Part of our role here at TFT is to give ordinary fans a voice. Consequently, as we’ve been inundated with articles all echoing the same sentiments in recent days, I thought I’d publish one of the most heartfelt. It comes from regular reader Doug Minde. I’m sure many of you share his anger although there’s room for debate regarding the future of specific players …
R.I.P. ENGLISH TEST CRICKET WHICH DIED AT EDGBASTON ON THE 13TH JULY, 2021.
THE TEAM WILL BE CREMATED AND THE ASHES TAKEN TO NEW ZEALAND.
I’m an ordinary cricket supporter / watcher like many who love mainly the longer form of the game. Up to now, that is.
I’m not a technical expert, but in over 30 years of cricket watching Edgbaston was the worst performance I have seen by a long way from any England Team. New Zealand outplayed us in every discipline in both of these Tests and did just about everything right on and off the field, where we did everything wrong.
NZ were a side with six changes from the 1st Test. They were almost, dare I say it, a second XI. And yet we were humiliated and hammered into the dirt.
I didn’t go thank God, but I feel sorry for all those who spent their hard earned cash on the first day of almost a full house in glorious weather to be subjected to this trash. It might have been the only chance should the restrictions be extended.
On the strength of this Test, the only players I’d retain are Burns (just), Lawrence (because there is something there I think), Root (because he averages 48), Wood and Broad. Sorry Jimmy but your best days are behind you and I’m not sure what you are trying to prove. The rest should return to their counties and probably stay there.
In the second innings the top 7 all looked like rabbits caught in the headlights. And Bracey wouldn’t keep wicket (if that’s what it was) for Surrey seconds. And f****ng hell they’ve got Bairstow, Woakes, Butler, Curran and Ali currently playing T20! Rest and rotation? Give me a break.
Five Tests before the Ashes and we don’t even know who our best top 3 are. Burns gets in, and personally I’d give the captaincy to him or even Stokes or Buttler.
And for the ECB and those who either support or attempt to justify marginalising the championship and The Hundred … your agenda is not only destroying county cricket, but is slowly but surely contributing to the existential decline of the England test team.
The authorities have almost destroyed the County Championship and now Test cricket is headed the same way. But I’m not sure that even they are so stupid as to want to demolish it: Test cricket in the UK makes a lot of money. Well did. Maybe not so much in the future if standards continue to drop. If there was ever a time for a complete rethink and restructure of this great game it’s now.
New Zealand, I hope that you go well in the inaugural World Test Championship Final against the formidable India team this week. I’ll be supporting you.
And if any one says “batters” rather than “batsmen” again, I’ll unleash the Terminator! Have a good day folks.
Doug Minde
Why is anyone surprised by this. We’ve been on a downward technical spiral for years, with collapse after collapse being ignored by the powers at be and the new breed of coaches who see the future of the game as predominantly white ball. They would say their coaching methods are more imaginative and geared to the shorter format money spinners. How many of the public really care about the test team as long as we’re winning World Cups and filling the grounds for boundary fest partytime one Dayers. The ECB realise the dumbing down of the game on and off the field is the future, as it is with our reality TV society in general, if the game is to compete with its rivals. Look at the crowds for test cricket, with their binge drinking, beer snakes and Mexican wave gimmicks to relieve the boredom when the action wanes. They are immune to the dramas which make test cricket a different animal. Why do we think our voices mean anything to the powers at be who are totally market oriented, without any real feel for the game which could perfectly adequately in my view accommodate all existing formats behind Test Cricket as the pinnincle of achievement, as the players clearly view it even now. No other sport has these other formats competing against each other, so there is no other source for us to learn from here, which gives carte Blanche to the prevailing attitudes.
How do you know people who drink beer or join in Mexican Wave at the cricket are “immune” from the drama, of Test cricket that they’ve also paid to go to?
Have you ever been to the cricket in Australia?
Anyone remember 1970s West Indies Tests at the Oval? Wow now that was noisy. Really though don’t sit in the Hollies Stand because you know what your going to get.
Drinking beer I have no problem with, we all do it there, it’s just respecting other people that goes out of the window when you’re pissed, which happens to hundreds of these barmy army types by lunchtime. As soon as the action slows down these morons start to provide their own often irritating entertainment, irrespective of what’s going on on the field, and the slowing down of this action is usually part of the drama in test cricket.
No I have never watched cricket in Australia except on TV but I can immagine similar goes on, but that doesn’t make it any better over here.
“our reality TV society in general”
I understand the sentiment – but the popularity of box-sets and the Tour de France suggests there is still an appetite for extended narractives, if the powers that be want to foster it. Ours don’t.
“No other sport has these other formats competing against each other”
Not quite so much perhaps – but golf has stroke vs. match play, rugby has Union/League/Sevens, football has leagues vs. cups, tennis had 3/5 sets and different surfaces, horse racing has flat vs. jumps. The big problem imo is that people kidden themselves that those running the game saw the shorter forms as the ‘gateway drug’ into the longer form. They haven’t done so forsome time.
Chess (which some count will count as a sport) has exactly that same problem. You get the best chess with proper time controls but if you want to attract people that get bored quickly, you move to shorter and shorter time formats.
How many of these other sports do these formats actively compete against each other like cricket. None. There is no doubt the decline in red ball standards is directly due to the proliferation of white ball competitions.
In horse racing different horses and jockeys ride on the flat and over jumps. In Rugby, sevens is a minor format. In football, league and cups are still played with the same basic rules over the same 90 minutes. In golf, matchplay outside the novelty Ryder Cup is hardly played atall. In Tennis only the majors take place over 5 sets and the rules are the same.
The flaw in the ECB’s (solely) money driven strategy has been obvious for some time. They have focused on white ball and Test cricket at the expense of almost* everything else, but completely failed to realise that unless you invest in red ball cricket, you cannot produce Test cricketers, not to mention cricket for which people will pay in excess of £100 a day to watch.
The England top 6 at Edgbaston was, bar Stokes, about as good as we’ve got yet with the exception of Burns none – not even Root – approached their innings with a Test match mentality. There is no attempt to build a partnership. No thinking about rotating the strike (not that many were in a position where that was an issue). They play Test cricket as they do white ball – a game played by 11 individuals rather than as a team. The most depressing thing for me was Pope, a batsman I rate highly. He got away with playing a sort of cut much too early in his innings and got a four off the edge. The very next ball he tried the same shot to a similar delivery and he was caught behind.
Harrison, Giles and Silverwood are not the people to turn this round. We need root and branch reform at the top.
* the exception of course is that politically correct game of tip and run, otherwise known as women’s cricket, into which bottomless pit money is being poured whilst county cricket is being starved of resources. Economic madness.
The whole ‘batter’ conversation is getting a bit tiring, Isabelle Westbury in the Telegraph put it to bed nicely the other day when she wrote this:
“Out of interest, why is “batter” such an issue? It seems like quite a fuss to be making about a choice of words which might be one small step in helping make cricket more inclusive.
And you’re wrong, actually. If you have a gander at the 1934 book The Language of Cricket, it’s quite informative as to the use of the terms “batter” and “batsmen” to describe cricketers who bat. The use of “batsman” first arose in 1744 and “batter” followed soon after, with its first reference in 1773. For decades therefore, centuries even, “batter” has been used “concurrently with ‘batsman’, as an alternative term”.
I would be happy to hear a more compelling argument for why “batter” shouldn’t exist but that you don’t like the fact that it is a homonym is, frankly, no argument at all.”
Agreed. For the naysayers, I presume you want bowler replaced with ‘bowlsman’?
Great point AJ!
“Batter” is what I like on my cod and chips. Not sure why it “makes cricket more inclusive” or indeed why people seem to have a problem with the words men and women. Inclusive of what exactly?
It would be a help if the ECB (and the media) stopped obsessing over the Ashes and picked the team most likely to beat the opposition at hand – and don’t use test matches against supposedly weaker opposition (not NZ) to “blood” new players. Field the best available team.
Jos Buttler averages 34 in test cricket. Moeen Ali 28 with the bat and 36 with the ball. Bairstow 34. These players are not the answer…certainly not to the pitiful batting. The bowling unit performed well on Saturday to be fair.
It could happen with any team. But I think Joe Root should have batted at 3. because Crawley and Sibley are not consistent at all. And that puts a lot of pressure on Joe Root.
In my view, Root is by far our best batsman and he should play where he is most comfortable and likely to score most runs. That is at 4. Playing your best batsman out of position has, demonstrably not worked.for us in the past – it’s not as if we have an outstanding replacement at 4 either.