Then there is the question of whether the ECB will resist or embrace investment into the Hundred from outside as the Indian Premier League team owners build empires. Thompson will also need to address concerns about the financial imbalance of staging revenues for host counties, worth up to £800,000 a year. Greater alignment of the short-form competitions appears essential, such as more player deals in the Hundred being contingent on performances in the Blast. The previously thriving T20 Blast has been squeezed, the Royal London Cup devalued and the County Championship still a predominantly spring/autumn endeavour any new converts via the Hundred find themselves walking into a bitter, unresolved argument. Photograph: Jan Kruger/ECB/Getty Imagesīut anger remains, with English cricket having twisted itself into a pretzel for a tournament that was supposed to promote the entire sport. The increased spotlight for the women’s game is one of the positives of the tournament, but there are divisions that need to be healed. Trent Rockets’ Alana King celebrates her hat-trick in the Hundred against Manchester Originals. The women’s game has been handed a fitting stage – notwithstanding the wage gap – and there has been some early evidence to suggest a new (or at least previously lapsed) audience has been energised by the heavy lick of marketing paint and terrestrial coverage.
Even as a champion of the counties, his stated desire for “collaboration” and “partnership” will be challenged significantly. Only the terrestrial rights from 2025 onwards are outstanding.Īs such, he will need to make the Hundred work and find a way to heal the obvious division it has sown. Thompson voted against the Hundred as Surrey chair but will now lead a governing body that has locked in the tournament’s future until 2028, with an extension to the Sky deal. The ECB’s response to the ICEC report will be among the first stress tests of this pledge, as well as the disciplinary proceedings that resulted from the Yorkshire situation and are likely to come to a head around the same time. Thompson’s successes at Surrey include stewardship of the African-Caribbean engagement programme and he has stated he will work tirelessly to make cricket “the most inclusive sport in the country”. However, the ICEC is reviewing more than 4,000 submissions of evidence from all levels of the pyramid and though conclusions are yet to be formed, a damning verdict is expected after Cindy Butts, its chair, said the sport is “facing a reckoning”. In response to the fallout from Azeem Rafiq’s allegations of racism at Yorkshire, the English game has already set in motion a 12-point plan to tackle racism and promote inclusion and diversity, with a focus on education, dressing room culture, talent pathways and governance. Perhaps the biggest iceberg on the horizon comes when the Independent Commission for Equity in Cricket publishes its report on discrimination this autumn. A voice for the domestic game is set to return, at least, with two first-class chairs to attend board meetings in a non-voting capacity from next month. The makeup of the ECB board from which Thompson stood down in 2018 will probably also be assessed in light of last year’s aborted tour of Pakistan, the (mis)handling of the Yorkshire affair and concerns over a lack of cricket experience. Photograph: Ben Hoskins/Getty Images for Surrey CCC
Richard Thompson speaks during Surrey’s AGM in April. The ECB averaged 458 employees during the year 2021-22 with an annual payroll of £54m, up from 221 and £21m respectively in the space of a decade. Though the ECB is financially strong, there is an expectation its structures will be reviewed, both culturally and with regards to its current, some would say bloated, size. Others will emerge when Thompson begins a process that is top of his to-do list. Johnny Grave, in charge at Cricket West Indies, and Wasim Khan, now at the International Cricket Council, would be strong candidates, while Tim Bostock, the chief executive of Durham, is highly regarded. Whether Gould can be tempted back into cricket after moving to Bristol City last year is another matter. It is inevitable Richard Gould, Thompson’s chief executive at Surrey, will be linked given the success the pair had in turning the county into a financial powerhouse with a growing membership. Thompson fills only part of the leadership vacuum at the ECB, with a permanent chief executive still required after Tom Harrison signed off in May and Clare Connor took the reins temporarily.
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