Warwickshire County Cricket Club Chairman Norman Gascoigne has been named by the England & Wales Cricket Board (ECB) as a member on the new T20 Board, which will oversee the development of the new eight-team T20 competition which begins in 2020.
Gascoigne has been recruited as one of 11 external members on the new board. He will work alongside experts from the business and entertainment sectors, and fellow representatives from the First-Class county game and the ECB’s senior management team; Northamptonshire Chairman Gavin Warren is the other county chairman appointed.
Working in partnership, our aim is not only to develop a world class competition, but to inspire the next generation of cricket fans and to ensure that the competition’s success can commercially underpin our grassroots and all three formats of the game.
Norman Gascoigne
“The new T20 competition is a tremendously exciting opportunity for the game of cricket in England and Wales and it’s an honour to be invited to further develop the competition,” said Gascoigne.
“We’ve made great progress in T20 cricket at Edgbaston by enhancing our family experience for Birmingham Bears home games, but also in making Finals Day one of the best sporting events in the country. I’m delighted that the ECB has recognised the club’s success in this area and I’m very keen to share these learnings with the board to help further develop the game.
“Working in partnership, our aim is not only to develop a world class competition, but to inspire the next generation of cricket fans and to ensure that the competition’s success can commercially underpin our grassroots and all three formats of the game.”
Prior to being appointed Warwickshire Chairman in 2010, Gascoigne played a senior role in the club’s £32 million masterplan to redevelop Edgbaston and make it one of the leading cricket venues in the international game.
He subsequently supported development of the Birmingham Bears brand and focused on making T20 cricket at Edgbaston an accessible and attractive event for family audiences. In turn this has helped the club more than double its attendances and commercial revenues for domestic T20 cricket at Edgbaston over a four-year period, whilst also ensuring that it accommodated more under 16-year-olds at NatWest T20 Blast games than any other county in 2017.
ECB Chairman Colin Graves will chair the New T20 Board which will meet for the first time in April. Including six independent appointees, the full list of members is:
- Sanjeev Gandhi Partner & Co-Founder, Mitchell Gandhi *
- Norman Gascoigne Chairman, Warwickshire County Cricket Club
- Sahar Hashemi Entrepreneur (co-founder of Coffee Republic & Skinny Candy)*
- Ron Kalifa Vice Chairman & former CEO of WorldPay*
- Mike McCormack MD, Universal Music Publishing Group*
- Sanjay Patel ECB Chief Commercial Officer & Managing Director, New T20
- Caroline Rowland Founder of New Moon and Senior Level Strategist*
- Scott Smith ECB Chief Financial Officer
- Gavin Warren Chairman, Northamptonshire County Cricket Club
- Suzi Williams Strategic & commercial leader in brand-led consumer & media *
(* Denotes independent member)
