Lancashire and the Intellectual Decline of County Cricket + Its Called Test for a Reason

If I ever get good enough at writing and my content is a valuable enough resource that drives Reasonable Revenue, the idea of traveling to different parts of the world to Cover Sports, Meet Interesting People, Eat Great Food, and Embrace New Cultures seems appealing. Unfortunately, I am not a Good Writer and My Content although different hasn’t cut through. At least that’s what my metrics tell me. For context, I am sharing this from a bench on Calle de Lagasca in the Salamanca District of Madrid.

Sorry, I had to move. A Professional Leaf Blower was blowing leaves in my face. I didn’t think much of it at the time but after my walk towards Retiro Park I wonder if that was by design.

Lets Talk Cricket!!!

In a recent interview posted on Cricinfo, Lancashire CEO Daniel Gidney made clear his interest in partnering with an IPL Franchise on Cricket Operations. While it makes a lot of sense to partner with IPL Franchises on Business and Commercial Operations because of the size of the Indian Market, the interest in Cricket Operations is a sad commentary on the Intellectual State of County Cricket.

IPL Franchises for the most part are run like Mom and Pop Shops. The Operating Models are mostly consistent with India’s Family Driven Corporate Culture. Despite more than 15 Years of IPL Cricket, the IPL doesn’t have a Retail Footprint, a League-Wide Technical Partner, Connect with Film and Pop Culture, or an Advanced Cricket Ecosystem. We are not talking about NVIDIA, Apple, Amazon, or OpenAI. Yet Counties like Lancashire who should be thought leaders in our game are keen to follow this archaic model. I understand that the ECB is keen to Attract Maximum Investment, but the absence of a Diverse Group of Investors in the Hundred and County Cricket would be a mistake.

Surprisingly, Manchester City Football Club reside in Lancashire’s Backyard. They are arguably one of the best run sporting institutions in the world. City’s Corporate Governance, Organizational Structure, Organizational Functionality, and Alignment is simply Best In-Class. The counter to that might be that City had unlimited resources. To me that is and always will be a lazy retort, because the matters I stated above have nothing to do with Free Cash Flow.

Fine! Forget About City! What about the ECB? I believe that English Cricket underperforms its Cricket and Commercial Potential. That said, relative to the Cricket World it is a Dynamic Organization. On the Cricket Side, the ECB hired Nathan Leamon, Andy Flower, and Mo Bobat. It has tried to develop a Robust Scouting and Data Analytics Team. They also hired Brendon McCullum. On the Business Side, the ECB was the first Cricket Board who tried to Commercialize T20 Cricket. While I think the Execution of the Hundred could have been better, it is an Experiment that every Entrepreneur would support.

Side Note: The Jamaica Tallawahs hired a 29 Year Old MBA Graduate out of Rutgers University to Lead Cricket and Business Operations.

If the Hundred and English Cricket is to reach its Optimal Potential, it must look beyond Cricket’s Stale Operating Model. Cricket is not a Sport known for Research, Innovation, or Ambition. If anything, these concepts are looked down upon. Hence, borrowing ideas from Cricket won’t get you far when you’re competing for eyeballs against Football, TikTok, X, and Fill in the Blank.In the Coming Days, I will dive a little deeper into Matt’s Interview with Daniel Gidney.

One More Thing

With all the Talk around The Hundred and Attracting Investment, the ECB at some point needs to realize their most valuable Product and Entity is County Cricket, the Counties, and England’s Cricket Grounds.

A Second Thing

I will only touch on this here, but England’s Summer Cricket Schedule is Inconsistent with Creating Optimal Value. This should be England’s Theoretical Summer Structure in Tentpole Order.

Year 1
- Ireland
- Australia

Year 2
- Sri Lanka
- India

Year 3
- New Zealand
- Pakistan

Year 4
- West Indies or the 8th Ranked Team in the ICC Rankings*
- South Africa

It’s Called Test for a Reason and West Indies/Sri Lanka in the Same Summer is not Good for English Cricket or Test Cricket.