Middlesex, who remain in Division Two of the County Championship following relegation two seasons ago, were placed in special measures by the ECB in September 2023 after years of financial mismanagement. This included a costly error in their pension payments, as well as a longstanding row with their former chief executive Richard Goatley, who is suing the club for more than £1 million in an ongoing “personal injury” lawsuit.
Middlesex’s embarrassment hit a new low this week, when the club were forced to postpone a photocall at Wednesday’s annual media day, due to “unforeseen circumstances surrounding the delivery of the club’s playing kit”.
The letter reads: “As former players of Middlesex, we have become increasingly disturbed at the way the club has been allowed to sink to its current level. Middlesex was once a byword for excellence in the game, a club with a proud history of success and a strong, competitive culture brought about by hard work on and off the pitch. Instead, around the counties the men’s teams now are variously regarded as ‘a soft touch’ and ‘lacking fight’.”
In November 2025, Middlesex’s current CEO, Andrew Cornish, was placed on a leave of absence pending an investigation by the Cricket Regulator. In the interim, the club – which has played the majority of its matches at Lord’s for more than 160 years but continues to lease the venue from its owners, Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) – has been overseen by MCC’s membership director Mahdi Choudhury, who was seconded to the county as “acting chief operating officer and company secretary”.
MCC’s involvement has increased speculation about the viability of Middlesex as a membership-owned club, with chairman Richard Sykes recently acknowledging that they were exploring the prospect of demutualisation as a means to raise the necessary funds to secure their own venue away from Lord’s.
“The club has been poorly led for too long,” the letter continues. “Middlesex is first and foremost a cricket club, but the leadership lacks any real cricketing knowledge. Only one person with first-class cricket experience [former England fast bowler Steven Finn] occupies a board position, while only two such former players appear on any of the club’s committees. The cricket administration is structurally a mess, is devoid of accountability and lacks proper checks and balances.
“The players are a product of their environment and in areas where the standard of coaching has been poor, the players have not been sufficiently challenged resulting in inadequate standards becoming the norm, insufficient to compete at the level to which we should aspire.”
With a county footprint that spans 17 London boroughs and a population of 4.5 million, Middlesex is on a par with Yorkshire in terms of a potential playing pool. However, the club’s lack of funds has left it powerless to invest in local community schemes, including the maintenance of non-turf wickets in many of the inner-city parks that fall within its remit.
“From a ‘grassroots’ perspective, we’ve been promised many times that there are good, young players coming through,” the letter continues. “Yet despite having a catchment area that is perhaps the most populous and diverse in the country, the club is consistently failing to convert this talent in the way that other counties, often with less resource, have been able.
“It is often forgotten that this is a members’ club where the board (volunteers admittedly) and executive work on their behalf. Loyal members have long recognised the issues described here, but have been unable to get cogent, honest, or sometimes any answers to legitimate concerns. A lack of transparency has been favoured over open communication.”
The letter’s signatories say they have been seeking action from the club’s administration for a year, but their petitions have been “steadfastly ignored”. Now, with the chairman Sykes refusing their demands that he should stand down at the AGM, they say they are putting their concerns into the public domain in the hope that the membership responds.
“On April 15 the club is holding its annual general meeting at Lord’s. We would strongly encourage members who genuinely want their club to flourish again and not get left behind drifting towards irrelevance, to attend in numbers and seek answers, in an open forum, from those responsible.”
Middlesex’s season starts with a County Championship fixture against Gloucestershire on Friday, their first match under new head coach Peter Fulton. They have not yet made an overseas signing for the 2026 summer.
Middlesex declined to comment publically when contacted by ESPNcricinfo but said that the letter would be addressed at the AGM, and that they would welcome discussions with Gatting and those concerned about the running of the club.
Andrew Miller is UK editor of ESPNcricinfo. @miller_cricket
