Cricket in England
England. The country where the Government and local councils actually care about all cricket clubs. While here on the beautiful Northern Beaches of Sydney we are lucky to get a ground without an annoying problem, the English sit in their clubhouses drinking tap beer as they look out over their perfectly grassed outfields and classy turf wickets.
Their system may not produce a world leading cricket side, but to play in England, as many people stated on my recent tour, is cricket heaven. Every village club has their own home ground, usually owned or leased by the actual club. If a club doesn’t have a ground, councils do their best to sort one out for them and then often builds them a clubhouse. Out of the 17 clubs we played on tour 17 had their own turf wicket, 17 had a clubhouse and 16 had tap beer.
What a contrast to cricket hell on the Northern Beaches. Terrible astro pitches, dead and/or weedy outfields (or perhaps just dirt) and what is this clubhouse thing you speak of? Here we have to fight for the council for the upkeep of facilities. In England they would laugh at us. Our local authorities have no time for sport.
But here’s where they lose out over there. Here if you want to play cricket, you sign up and get put into a team. Their clubs have 2, sometimes 3 teams at most plus junior sides. If you aren’t good enough to make a team, you don’t play. Then their whole system in getting through levels of cricket is much different. From village cricket you go straight to county and you need to be scooped up young or you miss out. In Sydney there is the grade competition in between and your age is not a restricting factor in moving up.
Could our method of bringing players up be far superior to England’s? I’m guessing this plays a big role. Players who could be the next superstar could develop late, but if they didn’t get noticed early they are lost. They also don’t play a lot of the longer form of the game. Club games are one dayers, 40 over each. This doesn’t provide a good breading ground for quality test players.
