EXCLUSIVE: Surrey chairman Thompson explains decision to quit ECB board and says trust needs to be restored with counties

SAM MORSHEAD: Richard Thompson believes that there has been a fundamental breakdown in communication between the game’s top-most administrators and those who represent county membership

^{Richard Thompson, the Surrey chairman}

Surrey chairman Richard Thompson says the ECB need to reestablish a bond of trust with the 18 first-class counties.

Thompson resigned from the ECB board in March, citing his frustration at not being consulted about decisions made by the senior panel.

In an exclusive interview with The Cricketer, Thompson accepted that English domestic cricket is divided over the matter of a new franchise competition, currently going by the working title of The Hundred, which is due to begin in 2020 amid concerns over the future prosperity of the 10 counties who have not been granted the right to be a host venue.

And he believes that there has been a fundamental breakdown in communication between the game’s top-most administrators and those who represent county membership.

“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,” he says.

^{Thompson resigned from the ECB board earlier this year}

“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.

“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.”

Thompson resigned his post on the ECB board in the wake of an emergency meeting at Lord’s in March, which followed The Times’ revelations that Glamorgan had been paid £2.5million in compensation after the SWALEC Stadium was overlooked for Test-match cricket in the 2020-2024 cycle.

He says he had been unaware of the decision to pay out the sum, and that he was not made aware of the actioning of legal proceedings against ESPNcricinfo and the outlet’s senior correspondent, George Dobell.

Thompson felt the Lord’s meeting did not calm troubled waters.

“If anything it made them worse,” he says.

“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. I got the impression that other county chairmen 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?’

Within two days of Thompson’s resignation, the ECB confirmed an independent review of the process which led to the Glamorgan payment, with Colin Graves saying: “The board agree that it will be valuable to have an external review into the process around the payment.”

The Surrey chairman feels his decision to step down when he did - he was due to make a decision on his future in time for the ECB AGM in May anyway, given the organisation’s impending governance restructure - “significantly contributed” to the timing of the announcement.

“If my resignation achieved anything, then that was a positive outcome but it was certainly not why I resigned,” he says.

^{Surrey are having success attracting new, young members}

Thompson, who believes ardently in the importance of red-ball cricket and wants to see every county benefit from the ECB’s bold T20 initiative, says the sport needs to stay true to its principles of member ownership.

“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,” he says.

“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.”

Thompson is adamant that the relationship between the ECB and Surrey, one of its most important partners on the domestic circuit, will not be affected.

With his cricket focus now fully on the county game, he can set about the juggling act of fitting four competitions, now including the ECB’s franchise tournament into a six-month window.

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

Surrey, despite their reservations, voted in favour of exploring the format, while the counties approved the notion of 100-ball cricket at a meeting with the ECB on Thursday.

The county has at its head a staunch Championship advocate, but Thompson is also a businessman.

“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,” he says.

“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.”

The county remains one of the ECB's most important partners domestically

Thompson is proud of the progress his county has made in their membership drive; now 10,000-plus strong and growing. He cites the number of teenagers graduating from Surrey’s Hollioake Club - their junior membership - to the full adult package.

He shows The Cricketer a selection of images being considered for the board’s imminent AGM presentation, pictures of The Oval flooded with youngsters, by way of validating the club policy of £1 entry for children.

“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,” he says.

“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.”

County cricket is in a precarious position, constantly warring with itself over the best method to sustain tradition, embrace innovation and maximise revenue, with The Hundred just the latest instalment.

The Cricketer asks Thompson if the game has over-complicated itself in the pursuit of happiness over the past 15 years.

“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,” he says.

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

FULL Q&A: READ THE CRICKETER'S ENTIRE CONVERSATION WITH RICHARD THOMPSON HERE