More ridicule will pour down – and it should all have been so different
A golden opportunity was wasted a decade ago and the damage lives on, writes Nick Hoult
English cricket had its chance a decade ago to launch a new competition that would rival the Indian Premier League and revolutionise the game in this country. Entitled the “EPL” the proposal was to create nine new franchises based at the Test grounds, owned by private investors paying a total of £450million for a 10-year franchise licence. A company called New T20 would be set up with the England and Wales Cricket Board and the team owners as shareholders. The 25-day tournament, featuring 47 matches, would involve new teams, new identities and bring in an estimated £50million in TV rights and £47million in profits in the first year. There would be a salary cap of £1.5million for the new teams (£500,000 more than the new Hundred competition).
There were potential investors from India and America. One company, SCP Worldwide, based in New York, owned football and ice hockey franchises and told this newspaper cricket was “certainly in our sweet spot” having seen the success of the first IPL. One line in the EPL report is striking 10 years later: “There is an opportunity for one more major Twenty20 tournament globally. Launching that tournament in England represents a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.”
Looking back at the quality of debate around that proposal is so depressing. Small counties lined up to clobber it, Giles Clarke, the then chairman, who relied on their support for his voter base, was an opponent from the off and it sank at the next ECB board meeting. Clarke had his own answer to the IPL, a man named Stanford.
A decade later most of the counties are still struggling financially, either saddled by huge debts, or with cash-flow problems that require early payments every year from the ECB to get them through the winter.
Colin Graves was chairman of Yorkshire when the EPL was proposed in 2008.
He made no secret of his support for a new city-based tournament when he canvassed to replace Clarke in 2015. He was such a popular choice there was no need for an election and he was even handed a five-year term, longer than Clarke had, so he would not have to make short-term political decisions to shore up his position. It was a coronation. He was appointed to build for the future.
His first decision was to bring in Tom Harrison as chief executive, an expert at television rights. He in turn soon raided his old company, IMG, for the same talent that helped set up the IPL. English cricket was heading in one direction.
Last year the new Twenty20 competition was voted through with only three counties objecting. Money had talked, as had the desperation to pay interest on debts, or the February gas bill. But then it all started to go wrong for the ECB. The unworkable system in which English cricket exists started to squeeze those involved.
With so many stakeholders, each with their own agenda and motive, compromise was inevitable. The counties did not want two Twenty20 competitions; the broadcasters (particularly the BBC) would like something shorter that fits easier into prime-time schedules. Hence the ECB went to the counties in April with their new plan: the Hundred.
There was no specific market research on the Hundred. The numbers I have seen look the same as some of those used to build the All Stars grass-roots project 12 months ago, which told the ECB that cricket had lost its young audience and that many found the game confusing because of its complicated laws and jargon.
There was genuine fear within
Most of the counties are still struggling financially, either straddled with debts or cash issues
the ECB in April that the counties would reject the Hundred. The debate was played out to the background of boardroom change that would turn nasty as those opposed to Graves resigned and made public their concerns over his leadership. The ECB feared the Hundred would cause revolution and Graves would be deposed.
In fact it was a doddle to persuade the counties to fall in line. They had their money, and were glad to let the ECB take on the risk of the Hundred knowing their Blast competition would remain the only T20 tournament.
The mistake the ECB made, and one accepted in private by some of its top executives, is they forgot to sell the concept to those that matter the most: the public. There has been no proper launch, no attempt to win over existing supporters or consult with them, the players were completely left out to an extent that they felt taken for granted. Apart from one hastily arranged telephone conference call on the day the competition was announced Harrison and other employed ECB executives have been invisible in public.
Two years from now the new Hundred will be well under way. It is not long.
The amount of work still to be done is astounding. The brainstorming goes on. The latest idea, to have 12-man teams with a super sub – as The Telegraph reveals on these pages – will be met with the ridicule and criticism that has greeted almost every aspect of this competition. The ECB is in the situation now that whatever it proposes will be shot down by some.
It is a shame and brings back memories of that debate 10 years ago over the EPL.