If, like me, you listen to sports phone-ins on the radio, you can’t avoid die hard football fans going ballistic over the latest game-deciding refereeing decision, or having a moan about their manager’s ineptitude. It’s all part of the game.
The thing that really strikes me however – apart from the fact that many of them hate their rivals as much as they love their own team – is that the overwhelming majority support their club first and England second.
I suppose it’s all part of the tribalism of football. Inter-club rivalries run deep. Chanting is often offensive and sometimes (in Scotland for example) sectarian. And let’s face it, I’d hate Liverpool fans too if I heard them gloating about an air disaster that wiped out some of my club’s greatest players. Who wouldn’t?
However, it’s not just football fans that usually put City, United, Wanderers (or whoever) before the England team. I didn’t realise this until recently, but a straw poll of rugby fans has revealed the same trend.
Not long ago I suggested on a chat board that the structure of English Rugby should do more to help the senior England team (even if this meant that English clubs didn’t do so well in European competitions). I was well and truly put in my place. Sorry, Leicester Tigers fans. I’ll get my coat.
For those of you who don’t know me personally, I’m a hardcore Worcester Warriors fan. I care more about Warriors’ results than I do about my football team (Villa) and – I’ll get to the point in a minute – my county cricket club, Worcestershire. However, I’d still much rather that England won the Rugby World Cup than Warriors win the Aviva Premiership (ha, as if!)
I reckon this is because cricket has always been my first love; watching Worcestershire CCC was my first experience of watching professional sport. I’ve always loved cricket, and only started following football and rugby in my late teens. Therefore, I derive a lot more satisfaction from England demolishing the Aussies and the Saffers than Worcester beating Gloucester, or Villa beating err anyone this season would do to be honest.
My question to you is therefore this: do you feel the same? Is putting England first a cultural thing that comes from being a cricket nut first and foremost?
Let’s face it. County cricket is geared towards nurturing successful England teams more than any other sport I know. Part of this is obviously financial necessity: most counties would die without the money generated by internationals. It’s the opposite in football. Clubs don’t need the England team and would be quite self-sufficient on their own.
Then there’s central contracts. Imagine if Sir Alex Ferguson was told that Rooney could only play for United on the FA’s say-so. Good luck with that Mr Bernstein. Although the structure of English domestic cricket doesn’t always help us groom players who succeed immediately at international level (too many counties anyone?) central contracts prove that England comes first.
But are there other reasons we haven’t considered? One of my working theories is that England cricketers are just a lot more likeable than their football or rugby equivalents. The likes of Alastair Cook, Ian Bell and Steve Finn are just the type of blokes that girls would love taking home to meet their parents. If I had a daughter I’d much rather she marry Andrew Strauss than Joey Barton.
I’m sure there must be some die hard county cricket fans out there i.e. people who would rather take a bullet for Mark Pettini than Alastair Cook. But I bet they’re few and far between. If you’re one of this dying breed – or you reckon people who put their county before their country aren’t a dying breed at all – let us know.
Why do you feel the way you do? Perhaps you’re a Somerset fan who can never forgive England for what they did to Mark Lathwell. Or maybe you’re a lifelong football fan who has only just converted to cricket – so culturally, you’re used to putting your club first.
Perhaps, however, the reason isn’t cultural at all. Maybe it’s because few people watch country cricket anymore – possibly because the England players, the local heroes if you like, rarely get the chance to play for the clubs that produced them. In which case, has international cricket killed the counties?
We’d like to hear your views.
James Morgan
Well – I don’t follow kissball at all, so can’t comment on that. I love rugby, but love cricket even more.
When it comes to rugby my Scottish ancestry demands that I slavishly follow the national team, with the sort of irrational optimism that virtually always leads to disappointment (or considerably worse in the case of Saturday’s lamentable display!) – but truth be told I would always prefer to watch Bath – preferably at the Rec, which is one of the most splendid places in the world to watch the game.
When it comes to cricket I have always followed the national side (I am half English!) rather than a county side. There are a number of reasons for this. First – I was born a brought up in Surrey – and try as I might it is awfully difficult to love Surrey CCC. Secondly, there is no (or very little) coverage of county cricket on TV or radio – so unless one can attend regularly in person there is no easy way to become fully involved. It is actually much easier (and more affordable) to make strong connections with one’s local village side.. Finally, I really don’t like the county game following in kissball’s footsteps by recruiting players from overseas, or even trading players from different counties. My preference – where possible – is for localism in sport. Then I really would get behind the local lads first – national side second.
Haven’t got time to be thorough, but:
Don’t internet forums as an indicator of anything. They are full of loonies (I realize the irony of writing this on an internet forum). If internet straw polls were an indicator of anything, Labour would have a majority of 400.
One of the problems with your suggestions (perfectly sensible) about club rugby serving England a bit better is that a lot of fans of club sides don’t support England necessarily. You may support your local side of Sarries or Quins, but your allegiance is with Ireland, Scotland, NZ, or whoever (with Sarries, probably SA ;)) So you’re not likely to be too keen on giving up some of your advantages to suit England, whom you hate. The majority inevitably support England, but that’s not necessarily who you were talking to.
Also, I love rugby, and the teams I support (different codes), but I’m not actually going to post on their message boards. They’re dominated by the unhinged.
With cricket, I think few of us really get to follow our county in any depth. We might catch the odd T20 or one-dayer if we’re lucky, but who really gets to see the Championship? What’s more, for a lot of us, our counties are now dominated by Kolpak players and short term mercenary signings who don’t give a toss about the county and are quite hard to get passionate about. We live our cricketing lives through the national team.
And football, well, ugh…
I disagree that only fanatics write on message boards. My experience is that they’re pretty representative of fans in general. There are some opinionated idiots, of course, but also many rational eloquent people. In fact, the Villa forum I follow has regulars posts from fans at the top of the supporters assocations (and also shareholders until recently). One of the chairman’s right hand men, a certain General Krulak, also posts and engages with fans. If you want to read a higher proportion of morons, take a look at some of the forums belonging to American sports teams. I regularly read the official 49ers forums. It gets really abusive really really quickly (which is bizarre considering that they all presumably want the same thing i.e. for their team to do well!), and many of the posters can’t spell any word that’s over 3 letters long!
I didn’t say *only* fanatics write on message boards, just that they’re often dominated by them – they’re the most persistent and the least reasonable. Have a look at cricinfo – lots of very reasonable and intelligent comments, but thousands of intransigent loonies shouting them down. 95% of the posts on there by Indians are completely mental, as you observed yourself, but Indian fans in person are usually reasonable and knowledgeable.
I think the weight of opinion on message boards often gives a misleading impression of opinion at large.
Totally agree. Cricinfo is almost unreadable for the one eyed comments from Indian fans. There is now an obsession with totally pointless statistics and achievements that contribute nothing towards the game (e.g. a recent one I read was that Kohli has hit more sixes off left handers whilst chasing in day night ODIs in the last five years – this was followed by approximately 200 comments discussing this point. Who cares!).
I used to be as interested in Hampshire as England but no more. With an unbalanced season structure, its hard to keep abreast what is happening. I find it mad that over a weekend and especially over a bank holiday, there is not a game at your local county. No one watches four day cricket so it should be played Monday to Thursday with ODIs / T20 games held Friday nights, Saturday and Sunday. At least there should be at least once chance to watch a home game over a weekend. Also, the constant revolving door of overseas players surely has turned fans off county cricket – players appear for a couple of T20 games and then don’t play again until they sign for another county the following year to do the same. I would allow two overseas players for the whole year with T20 allowing a third to be selected. This would mean lower quality players but having for example Jerome Taylor for the season is better than Kemar Roach for a week!
I have to say that cricinfo.contains by far the most idiots of any forum I’ve ever read. It’s not exactly your average UK sports forum! Best avoided. The articles are often good though
Its particular relevance is that Morgsy himself used it in an article recently as an example of the attitudes of Indian cricket fans.
Country all the way. Possibly because county cricket wasn’t really on my radar pre-Durham, but as proud as I am about how far we’ve come, the national team will always be more important. The days of county cricket paying its own way are long gone: county chairmen might care to remember that rather than hold the ECB to ransom.