Lord MacLaurin's AGM speech at Edgbaston

Good afternoon everyone, and thank you to Dennis Amiss and his colleagues for hosting this year's AGM. We all look forward to returning to Edgbaston in early July to witness a repeat of England's Test Match victory over the Australians four years ago!

But, in the meantime, let me take you back for a moment to last year's AGM to illustrate how far cricket in England and Wales has come in the past year. Among others, I made two points in particular:

Firstly, I said that I was utterly convinced that the joint decision of the ECB and the First-Class Counties to introduce central contracts, would prove a watershed and be entirely vindicated. Secondly, I also said that it would probably be asking a lot to expect instant improvements in the performance of the England team.

Well, the introduction of central contracts has, I think it's true to say, proved a watershed and we are all coming to terms with what this means for cricket. Asking for instant improvements was asking a lot - but a year on, and with four successive Test Match Series wins under our belt - that's what's happened. I'm not saying central contracts are a universal panacea, but they have already made a huge difference to the England team and, hopefully, will have a consequential positive impact for the whole of the game.

As far as the England team is concerned, central contracts have helped to develop a shared sense of collective purpose and, also, engendered a cohesive team ethic among the players. Even when things aren't necessarily going right on the field, nowadays the dressing room is still a happy - albeit sometimes a rather tense - place to be. The bowlers, in particular, have benefited hugely from periods of rest and recuperation before facing the rigours which international cricket imposes upon them.

The new management structure has also been vital. In Duncan Fletcher, Phil Neale and the rest of the management team, we have a very capable and highly professional unit. The close partnership that has built up between Nasser and Duncan has been well documented - and it's true. There is enormous mutual respect between them and this, undoubtedly, has had a very positive effect that has cascaded down to the entire squad.

As far as cricket as a whole is concerned, a successful England team will provide a solid - and essential - foundation on which the future prosperity of the game can be built. As we all know, the public's perception of, and interest in, cricket is largely determined by how well the England team is doing. Unlike soccer, cricket isn't so tribal and local loyalties aren't always so pronounced - the general public craves a winning national team. In fact, everything that we seek stems from this: more youngsters are encouraged to play cricket if they see England winning; spectators are more likely to attend matches; and sponsors and broadcasters want to associate themselves with success.

Having said all this, it's rather ironic that I should report that the success of the England team last summer caused the ECB some not-insignificant financial problems. Quite frankly, from a financial perspective, 2000 was not an easy year for the Board, and I know it wasn't either for many counties....

The premature end to a number of the Test Matches meant that we suffered a net shortfall in budgeted income of more than £2m in international match surpluses. This, of course, could never have been predicted, but it shows the volatility of one of the game's traditional sources of income.

Another pressure point that afflicted us, was losing three major sponsors - albeit all for legitimate business reasons. As it transpired, one of those sponsors, NatWest, just migrated its sponsorship to the new One-Day International Series, but this still left us searching for new Test Match Series, County Championship and Trophy sponsors. It's pleasing to report that all three have been found, although not without difficulty. We know from speaking to other major sports, that the sponsorship market is now very demanding and, with the possible exception of soccer, no sport has a queue of companies anxiously waiting to part with large sums of money to become sponsors. As I said earlier, success helps, but it provides no guarantee. Indeed, the Australians have been finding this out to their cost since they've still not found a team sponsor, not even for an Ashes Tour to England.

Despite the difficulties of the market-place, I'm nevertheless delighted to welcome npower, Cheltenham & Gloucester, and CricInfo as new sponsors to cricket in England and Wales. Their support provides vital funding that the game desperately needs.

A few weeks ago we launched a new National Strategy for Cricket entitled, 'A Cricketing Future For All', at the ECB's first-ever National Convention at Woldingham School, near Croydon. Some of you were able to be there, and I hope you found the occasion as inspiring and motivating as I did. The Convention was aimed at bringing together the full spectrum of cricket's stakeholders in a show of 'One Game' unity. And, without meaning to sound self-satisfied, I think we achieved it. There was a vast array of people present including: County Board Officials, County Development Officers, Volunteers, Coaches, executives from the PCA, players, the media, commercial partners, broadcasters, politicians, officials from Sport England and, as I mentioned, a number of First-Class County Chief Executives. It was a great day for cricket and something that we can build on for the future.

As far as the National Strategy itself is concerned, can I take this opportunity of thanking you all for your feedback during the consultation period that helped shape, very considerably, the final document. It was encouraging to read such respected commentators as Christopher Martin-Jenkins and Mark Nicholas describing it as "spot-on" and "excellent", while from a political perspective, it was also no less helpful that the Sports Minister, Kate Hoey, described the Strategy as a "great" document. Our task now - as ever - is to build on the political goodwill that cricket has undoubtedly accumulated and to translate this into tangible benefits from both the Government and Sport England.

And, I'm delighted to say, the last year has brought tangible benefits from Sport England. Hugh Morris was able to announce at the National Convention that Sport England have agreed to support our World Class Performance Plan to the tune of two million pounds per year for four years from 2001 until 2004. Over 25% of this funding will go towards setting up our new National Academy for the most gifted young players between the ages of 19 and 23. The Academy will be based in Adelaide for the first year, which will provide some important international experience for our players, and allow us to take advantage of the world-class set-up which has produced so many top-class internationals for Australia.

The securing of additional Lottery funds from Sport England will be vital in the future if we are to achieve the challenging objectives set out in the National Strategy.

In fact, Sport England has indicated that a small number of national governing bodies which demonstrate high standards of management and have clear and realistic plans for widening participation and developing talent, will be able to secure more control over the distribution of Lottery funding to their sport. Rest assured, that the ECB will continue to lobby hard to persuade Sport England that cricket should be one of the initial batch of sports given devolved financial control. The launch of our National Strategy has, as intended, given us a very good platform from which to stake our claim...

The ECB and the Counties are, however, not just committed to widening participation because it's something the Government and Sport England want us to do. Far from it... we know it's the right thing to do for the future well-being of cricket. The young generation is the game's future and, like any other forward-looking business, we must protect, preserve and develop that future. The last year has again shown that cricket is appealing, in increasing numbers, to boys and girls all over the country. Probably the most remarkable statistic contained in the ECB Annual Report that you have before you, is that the number of girls and women playing cricket has doubled in the past 12 months. It's both astonishing and so very heartening to hear that a record 600,000 of them now play the game. This is something that we should all be shouting long and loud about at every opportunity! Who said cricket was only for the boys?!!

Another fact that we should all be very proud of is that the ECB (via the Cricket Foundation), together with our constituent Counties, jointly spend some seven million pounds per annum on grassroots development. The Board continues to invest 11% of its broadcasting income on supporting grassroots activities, and this money goes to ensuring clubs, coaches, teachers and parents have the financial backing they need to enable children to have the opportunities to play cricket.

Last November was notable for the launch of - what I described at the time as - "the ECB's single most important development initiative since the inception of the Board in 1997." I am, of course, referring to the widely-acclaimed and ground-breaking educational resource pack, Howzat! Those of you who have seen Howzat! demonstrated will know that it's something rather special. No other sport has a development resource of this nature. The Howzat! packs are designed to help teachers deliver lessons in an interesting and informative way using cricket-related examples across all subject areas. Teachers, I should point out, need no prior knowledge whatsoever of cricket to be able to use the packs. Developed in collaboration with Channel 4, Howzat! fully conforms to the Government's National Curriculum for schools and - prior to final production - was extensively market-tested on educationalists. 30,000 of these packs are being given free-of-charge to every primary and secondary school in England and Wales......not just posted to them, but in every case, personally delivered by a CDO or County Board official. It will take over two years to completely 'roll-out' the Howzat! programme, but we are confident that it's going to have an enormously beneficial and lasting impact. It's gratifying to report that teachers from all over the country have already been telling us how tremendously useful the Howzat! packs are proving to be.

I have already talked about the very positive effect of central contracts in the past 12 months, but it would be remiss of me not to comment on some of the other changes that have been introduced. Last season, of course, saw the introduction of a two division format for the First-Class County Championship and also the one-day Norwich Union League. Although it's early days, there seems to be a near-universal feeling that this innovation has been a success in terms of providing enhanced excitement for spectators and, also, more competitive and intense matches. However, nothing is set in tablets of stone and we said that we would review these formats within three years. The Structure Working Party is spending a lot of time examining the options for the future of First-Class County Cricket and, in doing so, is taking into consideration all the relevant cricketing, marketing and financial factors. If, collectively, we come to the conclusion that changes need to be made to the domestic structure, then these will happen. In recent times, cricket has proved that it will not shirk difficult decisions and this is to our great credit. We are all very aware of the need to compete vigorously for the public's attention, not only against other sports, but also other forms of leisure pursuit.

So to sum up. There is no doubt that the England team returning to winning ways in the past 12 months has helped to re-ignite public interest in cricket - and the entire country is looking forward with excitement and expectation to the Ashes challenge this summer. But beyond the heroics of our Test Team, and as I've outlined, lie many other good news stories over the past 12 months: Three new sponsors... a more competitive domestic First-Class structure... a new National Academy...the launch of the Howzat! educational resource packs... more than half a million girls and women playing the game...the first-ever ECB National Convention...the publication of the National Strategy for Cricket...and much more besides. In the words of Channel 4's now-familiar slogan: "Cricket just got better" and, although there is no disguising the fact that many challenges remain, I am convinced that the game is in a better position now than even 12 months ago. Everyone in this room has played an important part, as have your colleagues in each County Club and County Board, and also not forgetting the thousands of volunteers up and down the country, upon whom the game so heavily depends.

Thank you for your support throughout the year, and I look forward to continuing the very productive and close working relationship that the ECB and all the Counties have now firmly established. Thank you for your attention.