ECB chief executive became a defining figure as scandals, failure at Test level and the Hundred left English cricket fighting with itselfNot so long ago someone put a plastic turd in an envelope and posted it to Tom Harrison at the England and Wales Cricket Board. Think of it as a parting gift from the disaffected of English cricket, to go with Harrison’s share of the £2.1m in executive bonuses the ECB paid out this year. Harrison, who has a background in sales and marketing, is someone who imagines he would be able to win anyone over if they would only sit down and listen to him for 15 minutes one-on-one over a coffee. He seemed utterly nonplussed to discover...
If he cannot prove he is no longer the man who engaged in ‘foul sexism’ on a WhatsApp group, how does he represent all of us?The rules of “Stat Chat” were simple enough. The game would begin the night after Joe Clarke returned from England Lions duty in the United Arab Emirates. “Got to be freshies,” Alex Hepburn wrote in their shared WhatsApp group, meaning women they had not slept with before. “Names, age, black or white, your rating, their rating.”“No reheats allowed,” Clarke confirmed, meaning women they had slept with before. Continue reading...
New Zealander is impressive and his appointment as head coach may prove to be an inspired decision – but it is extraordinary, given that he has not done a lot of coachingHaving rolled the dice on an untested director of cricket in Rob Key, the England and Wales Cricket Board has kept gambling. Ben Stokes has had only one first-class game as captain but he is a very popular and highly regarded player and has already shown encouraging confidence in his leadership and his decision‑making.He can be an excellent leader for the England Test team, but my instinct was that he would benefit from having an experienced coach beside him, someone who could make sure the weight of his job...
Being cool and knowing the right people seems to trump qualifications or experience in the ECB’s brave new worldBlessed are the Blokes, for they shall inherit the earth. There has been a steady evolution in the governing class of English cricket. For many decades the sport was ruled by the Blazers. The Blazers were faceless. They smelt of crusted port and Chesterfield sofas. They ruled the committee room with an iron liver-spotted fist. Over time they staked out the summer sport as their own private fiefdom.The Blazers were eventually flushed out by the Marketing Men. The Marketing Men were rainmakers and deal-brokers. They didn’t wear blazers. They wore ties and suits. They knew about revenue streams. They made deals and...
Former Kent captain turned broadcaster, who has laid down his microphone and put his head on the block as director of men’s cricket, is not to be underestimatedIn between England’s ruinous Ashes campaign and the largely dismal epilogue in the Caribbean last month, a panel of Rob Key, Mike Atherton and Nasser Hussain recorded a podcast for Sky in which they analysed the Test team’s myriad problems and discussed how they would change things.Key, though supposedly steering the debate as host, was pressed for his views. After detailed responses that have been widely reported over the past few days and which included his belief that player power needs addressing, Atherton joked that the only solution was to take charge of...