Northamptonshire Steelbacks ditch military imagery in new white-ball emblem

NICK FRIEND: The county have retained the Steelbacks brand name as part of a push to attract new generations

On Northamptonshire’s official club website, there is a page posing a straightforward question. ‘Why are we known as the Steelbacks?’

It has been this way officially in one-day cricket since 1999, when the 18 first-class counties added informal suffixes to beef up their white-ball identities ahead of a rejuvenated National League, sponsored by insurance company CGU and including midweek matches played out under floodlights.

Several of the nicknames coined 22 years ago – in order to be “relevant to young supporters”, according to an ECB spokesperson of the time – have withstood the game’s journey since, coming to the fore with the rise of the franchise circuit.

But while a few are no longer associated at all – Derbyshire Scorpions, for example – and some have retained only a casual connection, others – like Northamptonshire Steelbacks – remain intertwined as concrete brands.

Over time, club chief executive Ray Payne tells The Cricketer, the Steelbacks meaning has come to represent every value that he sees in the county. And for that reason, none of this is changing.

But a year of lockdowns has given marketing teams and strategic planners a rare opportunity to take stock. For those at Wantage Road, that has meant analysing the club’s white-ball badge – until now, featuring the face of a cartoon soldier wearing a tall blue hat, with more than a hint of clipart to its design.

Why? Because, to answer the conundrum at the top of this piece, that is the Steelback’s origin: a term of respect deriving from the characteristics attributed to the Northamptonshire Regiment, used as a tribute to the resolve of those particular servicemen.

Their battle honours range from engagements in Quebec and Egypt through to the two World Wars, with recorded use of the word dating back to the Siege of Gibraltar between 1779 and 1783.

^{Out with the old and in with the new}

And so, news that Northamptonshire are replacing the military imagery with a symbolic S equates to both a shift and a continuation.

“In terms of the reference to the location, grit, determination and working as a team, they were words that we wanted to stay with, and we feel as though the Steelbacks do that,” says Payne.

“When we looked at the missions and values of what we’re trying to achieve, we wrote a list of key words: inclusivity, participation, inspiring a new generation. And then we looked at our emblem and asked if it said all of those things.

“We didn’t feel that an eighteenth-century infantryman was perhaps represented in that. But we didn’t want to change our name: we didn’t want to be known as something else.”

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Payne added that he didn’t view the Steelback affiliation with the armed forces as “problematic” in the quest to attract a new generation of supporters and that the club remains proud of its heritage, but that its obscure meaning made the logo alteration a logical step.

“When people were asked where it had come from, the percentage that knew was very low,” he explains. “We’ve not really lost that and the values that we drew from it 20-odd years ago – the fact that the regiment still exists and we’re in communication with them, they have visited the ground in the past.

“But it is really just the image that is portraying what the Steelbacks are about today. Most people hadn’t really registered and didn’t know the origin of our name. So, it wasn’t problematic, but this is something to give that name more resonance.

“The Steelbacks brand is strong in that the name is strong, but the badge never really seemed to capture people’s interest or imagination. I guess we knew that, partly through our retail and sales and partly through the results when we did brand recognition testing.”

^{Northamptonshire Steelbacks' new white-ball emblem, as displayed on their playing shirt}

The expectation is that a summer more typical than the last will lead to increased interest in the partial rebrand. As well as starring on the club’s limited-over strips, the logo will be worn by players along the junior pathway, while a new leisurewear range and training kit are also in the works.

If that is one aspect of the change, the other is less tangible. For one, the club’s recreational arm has been renamed Steelbacks in the Community.

“The emblem will become relevant when it’s on our playing kit,” adds Payne. “More importantly, it’s the strategy behind attracting young people – boys or girls – to the game. It’s having a strategy that runs through our pathway and encourages them to watch the game.”

Central to these plans, of course, is a return to some kind of normality. Northamptonshire are due to host Kent on April 8 in their first game of the 2021 campaign, having last welcomed fans for a County Championship victory over Durham in September 2019 that took Adam Rossington’s side to the brink of a promotion sealed the following week in a rain-affected draw at Bristol.

Payne is cautiously hopeful, however, about the year ahead. “My hunch is we will play,” he suggests of beginning the season on time. “I just don’t know if we’ll have a crowd for those first couple of fixtures.”

Could the game cope with a second successive year of behind-closed-doors action?

“It will be so bad for the club and, I think, for the sport if we have another whole season with no supporters,” he admits. “We are there to entertain and we are there for people to watch professional sportsmen play. It was a hollow experience of playing four-day games with nobody watching at all. I think the players felt it as well; to raise their standards for empty stadia is very hard.

“As a club, financially, one year was tough. Two would be very tough. I’m optimistic about the season. I suppose those first couple of games are a little bit at risk, but I’d like to think beyond that – with capacity levels tempered slightly and social distancing – I’m sure we can put on a good show for a good number of people.”

^{Northamptonshire reached last season's T20 Blast quarter-finals, before losing to Gloucestershire}

In 2019, the County Ground hosted the most recent of its seven women’s T20Is – both against West Indies, while the venue last staged a women’s ODI in 2004. “We’re hopeful that we’ll have them again,” says Payne.

In the women’s domestic game, Northamptonshire are among the central counties involved in the make-up of the Sunrisers regional hub – alongside Middlesex and Essex, and the squad has been training at the club’s indoor base through the winter.

“I think I see that very much as our responsibility to make sure it doesn’t become too London-centric,” he explains. “It is up to us at Northampton to make sure that we are represented. There has to be a brand awareness, which will take a while.

“But it needs to be as well known in Northampton as it does in Middlesex or Essex, and I think in the first year we’ve achieved that. Hopefully, once I get a full fixture list, we’ll be able to host some Sunrisers games as well.”

Payne describes these details as “building blocks”, which will help in the development of Northamptonshire Steelbacks 2.0. “But I think there’s a job as well to be done with the boys’ game,” he says.

“Cricket has been missing from the repertoire for a year – as have other sports. Speaking to my colleagues in Northampton with football and rugby, every sport has the challenge of reengaging them. Hopefully, that won’t be too difficult.

“The timing for cricket, if you follow the way the government are pointing us, could work nicely with the start of our season, looking to Easter camps and potentially running more than we would normally.

“I think parents would be keen to see their children do something physical; children would be delighted to be running around. I think there is a good opportunity. I think revitalising the Steelbacks is part of that; there’s a new story to talk about and a new look.”

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