/03uG...

Cast-iron legend. One of my favourite sights at Chelmsford is seeing JK and Ray East wandering around at Champ games, deep in convivial conversation. Still mates, still Essex

At the exact date, time & location of the foundation meeting 150 years earlier, Essex CCC celebrated a special birthday Gooch's speech overan - recalled the 100th, got emotional remembering Doug Insole Many old players there. Community work lauded. County cricket is special

Nice crowd in for the 150th birthday party Messers Gooch, Pringle, Acfield, Such and Gallian, Porter, S Cook, Silverwood in the house.

A few early graphs from my County Cricket survey. Keeping the juicy stuff for the next newsletter 373 responses - 49% are 'long-standing', 'active' members, 32% describe themselves as "very interested" non-members. Link to newsletter: countycricket.substa...

Happy Birthday Essex CCC, 150 years old today I’m off to the cathedral later