County cricket returns with so much more at stake than just glory

Breakthrough: the Oval crowd for Surrey’s match with Middlesex was sparse but still hugely significant
PA
Will Macpherson30 July 2020

After Test matches three weeks ago and ODIs today , county cricket will officially return on Saturday.

It has a truncated, temporary new competition, The Bob Willis Trophy, and will be missing plenty of top talent to England’s biosecure bubbles and overseas and Kolpak players to Covid travel restrictions. But it is back, and has perhaps never been as welcome, widely watchable or as important — for its fans, or sport across the country.

At the Kia Oval from Saturday, Surrey play Middlesex in the first first-class London derby for three years. For the opening two days, there will be 2,500 fans spread across all 20 blocks of the 1845 Stand, which will be at 30 per cent capacity. Warwickshire v Northamptonshire at Edgbaston will have the same attendance.

Surrey and Middlesex met in a friendly this week, with 1,000 fans sat in five blocks of the same stand, which is now being scaled up for the next phase of the government’s pilots for the return of spectators to sport.

As Surrey chief executive Richard Gould says: “It is still more than half empty. It’s not an imposing place to be. Walk into any of the high streets near here, it’s far busier. It’s a comfortable, safe place to be.”

Also in attendance on Monday were representatives from the Premier League and Wimbledon, inspecting how the safe return of fans to sport might work.

Getting these trials on has meant a lot of hard work in a very short period of time, involving cooperation from the counties, TFL, Lambeth Council, DCMS and UK Sport. They will be watching keenly again as county cricket continues its role as a very willing guinea pig.

“We are hoping that if it goes well more games here will be able to trial having fans in the ground, and we can further develop the trials to help fans return in bigger numbers soon,” says Gould.

“We have also been battling to come up with some numbers that will make it financially stable. The trouble is very few sports organisations can survive on 30 per cent capacity for anything more than a short period. We have to get inventive and creative, safety allowing, to get more people in sooner rather than later.

“At the top end of sport there’s a lot of broadcast money, but drop down the leagues where they rely more on spectators to keep afloat, and there is more risk.”

Needless to say Covid has been desperately tough on counties. Some, such as Hampshire, are still not paying their players in full.

Surrey are known as the wealthiest county, with revenue streams besides cricket, but are going through a redundancy process. “Our business is stuffed this year,” says Gould. “We were due to have a turnover of £37million, we will be lucky to do 14. It’s that stark for us.”

Needless to say, all counties would love to welcome fans back for the Vitality Blast, which is due to start at the end of next month, and know these pilots are important.

We have to get inventive and creative, safety allowing,  to get more people in sooner rather  than later "

&#13; <p>Richard Gould, Surrey CEO</p>&#13;

Whether that is possible or not, there are other ways to watch. For this week’s friendly at the Oval, there were 92,000 unique viewers online, while 38,000 tuned in for the women’s London Cup between Surrey and Middlesex last week.

Cricket’s new broadcast deal handed counties freer rein over streaming, allowing multiple moving cameras to improve the viewer experience on Facebook Watch (and therefore Smart TVs) and the club’s website.

Reaching the point of safe return has not been simple. County chiefs have held weekly Zoom meetings for the past three months, while the ECB’s Professional Game Group has been vital.

When conversations started in April, there were “a lot of bemused looks”, according to Gould, when getting games on was referenced. Aware of the consequences if cricket was the only sport to go 18 months without action, conversations came a long way, fast.

“There are disagreements, but the counties are very collaborative,” says Gould. “Compare our collaboration to other sports, and it’s different gravy. To be back playing this weekend is a significant achievement for the sport.”

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in