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Post by Wicked Cricket on Jul 24, 2015 8:38:17 GMT
‘Barbara, Elvis and Breakfast on a Malibu Beach’
_______________________________________________________________ Initially, it was the production of ‘Oblomov’ at the Lyric Theatre, Hammersmith, in the mid 1960s where Barbara’s week long dalliance with Elvis Presley first originated. For much later, she performed alongside Spike Milligan after taking over the role from other leading ladies including Joan Greenwood who had earlier walked out on the show claiming, “You cannot possibly work with that lunatic!” Even so, the staging had received rave reviews and after 5 weeks transferred to the West End under a new title ‘Son of Oblomov’ and became the overnight smash-hit of the season. Enter Barbara. Elvis Presley and Norman Taurog on the Set of 'Spinout'One night the Director of Elvis Presley’s latest movie ‘Spinout’, Norman Taurog, came to see the show and was bowled over by Barbara’s performance. “You must come to Hollywood,” he asserted. She duly flew over for a screen test where Barbara met Elvis Presley in an ‘MGM Studio’ corridor. Taurog introduced her. www.youtube.com/watch?v=exewxQ0vi2Q“I remember when I met Elvis I wasn’t that impressed,” recalls Barbara. “His opening line was ‘How yer doing’? and I replied ‘Just trying to find my way around’. My knees didn’t knock. I didn’t faint.” But unbeknown to her Presley was as keen as a hound dog. “Next thing I know Elvis sent me a note saying ‘Let me help yer’. I agreed and we were chauffeur-driven to Malibu. But what I didn’t realise was that as company there were 4 bodyguards alongside Colonel Parker. When I suggested I cook him an English breakfast on the beach, there was him and five others to cater for. And twenty minutes later we were surrounded by a mass of females.” Barbara C1966The dalliance lasted less than a week but after returning to England, Elvis showered Barbara with flowers and cards along with various transatlantic phone calls. “He never came to England though,” continued Barbara. “Previously, he landed at Glasgow Prestwick Airport for a couple of hours in 1960 on his way home from his army stint in Germany and that was it.” Spinout PosterBarbara kept the many cards and notes sent to her by Elvis in a box for almost 50 years before selling them recently on Ebay. Not surprisingly, these items fetched a large amount of money - money she gave to her great niece. “I just wish I had gained his autograph on 100 more cards,” laughed Barbara. “Imagine their value today.” (Copyright: Wicked Cricket Blog: July 2015)
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Post by Wicked Cricket on Jul 29, 2015 13:46:18 GMT
"Me, Myself and My Ego"
______________________________ Love him or loathe him, Piers Morgan is an emotional law unto himself. ‘Private Eye’ nicknames him ‘Piers Moron’ which is ‘ridiculous’ (one of PMs favourite Twitter words). In fact, he is a highly intelligent, calculated, talented and extremely successful individual who is driven by an overzealous need for attention. Instead, Morgan is a living, breathing ego that not only has its own personality but like Richard E Grant’s pimple in the film ‘How to Get Ahead in Advertising’ controls every facet of Morgan’s life. Hail Piergo! www.youtube.com/watch?v=jJtrRwOi2xoHow doth the monster growLast weekend is a classic example of Piergo at work. Twitter is its voice-box. Like some out of control ‘Jurrassic Park’ genetic experiment, Piergo was in gorging tweeting mode like Hunter S Thompson on a psychedelia drug binge and cricket is the trigger. Not even America’s gun laws come close. Invited to Sir Ian Botham’s 60th birthday bash at ‘Wormsley’ on Saturday as a celebrity player, Piergo was seeking satisfaction and it gained this in abundance. www.youtube.com/watch?v=RCgAqNSAD1UAfter the bruising humiliation of facing Brett Lee in the Aussie nets 18 months ago, Piergo required redemption and who should be in the opposing team but seamer Glenn McGrath, another of England’s former demons. After the expected pre-match banter... Morgan
One question, would you prefer I hit you later onto the pavilion roof or into the trees?
McGrathProbably the trees....that's where the ambulance is parked!
...not only did Morgan strike a four off McGrath’s first ball but later caught and bowled the Aussie for a golden duck. Piergo’s Twitter went into overdrive. Not only uploading photo after photo of the event including one showing the moment before the catch and even a video of that 4 as Aggers commentates but to cap it all, who should captain Morgan’s team but Andrew Strauss whom he’d called “a vindictive moron” only a few months ago leading him to tweet. “This could be a long afternoon!” “Tense - Captain Strauss just caught me whistling in the dressing-room”Meanwhile, Morgan surrounded himself with celeb cricketing chums throughout the weekend like a Roman Emperor feting his gladiators. Friday evening saw him at a Shane Warne Foundation Charity event in the Long Room at Lord’s where everyone from Freddie, Goughie, Beefy and Heals to Merv, Warnie, Pigeon and Tubby attended. And on Sunday, Piers Morgan’s own 50th birthday bash and his annual family XI against Newick CC saw Shane Warne, Adam Hollioake, Simon Jones and Tino Best join him. Not forgetting the great man of cricket, Sir Vivien Richards, who had flown over especially to be with his brother-at-arms Sir Ian Botham, where through Morgan’s friendship with Sarah Lianne, Beefy’s daughter, Piergo had managed to persuade SVR to join his family side the following day. But all to no avail. The Sunday match against Newick CC was abandoned to rain and has been rescheduled for Bank Holiday Monday, August 31st. However much you may despise Piergo and what ‘it’ stands for, as readers will know I have a tempered admiration for Piers Morgan. In a PC ‘doin’ the right thing’ fay ‘don’t rock the boat’ anodyne and increasingly sanitised big brother world, Morgan’s mount everest-sized ego does the opposite. The world requires people like him. His audacious, arrogant, vocal sabre rattling at the American people over their archaic and destructive gun laws via his former CNN show has caused such a ripple-effect that now President Barack Obama has the voice and confidence to criticise his own deep-seated country’s laws. And this has placed Morgan back in the current affairs limelight once more, talking eruditely and passionately on the subject. Cricket is one thing but having an influence to change the world’s most powerful country is quite another. So, hail to Piergo. Stealing the limelight at Lord's However, uncomfortable, brusque, rude, outspoken and irritating ‘it’ can be, Morgan’s 4.53m Twitter followers can read his tweets like a guilty pleasure and be refreshed, cheered or irritated and angry but know that there are still some people out there who are rebelling against the increasing suffocation of what you can and can’t say. PS: Don’t be surprised if Andrew Strauss is invited to PMs rescheduled family match. No doubt KP will be waiting in the Newick CC dressing- room for a tete-a-tete! twitter.com/piersmorgan?lang=en
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Post by Wicked Cricket on Aug 3, 2015 7:26:54 GMT
Review of the film ‘Death of a Gentleman’ ________________________________It’s the buzz of cricket-town - a film project that took 3 years in the making - it is a plea from the heart - something is terribly wrong with the governance of our noble sport played and watched by 1bn people - what can we do about it? Welcome to ‘Death of a Gentleman’. A 1 hour and 40 minute documentary packed full of so much sentimentality, the lashings of an over-buttered piece of toast tastes cholesterol-free. The film-makers, thirty-something cricket journos, Sam Collins and Jarrod Kimber, claim they stumbled across one of the “biggest scandals in the world” during the filming, yet their smoking gun is more a wispa bar. This is not so much a David Icke ‘The Biggest Secret’ or a Tom Mangold ‘Panorama’ expose but a ‘Famous Five’ rambling global adventure. vimeo.com/128602718Former Etonian Collins has a natural commentary voice with timbres of CMJ whereas Kimber is more the brash Melbourne Aussie with a fascination for conspiracy theories, yet the two make an odd but likable couple. The video has some wonderful moments. Giles Clarke is his usual pompous self, sneering behind those reptile eyes and no doubt thinking, “Why are these two squirts daring to question my cricketing governance?” About his alliance with Allen Stanford, Clarke sneers, “Next question!” and when a picture of him and Stanford is published on a cricket website soon after, Collins and Kimber find themselves in a paranoid world of ECB media passes going missing and a sense they are not welcome. The film’s premise is simple. Our wonderful game has been hijacked by greed, power and the endless pursuit of more where the most precious things from the past have been lost along the way. There are a queue of respected cricket aficionados supporting this viewpoint from Michael Holding, Mark Nicholas and Jonathan Agnew to Lalit Modi, Tony Greig and Haroon Lorgat. Collins & KimberA theme running throughout is the rise and fall of former Aussie international batsman, Ed Cowans, who represents the purity of Test cricket and everything about it that is good. Whereas, the villain of the piece, apart from Clarke, is Narayananaswami Srinivasan, the Indian cement magnet and former President of the BCCI and present Chairman of the ICC whom as the film points out has political tentacles in every aspect of Indian cricketing governance thus making him untouchable. And while the odd couple gently touch on the match-fixing aspects of the IPL and the tournament which has made the BCCI so wealthy and powerful, if they had wanted to turn this into a David Icke spectacular, then the matter of Indian cricket being controlled and corrupted by the Asian underworld would have been uncovered. No doubt, they feared more than a few media passes going missing. An interesting question raised is why the ICC refuse to allow T20 cricket to become an Olympic sport. Clarke sneers, “It is not in our interests.” Yet, China who presently gains a piffling yearly $30,000 from the ICC to promote the sport, its former President, Ethsan Mani, claims the Chinese Government have decreed they would pour $20m a year into the game if it did become part of the Olympics. Given the country’s population is 1.4bn, just 10% would mean an additional 104m people playing cricket. The overall sense of the film is the powerlessness that lovers of the sport feel over the recent and forthcoming major changes. Today, cricket is controlled by a triumvirate cabal of India, Australia and England where vested and self-interests rule and as the Lord Woolf report states where the body’s financial transparency and basic accountability barely exist. ‘Wispa bar’ David Becker, former head of the ICC legal affairs says, “People are frightened to speak out” and the reason why he quit his job was because of the ongoing shenanigans which now occur in dark Dubai corridors. Voting antics which when compared to FIFA seem like a vicar’s tea party in comparison. The 'Untouchable'The film is easy to knock. The ‘Famous Five’ waggy dog enthusiasm, in particular, but at least the documentary was made and by young journalists who genuinely care about cricket’s future. Yet, the film has little new to report and merely confirms what most already know or suspect. As for the IPL, Lalit Modi admits, “I have created a monster” and points out an astonishing fact. Around $2bn is bet on ‘each’ tournament match thus creating a whole new world economy. Given there are 60 matches = $120bn, this is higher than the annual GDP of the world’s poorest 150 countries from Ecuador to Sri Lanka and Uruguay to Libya. India rules the roost amidst bitter political in-fighting. Indian cricket is controlled by the Asian Underworld. Corruption is deep-seated within the continent’s psyche. And gambling is endemic and a way of life. Sign a petition, yes, but like one of Clarke’s priceless sneers, it will be dismissed to the triumvirate bin. Cynicism or reality? If you want to break India’s power base and change things for the better, you go direct to its achilles heel and snap it. Cricket corruption. But to achieve that you would need an army of ‘X-Men’. _________________________ Verdict: A stout effort, B++. _________________________ ‘Death of a Gentleman’ goes on general release from August 7th.deathofagentlemanfilm.com/
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Post by hhsussex on Aug 3, 2015 10:11:25 GMT
Good post fluffy, nicely balanced. I'm looking forward to seeing this film, and like you, can see that in straining for obvious targets - the pantomime villains Clarke and Srinivasan - it could go a little over the top and miss some of the nuances of practical deal-making.
One adverse reaction to it has come from Asia, where many have protested that it could be used as a demonisation of BCCI, and in so doing continue the old colonial stereotypes of talking a lot about the merits of non- white English stock sides, and then decrying them when the natives get uppity and start pointing out inconvenient truths about where the balance of power lies nowadays. Its certainly true that way past the Packer revolution the game was governed by a duology composed of the English authority(whether MCC or TCCB) on one side and a power base dominated by Australia.
The centre of illegal betting, and hence corruption, is the huge marketplace of Indian illegal betting. To change this doesn't just need changes to the BCCI, but political and social change in India itself, accepting that with rapidly growing wealth and the emergence of a middle class there must be a reappraisal of moral and ethical customs. Unfortunately that vision of a democratic, secular government somehow steering a mass of conflicting religious taboos and inherited cultures into a new and fairer industrialised age died off in the violence of the 80s and early 90s with the rise of militant groups and the BJP replacing Congress as the moral compass. The problems of gangsterism, greed and corruption in Indian society go far beyond cricket.
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Post by Wicked Cricket on Aug 4, 2015 11:23:07 GMT
Behind the Scenes: Royal London Cup: Sussex v Middlesex: Hove ___________________________________________________________________________These 50 over matches come thick and fast and Monday’s game at Hove had the added attraction of SKY being in attendance. It is always fun having the boys back in town. The Media Centre is awash with former International cricketers, there is the banter to overhear, and like a traveling circus with their gigantic pantechnicons in tow, it is an event that livens up a routine media day. The usual suspects appeared holding their gold-plated pensions. It seems if you join the SKY commentary team, you join up for life. They included Nick Knight, Dominic Cork, Paul Allott and new boy Mark Butcher (he’s only been there 5 years!) Even local lad Matt Prior made an appearance, perhaps someone SKY are grooming after his recent retirement? "The Boys are Back in Town" - Just Two of the Five SKY Trucks Parked at HoveTo add additional colour, Angus Fraser in his role as Middlesex Director of Cricket and England selector sat himself down in the journo section, well away from SKY prying eyes. That is until Dominic Cork strode in. “Come on Angus is Mark Wood playing or not?” The banter was good humoured. Angus refused to give in to Cork’s bullying which led to: Cork: "Angus, why are you so grumpy? You need to cheer up, be more happy." Fraser: "I am very happy until I meet twats like you!"Meanwhile, Nick Knight had joined the journos, no doubt hiding away from the joshing of Cork. His one-liner retorts are not as measured as Fraser’s. He left soon after Cork entered the room. What becomes apparent is the commentary team know just how lucky they are in their roles. They travel the world, watch the sport they love and are treated like royalty. As Knight has said, “I could be digging ditches for a living.” Even their food comes in a special catering truck, cooked and served by Polish chef Adam Zajfert. The quality is superb. Over 30 people are employed by SKY including sparks, cameramen and TV producers for each 50 over match. The Evening MenuLemon & Herb Chicken Pulled BBQ Pork Mediterranean Tuna Spinach Red Onion & Haloumi Puff Pastry Pie
*
Peas, Baby Corn, Red Gabbage, New Potatoes, Chips, Rice
*
Chocolate Fudge Cake or Sticky Toffee with Cream or Custard(Be careful of the ‘Red Gabbage’) That Snowy GlareIn the blue-paneled ‘Players Club Hospitality Suite’ former Sussex players attended. They included Ian Greig, Robin Martin-Jenkins and John Snow and outside the club shop, the photographic company ‘Just Pose’, employed by the ECB to attend the 'Royal London Cup' matches, were offering FREE snaps for people to stand in front of a Lords backdrop. John Reid & Shaun Easton ('Just Pose')John Reid and Shaun Easton, the two running the show, explained they had been to Northants, Derbyshire and Glamorgan and after attending Hove were next off to The Oval and Edgbaston. “You need to explain to people what it’s all about,” said John. “They can be a bit suspicious, at first.” It seemed suspicion had got the better of the Hove crowd as few took up the FREE offer. www.just-pose.com/
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Post by Wicked Cricket on Aug 6, 2015 15:15:21 GMT
'From Euphoria to Financial Disaster'
______________________________________________ Amidst the euphoria of England thrashing Australia at Trentbridge and potentially going 3-1 up and winning the Ashes, have sympathy for the debt-ridden TMGs and their creditors who cheered loud and hard after their ground gained such a prized Test for 2015, heavily banking on a financial bonanza to help ease their present fiscal nightmare. Given county cricket is over £90m in debt, an Ashes Test attracts the most amount of money for a TMG and its local community. Neil Foster from Durham City Council, a councillor holding the portfolio for economic regeneration, explains: "Research shows that just one major Test match can attract an additional £20m to the area, with hotels and restaurants particularly benefiting. Anything which commercially improves the local community and attracts new people to the area is worth an investment." The 3rd Ashes Test was a Financial Disaster for Edgbaston
And this is the primary reason why Birmingham City Council lent £20m to Warwickshire CCC, why Cardiff City Council gave £6.5m to Glamorgan and why other lenders too became involved. Therefore, when a Test match ends after three days, like at Edgbaston, the community can lose up to £8m from cancellation of hotel bookings, the loss of restaurant, pubs, cafe and public transport revenues alongside the two days of hospitality, drink, food and ticket revenues at the ground. Edgbaston were expecting to sell 100,000 tickets over the five days, meaning the two most attractive days, Saturday and Sunday were exempt, and over 40,000 tickets or 40% had to be refunded. And to make it worse, rumours are spreading that Edgbaston did not have insurance covering this loss of revenue, whereas Trentbridge, who have few debt problems, allegedly do. For the Birmingham City Council (BCC), this loss of income is a disaster. Ian Ward must be rueing the Council's £20m loan
Ian Ward, deputy chairman of BCC, explained in October 2013: "From July, we granted the club an 18-month payment break and extended the loan period to 32 years. Edgbaston was not given an Ashes Test for 2013 and this will have a detrimental effect on their income." But, of course, what gave the BCC the confidence to offer such a payment holiday was that they knew in 2015 an Ashes Test was coming the ground’s way, their first since 2009. Little did they know the economic outcome. If Test matches do become a 4 day affair as has been mooted by ECB Chairman Colin Graves, this means a further loss of revenue for TMGs, making the ability to pay off their debts even more challenging to achieve. And why, City Councils like Birmingham may have no choice but to place pressure on the ECB to create an EPL. Blackmail is simple. "Set up a Franchise tournament or we will place ‘x’ TMG into bankruptcy!"
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Post by leedsgull on Aug 6, 2015 17:55:48 GMT
This obsession with a franchise tournament as the panacea to all cricket's perceived woes is getting tiresome. I refuse to believe that there is a vast untapped audience for cricket. Football returns on Saturday and even the Ashes will be a mere footnote to most media outlets. Next year there are an Olympics and European football tournament so cricket will barely get a mention. That is the reality of the situation in my opinion.
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Post by Wicked Cricket on Aug 7, 2015 9:11:59 GMT
lg,
The stark reality is nothing else will help county cricket resolve their £90m debt except a successful Franchise tournament. Will this occur? Probably not. To persuade 18 counties to agree will be the toughest challenge the ECB have faced yet. As for Warwickshire, the Birmingham City Council may have to consider a financial haircut as did Cardiff CC when forced a 70% crewcut with Glamorgan.
It is humiliating for county cricket that some clubs have got themselves into such financial straits but there we are. It is the local taxpayers who suffer, the very people that counties want to attract to watch their games! If it wasn't for the 'Narnia-bubble' that the 18 counties live in, then in normal business practice:
Hampshire, Glamorgan, Yorkshire, Kent, Warwickshire, Leicestershire and Northamptonshire could be bankrupt and fold and this natural culling might leave us with around 12 county clubs - easily sufficient to produce cricketers for England.
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Post by Wicked Cricket on Aug 11, 2015 7:39:38 GMT
An International Match At Hove Not To Be Missed
__________________________________________________________________ Only just over 2 weeks to go until the International Women’s Ashes T20 at Hove and the club are excited by the interest shown in the match. Two years ago the second 50 ODI at the ground was won by England by 51 runs followed two days later with another win, this time by 5 wickets. Both games were well attended with over 2,000 people for each one. www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/cricket/23799052The evening match on Friday, August 28th, begins at 7pm and will be played under floodlights. Tickets are free for Members, £5 for adults and £1 for children. Sussex women cricketers Sarah Taylor and Georgia Elwiss could be playing along with Kent’s Charlotte Edwards, Lydia Greenway and Laura Marsh. England & Sussex Keeper/Bat Sarah TaylorMatch hospitality is also available. For £40+VAT you can enjoy a two-course meal in the Boundary Rooms before watching the T20 action from a private viewing area on the outfield edge, followed by a cheeseboard in the interval between innings. The package also includes a reception drink upon arrival and match day programme. www.sussexcricket.co.uk/womens-ashesAnother attraction is a ‘Vintage Afternoon Tea’ available at £12.50 in the ‘Spen Cama Pavilion’. Starting at 4pm, on arrival, each person will receive a glass of Pimms. To book your seat, Tel: 01273 827106. The Hove game is the penultimate women’s Ashes match and will be played a few days after the men’s Ashes finishes at ‘The Oval’ and the ceremonial acceptance of the urn.
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Post by hhsussex on Aug 11, 2015 8:19:47 GMT
An International Match At Hove Not To Be Missed
__________________________________________________________________ Only just over 2 weeks to go until the International Women’s Ashes T20 at Hove and the club are excited by the interest shown in the match. Two years ago the comparable game was won by England - an easy 7 wickets win with 4 overs still left - which wrapped up a resounding 12-4 points Ashes victory. Much to the club’s delight over 2,000 people attended. www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/cricket/23912488The evening match on Friday, August 28th, begins at 7pm and will be played under floodlights. Tickets are free for Members, £5 for adults and £1 for children. Sussex women cricketers Sarah Taylor and Georgia Elwiss could be playing along with Kent’s Charlotte Edwards, Lydia Greenway and Laura Marsh. England & Sussex Keeper/Bat Sarah TaylorMatch hospitality is also available. For £40+VAT you can enjoy a two-course meal in the Boundary Rooms before watching the T20 action from a private viewing area on the outfield edge, followed by a cheeseboard in the interval between innings. The package also includes a reception drink upon arrival and match day programme. www.sussexcricket.co.uk/womens-ashesAnother attraction is a ‘Vintage Afternoon Tea’ available at £12.50 in the ‘Spen Cama Pavilion’. Starting at 4pm, on arrival, each person will receive a glass of Pimms. To book your seat, Tel: 01273 827106. The Hove game is the penultimate women’s Ashes match and will be played a few days after the men’s Ashes finishes at ‘The Oval’ and the ceremonial acceptance of the urn. Excellent post fluffy and I note that Sussex are tweeting that 4000 tickets have already been sold. That is interesting in view of the prices you've quoted, and against the prices charged for admission to the other internationals in this series: For the Test match at Canterbury daily admission runs from £10 (ground only, booked in advance) to £20 (on the day,with stand admission) and £5 for the fiunal day. For the T20 at Chelmford prices are from £5 unallocated seating to £12 for allocated seats At the SWALEC the women's T20 is being sold as a double-header with the men's T20 to follow, and pricing is from £30 to £45 All of those exclude concessions for Juniors, which are token charges, but it is a bit surprising to see that Sussex are selling this attractive product so very cheaply - particularly as Jim May has gone on record with statements about "not devaluing" the product for the men's championship game. While I'm delighted that Sussex look like filling the ground at a fiver, no restrictions on seating, per head, this does look like seriously under-valuing a major Womens International in a way that the club wouldn't dream of doing if it was a men's game. I shall look forward to going and seeing some entertaining cricket: the 50 over game two years ago was easily the most attractive game at Hove that season and exceptionally well supported.
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Post by Wicked Cricket on Aug 11, 2015 8:49:48 GMT
Hhs, Thank you for tactfully pointing out my error concerning a mix up with the 50 over and T20 Ashes two years ago. Oops! I shall change this immediately. As you say this international match is superb value and one could see up to 5,000 people attending. Women's cricket is on the march and quickly gaining popularity. Meanwhile, the T20 QF tomorrow is practically a sell-out. Just a handful of general admission tickets available. This match would have sold out by now if it wasn't for an earlier 'iffy' forecast. 'BBC Weather' changes its tune more times than a chameleon on heat. www.bbc.co.uk/weather/2654710?day=1
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Post by flashblade on Aug 11, 2015 8:52:39 GMT
I'll be there - very much looking forward to it.
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Post by fraudster on Aug 11, 2015 15:50:16 GMT
Hey, shouldn't Sarah Taylor be in the men's team by now???
Seriously, I keep hearing stuff like this on here: "The stark reality is nothing else will help county cricket resolve their £90m debt except a successful Franchise tournament." As it's largely from you S&F and nobody else who says it seems able to substantiate it, maybe you can - how will a franchise tournament generate more cash than the 18 counties do?
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Post by Wicked Cricket on Aug 11, 2015 16:46:25 GMT
fraudy,
For the TMGs to pay off their £90m+ debt, revenue from Test matches won't do it; county Championship matches won't do it; certainly not the 'Royal London Cup'; not even the Blast will do it. Grounds like Edgbaston cannot even pay off the interest on their loans. Therefore, the future is bleak because either the creditors will be forced a financial haircut as did Cardiff City Council over Glamorgan (70%), or the creditors will place the TMG into bankruptcy. Most county clubs are simply not self-sufficient and are propped up by an annual ECB handout of around £2m.
Does it matter?
No Council will place their county club into liquidation because it might be viewed as political suicide, so counties gain special preferential treatment unlike normal folk.
Only a Franchise tournament has a chance of raising the necessary revenue but the investment from the ECB would need to be big. The BBL has shown the way where revenue right across the tournament has kept surging each year since 2011. And by this year, all franchises should break even and some like Luke Wright's team, Melbourne Stars, are now into profit. But critics argue Australia is very different to England.
We won't know unless the ECB invest £40m or so into an EPL over a 5 year period where the biggest income stream will come from the media rights. The aim is to create a new, different, far larger market altogether to the present county and England set-up. Otherwise, clubs like Warwickshire, Yorkshire and others may be stifled by debt for decades to come.
The potential revenue streams can be seen via 'Cricket Australia' whose revenue shot up 76% during the 2013-2014 season to $300m of which 65-70% came from domestic cricket with the largest slice being the BBL. Network 10 saw 1.9m Aussies watching the 2014 final + those who attended the actual game. Over 650,000 attended the 35 matches during 2013-2014.
The present Australian population is 23.8m. The present UK population is close to 65m.
Logic suggests x3 the BBL figures. So, instead of the 850,000 who watched the Blast this season (many more games), an EPL 'could' attract upwards of 3m, depending on the number of matches, where the revenue gained might be distributed amongst those TMGs in most urgent need of money and the rest evenly distributed amongst the non-TMGs.
The problem with this scenario is, it is all hypothetical. No-one knows if there is a new vibrant and far larger market for Franchise T20 in the UK unless the ECB takes that gamble.
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Post by flashblade on Aug 11, 2015 16:56:40 GMT
Quote: "the revenue gained could be distributed amongst those TMGs in most urgent need of money and the rest
evenly distributed amongst the non-TMGs. "
This is the only point on which I'd take issue, fluffy: my gut feeling is that the profits should be distributed equally among the counties. Why should the likes of Sussex subsidise those counties who have over-borrowed? Surely. one of the selling points to non TMGs is that they'll get an equal share of the profits from a tournament that is being established for the good of English cricket as a whole.
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