Richard Gould leaves Surrey with mixed emotions: "Clubs are being given money in lieu of purpose"

HUW TURBERVILL: Gould has been outspoken. He’s been a thorn in the ECB’s side. Once touted as a potential chief executive of the national governing body, it’s fair to say that The Hundred cheerleaders will probably be relieved to see him go

County cricket’s loss, football’s gain. Richard Gould is leaving Surrey as chief executive after a financially impressive decade to try to take his beloved Bristol City into the promised land.

He is happy with his legacy at The Oval, but is worried about The Hundred’s impact on the domestic game.

Surrey’s scepticism about it isn’t a secret. Let’s face it, they don’t need it. Their Blast games sell out. Gould, 51, has been outspoken. He’s been a thorn in the ECB’s side. Once touted as a potential chief executive of the national governing body, it’s fair to say that The Hundred cheerleaders will probably be relieved to see him go. 

“I think the ECB could perhaps understand the role and value of county clubs better,” he told The Cricketer ahead of his departure in June.

“I also wonder if the ECB are overstretching themselves. Governing bodies like the FA and RFU look at governance, grassroots and the running of the international teams. But the ECB organise competitions themselves, and over the last three or four years we have seen a deepening of that centralisation. The ECB are now running teams – in The Hundred, and women’s cricket. It’s been good to see investment, but it’s diluting the purpose of clubs. Clubs are being given money in lieu of purpose. If you lose purpose you lose the ability to sustain yourselves in the long term.

“It’s easy to underestimate the value of the county network. Surrey have developed players for 170 years. Look at the annual cost of setting up new teams for The Hundred. More money per team per year than they are putting individually into Surrey, Somerset, Yorkshire and so on… That’s difficult to understand sometimes.

“These new teams will exist for 33 days a year. They have no player pathways. No academy. No age-group teams. No regional community projects. They don’t have international venues. Our domestic clubs do so much: they provide focus and pride.

^{Richard Gould is to leave Surrey next month}

“Our preference was for a two-division T20. Six or seven years ago that was also the majority view of the counties. That only changed when the ECB said that there was no terrestrial broadcast interest in county cricket. They said they could get £35m a year for a competition with new teams. They said they would get far less – £5m – if it was a county competition. I’m sceptical about that.

“I grew up watching Ian Botham smash sixes in the dark at Taunton on the telly on a Sunday evening. And look at the huge interest in streaming recently – so I know that there is interest. Counties went for the £1.3m a year, however, in effect losing their purpose. We have to make the best of it, see how it resolves itself, but I’m sceptical about the franchise/pop-up model.”

For the record, the ECB would argue that they did secure a £1.1bn TV deal that saw the return of the BBC, although this was before the 100-ball format was announced.

“I don’t want this all to be negative, though,” said Gould. “I’d like to praise the ECB for what they have done for counties during the pandemic.” 

Surrey have revealed a £1.2m loss before tax in 2020/21; Covid hitting them especially hard because of lost hospitality revenue.

Mike Atherton wrote in The Times recently about control in the context of ownership of an asset to monetise in a time of (expected) declining TV revenues for bilateral international cricket. 

It makes me wonder what English cricket would have been like if Gould had become ECB chief executive, as was once touted. “Tom [Harrison] got the gig and actually that gave me more time at Surrey. We are an institution going back to 1845, with a history that includes administrative giants like Charles Alcock. It’s been a privilege to lead the club and I hope that I have built on the success of my predecessors. The One Oval Square development is taking shape.

“Surrey have produced a constant stream of players for England under director of cricket Alec Stewart, and while that has made it difficult to win trophies, we have had notable successes, like the 2018 County Championship. 

“We have increased our membership from 7,000 to 13,500 since 2011 and that shows we are a welcoming and progressive club.

“As I speak it’s been 610 days since we had a normal crowd, but hopefully fans will now return. Before the pandemic we had 20,000-plus crowds for Blast games. Our chairman Richard Thompson was keen to push Surrey as a club in its own rights, as before the counties with Test grounds tended to focus on lucrative international matches. 

“I’m really grateful to the whole management team, the board and the members – it’s like having a shed-load of management consultants on tap.”

Is taking charge of a Championship football club bigger than running English cricket’s biggest county? With a Test ground that has achieved extraordinary commercial success? I don’t know. Gould is a West Country man, however; his previous job was chief executive of Somerset CCC, and his father, Bobby, played for Bristol City (1972–73) and Bristol Rovers (1977–78), then managed the latter in two spells (1981–83 and 1985–87). It’s going home.

“I went to school in Bristol. I served in the army down there, then I became commercial director of Bristol City. My two daughters are at university there. It’s not just a lifestyle choice, though. It’s time for fresh leadership at Surrey, and a fresh challenge for me. 

“Bristol City are a big club with aspirations to reach the Premier League. Owner Steve Lansdown and his son Jon, the chairman, have invested in the club and sport in the area for 20 years, so it’s going to be a hugely interesting project.”

He will be back at The Oval, though – watching the fourth Test against India, from September 2–6.

This interview is taken from the next issue of The Cricketer Magazine, out on Thursday. To subscribes, click here