County Cricket Recruitment Recommendations

Avoiding current England and ex-England Players

The relationship between international cricket and county cricket is about as different as it gets to the relationship between international football and the Premier League in football.

In football, club rules, particularly when it comes to international friendlies (cricket’s version of bilateral series). In cricket, it is the opposite - country takes priority.

Because of this, there are numerous examples every year of counties rarely, or never, getting their contracted national team players on the pitch. For example, Jos Buttler and Phil Salt have yet to play for Lancashire this season, and Liam Livingstone only returned to the Blast at the weekend. Jonny Bairstow (still on a central contract) was allowed to go to the IPL as a replacement player and miss the start of the Blast for Yorkshire, and from reports, is now injured. Some players who don’t even have central contracts are ‘rested at the request of the ECB’ - I’d like to think suitable compensation is given, although the best domestic players are irreplaceable on the pitch.

Now counties might turn around and say something like ‘it’s no problem, while the player is on a central contract, they’re don’t cost anything and so whenever we can get them we’ll take it’, but that is a first-level point of view which fails to take into account several key points.

Firstly, players coming in and out of teams is a disruption. Imagine if you’re a lower-profile player who has done pretty well recently while being consistently available, and then immediately gets dropped for the superstar coming back - you can see how this might breed negativity.

There’s also the risk of, from a mentality perspective, a potential lack of investment from the superstar, given that they’re not at their county for the whole season, and can dip in and out. Of course, all player personalities are different and I know some players who would come back from international cricket or the IPL and immediately be ‘all in’, while I know other players who might have the attitude that they were doing their county a favour by turning up.

Furthermore, and potentially more importantly, there are other implications which will develop with these scenarios.

For example, let’s say you have a player on a central contract and then they lose their central contract for whatever reason (usually because England are now looking at younger players) - examples recently might include players such as Jimmy Anderson, David Malan and Moeen Ali. Bairstow might fall into this bracket next year, as a further example.

Now the county has a choice between paying these players, and likely pay them high salaries for county cricket, or moving them on - an option which usually they perceive to be unthinkable due to counties being extremely reluctant to move on ‘big names’.. Yet, even now, many veteran former England players seem sporadically available for their counties. I’d like to see the cost per ball match involvement for these type of players over the season - I’d imagine there might be some eye-watering numbers.

When I’ve talked with counties about setting up analytics departments, and had conversations in general, they are often quick to mention that they have ‘no money’. These eye-watering numbers might be a good example of why counties have no money. Of course, a budget can be spent in any way the county decides - it’s just that they often spend it on players who produce little in the way of on-pitch output relative to their salary (injury-prone players, who can easily be avoided with an additional layer of due diligence, are another example).

My counter point to this is often the same - if a county trimmed their squad of the 2-3 players in terms of lowest match involvement and invested that in data analytics software and a really good strategist, this would yield the greater on-pitch return on investment. It doesn’t even have to be an either/or, because a high level analysis and recruitment department would be able to find players who are more cost-effective and therefore save money in the process.

If a county doesn’t have a full detailed player database including contract expiry dates, and have their domestic recruitment planned months in advance of June 1st, they have major scope to make these positive efficiency changes. My experience tells me most counties don’t anything have this.

Finally, going back to the conversation about England players, I want to introduce the concept of needing to ‘double stack’ players of their skillset. For example, one of the players who is likely to be moving counties is Shoaib Bashir (https://www.espncricinfo.com/story/shoaib-bashir-set-to-leave-somerset-when-contract-expires-1488763).

As the article says, he’s struggled for game time for Somerset, with them preferring the left-arm spin of Jack Leach and the all-rounder value provided by Archie Vaughan. For what it’s worth, I think Somerset have made the right call, although I am sure England would disagree.

Due to this lack of game time and the expiry of his contract this summer, Bashir is tipped to move to another county at the end of the season. Quoting from the article:-

“While no approach has yet been made, Surrey - where Bashir played his age-group cricket - could be a potential suitor, as could Warwickshire and Worcestershire.

Bashir is centrally contracted by the ECB and if his deal is extended as expected, then a prospective new county would not immediately pay him a salary. He would instead sign a 'shadow' contract, outlining terms of payment in the event that he loses his central contract, a standard mechanism for England players.”

If I was working with a county currently, I wouldn’t be recommending Bashir to them. The reasoning is simple - he is an off-spinner (bad for match-ups compared to left-arm or leg spinners) who is a genuine tail ender with the bat, really only plays one format and is inconsistently available.

Yes, he’s free (for the time being), but the inconsistent availability and one format specialism means the county also has to ensure they have another spin option who will play for all the times Bashir doesn’t - essentially double-stacking the same skillset and then seeing two not going into the same team which we’ve already seen play out at Somerset.

Anyone interested in discussing how I can help their organisation with strategic management, data-driven analysis and long-term planning can get in touch at sportsanalyticsadvantage@gmail.com.