Ken Beaumont

Retired social work manager, retired club cricketer, semi-retired Munroist, Derbyshire CCC member, Remainer, Blairite, and generally supporter of lost causes

[Ken Beaumont @Ken_Beaumont]

@SwannyMediaMan @GeorgeDobell1 @TheCricketerMag Not on the 4th day of championship matches for sure. Which begs the question, why are we aren't we talking about a return to 3 day CC cricket to give players better preparation and ease the fixture congestion and player workload issues?

[Ken Beaumont @Ken_Beaumont]

@legsidelizzy @JamieBowman77 Perhaps they could have decided that before trailing him around with England squads and depriving him of bowling time in county cricket that might have helped him improve. Mind you, he could have helped himself by working harder on his fielding.

[Ken Beaumont @Ken_Beaumont]

@huwzat @RobertS05273160 @TheCricketerMag @jamiecox1969 16 3 day matches gives a rational 9 team divisional structure, playing home and away. Adds up to 48 days cricket, a reduction of 8 days, and an extra day each playing week for R&R. And it stops fast bowlers bowling 35 overs in 2 consecutive days in the field. 2/2

[Ken Beaumont @Ken_Beaumont]

@huwzat @RobertS05273160 @TheCricketerMag @jamiecox1969 Bizarre that it isn't in the mix. The rationale for 4 day CC was to encourage skills for 5 day tests. They are now being increasingly finished in 3/4 days with aggression and adventure valued over accretion and accumulation. So why not reflect this in the structure of the CC? 1/2

[Ken Beaumont @Ken_Beaumont]

@slimmatt1 @huwzat None of it is accounted for, and as important, whether there is a proper audit trail for contracts. The 2 county chairmen on the Board in 2018 resigned because of lack of accountability in financial decision-making. Clear transparent accounts would have avoided the mistrust.2/2

[Ken Beaumont @Ken_Beaumont]

@slimmatt1 @huwzat Of course the increase should be credited to the 100 (if it can be disaggregated in the contract.) But none of the Sky/BBC money came in until 2020 and money was definitely being spent on it from around 2017. Senior officers' time, consultants, analysts, marketing, PR people. 1/2

[Ken Beaumont @Ken_Beaumont]

@slimmatt1 @huwzat The new IPL deal is worth double the previous one, not including tests, and is worth roughly 5 times the last ECB / Sky deal, which includes tests. That's a good result.

[Ken Beaumont @Ken_Beaumont]

@slimmatt1 @huwzat @Sdoull I'll try to simplify it. In 2009, I managed a £6m service budget, mostly people and building upkeep. I got a £5m govt grant for a major building project. Would it have been good accounting practice to put the grant into the routine service budget where I couldn't track costs?

[Ken Beaumont @Ken_Beaumont]

@slimmatt1 @huwzat @Sdoull Why are you talking about a 2017 deal when we've just signed a new 5 year deal, no amounts mentioned, unknown inflationary pressures to come, signed off by an interim chief exec and chair days before the permanent appointee comes into post. Does any of that sound normal to you?

[Ken Beaumont @Ken_Beaumont]

@slimmatt1 @huwzat @Sdoull It's simple enough. You rely on a precedent that it fits previous ECB practice - bizarre as it is for a big organisation to have so few cost centres. I say the ECB has taken an unprecedented role and should have adapted its accounting procedures accordingly.

[Ken Beaumont @Ken_Beaumont]

@slimmatt1 @huwzat @Sdoull Where's your evidence that there is an increase in the broadcasting deal? There's no mention of specific amounts in the material put out by the ECB, unlike the previous deal. There is reference to it being on the same terms indicating the possibility of little or no increase.

[Ken Beaumont @Ken_Beaumont]

@slimmatt1 @huwzat @Sdoull You really misunderstand what the ECB is. It was created by the counties (including national counties) to co-ordinate and administer on their behalf. The ECB's money is the counties' money and the payments are effectively a share of profits. Entirely different from the £1.3m.

[Ken Beaumont @Ken_Beaumont]

@AndyThurogood @LunchTakenEarly @huwzat Overs have been 4 ball, 6 ball, 8 ball at various times, and always been overs. Why should 5 ball be any different other than for a wilful desire to be different?

[Ken Beaumont @Ken_Beaumont]

@slimmatt1 @huwzat @Sdoull The 100 is a departure from anything the ECB has done before in owning and running 8 new teams and their support structure, and it should have separate accounts. The £1.3m would indisputably show as a cost. This is splitting hairs to maintain a fiction that the 100 is profitable.

[Ken Beaumont @Ken_Beaumont]

@SimonHemelryk @ToppersSnr @slimmatt1 @benjonescricket @AnnieChave The 100 could grow an audience, but not if it is competing with and rubbish other formats. More important is that the ECB appears to have no metrics to show if 100 watchers are new - or the other performance data that a competent enterprise would demand for a new product.

[Ken Beaumont @Ken_Beaumont]

@slimmatt1 @ToppersSnr @SimonHemelryk @benjonescricket @AnnieChave The gaps mean I'm not sure this gives a true picture. Somerset, Lancs, Notts all reporting increases. But reduction in CC games and little weekend cricket means anyone working a 5 day week isn't going to get VFM from membership but still go to Blast.

[Ken Beaumont @Ken_Beaumont]

@ToppersSnr @leics1975 All true, but the ones that were significant at the time the 100 was conceived were Warwickshire, Yorkshire, Glamorgan and Lancashire, all of whose existence was under real threat.

[Ken Beaumont @Ken_Beaumont]

@slimmatt1 @huwzat @Sdoull I'm sceptical of anything that isn't properly evidenced. The evidence base is selective and misuses data. Performance measures are worthless. Accounting is obscured. No-one knows who's actually paying. I'm trusting good intentions in an organisation so beset by vested interests.

[Ken Beaumont @Ken_Beaumont]

@slimmatt1 @huwzat @Sdoull The £1.3m is only paid to counties because of the 100. It isn't a dividend from profits because it wouldn't be a fixed amount for a set period. Therefore it's a cost. The "lie" is how the ECB has constructed its accounts. Likewise, its performance measures for the 100.