Keep the red ball rolling
ANNIE CHAVE
Annie Chave laments the loss of long days watching Championship cricket ball
The ECB waited until the return of the County Championship’s brief summer solstice to announce the wildcards and replacements for the Hundred. It feels like an intrusion as county fans are desperately holding on to the vestiges of their precious tournament.
Yes, by all means be pleased for the players, but oh, how hard it is not to feel the ruffling of feathers as the under-publicised Championship is once again hijacked during its limited window of opportunity, its brief tenure of centre stage erased. And what of the atmosphere in those county changing-rooms as more players feel left on the sidelines? Is this an echo, in some ways, of the old division between professionals and amateurs?
With the Euros and the T20 World Cup, and with Wimbledon and the Olympic Games just around the corner, the country is gorging on a diet of sport, most of it on free-to-air television. With the traditional summer game fighting for air-time, so hidden and underplayed at what used to be its time of year, it feels that things are out of kilter.
If the game of cricket were invented now, there’s little doubt that the short format would be the only version played, and that the ball used would be a red one, visible under the bright summer skies when the white-ball game is now timetabled. It feels topsy turvy. Shouldn’t a white ball, lights and coloured clothing be for grey days and dark evenings?
The irony of short-format cricket’s hijacking of the summer calendar is that it’s played during the longest days. For the most part, it ends up being scheduled in the evenings, leaving county grounds empty when conditions for cricket are at their peak. Cricketers in white in the midsummer sunshine are starting to feel alienated.
To be sure, right now, it’s great for county fans to have a few days of the more relaxed tempo of the four-day game, but it takes time – for players and supporters alike – to reset their inner dinosaur. Instead of the pulsating of synchronised crowds, the bright colours, and the sky-high sixes, there is an air of serenity in the batter’s dogged defence and the bowler’s line and length. Spectacular it’s not, (not often, although 43 off one over can hardly be deemed dull) but a little bit of heaven it is, for a while.
I’ve spent the last week watching two screens. On one I have the Championship with its slower pace easier on the ear. Careful accumulation is the name of the game. On the other is the T20 World Cup, the giants of the game, creating spectacular entertainment: the players’ tattoos, reflective sunglasses and gold chains symbolising a modern game that craves superstars, glamour and glitz. The crowd is one unbroken shriek, the ball off bat a tracer-bullet, a maximum, ‘Sweet Caroline’ the anthem of the masses. There are two different games, and they are starting to feel very disparate indeed.
Kevin Howells, the BBC commentator and voice of county cricket, is a master of diplomacy and self-control, always positive, always buoyant. But a tweet from him last week made me pause for thought. ‘Cricket and sunshine at Kent CCC, it’s seeing and feeling this, that makes me sad about the direction of travel the game is taking. So, enjoy it everyone whilst we can.’
And there are lots of us who do enjoy it. So much so that cricket fans, led by the County Cricket Members’ Group, have felt compelled to promote the Championship with a ‘County Cricket Day’, that took place last Sunday, 30 June. The fact that members (or should I say Luddites?) have felt the need to do this is a sad indictment of those promoting the game who have failed to seize the chance of, or see no point in, cherishing the much-loved format by creating a special day.
This is, despite much nudging by the ever-business-savvy Sean Jarvis, CEO at Leicestershire, who has run a free-to-all Championship game for the past few years. The County Cricket Day idea has been born out of a frustration about the evident lack of interest the tournament in both the press and television broadcasting, and a genuine fear that the Championship will soon cease to exist, even in its current pared-down guise. As Howells says, the game’s direction of travel feels increasingly ominous, and there’s a very real sense that fans need to continue to annoy, to question and to ‘spread their fleas’ in order to hold on to what remains of what they love.
All of this applies to the fans, more specifically to the fans of county cricket. What of the players? This is the real conundrum now. I spent some of last week chatting to a father and his county-cricketer son, and it felt wrong, on a beautiful summer’s day in the middle of June, that this wonderfully talented man wasn’t playing cricket and hadn’t for some time. What happens to those county players who have been pi-geon-holed as red-ball players? What of those who have learned the techniques required for long-format cricket?
‘The irony of short-format cricket’s hijacking of the summer calendar is that it’s played during the longest days, scheduled in the evenings, leaving county grounds empty when conditions for cricket are at their peak’
Well, it’s not at all straightforward for them. It appears that, if they are unable to get into the T20 side, they are playing very little cricket at the height of the season, except maybe for the seconds, or for a local club. Added to this, if they aren’t picked for the T20 Blast, they’re unlikely
to be picked for the more lucrative Hundred, so their earning potential is limited. It’s not a path that many will want to travel. I’ve spoken to a number of coaches across the country, who are frustrated in their teaching. Technique and shot-selection, it appears, are not high on the priority list for young cricketers coming into the game.
And why would they be? So much emphasis is put on the shorter format, and there’s life-changing money to be earned for so much less graft. It makes many wonder whether the long format is a dying art. The more T20 franchise cricket that is played – let’s face it, that’s the cricket that broadcasters and the ICC support – the more dominant it will become. That way lies stardom and high wages.
The frustrations of playing limited-over formats and fewer games is something that the women’s game has faced for years, but with Tier 1 plans, where women’s teams are becoming more county based, there is one ray of hope in sealing a future for the counties alongside a much-ignored women’s brand. But will the ECB and the counties be able to offer red-ball cricket in the future, and will the players have any desire to master it?
For exclusive stories and all the detailed cricket news you need, subscribe to The Cricket Paper website, digital edition, or newspaper from as little as 14p a day.