Ed Warner: Cricket should follow Ryder Cup to save Test matches December 16, 2021 The matter-of-fact delivery of his bleak assessment was like a punch to the gut. Here was someone woven into the fabric of international cricket who believed Test matches would become extinct in his lifetime. The individual in question, who shall remain nameless, might hope to have a good four or five decades ahead of him, [...]
Ed Warner: Soft power and sport – why do they do that? December 9, 2021 To the Guildhall for the launch of EY’s study of soft power and major sporting events, commissioned by the City of London and UK Sport. The publication was timely, coinciding with the findings of the inquiry into the chaos at the Euro 2020 final at Wembley which tarnished Britain’s hosting credentials, as well as the [...]
Ed Warner: Crouch review recommendations could drive Premier League away December 2, 2021 I really wanted to embrace the “fan-led” Tracey Crouch review of football governance in England. But with each turn of its 162 pages my heart sank further at the unmistakable sight of the heavy hand of Whitehall. The Crouch review’s recommendations revolve around the creation of an independent regulator for the sport. This displays a [...]
Ed Warner: Select committees are ultimately toothless November 25, 2021 The political pile-on has been swift. But although they secured detailed testimony on cricket racism under the cloak of parliamentary privilege, MPs show no signs of learning from the futility of their past hearings into sporting crises. It needn’t be so. I’ve had the dubious honour of appearing before three Westminster select committees down the [...]
Ed Warner: Sewing ruling bodies together is not always the answer November 18, 2021 I’m a late adopter of LinkedIn, only joining this summer as a means of promoting Sport inc. Compiling my profile, I paused for just a second before deciding not to include my inglorious 52 days as interim chair of the British Basketball Federation back in 2018. On Sunday, as the T20 World Cup neared its [...]
Ed Warner: Why sponsors should beat a path to Yorkshire November 11, 2021 Yorkshire County Cricket Club might just be the most exciting sponsorship proposition right now. Mired in a racism crisis of its own making, deserted by its full roster of corporate partners, staring down the barrel of a parliamentary select committee, investigated by the Equality and Human Rights Commission – but with a new chair and [...]
Ed Warner: Activity vouchers can solve post-Covid sport participation problem October 21, 2021 I addressed a bunch of politicians, advisors and sports industry types at a Westminster Forum this week on the challenges facing sport and the public funding priorities as we come out of the pandemic. The risk on these occasions is that you get caught in an echo chamber, telling the audience what it already thinks [...]
Ed Warner: What I would do if I were in charge of English cricket October 14, 2021 This week, Ed Warner writes an open letter to the ECB, which runs English cricket, as it begins its search for a new chair of the governing body. Dear ECB, I see you’ve parted company with your chair, Ian Watmore, after only a year in the job. I’d like to toss my hat in the [...]
No Pac-Man in Paris, but does esports really need the Olympics? October 7, 2021 Only four years ago, esports looked destined to be included as exhibition events at the Paris 2024 Olympics, en route to full medal inclusion at Los Angeles 2028. But the pandemic took the momentum out of their advocates’ lobbying and the success of the new sports showcased at Tokyo appears to have put paid to [...]
Why athletics needs a silver bullet in the form of private investment September 30, 2021 The results are just in, and they don’t make for easy reading. World Athletics posted a small financial surplus in 2020, but only because Russia coughed up a fine for its doping misdemeanours. W hat’s worrying is the long steady decline in the reserves of track and field’s governing body. For the sake of the [...]
