Frustrated by what I considered to be ill-thought attempts to get us playing cricket again this summer, I was moved to write to the local paper. It was a culmination of several higher profile figures sounding off in the media and local administrators seemingly oblivious to current realities.
Make your own mind up…
Local cricket has been in decline for decades; a root cause of this is the governance of the recreational game which still acts as if Fred Trueman were leading Yorkshire’s attack at Bradford Park Avenue. The hopeless responses of local leagues to the pandemic demonstrate an absence of clear thought.
Your correspondent (26/6) wrote “there is still hope that recreational cricket could still go ahead on or around July 4.” Has he ever prepared a cricket ground? Worse still, the governing body’s (ECB) five stage plan clearly states no cricket is possible whilst social distancing remains.
You quote Bradford Premier League Chairman David Young: “”We have always acknowledged that the health and safety of the cricket community has to be the number one objective.” So why is he pushing to resume a game that cannot be played socially distant? Cricket is the very essence of a social sport.
Most cricket changing rooms are little more than over-sized wardrobes; cram eleven players with giant bags in and try social distancing then? But we can change outside! And when it rains what then? Twenty-two piles of soaking gear plus players, umpires and scorers seeking refuge where?
Certain leagues are talking of double weekends in August; how do you sanitise changing and toilet areas post-match given most players simply want to turn up and play before vanishing? Remember too that August is holiday month when getting teams out for one game a weekend is hard enough.
And no saliva on the ball; well we can always trust players not to tamper with the ball, can’t we?
Of course the ECB PR Dept are making all the right noises, even if they contradict their stated guidance. However, as with football, money is the only deal in town at the moment and the tv paymasters must be obeyed. So we have sport back on Sky simply to avoid enormous rebates to Murdoch.
This gives airtime to rent-a-quote pundit Michael Vaughan urging us grassroots cricketers to get out there as he tries to do a Rashford. Has he ever swept a dressing room, rolled a wicket or any of the other countless tasks we have to do each Saturday? How do we do these in isolation?
There is some talk of leagues organising short-sided games of cricket – maybe six or eight-a-side – though whoever came up with must have been in the club bar all night. Given the average age of most teams, we need more fielders not less!
What of the clubhouse bars, traditionally the core source of club’s income but much less so these days as habits change? Perhaps as this income becomes harder to generate clubs may finally break the habit of paying stupid money to entice moderate players and revert back to the real spirit of cricket? Those crying the poor tale at present have largely created their own problems.
I urge leagues to use this time to rethink the whole approach to the grassroots game. Get heads together and work out how we might come back in 2021 with an offering that will go some way to securing the future of the game. Now is not the time to sit their simply hoping the clouds will blow over and we will be back on soon.
{Footnote – the ECB roadmap can be found here
Lord Frazer Irwin says
The Rules of Cricket are many and varied and like other ball games just as strange to the uninitiated. The same could be said for the poor chap who has to look after the wicket and outfield. I’ve done it and got the T-shirt and still can’t stand the game. It needs fire at least once they get their act together it does to get folk on the outside in.
Back in the late fifties Dad sold his business and we decamped to Kent for a while. The vice principal of the school I attended was an American. The lads were given a choice when it came to sport. Cricket or Baseball. The majority plumped for Baseball. After three years we returned to the Motherland. Sport had never been a real a great love at school so my first attempt at cricket caused quite a sensation on the field.
The sports master bowled and I cracked the ball with such force it cleared the field, the nearby road and disappeared half way up another road. The sports master was none too happy judging by his ranting at the other end. I was holding the bat wrong. It’s a bat not a club. I believe he was referring to a baseball bat. Cricket bat in official position he bowled and I missed. Ecstatic he was at proving how good he was etc.
I have a suggestion. The ancestry of baseball came from this country. Keep most of the rules as they are except for the bat and stance. In other words ditch it in favour of the one used in baseball.