by Counties hold key to changing face of English game
By Christopher Martin-Jenkins
RECONCILIATION is supposed to be the watchword of the moment.
It would have been better if the manager of England`s winter tour
had not made public the disgust he feels at what he believes to
have been a "personal crusade" waged against him by his
predecessor, M J K Smith.
Still, that is and will remain the Illingworth style: blunt,
undiplomatic, unvarnished, straight from the shoulder.
Uncle Raymond may have been talked out of continuing as
manager, but it is evident from the way that he quickly knocked
on the head David Lloyd`s rather vague idea of Ian Botham being
in some way involved with the England side that the chairman
remains in charge. Now the cricket has started, we can only hope
to be spared the power politics, from any quarter.
If we are ever to feel optimistic, April is surely the time
and we should enjoy its magic while we can. "Loveliest of trees,
the cherry now, is hung with bloom along the bough"; the
first-class season is underway, five Oxford and Cambridge batsmen
have already made centuries and schoolboys everywhere - from
all sorts of backgrounds - are dreaming of using new bats.
Even the fact that my Daily Telegraph Fantasy League team was
rejected last week because I picked three Lancashire players by
mistake did not depress me. John Crawley, who will surely
establish himself for England this season, had to go. Alastair
Brown, who was in brilliant pre-season form at the Oval, has
replaced him, but this meant that I had now spent only 9,800 of
my 10,000, which was a waste of 200. Therefore, having seen
Angus Fraser, after a groin operation, looking slimmer and
fresher, I slipped him in instead of Glen Chapple, thus ensuring
that Chapple will be the bowler of the season.
He certainly bowled well at Chelmsford yesterday, underlining
that things are not as bleak as they looked at the end of
the winter. There was even a progressive meeting last week
of the most significant working party of them all, the one
which is trying to smooth the ruffled feathers of major and
minor counties alike so that the new England Cricket Board can
finally supersede the Test and County Cricket Board. Until
that happens, progress is bound to be slow and timorous.
Happily, the English game is not deaf to methods which have
helped to transform Australia`s cricket in the last 10 years
Richard Little, who acts as secretary to David Morgan`s
working party, reports that about half of the 18 first-class
counties now have their own county boards up and running.
These boards co-ordinate cricket within their area from schools
and club colts to the county first team. Until all 38 counties
comply, the England Cricket Board cannot get off the ground,
because their raison d` tre is to integrate the national
game from the playground to the Test arena. The objective
is for 38 little pyramids to exist within the national one,
allowing money from the centre to be be allocated according to
the need and efficiency of each county.
This is the elusive National Development Plan, which must
become practice rather than theory if the Sports Council are to
start feeding money from the National Lottery into major
cricketing projects. Little is keen to squash the common
misconception that "Cricket Ltd" is wealthy and can do without
Lottery money. "On the contrary," he says, "our entire income
from international cricket and television is only about half
the 60 million a year earned by Manchester United alone. Unlike
Manchester, we have to keep six national stadiums up to standard.
We sell virtually all our tickets for Tests and one-day
internationals now, but the money we are withholding from the
counties to put into the Cricket Foundation [the charitable fund
which will increasingly be used to regenerate the game at the
grass- roots] will never be enough."
The worry is that public money will not be forthcoming either if
cricket is deemed to be richer than it is, or if the ECB take
much longer to start. Jan 1, a full year later than planned, is
now the probable date. By then a new chief executive will be
in office. A short list of the best candidates to succeed A C
Smith will be interviewed again in early May but those in the
running have been so closely involved for so long with
county cricket that objective vision will be difficult.
Happily, the English game is not deaf to methods which have
helped to transform Australia`s cricket in the last 10 years.
Micky Stewart talks passionately of the way that the NatWest
Development of Excellence programme now trains the best 13, 15,
17 and 19- year-olds in their tri-annual visits to Lilleshall.
The National Sports Centre in Shropshire becomes at such times,
in effect, a National Cricket Academy, and apart from
working on their basic batting, bowling and fielding skills
(including throwing, baseball-style) these would-be Test
cricketers are being advised on their physical
development, diet, a disciplined approach to life and the need
to cherish the special ethos of cricket itself.
It is as a roving contributor to sessions like these, not just
for youngsters but at get-togethers by touring England teams,
that Botham`s desire to help could best be utilised. He has
the aura which comes from great success and could be used by
England as Dennis Lillee is by Australia. Such a role would
employ his gifts better than being a selector, without
compromising his other activities.
Source :: Electronic Telegraph (http://www.telegraph.co.uk)