I feel like I’m throwing a slab of meat into the ring here. I look forward to your comments!
Enjoy comments like…
Flower is finally optimistic himself now after emerging with his dignity intact from the fall-out of the 5-0 Ashes thrashing that saw one of the best of all England teams unexpectedly disintegrate spectacularly and then bitterly.
The man who coached England to three Ashes victories, the No 1 Test ranking and a World Twenty20 triumph disappeared into the background to lick his wounds while the mud-slinging and recriminations swirled around him.
Revel in the tough interrogation…
Even now he will not respond to the assassination of his character by Kevin Pietersen in the saga’s aftermath and instead is content to still be playing his part in the betterment of English cricket away from the spotlight he never relished.
‘It fell apart very quickly and much quicker than I hoped,’ reflected Flower on those tumultuous times in Australia.
‘Regardless of whether I moved on I would like to have seen a healthier transition where some senior players stayed and there was a drip-feed of younger ones rather than a complete makeover.
‘Sometimes life doesn’t work out perfectly and that’s an example of that but England have made a great recovery.
I saw a lot of interesting stuff revolving around yesterday’s post. AB is quite right to suggest that I am “despondent” about the future, and the reasons are there to see when looking at the Nick Hoult article in the Telegraph. The sheer level of fright the ECB are showing at their county clubs showing real-time fixed camera action and the impact it has on Sky is remarkable. Once again, the ECB are much more concerned about keeping a broadcaster sweet rather than those who actually want to watch their sport. If this is their attitude, we have no chance.
I find Sky’s attitude to this rather predictable. I take, for example, my visit to the States coming up. I would quite like to watch the cricket easily and accessibly from my tablet/laptop. I don’t want to use any proxy hosting software or illegal streams blighted by poor pictures, spamware, pop-ups et al. I’ve paid for the service, I should be able to use it where I like. When I was with Sky, you could watch Sky Go quite easily. I had two or three attempts to get it to work through Virgin Media and nothing worked on my mobile platforms. So stuff it. They’ve lost a willing consumer for a few weeks, and I get more angry at their intransigence. That’s a perfect model for sustainability, right there. However, even if I got it to work, I’d need to go through a proxy server abroad. Why? To protect US cricket broadcasting rights? What broadcasting rights? If I were the ECB I’d be screaming blue murder at this inconvenience and stupidity that a person wanting to consume their “product” has to go through. So, folks, I won’t be seeing a ball of the second and third tests against Sri Lanka, despite paying for Sky Sports. What a f*cking joke.
There is a way for the ECB to change this, but they won’t. They are now the addict to the Sky “pusher”, needing their fix of Sky cash, bowing to all their demands, just to keep going. Without Sky money, they have a cricketing model that is now knackered. They have seen salaries inflate for the top players, they’ve increased the ticket prices, and now we see the northern heartlands turning away from test cricket. The ECB needs to start thinking more creatively. The fixed camera coverage belongs in the Stone Age. I have watched Minor League Baseball online – it was given away for $10 on top of the MLB Premium package a few years ago – and it was better than that. The ECB need to invest in a proper digital streaming platform to allow people to watch cricket on their TVs and other platforms at home or on the move. So when there are 9 games scheduled on the Friday special T20 nights, the other 8 not covered by Sky do not disappear into the ether. Pitch it at a reasonable price – £50 a season – and try it. I hear the powers say that the youth consume their experiences differently now (a bit patronising. I’m not a youth, and so do I) and yet they stick with the arcane TV model that stifles digital content. They’ve made some steps on the ICC tournament front, but everything else is done to protect the big deal. Because without the big deal, they are royally f*cked.
I saw a Tweet earlier to say that the BCCI had taken down AlternativeCricket. The authorities treat bloggers and cricket nuts, who want to share their love of the game, 99 times out of 100 for absolutely no commercial gain like criminals. Get some enlightenment. Every single one of those people who click on here, other blogs, youtube channels, Facebook pages, twitter feeds is a customer. Each one of those people is getting engrossed in cricket and wants to find out more. They want to read about it. They want to watch the highlights. They want to damn well love the game. What do these short-sighted f*ckwits do? And they are f*ckwits. Go after them. Why? Why the hell pursue Robelinda for his brilliant video clips? Why get Facebook to delete Alternative Cricket? Because there might be a couple of quid you are missing out on? As Mark and others say, this isn’t a free market at all, it’s straight up protectionism. I’ve always said, if I felt like, today, I wanted to see a clip of Brian Lara’s 277 at the SCG, I should be able to find it somewhere and watch it. If Channel 9, the rights holders want to charge a nominal fee, so be it. I might pay it. But you can’t and they won’t. So Rob puts a clip up online, a service the rightsholder doesn’t want to provide and has shown that to be the case, and he is potentially threatened with a copyright suit by some organisations? Where is the sense in that? Really. Where is the sense….
Let’s go back to domestic cricket and the County Championship. There is a latent audience out there. Some people would quite like to be able to watch their county on the way home from work, or in their breaks, and a basic (above fixed camera) feed with commentary would be a really good way to go about this. Others displaced, retired or unable to attend could watch an hour or two as they pleased. When something magnificent is happening, people can dip in and watch it. I don’t know the expense, but let’s say it is plausible. A web platform on the Smart TVs, via digital TV platforms (a la Netflix and Youtube on Virgin or Xbox) and mobile hardware would be a terrific innovation. There’s a chance this might just work.
Rather than try silly, costless innovations like the points system, try something that might last. That might be a trend setter. Have confidence in your ability to connect the sport with people. You hide the whole thing behind a paywall, then you are shutting off a massive potential customer base. I’m despondent because I’ve seen little innovative that is going to address the key problem with the sport. Visibility. Cricket is not football, which still has a major footprint on terrestrial TV as next month’s Euros will show. It is not rugby that has its marquee international tournaments on free-to-air. It is totally hidden.
I believe all the ECB are doing is catering to its existing customer base, and being dictated to by a broadcaster which holds all the cards. Tom Harrison has a mighty job to do. Cutting players salaries is not going to be an option – it never is – and ticket prices are exorbitant for international cricket as it is (given you take much of the weather risk, and all of the overs short risk). It may be too late to find alternative income streams, and yet you hamstring yourself with a TV contract that means innovative counties can’t even get their token highlights shown to make it even harder. It’s a bind of their own making, only cricket lovers are the losers.
That’s right David Collier (referring to the quote I highlighted yesterday). Some of us are emotive over it. Because we think not only that you and your kindred spirits at the ECB are snobs, we also think you aren’t up to it too. In fact, we know you aren’t. Call Stanford…quick.
It has been a little while now since I’ve put up anything original on here. The Open Thread gives you a chance to put your views across but at this time I simply feel like I have nothing left to say. Some will be celebrating, some will be laughing, some will, if there’s something wrong with them, might be quite sad. Name dropper that I am, but when I was left alone with Lawrence (while Chris nipped out) he asked me how the blog was going. My response?
“Lawrence, I’m knackered.”
And I am. Mentally and enthusiastically knackered. I had a couple of posts half way drafted, but then decided not to finish them because I thought they weren’t good enough, or that they were too self-centred. One of them was on Hillsborough, which of course isn’t cricket related but is personally linked because I was there that day. Another was on the reaction to being outed by a true friend of the blog, who now contends she has my full name. I’ve wrestled as to whether I should do it myself, but then something that was also said on Friday stuck with me. “Why do you bother when no-one listens to these people, when, as we show, we read what you say.”
There’s also the chances of recalling this weekend last year. The sacking of Moores, appointment of Strauss and the 355. But why? That’s all in the past. As we’ve said, the battle has been decided.
I didn’t watch much of the Notts v Yorkshire game. I couldn’t be arsed to go to Surrey on Sunday. I’ve been watching the NBA playoffs, sorting out life, following the Red Sox and cricket has taken a back seat for the first time in a couple of years. And when I see the sort of nonsense around points for results in formats to make something more interesting because the game has been so damaged, I wonder why I should be bothered. I’m away for the second and third tests in May/June and I’m not even bothered to find out how I might catch up with them.
And then I read Jomesy’s comment. And I know why I do what I do. The community we have here is worth persevering with. The fact he’d put his thoughts on here like that is immensely touching. It gives the lie to the criticism that this blog is a one trick pony. It is chock full of people who deeply love the sport and feel betrayed by the past two years. Betrayal is a strong emotion. You need to care to be betrayed. You need to give of your soul to be betrayed. And when it happens, the corrosion of your soul from the betrayal is worse than the act itself. One day these people might understand what they did. Evocations to “get behind the lads” fall on reasonably deaf ears. Yes, it is only a sport, but no, it isn’t just a sport.
But let me get something clear. Here’s why I use a pseudonym. I wrote this in one of my aborted pieces:
I’m exhausted. You’ve probably already gathered that. It’s a really long run, and I’m knackered. There are times this week I’ve thought I’ve nothing left to give.
I’m an emotional kind of person. Wear my heart on my sleeve. You could say that I can dish it out but not take it. I’d say you were wrong. When emotions pile on top of each other, and when you know there’s a breaking point imminent, you have to take action.
I started blogging in 2006. It was on Blogspot. It was a general thing, talking about life in general, politics, my less developed views on certain issues that I wince at now, and my main passions in life. My football team, Boston Red Sox and cricket. I started it because I loved to write, and thought of it as an online diary. I still feel it was some of my best writing.
2006 was a time of huge change in my life. My parents, as you might know, died within 9 months of each other. Losing one was an immense shock. My mum was amazing, and the sort you thought would go on forever. Then my dad also passed away, and I was left with no-one other than a brother with a family to help me through those times at home. A brother grieving himself. My future wife was not on the scene. In short, once away from friends and colleagues I was alone. So I needed to fill the time. So I blogged.
Then came the problems of 2008 when I was threatened. I’d written an article about an issue involving my football club’s supporters (it was an election) where I’d pointed out, with evidence, a candidate’s unsuitability, in my opinion, for the role. For that, I was threatened. I wasn’t anonymous. People knew me, knew my face. That wasn’t comfortable. So I was faced with a choice. Fight or flight. I took the latter and closed the blog. I avoided confrontation.
In some ways the problems were that I was betrayed by someone who read my blog (I got 5 hits a day tops and was for my mates more than anything) and grassed me up. You wonder why I reacted the way I did to someone earlier in the year? That’s beyond the pale.
So you wonder why I post under a pseudonym? Experience. I’ve met plenty on the blog who know my name. I am in e-mail contact with a few more who certainly know my first name. I started a new blog, new pseudonym and the one that lasts until today.
Just saying to me “don’t be bothered by these people” is not going to work. You are who you are. Jomesy puts that in true perspective.
One thing I am sure about is that there will be something. There always is. Maybe I’ll finish this piece:
The Marvellous, Mad Month of May 2015
I always said I’d do a blog review of the events of last May. It was an absolutely nonsensical month, if truth be told. It started, on the first of the month no less, with Alastair Cook finally making that elusive test hundred. And there was much rejoicing in his heartlands, and much braying at the naysayers (who weren’t wrong, you know). A couple of days later and England had spewed up a test match and given away a series win to a frankly mediocre West Indies team. Instead of looking at the disastrous performance, journalists were telling us to “look over there” at Colin Graves’s statement before the series. A few weeks later Australia went over there and tore the home team apart. But we won the Ashes, so no-one remotely cared.
Meanwhile, in the wake of Paul Downton’s dismissal, there were manoeuvrings afoot on the new appointment of a Director of England Cricket. For all intents and purposes it came down to three men. The establishment candidate in Andrew Strauss, virtually offered Downton’s role a couple of years ago, but who honed his skills in the Sky Commentary Box, most notably in the wondrous ability to call someone a “c***” and have the press think it great. Then there was rent-a-gob Michael Vaughan, at one point the nailed on favourite until he seemed to realise that he couldn’t have it all ways like he has now. He started to beat the retreat early in the process. We might have known then that it was for Strauss, and Strauss alone. Finally there was Alec Stewart. He’d been doing the job for Surrey (not brilliantly, but he inherited a hell of a mess), was an England stalwart, had not too great a distance from today’s players and was highly respected. The fear with him was that he might want the man with those initials back, and that he’d very publicly supported him in the Genius Twitter affair.
I knew it would be Strauss. He was born to this role. A man who loves management theories, who has his own consultancy, and who was putting his ducks in a row to get it. When it was leaked, of course, in advance of a formal appointment, it wasn’t a shock. What followed the leak was.
Meanwhile, back in England, Kevin Pietersen was making waves. After Colin Graves’s statement that KP couldn’t get picked for England if he wasn’t playing county cricket, serial dunce and naive KP jacked in his beloved IPL for a shot at getting back into the team. He signed on with Surrey and had already hit a massive ton against the University (Chris Stocks…I still remember that tweet) and the world went mad. His early form wasn’t world-beating but something was around the corner. Something very, very big.
Also there was a tide of consternation around Peter Moores. A horrendous World Cup and an inauspicious tour of the West Indies left him with fewer supporters. However, despite things look ing bleak in hindsight, there wasn’t a thought that we were serious about getting rid of the “best coach of his generation” a year after he was appointed. However, in hindsight again, it was obvious. The key decision makers, Downton and Clarke, were both gone – one sacked, the other booted abroad. Strauss was reported to be one of those unimpressed by Moores in his first go around, but conveniently allowed KP to blow his own head off and assume the captaincy as a result (I’m sure Moores being coach during the only time Strauss was dropped had nothing to do with it).
I was in the States when it all kicked off. England were playing another rain-interrupted ODI against Ireland when rumours went around the ground that Moores had been fired. As we’ve won the Ashes and the South Africa series all this nonsense has been forgotten, but Strauss got off to a brilliant start. Before a formal announcement he had the job, he’d sacked a coach, had the decision leaked, and while I was no fan of Peter Moores, even I felt this was truly wretched stuff. A dead man walking, he conducted himself with dignity and honour, two traits we never doubted in him, and the ECB, frankly, looked like the lovely word Strauss had used against KP.
However what happened the following weekend would top that. Surrey commenced their fixture against Leicestershire on the Sunday, and Surrey had bowled out Leicestershire for 292 and were 105 for 2 in reply – KP was on 35 not out. The Monday saw the heavens open in terms of runs for the former England batsman. As I journeyed up and down the Garden State Parkway, following the scores on my limited mobile package, KP passed 100, then 200 and ended up 326 not out at the end of the day. A message? Some message. An irresistible reminder of the talent. The next best score in that innings? 36 by Sangakkara.
Some were ready to say it “was only Leicestershire”. They looked daft. This was the reminder that this man was still the best in this country to bat alongside Root in our middle order. “There are no vacancies” was the call. It wouldn’t be long before there were.
Which is where I stopped! Maybe I’ll start again…
And then there’s my excerpt from “Hillsborough”
To go forward to 1989 and how a Millwall fan ended up at Hillsborough. My mate at Uni, called Jon, knew a Nottingham Forest director. We were on Easter leave when he gave me a call and told me we had tickets for the Semi courtesy of the. This would be the biggest match I’d ever been to. I had a bit of a cold, and finished my temporary work assignment a couple of days early and drove up to Liverpool in my little Vauxhall Nova on the Friday. We were to take two others over the Pennines with us. One writes a fair bit on Liverpool now (Rob Guttman) and Jon and Rob’s mate Julio. Rob had a seat, Julio had a terrace ticket. We discussed what time to leave in the pub. We thought there’d be a bit of traffic but estimated it to be 2 and a half hours to Sheffield. I suggested 8:30, picking the other two up shortly after.
It was a nice Saturday morning, and the Brown Bomber that was my Nova set off from Sandown Lane in Wavertree. Our house had a pub on the other side of the narrow road, The Edinburgh, and was yet another example of the locals taking to us because we just wanted to blend in. Lovely people, full of reds. We passed the pub, picked up our two Liverpool fans and took the M62 out of Liverpool.
As we drove around Manchester we started encountering traffic, which was pretty bad. Suddenly the 2 and a half hour drive looked to be one that would be nearer 4. I’m one of those who left super early for football matches, accounting for traffic. Many don’t. It’s always been a question of mine that there might have been a few people caught up in that, but it’s conjecture.
The mood was one of excitement, of course. The FA Cup was massive then. We drove over the Pennines (pretty sure it was Woodhead) and came from the north into Sheffield. I remember we parked in a side road up the hill from the ground. It was the third time I’d been to Hillsborough so it wasn’t new to me. But it would be the first time in the home end. We said cheerio to our Liverpool fan colleagues, and Jon and I walked around to the Kop. I passed a pub, which was full, with fans having a drink before the game, but really, that was nothing odd.
I walked down the main road to the Kop and thought it really odd. There wasn’t the throng of people I was used to in big matches. I produced the ticket, went through the turnstiles, walked up the steps, and we went to the top, and looked out. And I will never forget my first words “where on earth are all the Liverpool fans?”. The two pens in the middle were reasonably full, but those on the side were nigh on empty. It was around 2pm.
There’s the issue folks. I can’t finish pieces at the moment. Maybe these 2000 or so words can fill the void.
I’m not going to list the fixtures – what’s the point – so you can comment on any of the games, any of the press comments, and anything else that comes up.
I’ve seen a copy of the latest annual accounts from the ECB. They are pretty opaque, which is normal for most companies, but there is still some interesting stuff. Most importantly, turnover was £133m in 2015, which was an Ashes Summer, but this was £40m less than the previous summer when we had India.I think in one cool statistic you can see how much the financial impact of an Indian tour really is. It also begs the question that if you barely scrape a profit when the sun is shining on an Ashes tour, how much will turnover be for this year’s series and will it cover the cost of sales?
Also, the leading pay for a director is £340k. I’m guessing that’s Tom Harrison. There are no mentions of pay-offs for Downton and Moores, nothing on Giles’s expenses and on the value of contracts for the players.
As those of you who follow Chris and I on Twitter might know, we met for a drink with Lawrence Booth last night – he called me by real name, Peter, all night as calling me Dmitri would have been stupid. This means my anonymity, my pseudonym, is now compromised! Seriously, it was a nice evening, we had some good exchanges of views and I reckon that 5% of it might have been on “my obsession”. We all got something out of the evening, and although we had a chat on a basis of not sharing personal views on line – and I’ll stick to that – the one thing that rang clear is that this blog has a place and is widely read. And that includes the comments. So thank you to all for that. You made it get noticed.
Still not decided about tomorrow and Surrey v Durham. Head hurts today!
It’s really quite difficult at the moment to think about what to write. Even the tedious Twitter bores, one of who called me “a KP groupie” yesterday are not exactly getting the fire in me going. In short, we are in calmer times, the world seems a much smoother place in terms of cricket, and thus blogging is a little bit sparser. I mean, what could I write that gets you to respond and energised when I don’t feel that way myself?
But let’s have a quick chat about the last week. I think the most important story is that of the ECB’s chosen man, El Presidente for Life, Giles Clarke having that charming effect on his international colleagues. They ran away from him faster than Usain in an Olympic 100 metres final when his patron, the love Srini, was booted out of his roles in the BCCI reshuffle. That the individual governing bodies saw what we’ve known for years is not surprising (that it took that long is probably testament to how the Indian authority pervades the sport like a genial mafia don) but for some reason I don’t feel like cheering.
Because one by one our source material is being eroded away. There’s no Paul Downton, who is the patron saint of BOC in my eyes. There’s no Peter Moores, a decent man but really not a shocker that he wouldn’t cut it again in the top job, yet those in the media who sang his praises still tell us we know nothing. But even they are disappearing one by one. There’s no Derek Pringle in the mainstream press, the Indy’s newspaper presence has gone and so has Bunkers, which leaves us just Newman and Selfey of the four horsemanures of the Cricket Pops. With Clarke going too, what are we to do, except to say, god, we were wrong about that lot weren’t we, us bilious inadequate, know-nothing KP groupies?
The question for the ECB now needs to be what we do with Giles now his one aim for remaining, to become ICC President (or whatever), has gone. His presence is an utter embarrassment to us all. The backer of the big three takeover, he now stands alone from that unholy trinity and yet the ECB would rather ignore this. They don’t have the balls to stand up to him, instead focusing more on making sure the right messages are coming out over social media, as County Championship Live on Twitter seems to be falling over itself to buff up our beloved skipper. But Clarke remains a polarising figure. Loathed by the majority in the cricket-loving fanbase, be it pro- or anti- the other focus of opinion, Clarke seems to have the skin of a rhino.
I can get angry at him staying, but that’s almost like being angry at a pantomime villain now. We await what the ICC does in the near future, but everyone who speaks about it seems to say this is a bright new era of world governance. Only there’s not a lot coming out except Giles being rejected. In a world where England cricket needs to build bridges and maybe show a little humility, there is no place for Giles Clarke. Let’s see how our board cope with that.
I didn’t feel like commenting on the issue of Cook’s headgear. This seemed like a peculiar story, raised because our captain wasn’t playing with a helmet meeting our domestic standards, and then morphing into a story that showed Cook to be either a stubborn man or one who thought he could defy his own board and being bigger than their rules. I think it is the former rather than the latter, a man for who having the right things in the right place, and being used to certain set-ups is crucial, but there are good reasons to believe it COULD be the second one. This blogger is not about to set up the Alastair Cook Fan Club, that is for sure, but this story got right out of hand. It truly jumped the shark when Ian Botham, in a pathetic outburst, said it was “political correctness gone mad”. He’s entitled to his views, boring as I find them on cricket, but that’s just utter shite. If you are going to get your retired colonel schtick correct, it should be “health and safety gone mad”. Boycott saying the game has gone “cissy” is also just as stupid. Sometimes I weep. I really do.
The piece Chris put together on the IPL really did hit the spot. I’ve tried to be interested but it doesn’t work for me. In the whole scheme of things that doesn’t matter, because it is the Indian audience that needs to be excited, not me. They seem to still care about it, the players genuinely appear to like playing in it, and that’s probably going to trump everything. That most games seem to be won by the team chasing also appears to be a concern, because when sport becomes predictable it loses excitement. Then when excitement goes, people might be less inclined to watch. The odd Kohli hundred isn’t going to make up for that. We’ll probably be saying this about the IPL in 10 years time, so to spend too much time on it is probably counter-productive.
Of course, I am, or was, following KP’s progress in the IPL. It’s one of the rare chances we get to see him in this country, and yet again he has had injury problems to curtail his participation. To those who think that this is obsession, if I am guilty of wanting to watch the finest player I have seen for England in the past ten or so years, then I’m guilty of obsession. But not as guilty as someone who goes out of their way to criticise anyone who dare praise him, and fill their timeline up with their obsession! I was pleasantly surprised we didn’t see too much gloating, but THEREALTRUTH on the Mail covers it nicely..
No problem for the “EGO” no doubt the DM will soon carry an article written for the “EGO” TO THE EFFECT THAT HE THINKS HE BATS BETTER ON ONE LEG than the whole of the current England top order put together. Delusion cannot be cured !
Delusion. There’s great mirrors in your house….look in one for evidence of delusion.
I am still waiting for the publication of the 2016 Accounts for the ECB. Last year the Company Secretary (Brian Havill, who left on 18 November 2015) and Auditor statements were signed on 9 April 2015. Last year they were formally filed on 24 April. It’s now the 25th of the corresponding month and there is no sign on the ECB’s website and the other data repositories I can go to, but they must be imminent. Why am I interested? Because I’m a nerd, and I can’t wait to see how they compensate certain individuals for “loss of office” (£192k last year, and this appeared to be, though I can’t confirm it, David Collier). The interesting thing is that Havill doesn’t appear to have been replaced (there’s no formal notification on data sources) as Company Secretary. Does make you wonder what happened there! Once I get a copy, I’ll have a sweep through and see what I can see.
Lovely to see Kumar make a big one for Surrey yesterday. It’s a wonder he could communicate so well with his partners in major partnerships when he can “barely speak English” but do remember, the bile and vitriol is all our side. Interesting to see Daniel Bell-Drummond make a ton for Kent on what looks like a wicket doing something for the bowlers. I find those who make centuries when all about them are falling are a lot more valuable than the flat trackbullying. Bell-Drummond is local to me (indeed, I do believe I might have played against him when he was a kid) and been mentioned a few times as one for the future. I have a little local bias here, even though he plays for the wrong mob. Also going to be following Dan Lawrence, who looks to have a great future ahead of him, as he’s 44 not out overnight, and at 18 definitely one to watch.
I’d like to thank the commenter (Fred?) who linked the Geoff Knox piece on the Day Night test. There’s a whole epic post in me on sport and money but this seems like a good place to start. Players apparently bought off to say everything in the garden is rosy and do the board’s bidding? Poor sight for spectators? People drifting away early? We weren’t told this at the time. Infantilising your “customers” is so symptomatic of the world we live in. Media management is more important than letting opinions out. It’s because we are too soft to take the truth, and dish it out. The reason people question motives, and think we all have an agenda, is because of these insidious techniques. You only have to look at how Maxie was questioned because he’d worked with Piers Morgan. I’ve been called a Piers Morgan front despite hating the man. We live in a world where managing the message is more important than the message itself. I’m just a blogger, writing what comes into his mind. I have no ulterior motive, I speak what I believe, open to hear counter-arguments (not abuse) and perfectly happy to admit I’m wrong when proven to be so. I’m not managing media or messages, other than moderating some small things. I’ve always felt my heart is in the right place.
Mark Wood’s career is on hold as what appears to be a farcical approach to his injury has meant that the poor bloke has been rehabbing for months to get over a temporary fix in his injury, only for the injury to get worse and another, more permanent fix put in place. That’s how I understand it. Sadly this has been the way with England for too long. While they sort of got away with it for Stuart Broad and James Anderson, they didn’t with others. I often recall Andy Flintoff’s injuries being prescribed “rest” as a cure, only for him to rest, rehab and then break down again, meaning operations. KP almost had his career ended by an Achilles injury. Matt Prior played on with one, and had his career ended. We play too much international cricket, and players will also chase the big pay cheques. There’s no end to this in sight, so protecting them is key. Best wishes to Wood in his recovery.
This should help move things on for a bit, and hopefully there will be some stuff up later in the week. Or earlier.
Let me leave you with some mirth. Someone actually wrote these two tweets to me:
“Apologies for challenging your restricted abilities. If you wish to limit yourself then I suggest you use your privacy settings”
But instead of heeding my request not to tweet me, I got this absolutely glorious addition:
“Read Wisden thought you were a serious commentator on cricket. Just read your blogg (sic), Didn’t realise you were just a KP groupie.”
This from the same person (not, I’ve been advised, a bloke – my bad for assuming that) who compared KP appearing as a pundit on England cricket to Jimmy Savile appearing at a kid’s party. I do get ‘em. Humility, intelligence, rationality and perspective. Fancy calling me a “serious commentator”? These people really must think I have the ego the size of an aircraft hangar.
While not quite as fierce as the first open thread, the second certainly had its moments, although not many of them were related to the actual cricket going on – though some posted in their match reports or views and they are most welcome.
So far a lot of the attention has been on the high scores for April and the proliferation of double hundreds. Ben Duckett’s 282 not out against Sussex on the opening week was joined by three first division double centuries – Jonny Bairstow making 246 against Hampshire, Sam Robson making 231 (and 106) against Warwickshire and Jonathan Trott compling an unbeaten 219 in the same match. There may be some concern that this “no-toss” rule isn’t providing spinning tracks, but roads. It’s a small sample size thus far (and I remember plenty of early season games at The Oval with large scores) but the portents are that the rampant green tops aren’t in evidence. It’s early.
This week’s matches are as follows:
Division One
Durham v Middlesex
Surrey v Somerset
Warwickshire v Yorkshire
Division Two
Derbyshire v Glamorgan
Essex v Northants
Gloucestershire v Worcestershire
Leiestershire v Kent
If anyone is remotely interested I’m thinking about going to Day 1 of the Surrey v Durham game next week, and more firmly, the first day of Surrey v Middlesex on 15 May.
Meanwhile, the IPL keeps churning along, spewing out fixture after fixture. I tried to get into it with the early matches, but I sort of share thelegglance’s attitude towards it. The content, thus far, hasn’t been gripping and emotional investment, certainly outside of India, is always going to be tough. It becomes a thin line between top class sport and exhibition stuff. Just an impression, but some of the intensity on the field isn’t there. But let’s keep an eye on it with this week’s matches:
23 April – Delhi v Mumbai
23 April – Sunrisers v Kings XI
24 April – Gujarat v Bangalore
24 April – Pune v Kolkata
25 April – Kings XI v Mumbai
26 April – Sunrisers v Pune
27 April – Delhi v Gujarat
28 April – Mumbai v Kolkata
29 April – Pune v Gujarat
Of course, with today’s IPL season-ending injury to KP, I’m even less interested in it than before.
There’s been a bit to talk about this week. The punts on Nick Browne (second division runs, eh) and James Vince in Newman’s article were very interesting. There’s the foiling of Giles Clarke’s ambitions, but even so, the brave old ECB will leave him on that unpaid gravy train for a while yet, and then there’s the boring crap about the helmet. Lord, it was a good story by Lizzie, but hell on earth, what a fuss.
Do you remember that terrible furore when one of our number said that the only way that the English medical team would learn is if one of our fast bowler’s career ended due to their mis-diagnosis or willingness to play with injections? Well, he put it a little less subtle manner and the you know what hit the fan. Now Strauss wants answers over Wood? I do hope that penny is finally dropping. Good luck Mark Wood on your recovery. I want to see you back when you are fit and ready, and as pain-free as possible.
Anyway, fire away on here. I would ask you to respect the conditions regarding the blog. I’ve let a lot of the semi-political stuff go. I really don’t like it, but I can’t be the dreaded censor. I just really don’t have the time.
The Wisden dinner is this evening (no, I’m not going – so we’ll have to wait to hear how The Odious Giles Clarke will disgrace himself this year) in advance of the Almanack’s publication tomorrow. Snippets have been released to the media already, such as the announcement of the five Cricketers of the Year, namely Ben Stokes, Jonny Bairstow, Steve Smith, Brendon McCullum and Kane Williamson. As ever, players can only be listed once as has always been the case, which doesn’t stop the annual complaints about the exclusion of someone who has been awarded it before.
The Telegraph appears to have the exclusive extracts in advance of publication (no favouritism to the Mail it seems) including Stuart Broad talking about his Trent Bridge spell to demolish Australia and the piece about Steve Smith being named as one of the five.
The main editorial calls England’s transformation “the most uplifting story in international cricket of the year” while noting that it began with “Forget leather on willow. The sound of the English game in early 2015 was palm on forehead.”
There is also a note that the Big Three influence on world cricket may be waning, well let’s see about that – there is some good news there certainly but it is far too early to celebrate.
I know some on here eagerly go out and buy a copy the instant it is available, so more will be added as we find out about it.
A small aside for housekeeping. This blog went through half a million hits this morning. Not too shabby for a bunch of outsiders.
Rather shocking news this morning that James Taylor has been forced to retire following the diagnosis of a serious heart condition – Arrhythmogenic Right Ventricular Arrhythmia, or ARVC.
It is both shocking and saddening to hear that James’ career has been cut short in such a sudden and unexpected manner.
“Throughout his career, he has constantly impressed with his determination to make the absolute most of his ability, and it is immensely cruel that such a hard working player will be unable to fulfil his great potential in the international arena. The ECB will work closely with Nottinghamshire and together we will do everything possible to help James through this difficult period, and aid him in his recovery.” – Andrew Strauss
“Myself and all of James’ teammates and colleagues are terribly sad to hear this news, which comes as a big shock to us all. He is a model professional, the most hard working I’ve ever known in cricket, making it all the more difficult to accept that his career has been cut short in this way. It goes without saying that he has the very best wishes of us all in terms of recovering from his operation, and that we are looking forward to seeing him back at Trent Bridge when he is fit and able,” – Mick Newell
All we can do is wish him well and be relieved that at least it has been discovered and can be treated. Professional sports men and women have been screened to a much greater extent than was the case in the past, and for that we can be thankful.
Safe to say this has been the toughest week of my life! My world is upside down. But I'm here to stay and I'm battling on! #lifestooshort 😝🤒
Note – there is another post published last night below this on county cricket so read that if interested too.
Today is Downton Assassination Day. On 8 April 2015, Tom Harrison announced a restructuring of the ECB top brass and our man Downton was gone. Assassination sounds too harsh. I kind of appreciated him. Without Rupe, I wouldn’t have had much to write. Without Rupe, we wouldn’t have a title for this blog. We owe him much.
It is worth sparing a thought for the man, a great appointment, full of aplomb, and a titan in an era when we needed one. Lauded as “great behind the scenes” at the start of his wondrous reign, we will all remember the wondrous interview with Aggers (winding up with me getting a threatening Tweet from an Aggers fanboy), the “something must be done” stuff with Cook and Warne and then the will he be skipper stuff in Sri Lanka. Then came our favourite interview when he tried to get ahead of the World Cup elimination.
On this sad day let us be reminded of an article that bade him farewell. From the man who anointed him with aplomb on the day of his first public announcements..
Despite his 30 Test caps, his part in an Ashes-winning campaign and durable playing career, as well as being a thoroughly affable chap, Paul Downton will go down in cricket history for one thing. He is The Man Who Sacked Kevin Pietersen.
“A thoroughly affable chap”. There you have it peeps. That’s what it takes.
That will be his legacy as it was his curse during his short time as managing director of England cricket. He took what was a brave, perhaps necessary, decision within days of officially starting in the job last year and it came to stalk him wherever he went and whatever he did.
Because he never explained why. Lawyers or something. Disconnected or something. 10000 runs as an ambition or something. Fielding at fine leg or something.
Perhaps it came to affect his own outlook. Downton could barely emerge from his office without being asked about Pietersen and was never quite able to offer definitive reasons. On the occasion he did, he was lambasted for breaching confidentiality agreements.
It really is / was reprehensible for the paying public to demand an answer. Especially when the media weren’t exactly falling over themselves to find out.
As the months wore on, it became increasingly clear that Downton, while he had a deep love for the game, was out of touch with its modern version. He recognised that England were playing an outdated brand of one-day cricket but never quite detailed how he might change it.
It took a genius, after that World Cup, and that build up to recognise change was needed. Also he had a deep love for the game is a baseline requirement, not some special trait.
In his last public utterances, he was confident and measured until the name of Pietersen was mentioned, when he virtually seized up. It is not without irony that he should have said: “I’m not saying everybody’s job is safe and I’m not saying that everybody is going to be sacked. It feels as though, from your perspective [the media’s], there needs to be a scapegoat. There needs to be a target.
Said the man who scapegoated someone after an Ashes whitewash. I wonder why he had to go.
“All I’m saying is we’re in a position where we’re a transitioning side and that will take time. We have to take the right decisions to ensure we do that as quickly and smoothly as we can. But it’s too early to say yet in terms of any definitives: he’s going or he’s not going.”
Confident and measured said the scribe. I’d say this indicates a frazzled mind and someone without a clue.
The article went on. The link is at the end.
Downton provided this blog with a ton of ammunition because he was out of his depth from Day One. We said it here and on HDWLIA. The press didn’t. Remember that. Some of the press were incredibly sceptical of the appointment of Moores, so at that point they might have been thinking there were doubts with the man making the decision, but they didn’t show it. Far more important to them was the grandiose decision, the “taking the bull by the horns” act of scapegoating Pietersen and yes, it did define him. In the process the ECB showed contempt for the fans, and the press showed contempt for their audience. They hoped they’d get away with it, and they probably have. But Downton is the main symbol of their approach. Sure, it’s a little unfair to pile it all on Downton, but he was their lightning rod, and he got the strikes. He was the first one truly jettisoned, and yet he did the ECB proud in disposing with you-know-who.
Now we await the ECB accounts to see how much he was paid off. For failure. They are due soon.
TLG and I have full-time jobs and other things we need to do over and above this blog. This means that we put a great deal of trust in you to do the right thing in the comments because we can’t monitor 24/7. We don’t set rules or parameters, we aren’t a newspaper or a paid-for or getting paid to do blog. We’re a couple of blokes with something to say. If we spot something that we think goes beyond what we think is acceptable in the comments, then we moderate (often to decide whether to allow or not). That we’ve had to do so on such an infrequent basis is testament to you, but we also know feelings run high.
If you have a complaint on anything you’ve read that you think is beyond acceptable, and it remains, please e-mail me on dmitriold@hotmail.co.uk or if you follow me on Twitter, tweet me (@dmitriold ) .
With that out of the way, I thought I’d usher in the start of the county cricket season with a little piece on our domestic game.
Chesterfield 2008
The subject of county cricket is really one of those that can never be solved. I had a go at this Schleswig Holsteinshire and if anything, in the light of the comments from Russell Degnan, I’ve probably hardened in that view. I don’t think the will exists, or the solution apparent, that will give us the perfect domestic structure on which to go forward. There are many out there, many county members, who do not give a flying one about international cricket. They don’t all reside in Yorkshire either. It struck me in my time as a member at Surrey how little the membership cared about their players reaching international honours. “county cricket does not exist to fill the England team” was a very common remark.
County cricket is increasingly becoming like exclusive art galleries. It may be of substantial aesthetic value, of increasing nostalgic value as it ages, and available only if you are really committed to it, and that may be the problem. No-one is advocating demolishing old institutions and starting again, but we live in an age where a repackage here, a new broom there, can create something from nothing. After all, our top division was always the envy of Europe (with the possible exception of Italy) in the 80s and early 90s, but repackaging as the Premier League, giving clubs a few more quid, and lo and behold, the whole projection has changed. Despite the product sagging a little in the past few years, it’s still iconic enough to get the largest TV deal in UK sporting history by a distance. All the time this method, of buffering and repackaging, as Mark calls it “making it an event” tempts other sports. Rugby Union and Rugby League went through a revolution, with Heineken Cups and league play introduced to Union, and SuperLeague in Rugby League. The PGA Tour in golf has inhaled every other tour, so that there is now one source of the highest quality golf. Tennis had been a pioneer in this, with the ATP and WTA Tours. Of course, the inspiration for many sports now is the NFL. The Champions League is desperate to bill its annual football final as the Superbowl of football. The problem with that is that in every year ending in an even number, there’s arguably a much bigger game being played less than six weeks later!
So English domestic cricket stands still. And is there anything inherently wrong in that? It depends on how you “consume” it, maybe?
Some out there on this blog do not bow down and worship to the current county cricket structure. For the purposes of this I’m leaving out the T20 debate for now as that’s separate. From my standpoint there’s not a lot of emotional investment in it. I can compare my feelings for sports teams across the sports – my club loyalties are Millwall, Boston Red Sox, Miami Dolphins, Chicago Bulls, Wigan Warriors, and, of course, whichever T20 team KP plays for!!!! Surrey are on a par with my rugby league favourites. I like it when they win, don’t get too bothered when they don’t.
The great Surrey team of the 1999-2004 era, roughly, coincided with the time I was a member. I got to see some great cricket, with the common thread for much of my enjoyment being Ally Brown, Adam Hollioake, Saqlain Mushtaq, Martin Bicknell and for the second half, the imperious Mark Ramprakash. It was a golden time to watch them and I thoroughly enjoyed my days out. I was actually committing myself to watch them even more in 2005, my penultimate year as a member, but that came to an abrupt halt when my mum was diagnosed with cancer. I’d seen a few days of the initial games, got down to T-Wells as well, but things were to take a bad turn.
Tunbridge Wells
The other thing that kept the interest in the County Championship was our annual Fantasy Cricket competition, based on the scoring system that was developed by Fantasy Football. There it was – one point for ever twenty runs, five bonus points for a hundred, minus one for any non-bowler for a score under 10, -2 for anyone at all who was dismissed for 0, one point for a catch, two for a stumping, two points for a wicket, five point bonus for five wickets, minus one for ever 20 runs conceded. Got all that? Teletext and the internet were on overload in the glory days. Legendary pick-ups like Mike Hussey (when no-one knew who he was) got our pub discussions going – Joe Scuderi was legendary for other reasons. Now I doubt I could get four people interested in this – in those days we had leagues of nine or ten! It did mean that team news was gobbled up, any snippets we could get on the wires eagerly awaited, and scorecards followed assiduously. Once the league died in 2008 (I ran it after a succession of others – we had a few people leave work, so got tougher to arrange) county cricket wasn’t an obsession. (I recall another notable thing from the latter days of that competition was I had to get squads and try to classify the players. One Kevin Pietersen in his first season was classed as a bowler in my annual player list. Imagine the glee of my colleague when he had immunity for scores under 10 for a prime batsman, Fantasy cricket was a batsman’s game, and KP racked up double hundreds while sitting at 11 in his batting order! Bastard).
Now how do I see County Championship cricket? A decent day out with mates might be the best answer. Last year I went to Surrey v Derbyshire on a rain-affected day, which was memorable for meeting Benny, and then had a terrific day at Lord’s for Day 3 of the Middlesex v Yorkshire game where I saw Toby Roland-Jones make his maiden hundred, and got the chance to meet Mr Declaration Game and Mr Tim Wigmore. These days out, especially if we get lucky with the weather, are relaxing, get me away from work, and generally end in great days out with my good mates. The cricket, frequently, matters only when I’m behind the camera. That’s a bit harsh, actually, because I remember snapping away at Surrey v Middlesex through the zoom on the lens, and watching the mastery of Hashim Amla on a raging turner a few years back. That sort of thing isn’t too common, though.
Too often, county cricket is used by some as some sort of badge of honour, a kind of haughtiness ensues when people discuss it. “Oh, don’t spoil our discussion on the merits of [insert jobbing county pro] with your international cricket stuff. I’m just not interested.” Fine, if that’s your boat, set up a county cricket discussion board of your own. I was warned off this early in my enhanced blogging career (2014) by nonoxcol, when I made the mistake of trying to bring some ECB issue into a county discussion. In my opinion this is part of the problem with the county structures and the long-form of the game. There’s too much inherent snobbery in it. I used to say that when the Beautiful South wrote a song, I thought they’d finish it, and congratulate themselves on how clever they were. That’s the impression I get of a number of county cricket fans. By no means all – I’ve had some great conversations with total strangers at county matches – but if you go to games, and read about them, you get the picture.
It’s easy to like the county championship. It’s relatively cheap – £15-£20 to watch decent quality stuff and the ability not to be held hostage by the catering arrangements at international and T20 games is really pretty OK. I like the peaceful atmosphere at The Oval and Lord’s on a working day, amidst the hubbub of the massive metropolis. It’s soothing and makes you feel light years away from your office, when it is really only a short bus ride away. Then there’s going to Guilldford, or T-Wells, or Chelmsford, or Arundel as we have over the past few years (not forgetting Whitgift and Southgate) and being a little more up close and personal – seeing KP at Whitgift, Ricky Ponting at Arundel and Shane Warne at Southgate is just something else – which is a great day out. I’m looking to get down to Hove for the first time in 39 years this summer, for example. But this is about my personal enjoyment, not really an emotional investment in a competition or two.
That’s not sustainable as a business model. It never will be, so why try? It might just be time to accept that the County Championship is like it is, because that is what it is. An anachronism, never likely to be self-funding, always likely to be a compromise, and more likely to become skewed to the haves rather than the have nots. I just request that those who love it, cherish it and breathe it don’t act as if they are some higher power, someone sent from the Gods of Cricket to save the international fans from themselves, while also hoping and praying that those newly-retired or ensconced in press boxes don’t bite the hand that fed them and disparage it at every turn.
Whitgift
But what do you think? I notice when I write about the domestic game in the UK there’s a rather lukewarm response. I know this blog has an international audience, but the majority of hits and comments are from the UK. Have a say. Speak up. Say what you think.
Predictions? Can’t see past Yorkshire, Warwickshire might run them close, not sure Middlesex can repeat what they did last year, can’t see my mob pulling up any trees. I start off with good intentions to go to watch it, but only go on very few occasions.
We have a trial type of post coming up related to this. Stay tuned.
Being Outside Cricket 