England and Wales Cricket Board

England and Wales Cricket Board
Sport Cricket
Jurisdiction National
Abbreviation ECB
Founded 1 January 1997 (1 January 1997)
Affiliation International Cricket Council (ICC)
Location Lord's
Chairman Colin Graves
Chief Exec Tom Harrison
Men's coach Trevor Bayliss
Women's coach Mark Robinson
Sponsor Natwest, Kia, Royal London, Specsavers, Vitality, Toyota, Hardys Wine, Greene King, Yorkshire Tea, New Balance, Rubicon, Veuve Clicquot, Barrington, T.M. Lewin[1]
Replaced TCCB
Official website
www.ecb.co.uk
England
Wales

The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) is the governing body of cricket in England and Wales.[2] It was created on 1 January 1997 combining the roles of the Test and County Cricket Board, the National Cricket Association and the Cricket Council. Like many sports-governing bodies in the United Kingdom it is a company limited by guarantee, a legal status which enables it to concentrate on maximising its funding of the sport rather than making a return for investors. The ECB's head offices are at Lord's in London. Although the organisation is the England and Wales Cricket Board, it is referred to as the ECB not the EWCB as a result of a decision taken in the run-up to the launch of ECB in January 1997 by those from within the game given the task of overseeing the transition from the previous bodies from which ECB was formed.[3]

Structure and role

The ECB is governed by representatives of the 18 First Class counties, 21 non-First Class boards, the MCC and the Minor Counties Cricket Association. It is headed by the Management Board and a Recreational Forum. As of the end of the 2016 season, the ECB's chairman is Colin Graves of Yorkshire and the Chief Executive Officer is Tom Harrison.[4]

An important responsibility is the direction of the England national side. The National Selector, head coach and other coaches are ECB employees. The ECB also employs the English Test match captain and other centrally contracted players, as well as being responsible for the National Cricket Performance Centre, currently based at Loughborough University in Leicestershire.

The ECB is responsible for the financial direction and commercial exploitation of England cricket. It raises revenue from the proceeds of sales for tickets at One Day International and Test matches in England and Wales. The ECB is also responsible for the generation of income from the sale of sponsorship and broadcasting rights, primarily in relation to the English team. The ECB's income in the 2007 calendar year was £93.0 million, up from £77.0 million in 2006.[5] In 2007 the ECB distributed £31.6 million in "fee payments" to the eighteen first class counties, or £1.75 million per team. This subsidy is an essential source of income for the counties. It also pays certain costs of the domestic cricket programme directly, including the salaries of first class umpires and the cost of temporary floodlights at county matches.[6]

In 1998 the ECB took on responsibility for the direction of women's cricket in England and Wales from the Women's Cricket Association.[7]

In 2005 the ECB concluded a commercial arrangement with BSkyB which gave Sky Sports the exclusive television rights for live Test cricket in England and Wales for four years (the 2006 to 2009 seasons). This deal, which took live Test cricket for home English matches away from terrestrial television for the first time generated substantial future revenues for English and Welsh cricket (220 million pounds over 4 years), but was criticised by many England cricket supporters and others. In 2007 Asian rights for live English cricket were sold to ESPN Star Sports for a period of 5 years for 40 million pounds, which is 5 times the previous figure.[8]

The ECB courted further controversy in 2005 when they appeared to dither over the employment contract of the bowling coach Troy Cooley who was seen by many as an important contributor to England's Ashes success. Cooley left the England setup and joined Australia's staff.[9]

In January 2014, Andy Flower stepped down as head coach and Kevin Pietersen had his central contract terminated in a confidential settlement following England's just completed Ashes series loss (0–5) in Australia.[4][10]

In April 2017 the Articles of Association were changed to allow a new T20 competition to be run from 2020, comprising 8 teams, it will be run during school summer holidays.[11][12]

County Boards

Subject to certain exceptions, each historic county in England has either an ECB County Cricket Club or Cricket Board as below. The first-class counties are represented directly at the ECB, whereas the minor counties retain a Cricket Board.

Rutland shares a board with neighbouring Leicestershire, an echo of the 18th century Leicestershire and Rutland Cricket Club. Hampshire as such has two boards given that the Isle of Wight has its own. Westmorland and Cumberland are replaced by Cumbria, a ceremonial county created in 1974. An additional board exists for the whole country of Wales and is incorporated within the ECB.

Most counties have clubs which are members of either the County Championship or the Minor Counties Cricket Championship. Rutland and the Isle of Wight do not have county clubs and are wholly integrated for that purpose with Leicestershire and Hampshire respectively. Huntingdonshire County Cricket Club has a chequered history and now plays informal matches only. Cumberland and Westmorland originally shared Cumberland County Cricket Club as a joint county club. It is now representative of Cumbria as a whole and plays matches in both of the two traditional counties; there has never been a club called Westmorland.[13][14]

Status of Wales

Cricket Wales, who are recognised by Sport Wales as the governing body for cricket in Wales, are one of the 39 Boards that make up the ECB.[15]

A number of fans in Wales have argued that the country should have its own international team and withdraw from the existing arrangement under which Welsh players play for England. The proposal has aroused opposition from Cricket Wales and Glamorgan County Cricket Club, who argue such a move would be financially disastrous. The debate focused on a report produced by the Welsh National Assembly’s petitions committee, which reflected the arguments on both sides. Bethan Jenkins, Plaid Cymru’s spokesperson on heritage, culture, sport and broadcasting, and a member of the petitions committee, said: "Cricket Wales and Glamorgan CCC say the idea of a Welsh national cricket team is ‘an emotive subject’. Of course having a national team is emotive. You only have to look at the stands during any national game to see that. To suggest this as anything other than natural is a bit of a misleading argument."[16][17][18][19][20][21] In their strategic plan, Cricket Wales state they are "committed to continuing to play a major role within the ECB"[22]

Major domestic competitions

See also

References

  1. ↑ "England and Wales Cricket Board - Sponsors and Partners". Retrieved 29 March 2018.
  2. ↑ "ECB severs all ties with Stanford". BBC News. 20 February 2009. Retrieved 2 May 2010.
  3. ↑ http://ecb.co.uk/ecb/about-ecb/feedback-faqs/faqs,1378,BP.html#wales
  4. 1 2 "About the England and Wales Cricket Board". ECB. Retrieved 19 October 2016.
  5. ↑ "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 3 October 2008. Retrieved 8 June 2008.
  6. ↑ "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 27 September 2007. Retrieved 31 May 2007.
  7. ↑ A History of Women's Cricket Archived 14 April 2009 at the Wayback Machine.
  8. ↑ Tennant, Ivo (26 September 2007). "It is important the England side and captain set the right tone". The Times. London. Retrieved 2 May 2010.
  9. ↑ "Cooley blames ECB for departure". BBC News. 17 December 2005. Retrieved 2 May 2010.
  10. ↑ Hopps, David (4 February 2014). "Pietersen's England career over". ESPN CricInfo. Retrieved 4 February 2014.
  11. ↑ "City-based Twenty20 tournament featuring eight teams gets approval for 2020". BBC. 26 April 2017.
  12. ↑ "ECB set to create new city-based T20 competition by 2020 to rival Indian Premier League". The Express. 28 March 2017.
  13. ↑ ECB Archived 25 February 2015 at the Wayback Machine. County Cricket Boards, List of
  14. ↑ Cricket Wales
  15. ↑ "Cricket Wales – About Us". Cricket Wales. Retrieved 23 March 2016.
  16. ↑ Shipton, Martin. "A Welsh national cricket team? AMs will have their say on the possibility this autumn". walesonline. Retrieved 2016-03-21.
  17. ↑ Wyn-Williams, Gareth. "Welsh national cricket team should be set up says Rhun ap Iorwerth". northwales. Retrieved 2016-03-21.
  18. ↑ "Jonathan EdwardsTowards a National Future for Welsh Cricket". Retrieved 2016-03-21.
  19. ↑ Shipton, Martin. "Should Wales have its own international cricket team, ask Assembly Members". walesonline. Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 2016-03-21.
  20. ↑ "The bat and the daffodil". The Economist. ISSN 0013-0613. Retrieved 2016-03-21.
  21. ↑ Williamson, David. "Call for Wales to have its own cricket team". walesonline. Retrieved 2016-03-21.
  22. ↑ "Clearing the Boundaries" (PDF). Cricket Wales.
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