I love Christmas. The food, the carols, the lights, plus the general aroma of mulled wine and mince pies never fails to put me in a jovial mood. What a shame that this feeling of goodwill soon dissipates upon reading the latest cricket news. Those in charge of English cricket never fail to raise my blood pressure.
The first festive kick in the nuts came courtesy of ECB performance director Mo Bobat who argues here that the county championship alone no longer produces Test players. Try telling Rory Burns that.
On first inspection you might be encouraged that Ed Smith and Co are innovating in the search for future Test players. However, if you strip away the ‘look how clever we’re being’ window dressing then the underlying message is clear: the championship is crap and unfortunately this isn’t going to change anytime soon.
What desperate times we live in folks. In a sensible world the ECB would be doing everything possible to improve the championship and reduce the gap between domestic and international cricket. But rather than doing this – presumably because The Hundred has to come first at all costs – they’ve essentially given up. Instead they’re doing everything possible to produce Test cricketers without the benefit of a first rate domestic competition.
It’s all so sad. Back in the noughties our domestic red ball competition was one of the best in the world. It was a high standard (in part because of an influx of high quality overseas and Kolpak players) and several players excelled almost immediately when they were plucked from the county ranks to represent England – Andrew Strauss, Jonathan Trott, and Matt Prior, for example, all scored hundreds on debut and went on to have long careers.
Those days are now gone my friends and the ECB has no intention whatsoever of reviving them. Instead it seems that they merely want to manage the championship’s decline so they can focus on their completely unnecessary vanity project.
The World Cup triumph and Ben Stokes’s SPOTY victory – both of which were achieved without Harrison’s Harebrained Have A Hit – have taught those who run English cricket absolutely nothing. They don’t appreciate that Test and ODI cricket are fantastic products (as is the T20 Blast). And they certainly don’t know the meaning of the word ‘cannibalisation’ – which is very strange considering the small fortune they’ve paid inept marketing consultants.
The second revelation is one that quite frankly makes me feel ashamed to be English. Apparently the BCCI, ACB, and ECB are seriously thinking about launching a new 4-way annual ODI competition involving the big three plus one other nation. As if the calendar wasn’t crowded enough already.
There is one and only one motivation behind this terrible, terrible idea – money. The big three want to make even more dosh for their already swollen coffers. And they don’t care what damage they do to world cricket and every other nation in the process.
Let’s make no bones about it. This competition is selfish greed personified. The idea that they’ll throw one other country per year a bone by letting them join the fun is also extremely arrogant.
If this preposterous annual event goes ahead it will devalue the World Cup and it will probably end up devaluing ODI cricket in general too. When are the authorities going to realise that the more you have of something the less special it becomes? More is usually less.
Playing India and Australia every year will soon become mundane for everyone other than brainless fanatics. What’s more, this competition will increase the gap between the haves and have-nots to an even greater extent.
Finally, as if off-field matters weren’t bad enough, reports are emerging from South Africa than England are seriously considering an all pace attack in the first test at SuperSport Park. WTF? Do we never learn?!
Picking an all seam attack is always bad news. It’s brain dead. But to do this in two consecutive Tests, especially after the plan backfired so spectacularly in the second test in New Zealand, shows worrying ignorance.
Apologist for this plan will claim that Jack Leach has missed the warm-ups with illness. But this won’t stop them from picking Broad and Archer, will it?!
What’s more, why fly Dom Bess out to join the squad if they were never going to pick him anyway. And what about Matt Parkinson? If the management don’t think he’s ready for Test cricket then Ed Smith should never have chosen him in the first place.
Whilst we all understand that illness has disrupted England’s preparations for this game, there will be no excuse whatsoever for picking 5 seamers. Yes England love their statistics, and yes spinners rarely win games at SuperSport Park, but spinners are an essential part of balanced XIs whether they’re taking the bulk of the wickets or not.
Indeed, selecting a spinner can actually help the seamers to be more effective because (a) they bring variety and a change of pace so its harder for batsmen to settle, and (b) they can tie down an end and help the seamers bowl shorter and more effective spells.
Let’s just hope that Chris Silverwood sees sense on the morning of the match. England can obsess all they want about the fitness / rustiness of their seamers. But picking an extra one as an insurance plan is the last thing they should do. If they’ve got doubts about the seamers then simply pick a spinner FFS.
And with my blood pressure suitably raised, and my seasonal cheer totally evaporated, I wish you all a very merry Christmas.
But not you Tom, Colin, Mo, and Sourav. I hope the Ghost of Christmas Past haunts your homes and steals your chipolatas.
James Morgan
Yep, all we really need is yet more ODIs against Australia and India. We’re already playing a totally unnecessary ODI series against Australia next year (having done so in 2018 too) – and they want to add more to this! Do they not think people will get bored seeing the same teams again and again? We should be playing international cricket against all the other 11 full members – if the ICC mandated we had to play them all home and away in a 4 year cycle there would be less room for the ECB, ACB and BCCI to come up with a monstrosity like this.
That’s exactly what the ICC have mandated for that format, though–although it won’t kick in fully during the first cycle due to a rights issue, every team has to play every other plus the leading Associate over the first three years after a World Cup. Even with the rights issue, the only teams that England won’t be playing ODIs against from July 2019 to June 2022 are Pakistan (who they have T20s against), Zimbabwe and Afghanistan and the only one they’ll be playing twice is South Africa (not Australia or India). Five years ago, who could have foreseen England playing three-ODI series against both Ireland and the Netherlands within the space of a few months?
Incidentally, the ODI series against Australia in July is the standard one in that league cycle–and the 2018 one was simply the one that went with the 2019 Ashes after the boards decided to split the tour. (Although I agree with the general sentiment, the series in 2010, 2012 and 2015 are a better example of totally superfluous ones).
This proposal is more a simple challenge to the ICC–an attempt to recreate the Big Three takeover of 2014 using scheduling rather than demands for money as the starting point. Ganguly knows perfectly well that there’s no space in the schedule for it, and that there’s already a window for the Big Three to play ODI series against each other (it’s the whole last year before a WC).
I wonder whether he’s throwing it out to see what the reaction is, and suspect that he hasn’t talked about it to anyone yet. I don’t have the impression–especially from Earl Eddings’s reaction–that he’s discussed it with the other boards in depth. But of course he can probably rely on the right reaction from cricketing philistines like Harrison and Graves!
Administrators are businessmen. What should we expect but greed. This has always been the case, even from the earliest days of representative cricket when the public were charged an entry fee. What motivates the organisers but potential profit. This is why cricket changes with the times, as competition for attention increases.
I hate is as much as anyone on this blog but it has an organic momentum out of any individual’s control. It has infiltrated every form of public entertainment and it’s rate is on the increase as society generally moves at light speed in the wrong direction. Now that’s real humbug for you. it’s also pissing down, Iv’e got the runs and it’s my Birthday.
Season’s greetings.
Happy birthday! Take some Imodium and hang in there :-)
Cheers, sounds like a plan.
Broad, Ill and over the hill, Leach ill, Wood never get through a five Day Test, Anderson -who knows but going on 38 and not the future, Woakes not much good abroad and has fitness problems, Stokes again unable to bowl many overs. Not very good is it, but new blood has to come in soon otherwise our bowling will be worse than our top order batting was. As I said earlier I’m going neutral on International cricket, Aussie vs NZ for me.
Happy Xmas folks!
Whilst I agree with all your comments on the selection issue in South Africa, you omitted today’s entry for ‘most stupid selectorial comment of the century’. It seems that the selectors are going to allow the ill and injured to decide for themselves if they are fit enough to play a 5 day test! As anyone who goes in a gym regularly will point out, it is easy to measure fitness against previously measured benchmarks for the individual – and that is what should be used for deciding whether Broad, Archer and Leach are fully recovered. Expecting them to admit to still being 5% down is ludicrous. Why does the team have doctors and physio’s if they are going to rely on the word of players who will be concerned about being able to get back in the team if they say anything other than that they are fully recovered?
Good point. And fitness doesn’t necessary have anything to do with rustiness / being ready.
County Cricket’s already dead. Take away the TV money paid for the popular stuff and half the grounds would already be new Ikeas and, with it, ironically, very popular with families.
Having 2 divisions worked for a while but the problem is the numbers just aren’t there and The Hundred – if it’s purpose is to get people back – won’t make a hapeth of difference (in addition to being utterly crap)
As sad as it may be, the Championship needs radical change and pulling people in with overseas talent is nice but it doesn’t help. Rather, consider the Australian model: successful because there are so few teams.
With so many high-quality players per team, the players are tested and the crowds are entertained. Who knows; they might even be worth televising themselves? They might also produce the test players we need and (for everybody already looking for a way to kill off The Hundred) you wouldn’t need a concoction of new teams because you’d already have them – small enough in number to give the domestic 50 and 20 over games the IPL-like, one game on one day type format they have to have.
Chipping out average players because the standard they play at is so flipping’ average certainly has to stop. You can cling on to the Gloucestershires and the Northamptonshires all you like but you’re only clinging on.
What no one ever admits are the real reasons people watch the different formats .
Is it because they ‘prefer’ set formats or.. is it purely because when people can only afford one ticket at £50.. you’d choose to be able to watch both teams bat and bowl?? In which case… you’re always going to ‘choose’ whit ball… if you want a drinking event (rather than go to the pub traditionally).. then 2020 is your thing.. is that because you ‘prefer’ 2020 or is it merely the reason to drink…
When people finally admit these answers (hint, they never will), the game will continue to shrink (no amount of massaging the numbers with young kids, women or ‘street cricket’ will help) year on year
The masses do not prefer or dine white ball more popular, it’s simply easier to fit attending into modern life/finances.. people talk more about and follow test cricket.
Good post. I agree with most of the points raised in it. Most especially, I would say that if Leach is unable to play in the first test match then Parkinson should – another all-seam attack should not even be considered, and Parkinson as official second choice spinner should get the nod ahead of the newly arrived Bess.
I have bad vibes about England v S Africa. The latest misfortune is apparently Ben Stokes’ father being admitted to hospital with a serious illness which sounds to be worse than the Dook’s ‘pre-existing condition’ spell in germsville.
Add to this players being allowed to determine their own fitness and some dubious calls-up, I wonder who exactly is running the show.
Apart from that, the cricket authorities seem hell-bent on destroying the game I’ve loved for decades.
Tomorrow’s big decision – what to do while Queenie’s speech is being shown. Oh yes, fall asleep as usual.
Merry Christmas in the corridors of uncertainty.