RICHARD THOMPSON Q&A: Quitting the ECB board, the future of county cricket and getting kids interested

EXCLUSIVE: The Cricketer sat down with Surrey chairman Richard Thompson to discuss his decision to step down from the ECB board. Listen to the full audio of the interview here

Talk us through your decision to resign from the ECB board...

“It was taken reluctantly.

“There was a chairman’s meeting that was called by the category Cs, an emergency meeting to deal with some of the issues and news that was circulating that needed to be resolved.

“I’d hoped that meeting would overcome the problems but if anything it made them worse.

“I was really confused, as an ECB director, how the Glamorgan payment was made and I’d hoped that that meeting would be the opportunity to diffuse that situation by maybe announcing a review or some kind of independent analysis of how it came about.

“Clearly, at that meeting, the ECB were reluctant to do that. Two days later it was announced that there would be an independent review.

“A number of things were bubbling under and the important thing is, when you’re a director of any organisation, you want to feel like you are aware of what’s going on, particularly when you’re elected by your peers, which I was.

“I felt I was finding things out by reading them in the paper by other people. I got the impression that other county chairman frankly couldn’t believe that I didn’t know, and I didn’t know.

“Then you start to get to a stage (when you think) ‘well, what’s the point?’

How many of you were in that boat… finding out through other people?

“I was the only one that was on the ECB board as a category A chairman, so my situation is different. I expected to know but even being in the tent I didn’t know, so that was my frustration.

Why didn’t you know?

“The way decisions were made, they were made in a very small group, and not extended beyond that small group.

Is this something that you’ve found to be a problem throughout your time on that board?

“It was only recently when those decisions were made, that decisions of that magnitude were being made.

“Whether it was the Glamorgan payment, whether it was the decision to issue a defamation case against ESPN, they all happened in rapid succession.

“Prior to that, the big points around the new governance changes and the new MOU and new T20 competition… the game, in the last three years, has done an incredible amount, if anything too much, and has put the game under too much stress while so much change is taking place.

“It’s probably that the organisation has failed to communicate to itself and its stakeholders over the implications of these changes and the consequences these changes will lead to.

“As a director, I probably expected to know more than I did, or certainly people who elected me expected me to know more than I did.

Does this change the relationship between Surrey and the ECB?

“I don’t think so. My board and my committee were very aware that after that meeting I had some issues. I made the people here very aware of what I was going to do. I am in that position because I am chairman of Surrey, first and foremost, and we are a members club and I am elected.

“I respect the wishes of the members. It’s one of the great nuances of the game. It’s a different way of becoming a chairman of something but when you’re elected it’s a different level of responsibility, and I felt that responsibility.

“The challenges that we had with T20 - we’ve been handed an offer to be one of those grounds but we’ve yet to see the real details of what that looks like, but we’ve got to take our membership with us.

“It’s important that the club are aware of what the implications are of these decisions and what they mean for the club.

Is cricket divided in this country at the moment?

“The problem is you’ve got the fear of the category Bs and Cs - you’ve got a group of 10 clubs there who are probably feeling the As are going to become enriched by the new competition and that has automatically created, by default, a division. The ECB have got to correct that division to make sure they are not disaffected and they don’t feel second-class counties.

“Red-ball cricket has got to play a big part in this. There’s got to be a real sense that we can’t allow red-ball cricket to become diminished any further or devalued any more.

“The game is probably divided between formats and Test-match and non-Test match grounds. In that sense, the game does feel quite divided but with the new competition still two years away, there is a lot still to be worked out.

“It’s the unintended consequence of a few of those decisions which need to be thought through quite carefully.

Your public stance has always been that these competitions should always been for the good of all 18 counties… do you feel this is a stance shared by all 18 counties and do you feel it is shared by the ECB?

“I don’t know. We are all elected chairmen, we are all there to represent the wishes of our counties. I get the feeling that your traditional county member - and I am one of those - will see the gold standard to be Championship cricket. That’s where legacies are left and careers are made.

“Money is made elsewhere, possibly, but it’s striking that balance that one tournament doesn’t cannibalise or devalue the other.

“Without T20, I don’t even want to imagine where the game would be but ultimately we control the game and you don’t want to get into a situation where there is too much of one and not enough of the other.

“We can just about cram everything in at the moment so scheduling is going to be crucial to ensure that the success of one tournament does not come at the expense of another.

If you were in charge of Leicestershire or Derbyshire at the moment, would you be worried about the future of your club?

“I think it’s for them, really. Those counties have done incredibly well, if you look at their success in producing white-ball cricketers.

“Those smaller counties have had to make decisions based on financial imperatives over where they put the emphasis, white ball or red ball.

“That’s probably why you’ve got a Division Two made up of a lot of those sides. They’ve probably focused their attention on white-ball cricket because it generates more income. I wish that wasn’t the case, it should be that way.

How much are revenues weighted towards white-ball cricket?

“The gate receipts are huge. There’s no comparison really. Your red-ball cricket is effectively subsidised by central payment from the ECB but white-ball cricket is where you can get gate receipts in a way that you can’t begin to in red-ball cricket.

“Red-ball cricket is driven by membership income. We focus very heavily on membership income and have now got well over 10,000 members. We’ve got the strongest membership base since the 70s, so we’ve shown we’re still very relevant to people who want to come and watch red-ball or white-ball cricket here.

Is there ever a correct balance to be struck of when each format is played in an English summer?

“There’s no other sport that’s got this problem. It must be incredibly difficult to switch from a Championship game into a T20 game, mentally and physically.

“There other issue, which I feel sometimes gets lost, is the English summer. When we have played T20 in a block before and you get a bad two weeks, you can lose half the season.

“If you spread a tournament out over a longer period, the less weather has an effect on the outcome. The more you condense it, it becomes a lottery and the weather plays too big a part in the outcome.

“Blocks work more in countries which have guaranteed sunshine.

If you were in charge, how would you want to see it structured?

“I’d ask the counties.

A democratic vote?

“You’ve got to reach a broader audience. If you’re asking the counties, you’re asking the existing audience. There is a strong argument to broaden the base, and that’s what the new competition has got to do, but I think the core stakeholders have got to understand the arguments for and against and understand the challenges.

“The problem you have had is probably too many decisions are being made without enough genuine debate.

“Consultation is one thing but debate is another. Debate tends to get the right answer.

“I think debate should be encouraged, to come up with the right answer.

“As a game, I can’t think of many seasons where there hasn’t been a tweak here or a tweak there. You’d love to go into a season and feel like it has the same rhythm as the previous year.

“In that six-month block there must be a way that you can run this where, taking into account all the issues and challenges, the broadcasters, members, spectators and players can all be satisfied.

That debate… does it start from the very bottom up? Or does it take part at various levels of representation?

“It’s up to the county members to elect their committees and then their boards are created. It’s up to those boards and committees, who have the time, knowledge and insight, to make the right decisions on behalf of their members.

“Cricket is the only national sport owned by its membership. Rugby clubs and football clubs are controlled by oligarchs but cricket isn’t and cricket should be more democratic. Cricket should ensure its stakeholders’ views are listened to because they own the club.

“Members can’t earn a dividend. Their dividend is success and a trophy, and seeing us produce England cricketers, and feeling like they have a stake in that.

“Cricket, in its ownership structure, should have stronger debate and should engage its supporter base more.

Is that where the problem has been recently? Has that level of member ownership not stretched to ECB decisions?

“I don’t know. Every county is different. Not every county is owned by its membership. It’s how their chairmen are mandated. I’m very open with our membership, board and committee in terms of the decisions I take.

“You’re not going to come up with the right answer every time but I’m not going to be charged with not giving people the chance to debate it.

Did you not get the chance to debate those decisions (the TMG payments)?

“Those decisions I was unaware of.

It seems amazing that a member of a major sporting body’s board was unaware…

“That’s why an enquiry is important, to understand why. Some of the members of the board were involved, and when it comes to big Test match decisions I’d be perceived to be conflicted so I couldn’t be part of that decision. Others, I am.

“There would be reasons not to be involved in certain decisions because if Surrey are part of the bidding process then I shouldn’t be, in other cases I should be. There is discretion that needs to be exercised both ways there.

Do you think your stepping down accelerated the announcement of an inquiry?

“I think it probably significantly contributed to it. If my resignation achieved anything, then that was a positive outcome but it was certainly not why I resigned.

“If it came as a result of my resignation then I’m pleased.

How do you see the way the ECB have communicated their stratagem - from everyone from members to board members?

“I think trust needs to be restored. We need to work very hard. There are 18 stakeholders and all have an equal voice and an equal share.

“We’re all category A grounds, ultimately, which is a county ground. We should look at it in that context.

“This division of Bs, Cs, As, whatevers is lost on most people. We are all counties here to win trophies and produce England cricketers. That’s our function and that’s what we’re here to do.

Have we complicated the game too much in the last decade?

“We may have become a victim of our own success by producing a great format that we then lost control of and the IPL managed to capitalise on more successfully than we did.

“There’s lots of things we’ve done very well and there are some things we could have done better.

“I absolutely applaud the fact that we’re going in front of a paywall now and we’ve at least got a balanced broadcast strategy.

“I feel like we were the only sport to put all our product behind a paywall, which guaranteed financial success or should have done but a large number of counties were financially impact anyway.

“We’ve got a lot to thank Sky for but they are now happy to share this new competition with the BBC in the way they share other sports with other broadcasters. Hopefully this new, more balanced broadcast strategy will benefit the game.

Is it enough product in front of the paywall?

“It’s a start. We’ll wait and see.

You would have grown up watching cricket on free-to-air. An entire generation now hasn’t. How does Surrey go about getting those people interested in the game?

“Our Friday nights have been essential for that. It’s not a school night and you feel like we’ve engaged a far bigger audience.

“Sixty-five per cent of the people who came to a T20 game last year had never been to a game before, so that proves how we’re reaching a new audience. We’re just going through images for the AGM and one of my favourites is of hundreds and hundreds of kids at T20 games, in a stand that we’ve effectively had to build to accommodate them.

“I’m really proud of Kids For A Quid. We’re the only Test match ground to do that in T20. There are very few things in London where mum and dad can come to with the kids for £50.

“One of the reasons our membership is growing is because so many junior members are becoming senior members. Our yields can be quite low for some of our T20 games - if you think we have 5,000 kids in here for £1 when at other Test venues those 5,000 seats would have sold for £25, that reduces our yield but increases our reach into that market.

 

“We’ve seen that graph go up and up. The investments we made in 2010 and 2011… we’re really starting to reap the benefit now.