LONDON: It has been an eventful week for the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) as it has named Ian Lovett as its new President. Lovett had previously been serving as the deputy chairman of the board as well as been the chairman of English county, Middlesex from 2007-2016 which play all its home games at Lord’s, the Home of Cricket.
Lovett’s previous work experience in senior positions in banking and finance companies in the UK also serves well for the ECB as its 41 stakeholders elected him for this non-executive position till 2021. His inputs would be crucial more so in the absence of the former ECB Director of Cricket, Andrew Strauss who resigned recently due to personal reasons.
Announcing the appointment, ECB chairman Colin Graves said: “Ian is a fantastic choice and we welcome him in to the role of President. He has a long-held love of the game and a deep knowledge of the value it brings to people, through being a player and volunteer at his local club and high-profile roles he has held at both Middlesex and ECB.
“Ian has also been a driving force in the governance changes that lead to greater diversity and better decision-making in the governing body.”
Speaking about his appointment, Lovett said: “I am hugely excited to be taking on this new role. I am passionate about our aims to grow the game and to do that we need to work collaboratively with everyone involved in the sport at all levels, particularly the army of volunteers upon whom we are so reliant. I will do all that I can to help with that.”
Meanwhile, the ECB has also announced radical changes to its domestic cricket structure from 2020 onwards, the year which will reportedly see the first edition of ‘The Hundred’, ECB’s innovative yet controversial brainchild which is to be a city-based competition featuring 100 deliveries an innings but will be organised on the lines of the IPL and the Big Bash with the best players across the world.
18 first-class county sides have agreed on three key recommendations. Firstly, the county championship will retain a two-divisional structure with 10 teams in Division One and 8 in Division Two, reversing the current split. Each team will continue to play 14 matches. To achieve this, three teams will be promoted from Division Two in 2019 with one relegated from Division One.
From 2020, promotion and relegation will revert to two-up, two-down. While not significantly affecting the “best v best” principle in the top division, this change will provide an appropriate increase in security to Division One teams with a smaller percentage being relegated each season, and a correspondingly increased opportunity for Division Two teams as they will have a greater percentage chance of promotion. Due to the asymmetrical nature of 14 matches in a 10-team division a seeding system is being explored to optimise fairness, firstly in Division Two in 2019 followed by Division One from 2020 onwards.
Secondly, the county 50-over competition is expected to run parallel with ‘The Hundred’ in July and August each year from 2020. The counties will be split into two groups of nine – not necessarily along existing North and South lines – and will play each of the other eight counties in their group [four at home and four away] before the top three qualify for the knockout stages. Overseas players will not be permitted to take part in the county 50-over competition.
Thirdly, the current T20 competition, the Vitality Blast will retain its current format, ensuring that the format’s popularity remains in the country as well. The target of this revamp was to make red-ball matches as relevant as white-ball matches, seeing England’s tradition as Test cricket’s hotbed and the national team’s resurgence in the ODI and T20 game since their 2015 World Cup debacle.
ECB COO Gordon Hollins said: “It was important that the process took in the views of all the stakeholders in the domestic game, especially the counties. After receiving unanimous agreement we will move forward with plans that will help ensure that our domestic game remains as vibrant as possible while producing players to help our England teams remain successful.”
