Middlesex are the latest county to face a revolt from legendary players, with Mike Gatting and Mark Ramprakash taking aim at the board and executives for creating a “soft touch” team.
In recent weeks, Sussex legends Matt Prior and Chris Adams led a rebel group looking to overthrow the board, while fallen giants Lancashire are facing a revolt led by David “Bumble” Lloyd and Paul Allott.
A group of six former Middlesex players, all internationals, have issued an open letter criticising the management of the club. The signatories are: Gatting, Ramprakash, Clive Radley, Mike Selvey, John Emburey, and the West Indies great Desmond Haynes.
The letter read: “As former players of Middlesex, we have become increasingly disturbed at the way the club has been allowed to sink to its current level. Middlesex was once a byword for excellence in the game, a club with a proud history of success and a strong, competitive culture brought about by hard work on and off the pitch. Instead, around the counties, the men’s teams are now variously regarded as ‘a soft touch’ and ‘lacking fight’.”
“The club has been poorly led for too long. Middlesex is first and foremost a cricket club, but the leadership lacks any real cricketing knowledge. Only one person with first-class cricket experience occupies a board position, while only two such former players appear on any of the club’s committees. The cricket administration is structurally a mess, is devoid of accountability and lacks proper checks and balances.”
Middlesex have long been a troubled club. They are unique among the 18 counties in that they have few tangible assets – they are tenants of Marylebone Cricket Club. They make no secret of their desire to secure a home away from Lord’s, and are exploring demutualisation – i.e., ceasing to be member-owned – in order to secure private investment.
They are trapped in a long-running legal dispute with their former chief executive, Richard Goatley, who is suing them for more than £1m in an ongoing “personal injury” lawsuit. Their current chief executive, Andrew Cornish, has been on leave since November as he is the subject of a Cricket Regulator investigation. The club are understood to have confirmed at a recent members’ forum that Cornish is on full pay while being investigated. While he is on leave, MCC have brought in their membership secretary, Mahdi Choudhury, to lead Middlesex until their AGM.
Middlesex were placed in “special measures” by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) in 2023 over financial mismanagement, and first fell into financial disarray more than four years ago after an error in pension payments was discovered in pensions payments that cost the county a six-figure sum and compounded losses triggered by the Covid crisis.
On the field, the club starts the new Division Two season on Friday at Lord’s with a new coach, New Zealander Peter Fulton, working under director of cricket, Alan Coleman. The squad should, in theory, be strong enough to compete with the likes of Lancashire for promotion.