Tom Harrison can’t even talk a good game any more, so why is he still in charge?

And it all started so well. The England and Wales Cricket Board’s chief executive, Tom Harrison, began his appearance in front of the DCMS select committee with earnest thanks, to the MPs for the opportunity, and to Azeem Rafiq for his testimony, then eased into a well-rehearsed spiel about everything the ECB has been doing.

He spoke about Inspiring Generations, the South-Asian Action Plan, the transformed women and girls pathway, his 12-point plan, £25m of new investment, how he had matched funding with broadcast partners, built a burgeoning link with Kick It Out, launched a new anti-discrimination unit, a dressing-room culture review, a game-wide census, and sweeping governance reform.

Harrison has a dashboard, a set of KPIs, and five different pillars. “On the talent pathways we want to get at least 30% of young boys and girls from ethnically diverse backgrounds,” Harrison said. “Among boys, in 2018, it was 11%, and now, thanks to our South-Asian Action Plan, it has moved to 28% …”

And this was where the committee chair, Julian Knight, interrupted. “28%?” Knight asked, “but your target is 30%?” Harrison hummed. Knight continued. “To be clear, you’ve not just set yourself a target you’ve already reached?” Harrison hawed. Knight continued. “Your target is 30% by the end of this year, and you’re at 28% at the start of the year?” He did some quick sums. “You’ve done 17% in three years, that’s five-and-half per cent a year, you should really be at 35% shouldn’t you?”

Knight wasn’t drilling down into Harrison’s plan here, he was only picking at it with his fingernail, and it was starting to crumble. “What we aim to do is to make sure we have a flood of talent coming through,” Harrison explained, the 30% target was going to