Cricket: Why the No vote won the day

If anything was more predictable than the vote by the first-class counties to retain a Championship of one division it was the chorus of derision which greeted it. Small- minded, self-interested and old-fashioned were only three of the hyphenated epithets hurled in the direction of cricket's administrators last week.

But there is a case for the defence which, if not cast-iron is far from being half-baked. Peter Anderson, the chief executive of Somerset, put it convincingly and forcefully last week after the more revolutionary proposals put forward by Lord MacLaurin, chairman of the England and Wales Cricket Board, in the sweeping report Raising The Standard. He also revealed not only that Lord MacLaurin could have had his way but that nearly every county realised that change was desirable.

"The trouble with Raising The Standard is that it is entirely conceptual," said Anderson. "It has not got a single financial fact in it. Now I'm chief executive of a club which has been in existence since 1875. It has a tidy turnover of pounds 1.25 million a year with capital assets of pounds 6m-pounds 10m.

"I would be lacking responsibility if I had recommended that the proposals for change without any figures were accepted. Would Lord MacLaurin, a businessman, have done so when he was chairman of Tesco? I don't think so. This surprised a lot of us."

What may surprise Lord MacLaurin now is that had he and the other officers of the ECB backed up their concepts with some figures they might now be entering a brave new world instead of wandering about in a patched-up old one.

"There were two things which stood in the way of splitting up the Championship and particularly making it two divisions." said Anderson. "First, it was only natural that the smaller counties feared being dead in the second division. The report should have made clear that the board would protect them by ensuring they were helped out from central funds or outlined a way saying: `This is how we're going to support them'.

"The second major shortcoming is equally important. Those counties in the second division would have had genuine worries that their talented players, whom they had nurtured, would be poached by the bigger clubs. There could have been some draft legislation taking into account European law and precedent on how this could have been avoided or how they could be compensated."

Anderson rebuffed the suggestion that counties had turned their back on the England team or that most of them existed only because they received a sizeable sum each year from profits generated by Test matches, by far the biggest source of income in most cases.

"I'm sorry but the income from the ECB is not a hand-out," he said. "That is the way we choose to run our business. Several years ago a policy was laid down for the good of the whole game that the strong should protect the weak and that is what happens. Without the counties it should never be forgotten there would be no England team."

Anderson is not antediluvian as the new buildings around Somerset's headquarters, a thriving academy of excellence, plans for a new stand and the eagerness to embrace modern coaching techniques all demonstrate. (Taunton on Thursday with 3,500 inside was substantially more vibrant and attractive than Edgbaston would be with a similar number.) But he took an understandably harsh line both with the bigger, grander counties and some former players who have castigated him and his ilk this week.

"I can't see that there could be a breakaway by the super six or whatever. But those clubs with Test-match grounds must know that Test matches are run under the auspices of the ECB and organised by the ICC. If they weren't part of that how could they hold Test matches or have Test players?

"Then there's the likes of former players of the recent past having a go at us and saying there's too much soft cricket. Well, point one is that while this seems to be accepted I haven't noticed much of it in August. And if it does happen and they say it did when they played then they are guilty of lacking professionalism and of handing on bad habits.

"Raising The Standard said many things that needed to be said. It will provide a useful tool for many counties. And two divisions will probably arrive in three years or so. It's natural. All league cricket is played like that and it creates intense interest. If the Championship had four up and four down it could be rivetting. The Championship has always evolved since 1890. With a few more financial details it could have evolved a bit more this time." The hyphenated adjective that eluded everybody was far-seeing.