Surrey CCC CEO Steve Elworthy on why the county game is thriving, possible outside investment and solving the calendar conundrum.
If you exit the Northern Line at Oval Station and turn left onto Harleyford Street you’ll be hit with Surrey CCC’s iconic portico, now over a decade old, and the external brick face of one of cricket’s most famous pavilions.
It’s where Ashes series have been won and lost, where England used to play international rugby matches, and was home to the first ever FA Cup final – Wanderers beat the Royal Engineers by a rather un-cricketing scoreline of 1-0.
But if you roll up to the south London stalwart, edging towards 180 years of existence, this season for the County Championship season, which gets underway next month, there’s a good chance you’ll be alongside over 18,000 members.
Because Surrey is thriving as a hub for cricket in England and beyond, says chief executive Steve Elworthy.
And it’s not all about Brendon McCullum and Ben Stokes’s Bazball revolution that has taken the England team by storm. Surrey play their own explosive but pragmatic cricket; a style that has gleaned back-to-back County Championships.
“I’ve given this a lot of thought actually,” Elworthy says. “Pre-McCullum and Stokes, there was a particular way the game was played. Now this style is there but it will not be around forever.
“It’s been fantastic for Test cricket and to have it spoken about as passionately as it is right now, I would love that to continue forever because it’s just the most incredible format in sport.
“I think it’s fantastic for the [County] game but if you have to block out a day in your fourth day of a championship game to draw, and you’re only going to score 100 runs, you’re going to do that.
“I was born in Zimbabwe, lived in South Africa and played all over the world. The number of people who want to come across and play county cricket shows the attraction of it. I was one of them. I played county cricket for Lancashire and wasn’t even a Test cricketer [yet].
“Outside of playing for your country, you want to play county cricket and I don’t think that’s changed. It’s unbelievably healthy, it’s still right up there on the pedestal. It’s one of the top competitions in the world, actually.”
Elworthy: Investor interest in English cricket ‘has to be a good thing’
A sign of prestige is interest from private investment. Indian Premier League franchises were reportedly interested in buying Yorkshire before Colin Graves’s controversial takeover.
Indian investors also held talks with the England and Wales Cricket Board over a stake in The Hundred, in a move that could see teams in the competition partner with IPL franchises.
“We play when everybody else is having their [off seasons] so when you’ve got folks like that sniffing around, you realise how significant a USP that is,” Elworthy adds.
“We need to be very clever and clear about how and what we do, when and if we do something with it, but the level of interest is there. And that’s got to be a good thing.
“Fifteen of the 18 clubs are member-owned so members are going to have a very strong say in that decision. But I currently wouldn’t want to think about any sort of relationship, partnership or even ownership of anything other than Surrey and Surrey’s team.
Surrey CEO Elworthy says County Cricket remains a big draw
“There’s a lot of conversations happening and I think people are jumping to the end goal before we’ve even started walking. We really do need to understand what the art of the possible is, and then make a decision once we’ve got all the information.
“We’ve got 18 counties and 39 county boards and we’ve got a club system and a pathway that is producing unbelievable cricketers, not only for Surrey and for England, but are playing around the world as well.”
The reality, though, is that Surrey are thriving while other English clubs are struggling. That’s not Surrey’s fault; they’ve got a great, historic stadium in a prime area with super facilities.
Elworthy confirms the Oval is now big enough and further expansions on the 27,500 capacity stadium will not take place any time soon, but insists the appetite for cricket is there.
‘Does 50-over cricket survive after 2031?’
The eternal debate is over calendar congestion, with every county playing three competitions, and some having women’s teams and Hundred teams too.
“Do I say the current structure right now is the right one? I would say probably not, I think it needs looking at,” he adds.
“You’ve got to really think about what the future is from an [international] point of view because there weren’t some great reports around the 50-over World Cup at the beginning but then it ended up being a fantastic competition in the end.
“So does 50-over cricket survive after 2031 [when the future tours programme runs until]?
“The biggest thing from a player point of view is the transitions between the formats. We’ve got to look at the structure to reduce as many of those transitions as possible.”
County cricket still feels old-school: smaller crowds, less of a buzz and, perhaps for some, a bit too much effort to follow compared to newer competitions.
But Surrey have nurtured an active membership base that’s bigger than anywhere else. It may not be adjacent to Regent’s Park like Lord’s or as rowdy as Edgbaston, but the Oval is special.
Walking towards the Hobbs Gate, adorned with two replica Ashes urns, is still infectious. Surrey have got it right off the field and on it. Howzat for a model for others to follow?