‘A complete mess’: Middlesex’s struggles on and off the field leave them in crisis

There have been worse seasons in the 160-year history of Middlesex but Martin Williamson, a member for almost 50 years, cannot recall any. “Speaking to other members the mood is one of apathy and resignation,” he says. “It’s just really sad.”

Richard Sykes, the Middlesex chairman, made little attempt to sugarcoat matters in a summary of their accounts at the end of last year, writing that “2023 has been one of the toughest years in the club’s history”.

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A cursory health check of Middlesex’s recent performances reveals more red flags than the People’s Republic of China. Failure to win promotion to the first division of the county championship last season was compounded by a dismal white-ball campaign, which brought six victories in the T20 Blast and One- Day Cup combined.

The runs and wickets of the former England players Sam Robson and Toby Roland-Jones were not enough to carry a squad comprising talented youngsters such as Josh de Caires over the line, a position unlikely to improved by the decision to release the veteran opener Mark Stoneman due to the club’s stretched finances.

Underperformance on the pitch has been matched by turbulence off it. Middlesex are awaiting the verdict of a second disrepute charge in less than 12 months, have lost Tier One status for their women’s team (and with it considerable central funding), and ended the summer with doubts raised over how long the club will continue playing at Lord’s. As the Guardian revealed this month, its landlord, the MCC, has granted Middlesex a 12-month extension to their lease that will ensure the majority of their matches take place at the Home of Cricket next season, but the long-term outlook is uncertain.

The changes taking place at the other side of Lord’s, which has been Middlesex’s home since 1864, are rather more dramatic. This week, the MCC’s members voted overwhelmingly in favour of accepting the 51% stake in the Hundred franchise London Spirit they have been offered by the England and Wales Cricket Board, with the other 49% to be sold to private investors in an auction process currently taking place.

In the first of three rounds of bidding, London Spirit is understood to have attracted the highest offer of the eight Hundred teams, with the Indian billionaire Sanjiv Goenka valuing the franchise at £140m, a stark contrast with the financial reality of life at Middlesex. India’s richest family, the Ambanis, who own the Mumbai Indians, are also expected to bid for London Spirit. It is little wonder Middlesex’s problems are not a priority for the MCC.

The addition of four London Spirit home games has had a damaging effect on Middlesex’s attendances with crowds for once popular T20 Blast games dropping significantly. Fewer than 13,000 attended their matches against Essex, Somerset and Glamorgan last summer and two of the club’s home fixtures were moved to Chelmsford to save money.

While the London derby with Surrey attracted a crowd of 17,000, there were more than 27,000 at the corresponding game five years ago. In a galling contrast, Surrey’s crowds for T20 Blast games have held up despite the club also staging Oval Invincibles’ Hundred fixtures, with 27,500 sellouts a regular occurrence south of the river.

In a surprising moment of candour at a Middlesex members forum in September, the chief executive, Andrew Cornish, outlined the scale of the club’s financial problems as they search for outside investment. “This winter we will be having really interesting conversations,” he said. “If we do nothing, my strong belief is our relevance will disappear and we’ll find ourselves playing cricket in 20 years’ time in Regent’s Park.”

Cornish told members that Middlesex have had approaches from billionaires and confirmed to the Guardian the club are seeking funding to establish a new ground, although Lord’s would remain their primary home. “Playing at Chelmsford saved us around £70,000 last year and we would like a semi-permanent base,” Cornish said. “As part of those discussions we’ve also had talks about securing some external investment.”

Cornish has stabilised Middlesex’s finances since being appointed three years ago, with the club posting their first profit since 2016 of £131,000 last year, although this was largely due to cost-cutting measures that have had a significant effect on the team’s performance.

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Surrey’s profit before tax last year was £7.6m on a turnover of £65m, while Lancashire made £5.3m, although they have debts of £32m having borrowed large sums to redevelop Old Trafford and build a hotel on the site. Unlike Middlesex, these counties make big money when a Test match comes to town.

As a business Middlesex have more in common with other second division counties and have cut their cloth accordingly. The club did not sign an overseas player last season and have no plans to do so next summer. In another blow to members at least two of those T20 Blast matches that were once marquee events will once again be moved away from Lord’s next summer.

Cornish is seen as a divisive figure in some quarters. He was previously at Somerset, who sacked him as chief executive in 2020. Some of his financial decisions at Middlesex have also raised eyebrows, particularly the level of executive pay and the club’s use of the notoriously expensive London law firm, Carter Ruck.

Middlesex’s 2023 accounts show that salaries of the club’s five-strong senior leadership team, which includes Cornish, rose by 8% last year. Meanwhile, membership numbers fell by around 200 to 7,050, less than half of Surrey’s figure. The club’s explanation is that they gave a 4% cost-of-living pay rise to all staff, while some senior executives were paid performance-related bonuses.

“To give executives big pay rises, at a time when the club are under investigation by the ECB, seems extraordinary,” says Williamson, a former senior executive at Sky News and Sky Sports. “The club’s governance is a complete mess.”

The investigation Williamson refers to resulted in Middlesex being charged with improper conduct by the Cricket Regulator in June after the ECB received multiple complaints about the behaviour of a member of the club’s senior leadership team. A hearing of the Cricket Disciplinary Committee took place in September and a verdict is expected imminently, with Middlesex denying any wrongdoing.

Middlesex had already been placed in special measures by the ECB due to governance concerns. In September 2023, the club was fined £50,000 by the ECB and given a suspended points deduction after being found guilty of spending central funding allocated for youth and grassroots programmes on their first team, with the ECB giving itself oversight of the club’s finances and the right to attend board meetings. To their credit, Middlesex are continuing to provide free coaching to talented boys and girls on their pathway programmes, unlike some of the bigger counties, including Surrey.

The problems at Middlesex predate the arrival of Cornish, who inherited a six-figure black hole in the club’s pension provisions after errors made by the previous regime, as well as debts to HMRC. The absence of a long-term contract with the MCC is a concern for many.

While the MCC charged Middlesex rent and gave them gate receipts for almost 150 years the arrangement was flipped in 2015 so the club now pay the county around £200,000 for the right to host their matches and keep the revenue. While the uncertainty caused by the Hundred sales process is clearly a factor, senior figures at the MCC have concerns about aspects of Middlesex’s governance.

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“If I was Middlesex I would make a change at the top in the interests of forging a better relationship with MCC,” a key figure in the county game said. “There are a few personnel issues and personality clashes that are not helping matters.”

As Cornish intimated, Middlesex’s options away from Lord’s are limited. In addition to those two games at Chelmsford they played at Radlett and Merchant Taylors’ School last summer, while Uxbridge and Richmond have also been used, but none of those grounds are viable long-term alternatives.

There have been talks in the past over the possibility of staging some matches at a new ground in Barnet but those discussions failed to produce any tangible plans. “Some people are saying a new ground would make the club masters of their own destiny, but Middlesex cannot survive without Lord’s,” Williamson says. “The members only remain loyal because of Lord’s and none of the other options work.”

Cornish is also convinced about the centrality of Lord’s to Middlesex’s future and insists a long-term agreement can be reached. “We’re waiting to assess the fallout from the Hundred auction, but there’s no drama,” he said. “We’re strategic partners with the MCC and the relationship is very good.

“The detail of the negotiations is around commercial considerations – how much we pay for hospitality, the number of bar staff required at Middlesex matches. It’s about minutiae rather than the macro issue of whether we stay at Lord’s.”

Despite dwindling crowds Middlesex’s members and executive appear to be at one about the need to stay in St John’s Wood.