New Graves blunder has ECB in crisis
English cricket was plunged into a new crisis last night when the ECB’s gaffe-prone chairman claimed that young people did not like the game. Colin graves, who had previously dubbed the successful Twenty20 Blast ‘mediocre’, said the ECB had to introduce the controversial new The hundred format because cricket was not appealing to a new, young audience. The outspoken Yorkshireman also contradicted ECB chief executive Tom harrison and risked mutiny among county professionals when he insisted that the new competition, to be introduced in two years time, was ‘set in stone’. ‘The younger generation, whether you like it or not, are just not attracted to cricket,’ graves told the BBC. ‘They
Soon, English cricket may well be hankering for those carefree days when the worst thing the ECB chairman ever did was get into bed with an American fraudster called Allen Stanford and allow him to hire out the England team. Certainly Giles Clarke, who sold the soul of English cricket to a Texan devil in an attempt to keep up with the Twenty20 revolution, could be forgiven a wry smile when he sees what a total mess his successor has made of a similar aim.
Colin Graves’s attempts to justify the ECB’s abomination of a rival to the short form that is taking over the world game — in an interview with the BBC’s Dan Roan yesterday — were so breathtakingly inept that it is hard to see a way back for him.
Perhaps he thought that in speaking out against critics of The Hundred, which has been derided since it was revealed insipidly and clumsily, he would show firm leadership and convince doubters he knew what he was doing. He was wrong. Instead, he just revealed the shambolic state of the governing body.
Just look at what he said and consider it for a moment. ‘The younger generation, whether you like it or not, are just not attracted to cricket,’ said Graves. ‘They want something different. They want it to be more exciting. They want it shorter. They want it simpler to understand.’
Excuse me? As Gerald Ratner moments go, this was way, way bigger than when Graves took control at the ECB four years ago and dismissed the Twenty20 Blast, a huge success story, as ‘mediocre’. These are extraordinary comments.
The chairman’s assertion that the younger generation don’t like cricket came on the very day the ECB’s excellent All Stars Cricket initiative, aimed at youngsters who very much want to give the game a go, announced that 50,000 kids had signed up to take part this summer.
It also came less than a week after the ECB launched another excellent initiative aimed at the thousands of young British Asians who are clearly interested in the game but are somehow lost to formal English cricket.
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the outburst came less than a week after a crisis meeting between ECB chief executive Tom Harrison and new boss of The Hundred, Sanjay Patel, with concerned player representatives from across the professional game.
Harrison, who seems to be distancing himself farther from his scattergun chairman by the day, was at pains at Edgbaston in that meeting to assure players that The Hundred was ‘ not set in stone’. oh, yes it is, roared English cricket’s pantomime villain.
‘Yes,’ Graves told the BBC when asked if The Hundred was definitely going ahead in its proposed form. ‘As far as we’re concerned,’ he added, ‘as far as the ECB board is concerned, the new competition board is in place to virtually launch this tournament. We will build it and we will work with the players.’
The question remains as to whether the players will work with the ECB on a tournament that is meant to be taking place in just two years’ time. They could easily derail it by refusing to take part. Especially now.
Daryl Mitchell, the players’ union chairman who warned the ECB last week they would not have a competition without his members’ co-operation, responded on Twitter yesterday when he said: ‘He (Graves) should let Tom Harrison know then. That’s not what he told us last week!’
Truly, it is difficult to remember a time when even the ECB were in as big a mess as this. It is as if every lover of cricket in this country is being disregarded in a bonkers attempt to locate a ‘new’ audience. one that does not like cricket. And the ECB’s attempts to get their message across have been laughable.
Graves went on to admit that the controversial 10-ball over which, apparently, will bring brilliant tactical innovation to The Hundred, might not even happen. And he denied it is the broadcasters, in particular the BBC, who are demanding a shorter competition than T20 to fit into schedules.
So, why on earth is this happening? ‘The main thing we’ve got to do is make sure the game is sustainable going forward,’ insisted Graves. ‘As chairman of the ECB, my job is to look after English cricket and that’s what I’m doing. Younger generations, children, British Asians, were not connecting with the game. That’s one of the reasons why we came up with The Hundred. If other formats were attracting that audience, we wouldn’t have this issue. We have to try to attract the audience we haven’t got.’
Perhaps he means an audience who don’t like cricket. An audience, as Private Eye had it this week, who would prefer their sport to have goalposts rather than stumps. An audience who may not exist, unlike the new audience clearly being attracted to the game by the existing T20 Blast.
Surrey, with whom Graves is at war as he childishly threatens to exclude them from The Hundred because they dare to question it, report that 47 per cent of those who have bought tickets for this year’s T20 competition have not seen cricket before. Is that not something to crow about, Mr Chairman? or are they ‘mediocre’ supporters to whom the game would rather turn up its nose?
When Graves took over at the ECB, widely lauded for his rescue act at Yorkshire, he made three statements that made me question his suitability for office. He called the Blast ‘mediocre’ and used the same word to describe the West Indies team just before England played them.
He also told Kevin Pietersen he might have a future in the England team — when clearly he did not — and should stake his claim with big county scores. Pietersen hit a triple century for Surrey and that was still not enough for a recall.
now this. It is the worst example yet of the ‘I know best’ style of management that may have worked for Graves in business but cannot work when the future of the national summer game is at stake. The comments make Graves’s position untenable. He should resign now and let people who know what they are doing sort out the mess that The Hundred threatens to create.