county game is the talent hunting ground for England test teams – so we have to ensure that stays healthy, but becomes more exciting and interesting. We can draw people in with T20 and T e Hundred, and hope that from there they engage with other forms of cricket as a result. “T e Hundred came about when Sky wanted something


diff erent and the Hundred Board came up with an idea. T e BBC off ered up a two-and-a-half-hour TV slot and that was a gamechanger. Fair play to Sky, they agreed to let us do that, to trial something, that wasn’t behind the paywall so we had to come up with a game that could be played within two and a half hours. We came up with a simple format where you have a number of balls and a number of runs, which fi t within the time frame for the BBC, and it worked. “I chair the Representative Board of fi rst-class counties


and we’re in discussions at the moment about what will happen with T e Hundred, how it will develop. T ere are issues to sort there, but we need to innovate and protect the way people engage with cricket in this country.” T e very fact that Northamptonshire has a seat at that


table at all is down to the vision Gavin developed when he became Chairman in 2014. On the fi eld, the club was doing well, but spending way beyond its means. Long meetings with the bank manager made clear the need for a new strategy. “This club was six weeks away from disappearing


completely at one point. I remember sitting down with the bank and working out who we could aff ord to pay that month and who we couldn’t.


27


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