“The marketing department asked people who didn’t watch cricket what they didn’t like about cricket and most of them said the cricket, so that’s what they are trying to get rid of.”
Martin Samuel, Daily Mail – describing the ECB’s new Hundred format.
Congratulations England, to be world champions at any sport takes commitment, dedication, sacrifice and no small amount of skill. Spare a thought for the losers New Zealand, for there is much to learn from how they approach sport with such limited resources. England had a mission that started four years ago to rise from the bottom rung of the ladder; that they achieved this was down to an exceptional bunch of players but also resources the envy of many. But those of us who understand cricket know, whilst the view from the executive boxes may well look rosy, down at the grassroots the picture is very different.
After almost fifty years involved with club cricket, covering every conceivable role, I argue that the game is in terminal decline as a mass participation sport. True, many of the issues cricket faces are societal; we live in the age of instant gratification and cricket reflects this with its cash-cow format, 20/20. As nail biting as the World Cup Final was, how many of the audience watched from start to finish over a ten-hour period? So often this can be the club cricketer’s Saturday.
Next year, the domestic fifty over competition – the format England are now champions at – will be relegated to a “development” competition – see here – as the English Cricket Board (ECB) launches its ridiculous Hundred format. I have yet to read any supporting argument for this other than from those whose pockets will be lined courtesy of a new five-year Sky deal. There are clear parallels from when the ECB sold cricket to Sky in 2005 just after England had finally won back The Ashes after eighteen long years? Cricket is all about repeat-repeat, so they say, even the cock-ups.
As a junior coach of over twenty years – club and school – I have also witnessed cricket becoming ever more the preserve of those who can afford to play it. In a recent BBC article The Sutton Trust and Social Mobility Commission analysed the educational background of 5,000 people in top jobs. Trust chairman Sir Peter Lampl warned of an “increasingly divided society” concluding that “power rests with a narrow section of the population – the 7% who attend private schools and the 1% who graduate from Oxford and Cambridge”. The study found that 43% of male international cricketers came from the 7%.
It is a fact that the vast majority of kids in the state system are largely excluded from the game. Even if they have a modicum of natural ability, finding someone in the playground to play with to hone skills will be all but impossible; finding a teacher who is interested in cricket will be equally challenging and what chance street cricket? Most simply get dragged down by the general sporting malaise in state schools though it is not just cricket that suffers. Without school teams what is there to aspire to?
Equally, local clubs who seek to recruit from schools depend on parents a) actually receiving your snazzy flyer b) reading it and c) choosing between numerous other activities on offer as if a bite-size menu. There is a belief that we can solve cricket’s issues by reintroducing it to state schools; how when there are no facilities, coaches nor appetite and schools have many more priorities than cricket’s survival. Equally, there are calls for more cash to be thrown at schools but this is generally wasted anyway with the sub-contracting of PE to third parties who add little value and cream-off a slug of the money.
Our overseas “pro” last year was staggered by the efforts a small band of us commit to running a club junior section. In New Zealand there is no such thing as they enjoy a concept called school sport. On the face of it, our club runs a thriving junior cricket section but, in reality, we are largely child-minding for many; kids are deposited weekly, pay scant attention to what we teach them and then clear off home. Behaviour levels can be appalling – not just the kids – and this shows on the field of play – and sometimes off it. Coaches have a duty of care and fairness to all participating kids; some parents seem oblivious to this.
Despite the enormous hours we commit, the numbers we convert to senior cricket is paltry. Even those we shepherd into a senior team will most likely be off come university or into working life, seeking more from Saturday night than a long drive back at the end of another game. And cricket is a hard game – mentally and physically – requiring endless hours of practice with many a tough day. Kids are simply not brought up to cope with such attrition. Remember…you’re all winners you little sweeties!
The formats and structures we play at adult level are also from a byegone age. Despite several national surveys telling us that participants in the 20-40-year-old categories – the core – are as rare as a World Cup win, few administrators seem able to understand the game is too long for modern-day families. Cricket was in decline well before 2005 but the ECB sell-out simply accelerated it; this is no simple coincidence although they deny it as they would. In fairness, the ECB has benefited many clubs through their small grants scheme – Sky money you could argue – but many beneficiaries have been the same clubs that pay their players. So, the ECB pay the wages of mercenaries who put nothing back into the game. Other funding bodies are equally stupid. The Big Lottery Fund recently doled out £10k of public money to a club with one of the biggest player wage bills in the Bradford League. Madness!
The ECB is also fixated by its belief that the South Asian population will save grassroots cricket – it won’t. The patronising “strategy” is that Asian kids are obsessed with cricket but, even in a multi-cultural major city like Bradford, the theory has no evidential basis. In addition, talent is not the sole driver of being spotted if you want to climb further. To get into the system costs, not only in terms of expensive coaching and kit but also the familial support to get to representative games flung far and wide; the right school helps too old boy!
A recent Sky article makes the following point: The research found that 56% of under-16 to under-19 cricketers and 45% of professional players were white-British and went to independent schools. It makes interesting reading but don’t be fooled by thinking – like the ECB – that if a pot of cash was dropped here, all would be good. As Asian coaches tell me, two issues are common to all kids irrespective of race – inactivity and obesity. Education, supplemented by the mosque, is also paramount, perhaps to the detriment of sport, as most dads want better for their kids than them.
Back to society; the majority of the people who benefit from the existence of a local cricket club remain wilfully ignorant of the year-round grind needed to keep even a modest one afloat, perhaps most do not care? Players certainly do not appear to, many fitting the Play & Go category, see you next week, unless it’s my cat’s birthday party!
Cricket was once described to me as an addictive if irrational passion; as we all know, many such passions can be corrosive and ultimately destructive given time. The cumulative effect of an ever-increasing workload, set against a sea of apathy, ignorance and idleness, eventually wears even the most dedicated volunteer down and, unlike cricket bats, they don’t grow on trees. This is what helping to run a cricket club does to you, but I doubt that anyone in ECB Towers would have a clue. After all, we’re champions of the world, pass the Moet old chap!
Graham Morgan says
Hi Steve
As always a read I have great sympathy with.
However…I was hoping that you, like me, would be calling for the England team to offer to share their title and trophy as World Champions, with the New Zealand team.
The final was the best game of cricket ever played (in my ignorant opinion), but given the circumstances it would be made even better if England decided to share their title and trophy as it would be the right thing to do and make the game even more memorable.
Anything else would just” not be cricket”!
Also, I have a gift for you to commemorate your love and support for cricket.
Cheers