A continuation of a series of posts on spinners in county cricket, parts 1&2 can be found  here  and  here The statistics for this post don't include the last round of county matches, so in most cases will cover the first 12 games of the 14 game 2023 county season.  I've only looked at front line spinners, which I've defined as bowlers who have bowled at least 150 overs.  13 bowlers have have met the front rank criteria. (Dawson, De Caires, Harmer, Leach, Parkinson, Quadri, Thompson, Swepson, Hartley, Carson, Bess Gohar and Keogh).  The best average amongst the 13 is Liam Dawson at 21.81 and Simon Harmer's 54 wickets is the most taken by any spinner.  Josh De Caires (AKA Mike Atherson) is a new name with a distinctly good 26.5 average (second best amongst front line spinners.) As a group the spinners have taken 320 wickets at an average of just over 36 runs a wicket.  That compares with an average for all bowlers of 31.7.  Wickets taken b...

Tomorrow sees the final of the county 50 over a side Metrobank cup, played at Trent Bridge between Hampshire and Leicestershire.  I don't think Hampshire's John Turner will be fit in time to play - but he's an interesting cricketer.  Picked for the T20 international series against New Zealand he is a classic new era ECB selection, born outside the UK (South Africa) and selected for having the right attributes of pace and bounce, rather than consistent performances, not his fault -  he's only played a total of thirty games in top level cricket. But he's also an example of how the county game can help to identify talent.  Hampshire gave him his initial chance in the 2021 season when call ups to The Hundred had left them short of bowlers for the 50 over competition.  It would be unlikely a player would get this chance if the county game was boiled down to 8 (or 10) provincial sides. So to celebrate tomorrow's final I've come up with a team of the tournament to ...

My  last post looked at the 2022 accounts of the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) and concluded the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) was giving the MCC too good a deal for staging international fixtures.  This post looks at what a reasonable deal might be, how easy it would be to get to better place and why it seems so unlikely that the ECB will achieve a fair deal. There's a school of thought: the best thing to do with the MCC and Lord's would be to scrap them.  But I'm not sure this would be desirable or practicable.  Not because of the tradition of Lord's as the "home of cricket" which is just guff, (it isn't the home of cricket - it's the home of the MCC) but because there is demonstrable demand for two test matches to be played in London.  To side line Lord's and build a new cricket stadium in London, or somewhere close to London doesn't seem feasible.  The ECB could always restrict London international matches to the Oval but it's ...

This is a post on the Marylebone Cricket Club's (MCC) annual accounts for the year to 31 December 2022 .   The MCC dates back to 1787 and is a curious institution. It is a private members club which owns Lord's cricket ground, is the custodian of the rules of cricket, and self - appointed guardian of the spirit of the game .  The merits of MCC's continued role and influence are sharply contested.  For some the MCC preserves old fashioned virtue in a modern, money mad, game; others look at an MCC membership which is posh, white, male, elderly, conservative and, probably, Conservative and conclude we need to to move on from both the MCC and Lord's central place in cricket's calendar.   In general I'm on the anti side of the MCC argument which is set out in this post on  "Being Outside Cricket"  but I should say: when I wrote a book on cricket the staff in the MCC library were both courteous and helpful.  This post largely lets the pros and cons...

An update to an  analysis of spinners in the county championship .  These figures are taken from the county championship averages as as at 7 July 2023 when teams had played 7 or 8 games.  I set the standard for a front - line spinner as having bowled a hundred overs this season.  There were 12 spinners who met the criteria: Dawson (Hampshire), Watt (Derbyshire), Harmer (Essex), Leech (Somerset), Parkinson (Lancashire & Durham), Patel (Durham), Thompson (Derbyshire), Gohar (Gloucestershire), Hartley (Lancashire), Carson (Sussex), Bess (Yorkshire & Warwickshire) and Ahmed (Leicestershire). Of the 12, 8 have their current contracts with a second division county, with Dawson, Harmer, Leech & Hartley as the only division 1 front line spinners.  Mark Watt who plays for Derbyshire and Scotland and bowls slow left arm is a new name to me.  Of the 12 Liam Dawson has the best average (16.4) & to no - ones surprise Simon Harmer has the most wickets, 36...

The ECB has recently published its accounts for the year to  31 January 2023  and this post is an analysis of the ECB's financial position.  I've done a series of posts on the ECB's accounts, the most recent being  this on the accounts to January 2021. Not everything I've predicted in this blog has come to pass, but I think the analysis of the 2021 position stands up pretty well.  Rather than go back over the same ground this post focuses on the expenses the ECB incurs.  Lets start with a table. This table shows the administrative expenses of the ECB for the period 2013 to 2023.  In those 11 years total expenditure increased from £97m to £249m;  an aggregate increase of 157%.  If the ECB's expenses had increased at the same rate as (CPI) inflation, 2023 expenditure would have been £124m, roughly half on the actual outcome.  In real terms the ECB is spending more money in 2023 than it did in 2013 -  a lot more money. The good news is...