The  ECB accounts  for the period to 31 January 2018 disclose the payments made to Glamorgan  not to stage test matches. This post compares these statements with subsequent comments on the payments by ECB chairman Colin Graves: The Time line  11th April 2018 the ECB's accounts include the following statement: "The group's administrative expenditure at £132.8m remained broadly level with that of the prior year at £137.2m reflecting the continued high level of distributions made to the First Class County network and relatively flat central expenditure.  I ncluded in this expenditure was a payment of £2.5m to Glamorgan County Cricket Club in consideration for giving up the right to apply to host Test match cricket in the future ." The statement is included in the strategic report to the accounts signed by CJ Graves ECB Chairman. 14 May 2018 The Guardian and Cricinfo report Colin Graves, when questioned about payments to Glamorgan saying : " “No ...

Colin Graves did an interview with the BBC on the 14th May.  As well as blethering on about the 100 he said something interesting about the subject of payments to Glamorgan  for not bidding for test matches . " Graves said: “No payments have been made to counties at all, full stop. I floated an idea talking to four or five county chairmen, that would need to be agreed by the board to go any further. No payments have been made. No payments have been promised. End of conversation.” [Quote taken from the  Guardian ] This is a bit embarrassing for me.  In my previous post on Glamorgan I wrote :  " Glamorgan have accounted for the full £2.5m non - staging payments as income (see page 8 of the accounts).This would only be appropriate if they were assured the payment would be made.   And although the years covered by the payments are 2020  - 2024 it seems Glamorgan have already  received some of the cash.  It's only I guess but I w...

Given the ECBs penchant for sending legal letters I should make it clear Eoin Morgan (almost) definitely does not read Side On View.  But he is doing things a bit differently.  In this  post  I analysed Morgan's ODI career to date and noted that his concentrating on limited overs cricket doesn't seem to have improved his white ball form.  In fact there is a slight but perceptible falling away in his performances since he stopped playing first class games. And Eoin has changed course.  He turned out for Middlesex in the county championship against Gloucestershire last week scoring 76, his previous first class appearance being back in 2015.  And Morgan was clear he expected playing first class cricket to help his  one day game : "Striving to play red ball cricket always made me work on my technique a little bit more. My technique's normally okay [against the red ball] and I tend to hit it further and play it later." Which raises the iss...

A flurry of activity in the sale of broadcasting rights. First the BCCI signed a 5 year US $944m deal with Star for international matches in India.  This was quickly followed up by the Australian Cricket Board selling all its rights for $1,118m for 6 years. These deals compare with the ECB's  5 year a rrangement with Sky worth approximately $1,500m. The deals aren't strictly comparable, along with the perils of converting local currency amounts to US $ they have different start dates and there are different rules on how much can be put behind a pay wall in each country.  And the Indian government has forbidden India v Pakistan matches which would be a huge draw to a broadcaster. (How much would the ECB / ACB get for a program with no ashes tests)? Still on a simple per year basis the ECB comes out best with an annual fee of $300m with India and Australia all the way back on $190m each year.  Of course the six slogging, dancing girl bothering, ...