England captains will be invited to sit on board meetings under plans by Richard Thompson, the new chair of the England & Wales Cricket Board, to increase cricket knowledge at the top of the game.
Rob Key, the England managing director, will also attend board meetings in a non-voting capacity similar to the role performed by Sir Andrew Strauss, who left the ECB last month.
England men’s Test captain Ben Stokes, white-ball captain Jos Buttler, and women’s captain Heather Knight, have all sat in at least one board meeting so far as observers and have an open invite to attend further meetings in the future.
Thompson has overhauled the ECB’s board since taking over as chairman last September replacing eight out of 12 roles, and recently appointed four new non-exec directors, two from Welsh cricket and two from outside the game.
He still has two appointments to complete – one from the recreational game and another cricket role, likely to be an experienced former player.
The ECB was criticised in the past for a lack of cricket knowledge at board level, particularly when it decided to cancel a tour to Pakistan in September 2021 following a terrorist threat made against the New Zealand team.
Thompson vowed to increase the number of cricket figures on the board when he took over and by inviting current senior players it is hoped they will bring insight into the issues affecting the top level of the game at a time when franchise leagues are flexing their financial muscle like never before.
It is a sensitive time with negotiations over changes to central contracts in the men’s game with multiple year deals set to be offered to give England more control over their leading players and an increase in match fees after a number of cricketers pulled out a tour to Bangladesh in March because they could earn more money playing Twenty20 leagues.
Stokes, Buttler and Knight are more than just team captains and are seen as figureheads by other players, capable of leading negotiations with the board. The Team England Player Partnership – the body that represents both men and women’s England teams – has been pushing for years for representation on the ECB board.
There is an acknowledgement that players now have more power to shape decision making because they have other options to vastly increase their earning potential. Stokes has also been a vocal critic of the international schedule which saw two England teams in operation at the same time last winter,” he said last year.
“The scheduling and everything like that I think just doesn’t get as much attention given to it as it should. “Some people say: ‘You are playing for England, that should be enough.’ But there is a lot more to factor in.”
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