With the recent addition of the Huddersfield League, there are now 33 ECB Premier Leagues operating across England and Wales. Adam Hopkins investigates whether the leagues are worthy of their name
This significant milestone marks the beginning of an exciting new chapter for our league and the clubs that form its backbone,” reads a statement on the Huddersfield Cricket League website announcing their addition to the list of ECB Premier Leagues.
In order to make the step up, the clubs within the league are required to meet various criteria. They must have multiple junior teams playing hardball cricket; have received ECB Club Mark accreditation (demonstrating the club’s compliance with standards for management, safeguarding and governance); and have proof of financial stability and a committee structure. With 33 of these leagues now in operation across England and Wales, club cricket appears to be more centralised than ever. But what is the actual state of the top level of the recreational game?
“Overall, I’d say it’s very healthy,” says Ian Livo, host of The Premier League Cricket Show podcast. However, he acknowledges that the overall structure remains disjointed.
“While there are 33 ECB Premier Leagues all operating under the same banner and all having to meet certain criteria, they all still operate under their own rules, formats and regulations. There’s five Premier Leagues in Yorkshire and I think they have three different formats between them." In the Bradford League they play exclusively 50-over ‘result’ cricket where, barring bad weather, each game has a winner and a loser. In the North Yorkshire South Durham League, however, teams can bat out for a draw.
“The health of the Premier Leagues is always going to be good to very good, but is never going to be excellent,” adds Livo. “I can name two to three clubs in every single one of the Premier Leagues who are regarded as the ‘money clubs’. They’ve either got a benefactor or a large amount of money coming in from elsewhere. Then you’ve got the clubs coming [into the top division] from the next level down, which in some cases is Premier Two or Division One and, in football parlance, they’re becoming the West Broms, they’re coming up and going back down.
“Then you’ve got what I’d call a fat middle of six-to-eight teams in every single league who I’d classify as quality cricket clubs, community-based, who have money, but not like the top two or three, and will always be there or thereabouts. But it depends on the players coming through their junior ranks and what kind of overseas player they can get in and what difference they make.”
Rules on what a player can be paid change from league to league, with some competitions not allowing any paid players, some allowing one pro, and others permitting an entire first team of paid players.
Playing in an ECB Premier League entitles a club to a small payment each year from their respective league (usually up to £500 depending on the competition), with this money passed down from the ECB. With the recent influx of cash from the part sale of The Hundred franchises, the amount of money the Premier Leagues receive from the ECB may increase, but, for now, it’s still a club’s own fundraising efforts that make the real difference.
As a result of this financial disparity, there are big gulfs in ability between clubs. Nonetheless, Livo believes that the top tiers of ECB Premier Leagues provide the highest quality club cricket in the country.
“You’ve got the best of the best in the Premier Leagues. There’s no two ways about it. The likes of Jordan Silk, a Big Bash legend, can come and play for Brentwood in the Essex League and then Ben Allison drops down from the Essex first team to play for them as well. They’ve got two proper first-class players in there, but they’ve also got half a dozen lads who are ex-first-class or ex-second XI. You’re seeing quality that 10 to 15 years ago you wouldn’t see.”
A lot of top Premier League sides are full of players who have had a taste of cricket at a higher level and are still playing for a bit of money, for the love of the game, or with aspirations of making it back to the professional level.
“You’ve got a lot of players who have gone on the academy pathways, they’ll get to under-18s, they might even play a lot of second-eleven cricket and then they just don’t quite make it. A lot of players are let go too early from the first-class system, but that’s actually to the benefit of the Premier Leagues.
“Going back to a podcast we did last year with Stan Heaton and Jez Hope at Lowerhouse Cricket Club in Lancashire – they’re both in their sixties to seventies and when we asked them about the standard of Premier League cricket today compared to the Lancashire League back in the heyday when you had got the great West Indians coming over, they immediately said Premier League cricket today.
“The reason they gave was very clear. Whilst you don’t get Viv Richards rocking up at Rishton anymore, you might still get the next level down, and what you have got is 10 players playing with them who are watching the Big Bash, the Blast, first-class cricket and are fitter, healthier, stronger and better coached.
“That to me says it all: the game’s got to be healthy. You think of the ECB Club Championship and the National T20 finals last year and you look at all three clubs involved – Northern were in both – they’re fit, athletic, incredible fielding sides. They’ve all got ex-county players and guys who’ve been in academies. That’s the difference.”
With so many talented cricketers on show, he says ECB Premier League cricket has a clear place in the overall hierarchy across England and Wales.
“I’ve got my own way of describing this perfectly: first-class cricket is the equivalent of the football Premier League. National Counties is the equivalent of the Championship and then ECB Premier League Cricket is the equivalent of League One and Two. More National Counties sides beat first-class counties in showcase games last year than ever before, so that gap must be closing.
“I believe across all 33 Premier Leagues we’d find at least 50 players who could play first-class. Look at the lads who Worcestershire brought in last year: Tom Hinley, Tommy Sturgess, Fateh Singh, guys who are all on the cusp. Put them in a game against England’s first eleven and you’re going to see a difference. But the further down you go, that gap’s closing.
“When I watched New Farnley versus Richmondshire last year [in the Yorkshire Champions final] that was top quality cricket. Alex Lilley and Garry Pratt going at it for six or seven overs was as good as any county cricket you’ll see. Watching Northern versus Brentwood in the Club Championship final, too – Will Buttleman and Aaron West taking Northern down was as good as anything I saw last year. That tells me the standard is right up there.”
Time honoured tradition
While it would seem to make sense for each of the ECB Premier Leagues to play by the same rules and regulations, it’s not quite as easy as one might think to convince leagues to make the switch from their preferred format of the game.
“The Liverpool competition is entirely timed cricket,” says Rob Morris, assistant secretary of the Liverpool & District Cricket Competition. “I believe it is the only ECB Premier League that is all timed cricket, whereas the vast majority, for instance down in the south, play a mixed diet of timed cricket and 50-over cricket.”
While for now leagues are allowed to operate under their own rules, it may get to the point where the ECB dictates what type of cricket the Premier Leagues play.
“The ECB are keen for the Liverpool comp to play both timed and 50-over cricket, but the league is very much against it,” Morris reveals. “It has never been taken to an AGM for the clubs to vote on. It’s tradition. The origin of the competition goes back to the 1840s and it was in 1892 when it became standardised. It’s been around for 130-odd years, and it’s always been timed cricket.”
