Roger Alton
What Richard Thompson can do for English cricket
Well alleluia, English cricket doesn’t seem able to put a foot wrong these days. After hitting three cherries with Rob Key, Brendon McCullum and Ben ‘Bazball’ Stokes, they may well have struck the jackpot with the appointment of Richard Thompson, the Surrey chairman, to take over as head of the English Cricket Board, something this column has long advocated.
Thompson has plenty going for him: uniquely perhaps among the game’s administrators he is both traditional and forward thinking. Traditional enough to have realised the Texan conman ‘Sir’ Allen Stanford, with his million-quid pile of money on the Lord’s outfield, was a wrong-un. And forward thinking enough to have championed the women’s game, as well as diversity, with Ebony Rainford Brent’s African--Caribbean engagement programme, more quickly than you can say ‘Yorkshire we have a problem’.
He revolutionised Surrey during his time at the Oval, turning it into one of the most powerful county set-ups in the country and increasing its profits. Membership shot up and Thompson was tip-top on reduced prices for kids, something Lord’s could learn from. Off the pitch he wanted fans’ experience to be as good as possible, even going so far as to analyse queue times, knowing that if it took you too long to get a pie and a pint, you wouldn’t be back next time.
He is a highly successful businessman and has sharp attention to detail, which will come in handy when trying to sort out the absurdly cluttered playing schedule. The domestic game is eating itself: here a T20 competition, there a Hundred match, a Royal National 50-over contest somewhere else, while Test matches and the Country Championship are ever present. But stars like Stokes and Johnny Bairstow are pulling out of formats, and that is likely to continue.
Thompson is a supreme networker, highly accessible, funny and charming, all of which will come in handy in the corridors of the cricket hierarchy. The documentary series Drive to Survive has done wonders for Formula 1, and The Test, the Amazon doc about Australia’s recovery after the sandpaper scandal, was one of best films of 2020. I don’t see why Thompson couldn’t let the cameras in to do something similar for England cricket.
And here’s another thought: why not set up some sort of Players’ Executive, led, say, by Stokes, Joe Root and Moeen Ali, with the likes of Alastair Cook and Chris Jordan. Find out what the priorities are: what are the real ambitions of players? Is an IPL contract the Holy Grail, or a Test cap? Do we need a Hundred for the men’s game, though it is terrific for women? And while we’re at it, have a women’s executive too with, say, Katherine Brunt, Isa Guha, Charlotte Edwards and so on. Thompson is not thought to be too much of a fan of the Hundred but it is difficult to argue with packed grounds.
The All Blacks are having a torrid time, which is a bright spot in an otherwise rather dismal universe. Even the New Zealand Herald in a front-page editorial urged coach Ian Foster to throw in the towel. Hurtful, eh. It’s not that they’re having a bad run, it’s more that everyone else is catching up. Ireland (basically Leinster) have hit a golden patch, as have France, and South Africa are benefitting from their men playing in the best leagues in the world in England and France.
That’s what New Zealand need to do. Forget trying to keep the All Blacks playing in a domestic league and let them go. Forty-odd of the top Kiwi players would have their pick of European clubs, get even better, and then regroup for the Rugby Championship, the autumn internationals and the World Cup. If players want to follow the money, let them. Oh and let Ian Foster go while you’re at it.