Andy Anson | HPR Update, December 2022
Dear Member, I hope that this message finds you well and looking forward to the Festive Season.
I wanted to take this opportunity to update you on developments relating to the ECB’s High-Performance Review (HPR), and its impact on the domestic cricket schedule from 2024 onwards. Since the Special General Meeting took place in October, the Club has remained in conversations with the England & Wales Cricket Board (ECB) and our fellow 17 First-Class Counties on this subject.
Following those conversations – and whilst no official vote has since been called for or taken, and no official communication on the subject has been published – it has been widely accepted by the ECB, and authors of the HPR, that the main recommendations specifically relating to the domestic schedule have not been agreed or accepted by a majority of the First-Class Counties.
As a Club, we understand that the other 15 recommendations which were raised as part of the overall HPR process, have now been approved by the ECB Board.
However, the HPR’s more contentious recommendations, such as splitting the County Championship into a top division of six and reducing the number of matches from 14 to 10, have not been approved by a majority of Counties. A vote (requiring the support of 12 out of 18 Counties) is only needed for changes to the schedule and given the clear strength of feeling, there has not been a need for such vote to take place. A sub-group of County Chairs have been collating the preferences of each individual County and will make a 2024 schedule proposal to the ECB. It must be said that we are not always aligned with our County colleagues. The needs of the Counties with Test Match venues are sometimes diametrically opposed to the needs of the others.
Discussions for the 2024 schedule therefore remain ongoing and, as we have previously stated, once discussions with the ECB arrive at a final proposal on reform of the schedule, we will publish details of those proposals in full to update Members. If any new proposals come forward which constitute a change to the existing domestic competitions, then, as previously promised, the Club will bring this back to a Members’ Forum with an associated binding Member vote.
However, at this stage, we are not expecting any material changes to the schedule to be brought forward. This will continue to challenge our Cricket Department, specifically our Medical Team, due to the intensity of the scheduling of the 14 County Championship matches at certain times of the season.
I would like to thank our Members once again for your passion on this subject and your co-operation throughout what has been a long and complicated process.
I would also like to wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year and, as a Club, we look forward to seeing you at Emirates Old Trafford for some cricket in just over 100 days’ time.
Andy Anson,
Chair, Lancashire Cricket