The ECB introduced central contracts in 2000.   Under the central contracts system the best players remain "associated" with a county but the ECB pays their wages, controls when they play and provides coaching. Central contracts have also improved the pay of England players relative to their county colleagues .  In the 17 years since their introduction central contracts have increased in numbers and were extended to England's elite women cricketers in 2014. The ECB's accounts for the period to 31 January 2017 showed 42 cricketing employees compared with 12 central contracts in 2000. The introduction of central contracts was a belated recognition of the centrality of the England teams to cricket in Britain, both as the focus of interest and drivers of revenue.  The point of central contracts was to improve playing standards.  On the original introduction of central contracts Simon Pack, then England International Teams Director, said: "Centrally contrac...

An experiment.  I have a theory that most 20/20 games are 50/50 affairs.  Not that it's all down to luck (although luck I'm sure plays a part.) but because the margin of victory is normally a couple of sixes versus a couple of attempted sixes caught on the boundary.  If I'm right you should be able to make a small amount of money betting on 20/20 whenever a team is odds against. Looking at this weekend's 20/20s I get the following bets (courtesy of odds checker) Durham 6/5             Made £24 Leicestershire 6/4   Made £30 Warwickshire 13/8  Lost  £20 Lancashire 15/13     Lost £20 Middlesex 8/7         Lost £20 Kent 19/17              Lost20 Gloucestshire 11/10 Lost £20 Leicestershire 7/4 Made £35 Kent 6/5                Made £24 I'll have £20 on each and update on Monday. Made to end Saturday £13. Sunday'...

Being a bit of a sad man I was listening to Sky's "Cricket Writers on TV" podcast   [Much improved by the return to a studio format.] There was an exchange around about the 38 minute mark: Paul Allot: "Ben Stokes is probably the best all rounder in the world." Neal Manthorp "Do you need to put the probably in there?" Paul Allot: "No I don't". The assertion that Stokes was the best all rounder in the world and by a distance wasn't challenged by the two other guests: Phil Walker of "All Out Cricket" and Tom Collomosse of "The Evening Standard." But the ICC  world rankings  have the top 5 all rounders as: 1.  Ravindra Jadeja 2. Shakib Al Hasan 3. Ravichandran Ashwin 4. Moeen Ali 5. Ben Stokes Career averages support the ICC rankings; Jadeja, Shakib and Ashwin all have test batting averages higher than their bowling averages Moeen and Stokes have test batting averages very simil...

Cricket Australia and the Australian Cricketers' Association have reached an agreement on player remuneration for a five year period starting on 30 June 2017(the deal is back dated).  The agreement means that Australia will tour  Bangladesh  later this month. The details of the deal seem to be  Australian cricketers get guaranteed payments over the 5 years of the agreement of between Aus $ 459 million and $500 million.   If Cricket Australia's revenues exceed $1.67b but are less than $1.96b the players' get 19% of the excess.   For revenues above $1.96b the players apparently get a 27.5% share. The 27.5% share of revenues above $1.96b is  in the  Sydney Morning Herald  and providing it is accurate would suggest the players got a good deal.  There are two lines in the accounts of Cricket Australia: "Players and Umpires", and "Team Performance", which could include players' remuneration. Allowing for this uncertainty the cu...

One of the curios of the ECB accounts is payments made to a company called Reigndei. According to the accounts for the year to 31 January 2017 Reigndei is "An insurance company beneficially owned by the 18 first class counties, MCC and MCCA."  Presumably the ECB's payments are to insure against bad weather at international matches.   Reigndei is a very profitable entity.  In the period 2005 - 2017 premiums paid to Reigndei by the ECB were £6.3m greater than the claims paid to the ECB by Reigndei.  Reigndei also earns interest on premiums received and the true profitability would be somewhat higher.  As an international insurance company I don't think Reigndei would pay tax in Guernsey and there is no indication in the ECB accounts of any controlled foreign company tax charge in respect of Reigndei. What is not clear is what Reigndei does with the money it accumulates.  The company is resident in  Guernsey  and as a consequnce  th...

In its accounts for the year to 31 January the England and Wales Cricket Board shows costs of £157m split between costs of sales of £20m and administration costs of £137m. But there is nothing in the accounts that explains how the money is spent.  There is nothing wrong in the lack of disclosure in terms of UK GAAP or The Companies Act but as the ECB is a public benefit entity receiving funding from Sports England, additional disclosure would be best practice. Reading through the accounts it is possible to identify certain items of expenditure and these are set out in the table at the foot of this post. The source column in the table identifies where in the 2017 accounts information is disclosed. The biggest expense is the £66m paid to the first class and minor counties, and the the MCC (not clear why ECB is making payments to the MCC.  The ECB is based at Lord's but presumably this is rent free / contribution to costs only.)  If you add the payments mad...

Cricket history is one of my interests.  I'm currently writing a book on the England vs West Indies test series of 1933 and the return series in the West Indies in 1935. Doing this I spent some time going through the MCC archives where I came across correspondence on negotiations between the West Indies Board of Control and their three star players: Learie Constantine, George Headley and Manny Martindale over contracts for the 1939 tour of England. I thought it was interesting stuff but didn't fit in with the book, so instead it became an article that got published in the Nightwatchman cricket quarterly.  Now I have a blog it is reproduced below. Six hundred pounds, plus expenses Test cricket between the two World Wars seems very far away. Norman Gordon of South Africa died in 2014 and there is no - one left alive who played international cricket before World War II.  All we are left with is flickering fragments of Test matches on film.  Yet during the...