I have a confession to make. I am madly in love with the wonderful game of cricket!
Cricket is in the blood, as I come from a family that lived and breathed the game. Though I have no knowledge of my granddad’s playing days, both my dad and uncle played Birmingham League cricket; indeed my uncle was offered professional terms by Warwickshire County Cricket Club in the early 1960’s. He was in the same colts team as one of my cricket heroes, Dennis Amiss, who went on to play many times for England. As for my uncle, you must remember that cricket was poorly paid in those days and he chose to play part time and work at Austin Rover as it was named in those days. My mum used to be scorer for my dad’s team, Hopwood CC, so the game was in the blood from an early age. As for my own cricket prowess, unfortunately I was average at best and, despite playing village cricket, I wouldn’t cut it professionally.
In 1976 I was transfixed by the brilliant West Indies team that toured England and swept all before them. The combination of quick hostile bowling, added to some glorious batting was a joy to behold. To this day Sir Vivian Richards remains my all-time favourite player; indeed during that long hot summer I begged my mum to take me to Edgbaston to see this magical side play against my home county of Warwickshire. What a treat it was too as I saw two majestic innings from Lawrence Rowe and captain Clive Lloyd. If you add to that the incredible atmosphere of the West Indian fans, at nine years of age it was a day I was never going to forget. That particular day Bob Willis took six wickets for Warwickshire and bowled himself into the England side, where he had a sparkling career.
On the face of it, cricket just should not work. The idea of playing two hours then stopping for lunch, playing another two hours then stopping for a cup of tea, followed by a final two hours is ridiculous to the non-cricket fan. Americans in particular just don’t see the appeal, especially when told that a game can last five days and still be drawn. The game is fast spreading worldwide, although it is mainly still played in the old British Commonwealth. Ireland and Holland in particular have a flourishing game and have big ambitions for being ICC full members in years to come, so the old guard may soon be changing.
The growing popularity of the sport brings problems however. Only in England and to a certain extent Australia and South Africa is test cricket still the most popular form of the game. England in particular regularly sell out test matches and the Saturday fancy dress day in the crowd is something to behold. Obviously The Ashes series’ between England and Australia will survive forever more despite the onset of the hugely popular T20 form of the game.
Twenty 20 cricket sadly is taking over from test cricket in the sub-continent especially. Players can now make a fortune by playing six weeks in the IPL or any big T20 tournament around the world. The problem is that players are now turning their backs on their countries to earn fortunes in these leagues and, to a certain extent, you can’t blame them. As a traditionalist, I am not a fan of T20 cricket and test cricket is in mortal danger. The other major problem is the betting syndicates that are encouraging players to take part in match fixing and there have been a number of high profile cases in recent years. The ICC really have an impossible job to police it and sadly the game is gaining a bad reputation.
For me, test cricket will always be the best form of the game. T20 is here to stay and the authorities need to find windows in the calendar to play these tournaments. Otherwise the spirit of a wonderful game will be lost forever!
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