By Matt Hardy
Middlesex as a county ceased to exist in 1965. Once a thriving region of the country that encompassed much of modern north London, Middlesex, whose name dates back to the Anglo-Saxon period, made way for the area now known as Greater London.
But north London still maintains ties to the historic region, with 160 years worth of narrative stored in and transcended through the home of cricket Lord’s and its relationship with its tenants, Middlesex Cricket Club.
“We’re we’re pretty unique club, 160 years old,” Middlesex chief executive Andrew Cornish tells City A.M. ahead of the 2024 County Championship season, which begins on Friday.
“We’ve never owned our own ground up until this year, where we have acquired a ground which we’ll be using for our women’s Academy – it was generously gifted to us by [pharmaceuticals giant] GSK.
“But our base is at Lord’s, the home of cricket, where we enjoy a marvellous relationship with the MCC, who are essentially our landlords.
“We’ve had some challenging times over the last couple of years, which is well documented.”
Lights, camera, action
Middlesex posted a profit of £131,000 this year, their first positive account filing since they won the County Championship in 2016.
They have been fined by the England and Wales Cricket Board and have a suspended points deduction hanging over them for breaching financial rules.
Lead sponsors Knight Frank also withdrew support, but Middlesex are looking forward, embracing their historic ties while becoming a modern media club.
Based out of Lord’s, the pandemic saw the club invest in a top quality streaming offering – seen by fans as the best in the business.
And it is paying dividends for Middlesex, with gambling firm Dafabet taking over as sponsors in part because of the quality of the club’s streaming output.
“Look at the environment that we’re in,” adds Cornish. “Knight Frank have been great partners for a number of years and are still very much friends with the club.
“Circumstances dictated that they’ve moved on and Dafabet have come in. It’s a different type of sponsorship arrangement. But it’s one that works for us and hopefully will work for them.
“A lot of it is based on the live streaming and being front of shirt. I remember when I arrived a couple of years ago and the IPL just stopped because of Covid-19, and Sky called us up and said they wanted to come to Lord’s and just plug into our stream.
“That’s the quality of the stream that we provide.”
Middlesex for the future
Middlesex will begin this season in Division Two of the County Championship after being relegated at the end of last season.
They boast the likes of Stephen Eskinazi, Ryan Higgins and Mark Stoneman but are unlikely to recruit a big-name overseas player for the T20 Vitality Blast.
They’ve also recreated the famous Lord’s slope at their training base in Northwood.
They’re a county rooted in history but part of a thriving English game that’s got London pushing the boundaries in terms of its packed domestic and international offering.
“I don’t think there’s too much cricket,” Cornish says. “But it is a huge conundrum to sort out the schedule.
“If you ask the players at the top of their game, they will probably tell you that they’re playing too much cricket but if you ask the youngsters they don’t play enough.”
Whatever the future of the game, Middlesex’s financial shift from the red to the black marks a fresh start for the county.
They may be without a home they can call their own and represent a county that no longer exists on the map, but their 160 years of history in St John’s Wood appears to be a period those in charge only wish to extend further.
