64,000 fewer of us have played cricket this year. The ECB’s 2014 National Cricket Playing Survey revealed a seven per cent fall in participation from 2013, down from 908,000 people to 844,000. The figures are based on responses from 37,500 individuals, although it’s not clear – so far as I can see – who was surveyed. Are these people league club players, or village/parks cricketers? The research also determined that, to quote the ECB: 247,000 were ‘Core’ players who play...
A huge iron rod
The Andrew Strauss interview has already being doing the rounds for a day or so, but I still couldn’t resist giving it a good fisk, even though Dmitri, with his lightning-quick fingers, has already got in there first (including, in the comments, SimonH’s own superb fisk of Stephen Brenkley’s hard-hitting encounter with Matt Prior). To be precise, the Strauss piece was less an interview than an open chat with several journalists. In return for Strauss’s time the hacks...
“Assured of fantastic support”
There is a remarkable quote from Paul “due diligence” Downton in the ECB press release announcing the tour dates for England’s 2015/16 tour of South Africa. “We can be assured of fantastic support in South Africa from the thousands of loyal supporters who always follow us around the country – particularly at the Boxing Day Test in Durban and the New Year Test at Newlands in Cape Town.” My, my. If they awarded a Nobel Prize for arrogance, Downton would be nailed on for the trip...
1000 not out
Today we’re going to do something we only rarely indulge in here. We’re going to talk about ourselves. I hope you’ll forgive the self-indulgence. This is the 1000th post on The Full Toss. It’s a landmark which has taken us nearly five years to reach. And here in the TFT office the celebrations are already in full swing. James has already donned his party hat, I’m putting out the bowls of nibbles, and Tregaskis is opening another bottle of Tizer. The site originally...
Syd, Sharma and Chef
English cricket hasn’t had too many cult heroes in recent times. It’s all too professional these days. Tiger moths, late night piss ups, fat blokes and pedalos are a thing of the past. It was a different story in the late 80s and early 90s though. Real characters still existed: there was Jack Russell and his borderline OCD, a bespectacled Devon Malcolm making his debut, Phil Tufnell cowering every time someone mentioned the word ‘bouncer’, and batting techniques so bizarre you had to pinch...
The umpire’s voice – and what’s the ECB’s problem with the north?
You probably saw the story yesterday about the trialling of umpire’s microphones in international cricket. As BBC Online reported: Discussions between the on-field and television umpires will be aired during Australia’s upcoming one-day series against South Africa. The International Cricket Council (ICC) is conducting the trial during the five-match series, with a view to using it at select matches in the World Cup.The first match is at Perth on Friday. In what may be a first in...
