16 Mar 2016 | Cricket
The Glamorgan players have begun training outside on grass at The SSE SWALEC today, after returning from their 10-day training camp preparations in Spain at the weekend.
As Glamorgan launched their new BTEC qualification yesterday, Hugh Morris, Glamorgan chief executive and director of cricket summarised the recent developments on and off the field in county cricket affecting the Welsh county.
The ECB recently announced changes to the county structure from 2017, with the Specsavers County Championship fixture list reduced by two games to 14 matches. There will be a top division of eight teams and a second of 10, so in order to achieve this, counties in Division Two will be playing for just one promotion place this season - with two relegated, as in previous years.
Those changes, agreed following meetings at Lord's earlier this month, are in order to bring an improved shape to the domestic season.
From 2017 the championship will be run in segments of fixtures, pausing first for white ball cricket for the Royal London Cup matches - leading to a July final.
Four-day cricket will again take a break during July and August - when the NatWest T20 Blast, retained in its established format, will take place.
The overriding objective from the ECB was to make sure the balance between the amount of time players prepare, play and rest is right, said Morris.
And to try to make sure that we have a schedule throughout the summer where particularly young people can come and watch the shorter forms of the game.
So to have the Twenty20 in the middle of the summer I think is a positive move and is a move that many in the game have been wanting for a while.
Obviously there are those who will see two championship games less in a season as a step in the wrong direction.
I guess it's a difficult balance but on reflection the balance ECB are striking is about right.
With only one promotion place up for grabs, Morris admitted it will be testing to gain promotion from division two this season.
Of course we've got a chance of promotion it does make things more difficult in the short term, added Morris.
But from 2017 onwards there are two up, two down, we're back to that format again so I believe we've got a slightly stronger squad this year.
We've certainly got a deeper squad and we've got a very motivated squad, so we've got the balance that can challenge to go up.
It's not going to be easy it never is but it;s going to be more difficult this year.
Certainly what we want to do is keep up the momentum that we started the beginning of last year with.
With regular changes to the structure there's a danger supporters won't keep up.
ECB are mindful of there's been changes and what they've tried to do with the is start Championship games on a Sunday as much as possible, Twenty20 on a Friday night as much as possible and the potential changes for 2017 will make it easier to have a more regular calendar of cricket so people do know what's going to be played when.
There has also previously been talk of franchise, inter-city competition changes to the T20 format akin to the Big
Bash
My understanding is the ECB will be looking over the next 12 months or so at various different options, added Morris.
Whether that's a two divisional option, the status quo or any other option, it will be an interesting debate to watch and be part of.
Within a shortish period of time hopefully we'll have a real consensus in the game and be able to go for it.
Glamorgan are part of the debate and we're looking forward to that debate we will be meeting with ECB officials over the summer, hearing what they have to say and we will be forming some opinions and giving some opinion in the coming months.
We're very fortunate to have a great stadium right in the middle of the city of Cardiff.
Cardiff is one of the sporting capitals in the UK, we're used to hosting major events and major teams here, so any potential change that is going to happen, we will feel we will be able to respond to positively.
Glamorgan have announced EBITDA (earnings before interest tax depreciation and amortisation) of £1,201,119 for the 2015 financial year, which is up from £579,297 in 2014 and an operating profit of £592,837 for 2015 following the success of five days of sold-out international cricket last year, added to the significant increase in non-matchday income and record levels of sponsorship earnings.
The club also showed significant progress in the strengthening of its balance sheet. In December, the financial restructuring was completed with an agreement with creditors to write down debt by approximately £11.5m.
I was really proud of everyone at Glamorgan who worked so hard in an Ashes year, added Morris.
At the beginning of 2015 we really looked forward to the highlight of the year which was going to be the Ashes.
It was a real challenge but everyone working incredibly hard and we were delighted to recently announce a much healthier financial position.
Sadly we can't host an Ashes every year, but what we try and do is look over a period of time rather than individual years.
The schedule is such that you can have an Ashes, and the next year you might not have as many high profile fixtures.
So there is going to be ebb and flow and we try and look at our finances over a three or four year period. We feel we now have a business plan that works.
We've worked very closely with our partners over the last 12 months or so and we feel we are in a much healthier position than we were not so long ago.
Glamorgan's first team squad have just returned from a pre-season trip to Spain under new head coach Robert Croft before their first friendly on March 25.
The Welsh county have also completed the signing of Netherlands international Timm van der Gugten who is playing for Holland in the Twenty20 World Cup.
I met Timm on a few occasions last summer, he's 25, he's strong, he can bowl the ball very quickly upwards of 90 mph and as we saw in the Netherlands game versus Bangladesh last week in the World Twenty20 qualifier, he can knock very good players over, said Morris.
So we're excited that he's joining us and it's a real great opportunity for him.
It's more cricket than he will have ever played before and we've got to be mindful of that, but he's a strong lad and we look forward to him joining us.
Over the last three years Michael Hogan has probably been the most successful seam bowler in county cricket, he's a quality performer. I think I'm right in saying he's going to end up the third highest wicket taker in Sheffield Shield this year, so it shows he's a real high quality performer and we're lucky to have him.
He enjoys Cardiff, he enjoys Glamorgan and we have the the likes of Timm and Ruaidhri Smith who is finishing university this year and we have high hopes for him.
Jack Murphy is in his second year of University and we feel there's signs of improvement with his game too.
Over a period of time we hope to have a seam bowling department to really challenge the best.
Off the field, Glamorgan have recently announced a new partnership with Fitzalan High School and TVS Education to launch a new BTEC Sports Studies qualification due to begin in September.
We're very excited we've partnered with Fitzalan High School and TVS Education to launch a BTEC qualification, said Hugh it's something that we've been planning for a while and it complements the apprenticeship we've started within our Academy to give some really good opportunities for young people who want to find out about cricket, about sports management and get a really good qualification.