When Colin Povey arrived at Edgbaston he found a ground – and a club – in a state of disrepair. Although issues remain, both have been transformed
George Dobell at Edgbaston17-Sep-2015
ScorecardEdgbaston was in a bad way when Colin Povey became chief executive•Getty ImagesThe first time Colin Povey visited Warwickshire in his position as chief executive – but before his appointment was announced – the first member of staff he found was too busy to welcome him as he was studying – if that is the correct terminology – a porn mag.As Povey explored the ground, he found a “water feature” – actually a serious leak – in the committee room, a “broadcast facility” that was actually a garden shed perched precariously on the roof of a dilapidated pavilion, a club with an ECB staging agreement that was close to expiry and a coach – Mark Greatbatch – who was hopelessly out of his depth. The data cables to the broadcast facility were fed through a cat-flap, which was fine except for the fact that it also let in cats, and there were no commercial deals in place for the following season. In short, the club was living on past glory and was in no way prepared for the cold wind of modernity that was about to hit.A decade later, he leaves with the ground established as among the best in the country. He leaves with the club having regularly challenged for trophies and regularly provided England players. He leaves with the club guaranteed an excellent package of major matches – an Ashes Test in 2019, an India Test in 2018 and several top games in the Champions Trophy of 2017 and the World Cup of 2019 – with membership rising, with 27 commercial partners tied in for next year and the non-cricket business growing rapidly.At a time of recession, despite planning objections, despite covenant issues and membership resistance, despite battling an amateur culture that did not understand the gravity of the club’s situation, he raised £36m – that figure, the real figure, has never been quoted before – for the new pavilion they had been trying to fund since the 1940s and negotiated a £20m loan from Birmingham City Council. The ground went from one that was rated as no longer fit to purpose by the ECB, to one that surpassed all required specifications.Where would Warwickshire be without him? Not at Edgbaston, that is for sure. While the club might – at a push – have been able to continue to host domestic cricket, they were in danger of part of their ground being shut for health and safety reasons. There was talk of ground-sharing with football and rugby clubs; talk of relocating to Coventry. It is no exaggeration to state that Povey saved the club in recognisable form.There have been setbacks. Not long after the completion of the pavilion, the ECB declined to award the package of matches that were required to begin the repayments. There was no Ashes Test for them in 2013; no India Test in 2014. Povey, it was said, was paying the price for having met the IPL founder Lalit Modi – an arch enemy of the then chairman of the ECB, Giles Clarke – in a fact-finding mission to India.A repayment holiday was agreed with the council, tickets were pre-sold for future series, non-cricket income was driven up and a professional management team was installed. It was tough, but Warwickshire survived. And, in the middle of all that, Greatbatch was sacked and Ashley Giles appointed to his first coaching position. It was to prove a happy union.There is debt to service, it is true. Substantial debt that will focus the mind of the next chief executive long into the future. Work continues to unlock the potential in the largely Asian inner-city community that is only starting to thaw in its attitude towards a club that has not always welcomed them as it should. Encouragingly, the final of the Parks Leagues is to be played on the main square at Edgbaston in the coming days.Povey hasn’t been to everyone’s taste. He is a man who get things done and sometimes, on the journey from amateurism to professionalism that Warwickshire have undertaken, he has ruffled feathers. Things needed ruffling at Edgbaston, though, and his was to prove a wise appointment. Make no mistake, Warwickshire owe Povey as much as they have owed any player at any stage of their existence.But while players leave the pitch with a raised bat and ovation, administrators hand back their car park pass and shuffle out with a wave from the gateman. The day Warwickshire won the County Championship in 2012, Povey found himself fielding angry calls from a club member who was unhappy with the quality of coat pegs in the women’s toilets. He will slip away in the next few weeks – earlier than originally planned – with little fanfare.So perhaps it was fitting that his final day overseeing a professional match at the club should be such a low-key affair. While Nottinghamshire may, if they finish second in the table, look back on it as an important couple of days, two days of rain had reduced this contest to an accumulation of bonus points. It made for a prosaic spectacle.Warwickshire, wearied and disappointed, lacked the intensity required to sustain a competitive performance. While their bowlers found the edge of James Taylor’s bat on four occasions, the fielders were unable to cling on to the chances. Keith Barker, swinging the ball dangerously, deserved his five-wicket haul, while Jeetan Patel finished the innings off with consecutive deliveries, claimed his 50th wicket of the Championship season.”It shouldn’t be difficult for the players when there are only bonus points to play for,” Patel said. “There shouldn’t be a loss of motivation because we have lost two days to rain. You have got a job to do and as individuals we probably weren’t up to it over two days.”We bowled well, but when you drop the same player four times… And we didn’t bat very well. We had 64 overs to bat and batted for 45 of them. That’s not good enough.”By contrast, Nottinghamshire’s trio of young seamers – Brett Hutton, Jake Ball and Luke Wood – appeared to be relishing the contest. In claiming full bowling bonus points for their side – and denying Warwickshire any batting points – they surpassed 100 Championship wickets for the season between them.For a club that has not always done everything it might to encourage their young players, it was a pleasing performance. Luke Fletcher, far too good a performer to spend much of the season in the seconds, is home-grown, too. Warwickshire, with eight points from the encounter, slip to fifth; Nottinghamshire, with 12, retain hopes of second.”It was a satisfying draw,” Nottinghamshire coach, Mick Newell, said afterwards. “We wanted to give ourselves a chance of overhauling Middlesex next week and we can do that if we have a big win.”And, credit to bowling coach Andy Pick, it was great to have four Nottinghamshire-born young bowlers in the team. Chris Tolley and Paul Franks deserve credit for discovering them.”