Tim Lamb, was the CEO of what is now known as the ECB from 1996 to 2004 – a transitional time for the sport, when central contracts were introduced, and the T20 Blast was launched.
But today, as he recently described to BBC, Lamb believes that cricket needs more change and vision.
The Hundred franchise sales offer ‘undreamt-of’ financial upside
Lamb believes the sale of franchises in The Hundred competition represents a watershed moment for the English domestic game, potentially unlocking transformative revenue for all 18 first-class counties.
“The sale of the franchises is going to provide the first-class counties with undreamt-of amounts of money which hopefully will be spent responsibly by those counties,” said Lamb.
But he expressed regret that the ECB never fully capitalized on its early lead in short-form cricket. The Twenty20 Cup, launched in 2003 during Lamb’s tenure, predated the Indian Premier League by five years—yet it failed to scale commercially in the same way.
“Some people have talked about the monster we created but I think it’s a shame the ECB didn’t capitalise on what was our invention,” he told BBC Radio Northampton’s The Cricket Show.
“I think we were prisoners of cricket politics, the way the county system works, and it’s not the first British invention that’s then been exploited by others and we’ve been left behind. The IPL, no one could have foreseen that (at the time).”
‘Business must be the servant of cricket, not the master’
Despite advocating for commercial innovation, Lamb remains clear on the core ethos of the game. A deep-rooted belief in cricket’s values guided his eight-year leadership of the ECB from 1996 to 2004—a period that saw sweeping changes, including central contracts for England players, a revamped County Championship, and the introduction of the domestic T20 format.
“Cricket is a multi-million pound business but essentially it’s a sport – it has an ethos, a soul, and I wanted to emphasise that we wanted business to be the servant of cricket, rather than the master,” Lamb said.
He credited his partnership with then-chairman Lord Ian MacLaurin for pushing forward reforms across all levels of the game.
“I was very lucky to have (Lord) Ian MacLaurin as my chairman – he and I took over at the back end of 1996 and we set out to try to improve standards at every level.”
“We had extra revenue to spend from fairly lucrative television broadcasting contracts, so we were able to invest in many parts of the game that hadn’t previously been funded. I hope we moved the game forward.”
Building a winning England team to inspire a generation
Lamb highlighted the introduction of central contracts as a pivotal move that laid the groundwork for England’s iconic 2005 Ashes victory—despite his departure from the ECB the year prior.
“One of the priorities for Ian and myself was to have a successful England men’s team because that gives heroes for youngsters to emulate, it makes sponsors want to get involved with the game, it gives a feelgood factor throughout the sport,” he said.
“Although we had some reverses I like to think we laid the foundations and although sadly 2005, the famous Ashes victory, was after we’d left, people kindly said that we’d laid the foundations for that and we ought to accept some of the credit for what happened.”
Fast bowler injuries: ‘They don’t play enough cricket’
Lamb also raised concerns about the injury epidemic among England’s pace bowlers, questioning whether modern training regimes are hurting more than helping.
“I was talking to somebody while watching a match yesterday and we were saying ‘why is it that all the England fast bowlers seem to get so many injuries?'”
“It can’t be from over-playing, is it from overtraining, overdoing it in the gym? And the chap I was talking to said ‘no, [it’s because] they don’t play enough cricket’.”
“I think he’s got a point. (Ex-England cricketer) Alec Bedser said you only get fit for cricket by bowling and I think there’s some truth in that. As a bowler, there is a certain type of fitness that you need, it’s a rhythmical thing.”
“Yes, it’s good to have more time to rest and recuperate, more coaching, but if you compare the amount of cricket they play now with the amount we played back in the 1970s and early 80s, it bears no resemblance.”
County cricket must modernize, not shrink
While acknowledging that the domestic calendar is overcrowded, Lamb strongly defended the existence of all 18 first-class counties, pushing back against calls for consolidation.
“There were people around me who said we’ve got far too many counties and if you were starting from scratch there’s no way you would have, for instance, Leicestershire, Derbyshire and Northants, but the fact is we did and each of the counties is a centre of excellence.”
“They don’t just play competitive professional county cricket, they provide coaching opportunities, they’re a focus for cricket in that particular county.”
Still, he admits the current schedule is in disarray and difficult to manage effectively across formats and interests.
“The domestic schedule is a mess but on the other hand I can understand why it’s a mess because it’s jolly difficult for the schedulers to be able to do justice to all of the different forms of the game and keep everybody happy.”
“I actually did the fixture list for eight years before I got the top job at ECB so I know just how difficult it is to please everybody. Stalwart county members always want what they want but they have to see the bigger picture.”
