Excellent post Dan. I just found you today on Linkedin, read the Front Office Sports article you featured in about the MLC, joined your substack, and read a few of your older posts. This post is by far my favourite. As someone living in Montreal, Canada who is a new fan of the sport of cricket because of the most recent T20 WC near my neck of the woods (yes ICC, the bad New York pitch converted a non-cricket fan into a cricket fan, see your plan worked!). Having just finished a couple audiobooks (Cricket 2.0 and Crickonomics), I'm surprised by how unlike the other major team sports cricket is. You're right, cricket management structure needs to get with the times! I have kept quiet for two months, because the last thing I want to do is act like the typical North American sports fan and give unsolicited advice about why cricket (or 'soccer') can't be like the NBA or the NFL. So I am glad someone from within the sport like you notices what I have noticed. Not to mention the other things I have come to learn about such as low player wages, late player wages, leagues that last 3 weeks, players featuring for 4 clubs in one season, no right to unionize for players from certain countries, few long-term contracts beyond 3 years, World Cups every year, no clear windows for league and international matches, etc...I've fallen in love with cricket, but what on earth?!? I think cricket can learn a lot from football in terms of building out the business side of things. But even a cricket newborn like me has quickly become aware that too many reforms in cricket get mired in a geopolitical dance between the ICC, ECB, BCCI, and broadcasters hungry for the Indian market. However, I feel like The Hundred and MLC will be leaders in having a 21st century cricket management structure, and see the value in actually having a front office full of smart people like yourself who specialise in certain facets of the game, just like Manchester United, Real Madrid, and the New York Yankees do.
Excellent post Dan. I just found you today on Linkedin, read the Front Office Sports article you featured in about the MLC, joined your substack, and read a few of your older posts. This post is by far my favourite. As someone living in Montreal, Canada who is a new fan of the sport of cricket because of the most recent T20 WC near my neck of the woods (yes ICC, the bad New York pitch converted a non-cricket fan into a cricket fan, see your plan worked!). Having just finished a couple audiobooks (Cricket 2.0 and Crickonomics), I'm surprised by how unlike the other major team sports cricket is. You're right, cricket management structure needs to get with the times! I have kept quiet for two months, because the last thing I want to do is act like the typical North American sports fan and give unsolicited advice about why cricket (or 'soccer') can't be like the NBA or the NFL. So I am glad someone from within the sport like you notices what I have noticed. Not to mention the other things I have come to learn about such as low player wages, late player wages, leagues that last 3 weeks, players featuring for 4 clubs in one season, no right to unionize for players from certain countries, few long-term contracts beyond 3 years, World Cups every year, no clear windows for league and international matches, etc...I've fallen in love with cricket, but what on earth?!? I think cricket can learn a lot from football in terms of building out the business side of things. But even a cricket newborn like me has quickly become aware that too many reforms in cricket get mired in a geopolitical dance between the ICC, ECB, BCCI, and broadcasters hungry for the Indian market. However, I feel like The Hundred and MLC will be leaders in having a 21st century cricket management structure, and see the value in actually having a front office full of smart people like yourself who specialise in certain facets of the game, just like Manchester United, Real Madrid, and the New York Yankees do.