Lancashire Overcast With A Chance Of Rain Heavy In Places. Rolls off the tongue, and unfaillingly accurate. Unfortunately we call ourselves "Lightning". :mad:
In all seriousness, although I hate much of the Americanisation of our sport (or Sports as they call them over the pond), I actually think that our football and cricket clubs have plenty in their pasts which can be used in the way that 'brands' might use them.
Although our sports clubs do many things which brands do, there is one fundamental difference which make it impossible for the term to be applied, namely that brands forever seek to grow market share in their field and vigorously and ruthlessly attempt to get buyers of competitor products to switch to their own.
Our football / cricket clubs will not even bother doing this as it completely goes against the fundamental nature of the relationship between true fans / supporters and their clubs.
Can you imagine a meeting of the Manchester United marketing department discussing an agenda involving a new campaign where the objective is to make 5,000 Liverpool fans switch their allegience to Manchester United?
Or a similar one in Leeds where the Yorkshire marketing team plan a similar assault on Lancashire members?
If the cricket clubs have to use labels, I wish they'd use them across all the formats to make a more integrated proposition.
Why are the Yorkshire players Vikings on a Sunday afternoon but 48 hours later when the same players start an LVCC match are now called just Yorkshire?
As far as Lancashire, if they are going to really commit to 'branding', they should dip into the wealth of history / heritage at their disposal from the Lancashire Cotton Industry past.
Quite where 'Lightning' came from, I have no idea.
They can / should treat their behind the scenes planning to the development and promotion of the club around a 'brand' style model but just not call them brands, as to me, they aren't and never can be.
Here is something I wrote on branding in a bit more detail. It is about football but the message applies to cricket clubs equally well;
Slightly wrong forum but please tell me how Stuart Broad cheated ? What rule did he break ?
The next time I'm clean bowled with middle stump cartwheeling past the keeper I'm going to stand my ground, as nobody ever actually appeals for those and you therefore can't be given out.
Slightly wrong forum but please tell me how Stuart Broad cheated ? What rule did he break ?
in the first test a ball, that was a fair delivery hit his bat and was caught without bouncing by a fielder, the aussies appealed the umpire gave it not out. afterward people suggested that SB should have 'walked' as he would have known he hit it.
it breaks no laws [in cricket we play by laws and regulations NEVER rules] in cricket, but it could be sighted as breaking the 'spirit of cricket' as set out in the preamble in the laws of cricket hence moaning
as an ECB umpire its my job to see the laws are applied - its up to a player if he wants to 'walk'
The next time I'm clean bowled with middle stump cartwheeling past the keeper I'm going to stand my ground, as nobody ever actually appeals for those and you therefore can't be given out.
The next time I'm clean bowled with middle stump cartwheeling past the keeper I'm going to stand my ground, as nobody ever actually appeals for those and you therefore can't be given out.
You will find that after you have been standing there for a few seconds, somebody will appeal
in the first test a ball, that was a fair delivery hit his bat and was caught without bouncing by a fielder, the aussies appealed the umpire gave it not out. afterward people suggested that SB should have 'walked' as he would have known he hit it.
it breaks no laws [in cricket we play by laws and regulations NEVER rules] in cricket, but it could be sighted as breaking the 'spirit of cricket' as set out in the preamble in the laws of cricket hence moaning
as an ECB umpire its my job to see the laws are applied - its up to a player if he wants to 'walk'
I do find it strange that players are allowed to join in half way through a game.
Finn, having left the England squad , joined in half way through thegame.
I could understand it when they were left out on the morning of the game and hot-tailed it the county game and , perhaps, missed the 1st session. But to miss the first 2 days, it doesn't seem right
I do find it strange that players are allowed to join in half way through a game.
Finn, having left the England squad , joined in half way through thegame.
I could understand it when they were left out on the morning of the game and hot-tailed it the county game and , perhaps, missed the 1st session. But to miss the first 2 days, it doesn't seem right
I quite agree. This is what i meant in the thread i started about substitutions in cricket. It needs to be one rule or another not flexible.
I do find it strange that players are allowed to join in half way through a game.
Finn, having left the England squad , joined in half way through thegame.
I could understand it when they were left out on the morning of the game and hot-tailed it the county game and , perhaps, missed the 1st session. But to miss the first 2 days, it doesn't seem right
Not only that, but they can sub for somebody who has already batted or bowled and then do so themselves.
The ECB have basically destroyed county cricket, and this is the final nail in the coffin.
Not only that, but they can sub for somebody who has already batted or bowled and then do so themselves.The ECB have basically destroyed county cricket, and this is the final nail in the coffin.
err they have to nominate a temporary player.
No one wants a career semi destroyed being a non playing England squad member.
Not only that, but they can sub for somebody who has already batted or bowled and then do so themselves.
The ECB have basically destroyed county cricket, and this is the final nail in the coffin.
County Cricket is strange now. In relation to other sports I cant think of any where it is seemingly so acceptable for the elite players to effectively be excluded from the main league structure for what can be a whole top flight career.
As a fee paying member of a county I now find that the set up is pretty much a feeder league for central contracts(and call ups for specialists in three forms of Cricket) and that success in the main league is looking like who is best at getting good players from second tier nations, finding old pros and fringe (not quite) test players.
Try as I might, I cannot find as much enthusiasm as I did in supporting my county when you can potentially kiss goodbye to any great players that come through and that what is being presented to the paying customer is to a degree second rate . The fact that Twenty/20 doesn't appeal to me and the lack of a knockout 50 over cup competition isn't helping either.
The counties would soon be bankrupt without a successful national team and central contracts are essential for a successful national team. In any case, if there were no central contracts the best players would be away for part of the season in the IPL etc. not entertaining a couple of hundred members in a county match.
County Cricket is strange now. In relation to other sports I cant think of any where it is seemingly so acceptable for the elite players to effectively be excluded from the main league structure for what can be a whole top flight career.
As a fee paying member of a county I now find that the set up is pretty much a feeder league for central contracts(and call ups for specialists in three forms of Cricket) and that success in the main league is looking like who is best at getting good players from second tier nations, finding old pros and fringe (not quite) test players.
Try as I might, I cannot find as much enthusiasm as I did in supporting my county when you can potentially kiss goodbye to any great players that come through and that what is being presented to the paying customer is to a degree second rate . The fact that Twenty/20 doesn't appeal to me and the lack of a knockout 50 over cup competition isn't helping either.
Good summary, Chris, sadly.
In the quest for success for England (central contracts), the County game has effectively been gelded.
In fact, in terms of media coverage, England has become the 19th (and only) County.
I have posted on this before, but I am fed up with listening to 5Live where the only dedicated cricket programme is Michael Vaughan and Phil Tufnell acting like two lads in a pub talking endlessly about England.
In the car back form a sports memorabilia auction, with plenty of domestic cricket on the agenda in the upcoming days this week, what were they going on about as nauseum? The Ashes.
TMS is a brilliant programme but understandably, it does what it says on the tin - it covbers the Test Match.
Where is the programme on 5Live about the LVCC or the current standings in the YB40 or even a tracking coverage of T20?
It's all going on mysteriously in the background in a form of parallel universe.
Talksport is a football station and their coverage of cricket is derisory.
I dream of a day (which will never come, unfortunately), where on radio (the medium I use most), they will cover cricket like they cover football.
At least in the past, when a Test match was over and a big Gillette Cup match was going to be played on a Wednesday, the interest / excitement you had for the match was that a Ted Dexter or Colin Cowdrey would be walking out to bat for their county.
Now, not only is the scheduling all jumbled up like some pesto of fixtures, but the day after a Test match, we hear that the England players are on a sponsors golf day (no ice baths, massages and rest for Anderson etc???).
Many would say that England are a force now.
I'd say that we invented the bloody game, so I'd expect this but if newer policies had to be introduced to achieve supremecy, where our domestic game has effectively been turned into the Australian model, at what cost has this been achieved at and was it worth it?
Not to me.
And don't get me started on the transformation of our historic grounds into concrete jungles set up for revenue generating test matches and meaningless ODI's.
The counties would soon be bankrupt without a successful national team and central contracts are essential for a successful national team. In any case, if there were no central contracts the best players would be away for part of the season in the IPL etc. not entertaining a couple of hundred members in a county match.
I wouldn't disagree with the essence of this, apaul, although test match revenues have been supporting county cricket almost regardless of whether England have been top dogs or not for many decades.
Also, while crowds at Lancashire, for example are nowhere near the thousands 600 yards away at the football, they are a few more than 200 and are into their thousands for T20 and Pro40.
Of couirse, gone are the days in the 1930's when over 30,000 turned up at Old Trafford for a Roses match. But those attendances were a reality.
Life has changed. But as this erosion in cultural focus has changed and is still changing, I think the ECB and the Counties need to be much smarter in how they market the game.
And I won't argue that county cricket is a vibrant and self supporting model as it isn't and never has been.
But interestingly, it is in these modern times, where counties have become much more tuned in to running their clubs like proper businesses that the opportunity to become less dependent on the ECB has emerged.
And it's not just LVCC cricket that I have a beef about, as I love all the formats.
My main beef is about the packaging and communication of the county game.
If we are to have central contracts and concrete jungle stadia, let's at least get the scheduling packaged in a way that will maximise understanding, coverage and enjoyment for everyone (fans, media, clubs)
This is the essence of my website posts.
If the top players are not playing or playing sparingly, then the ECB / Counties must do a better job of organising and marketing the domestic game.
It's a mixed up, hotchpotch currently.
I for one, do not need to have the test match players in view for my enjoyment; when at Headingley 2 weeks ago for the Roses T20 , other than being soaked in beer by yobs, I really enjoyed the cricket (it was a tie).
Even at a marginally lower standard, the County game is still streets above club cricket (which I also enjoy watching locally here in Lancashire) but I am just hoping that the scheduling changes they are proposing for 2014 will make the fixtures more understandable and trackable.
PS Just received an e-mail from Warwickshire about a T20 match this Friday. Interestingly, the visuals are showing a grouped of young men and women in their 20's / 30's looking like they are at a disco.
From my years in marketing, I understand this positioning and it's difficult to communicate with imagery which caters for different target markets but I know plenty of people over the age of 35 who like one-day cricket / T20 cricket and this sort of disoc / party imagery is a bit cliched at best and a turn off at worst.
I agree the county schedule needs sorting out, but there has been more radio coverage than ever before because the ECB has paid the BBC to do it. Like other sports with a minority following, e.g rugby league, club rugby union, it's mainly on Five Live Extra and the BBC website, but it is there if you want it.
Comments
Yorkshire do not have a shortage of openers
In all seriousness, although I hate much of the Americanisation of our sport (or Sports as they call them over the pond), I actually think that our football and cricket clubs have plenty in their pasts which can be used in the way that 'brands' might use them.
Although our sports clubs do many things which brands do, there is one fundamental difference which make it impossible for the term to be applied, namely that brands forever seek to grow market share in their field and vigorously and ruthlessly attempt to get buyers of competitor products to switch to their own.
Our football / cricket clubs will not even bother doing this as it completely goes against the fundamental nature of the relationship between true fans / supporters and their clubs.
Can you imagine a meeting of the Manchester United marketing department discussing an agenda involving a new campaign where the objective is to make 5,000 Liverpool fans switch their allegience to Manchester United?
Or a similar one in Leeds where the Yorkshire marketing team plan a similar assault on Lancashire members?
If the cricket clubs have to use labels, I wish they'd use them across all the formats to make a more integrated proposition.
Why are the Yorkshire players Vikings on a Sunday afternoon but 48 hours later when the same players start an LVCC match are now called just Yorkshire?
As far as Lancashire, if they are going to really commit to 'branding', they should dip into the wealth of history / heritage at their disposal from the Lancashire Cotton Industry past.
Quite where 'Lightning' came from, I have no idea.
They can / should treat their behind the scenes planning to the development and promotion of the club around a 'brand' style model but just not call them brands, as to me, they aren't and never can be.
Here is something I wrote on branding in a bit more detail. It is about football but the message applies to cricket clubs equally well;
http://www.goalsandwickets.co.uk/football/football-editorial/can-we-really-call-our-top-football-clubs-brands/
'Sliding along the ropes" Patel signalled that he did not now if it was a 4 or not.
2 runs given in Notts currently beating Durham
:rolleyes:
Cheating is quite a Broad subject, is it Nott?
Slightly wrong forum but please tell me how Stuart Broad cheated ? What rule did he break ?
in the first test a ball, that was a fair delivery hit his bat and was caught without bouncing by a fielder, the aussies appealed the umpire gave it not out. afterward people suggested that SB should have 'walked' as he would have known he hit it.
it breaks no laws [in cricket we play by laws and regulations NEVER rules] in cricket, but it could be sighted as breaking the 'spirit of cricket' as set out in the preamble in the laws of cricket hence moaning
as an ECB umpire its my job to see the laws are applied - its up to a player if he wants to 'walk'
village.
You will find that after you have been standing there for a few seconds, somebody will appeal
Exactly, he didn't break any rules
Finn, having left the England squad , joined in half way through thegame.
I could understand it when they were left out on the morning of the game and hot-tailed it the county game and , perhaps, missed the 1st session. But to miss the first 2 days, it doesn't seem right
I quite agree. This is what i meant in the thread i started about substitutions in cricket. It needs to be one rule or another not flexible.
The ECB have basically destroyed county cricket, and this is the final nail in the coffin.
No one wants a career semi destroyed being a non playing England squad member.
Live on Sky now.
Simon Kerrigan receiving his County Cap before the game. England next....?
Your boys took one helluvva beating.
Lancs go top of the group
Concentrating on the league, you know Division 1. Not interested in this kids game
Barring an unlikely set of results , we're in the quarter finals
(It is a shame you're being punished for producing top young talent that is rarely available )
Especially if England sniff around Gary Ballance too. Bloody hell, leave us some players
County Cricket is strange now. In relation to other sports I cant think of any where it is seemingly so acceptable for the elite players to effectively be excluded from the main league structure for what can be a whole top flight career.
As a fee paying member of a county I now find that the set up is pretty much a feeder league for central contracts(and call ups for specialists in three forms of Cricket) and that success in the main league is looking like who is best at getting good players from second tier nations, finding old pros and fringe (not quite) test players.
Try as I might, I cannot find as much enthusiasm as I did in supporting my county when you can potentially kiss goodbye to any great players that come through and that what is being presented to the paying customer is to a degree second rate . The fact that Twenty/20 doesn't appeal to me and the lack of a knockout 50 over cup competition isn't helping either.
Good summary, Chris, sadly.
In the quest for success for England (central contracts), the County game has effectively been gelded.
In fact, in terms of media coverage, England has become the 19th (and only) County.
I have posted on this before, but I am fed up with listening to 5Live where the only dedicated cricket programme is Michael Vaughan and Phil Tufnell acting like two lads in a pub talking endlessly about England.
In the car back form a sports memorabilia auction, with plenty of domestic cricket on the agenda in the upcoming days this week, what were they going on about as nauseum? The Ashes.
TMS is a brilliant programme but understandably, it does what it says on the tin - it covbers the Test Match.
Where is the programme on 5Live about the LVCC or the current standings in the YB40 or even a tracking coverage of T20?
It's all going on mysteriously in the background in a form of parallel universe.
Talksport is a football station and their coverage of cricket is derisory.
I dream of a day (which will never come, unfortunately), where on radio (the medium I use most), they will cover cricket like they cover football.
At least in the past, when a Test match was over and a big Gillette Cup match was going to be played on a Wednesday, the interest / excitement you had for the match was that a Ted Dexter or Colin Cowdrey would be walking out to bat for their county.
Now, not only is the scheduling all jumbled up like some pesto of fixtures, but the day after a Test match, we hear that the England players are on a sponsors golf day (no ice baths, massages and rest for Anderson etc???).
Many would say that England are a force now.
I'd say that we invented the bloody game, so I'd expect this but if newer policies had to be introduced to achieve supremecy, where our domestic game has effectively been turned into the Australian model, at what cost has this been achieved at and was it worth it?
Not to me.
And don't get me started on the transformation of our historic grounds into concrete jungles set up for revenue generating test matches and meaningless ODI's.
The Emirates Old Trafford? Do me a favour.
My feelings / thoughts in some more detail;
http://www.goalsandwickets.co.uk/cricket/cricket-editorial/fancy-a-dogs-breakfast-warwickshire-successfully-navigate-county-crickets-confusing-and-frustrating-schedule/
I wouldn't disagree with the essence of this, apaul, although test match revenues have been supporting county cricket almost regardless of whether England have been top dogs or not for many decades.
Also, while crowds at Lancashire, for example are nowhere near the thousands 600 yards away at the football, they are a few more than 200 and are into their thousands for T20 and Pro40.
Of couirse, gone are the days in the 1930's when over 30,000 turned up at Old Trafford for a Roses match. But those attendances were a reality.
Life has changed. But as this erosion in cultural focus has changed and is still changing, I think the ECB and the Counties need to be much smarter in how they market the game.
And I won't argue that county cricket is a vibrant and self supporting model as it isn't and never has been.
But interestingly, it is in these modern times, where counties have become much more tuned in to running their clubs like proper businesses that the opportunity to become less dependent on the ECB has emerged.
And it's not just LVCC cricket that I have a beef about, as I love all the formats.
My main beef is about the packaging and communication of the county game.
If we are to have central contracts and concrete jungle stadia, let's at least get the scheduling packaged in a way that will maximise understanding, coverage and enjoyment for everyone (fans, media, clubs)
This is the essence of my website posts.
If the top players are not playing or playing sparingly, then the ECB / Counties must do a better job of organising and marketing the domestic game.
It's a mixed up, hotchpotch currently.
I for one, do not need to have the test match players in view for my enjoyment; when at Headingley 2 weeks ago for the Roses T20 , other than being soaked in beer by yobs, I really enjoyed the cricket (it was a tie).
Even at a marginally lower standard, the County game is still streets above club cricket (which I also enjoy watching locally here in Lancashire) but I am just hoping that the scheduling changes they are proposing for 2014 will make the fixtures more understandable and trackable.
PS Just received an e-mail from Warwickshire about a T20 match this Friday. Interestingly, the visuals are showing a grouped of young men and women in their 20's / 30's looking like they are at a disco.
From my years in marketing, I understand this positioning and it's difficult to communicate with imagery which caters for different target markets but I know plenty of people over the age of 35 who like one-day cricket / T20 cricket and this sort of disoc / party imagery is a bit cliched at best and a turn off at worst.