HAS English cricket lost its soul?

Sep 17 2009 by Brian Halford, Birmingham Mail

Has its chaotic evolution in the last decade – the removal of top players from county cricket, the subservience of the county game to the national team, the obsession with money, the sell-out to Sky – cost the game its essence? Its lovable, unique, ancient charm. Yes, its very soul.

Or does that soul, that integrity and warmth, still beat strong?

I can offer recent evidence supporting both points of view.

First, the prosecution. To support the theory that English cricket has indeed ‘lost it’, I pass on, in its entirety – for that is the only way to fully appreciate its ludicrousness – a media release recently issued by the England and Wales Cricket Board.

Headlined, ‘ICC heralded ECB for setting a new benchmark for World Twenty20 events’ (sic) it read:

“The ICC have heralded the ICC World Twenty20 England 2009 as setting a ‘new benchmark for World Twenty20 events’ according to ICC chief executive Haroon Lorgat.

‘‘Following ICC president David Morgan’s declaration of the event being an “overwhelming success” on 22 June, ICC chief executive Haroon Lorgat has followed up these comments with announcing that the ICC World Twenty20 was ‘a tremendous achievement’.

‘‘In a letter to the England and Wales Cricket Board he offered his thanks to all those at ECB who had been involved and said the success was ‘a credit to all those involved.’

‘‘The colour and excitement of the ICC World Twenty20 took place over 21 days including 20 warm-up matches and 42 tournament matches.

‘‘The tournament was held at four venues, Lord’s, The Oval, Trent Bridge and Taunton and across the tournament more than 386,000 tickets were sold, which represented over 96 per cent attendance, with fans travelling from over 34 different countries.

‘‘The tournament set a sporting global precedent. For the first time, the women’s tournament was played alongside the men’s with the semi-final and final stages integrated and in an historic move the men’s and women’s final on June 21 were both staged at Lord’s with victories for Pakistan’s men and the England women’s team.

‘‘To add to the ground-breaking success of the event ‘The television and media coverage far exceeded expectations and the feedback received from those that participated in the event was excellent,’ said Mr Lorgat.”

There. Apologies for foisting that dreadfully-written drivel on you. But do you get the drift? The point the ECB evidently think is coming across there is that the Twenty20 World Cup was a success.

They failed to realise, for if they had they would never have let it out, how ridiculous, how sad, how self-servingly desperate that all sounds.

The ECB, not the ICC, sent this out, remember. “overwhelming success”, “tremendous achievement”, “global precedent”.

How insecure are these people? And how in love with themselves?

English cricket in these hands? Exit the soul.

Or maybe not. Here’s the case for the defence.

Two weeks ago, in the line of duty covering Warwickshire’s match against Yorkshire at Scarborough, I suffered a broken arm. Now that’s not a huge deal, many people have far greater troubles to face, but it was difficult and painful at the time and I was in a less than groovy state.

The cricket community kicked in.

When the incident happened, late one Friday night, I rang Bears physio Gerhard Mostert for advice. He dropped what he was doing (knowing him, either studying or doing somebody a good deed) and jumped straight in a taxi to assess the problem.

I was soon languishing in A&E. This was after midnight but three fellow cricket journos (all stone cold sober – noble types) offered to come and help.

Next morning, observing my one-armed state, the Yorkshire supporters at the B&B were kindness itself, one even cutting up my toast (I didn’t want it cutting up, actually, but the thought counted).

Then at the ground came a torrent of goodwill. From the stewards, pavilion staff, media (step forward, in particular, Mike Taylor of Radio WM, Kevin Howells of Five Live, Chris Waters of the Yorkshire Post and veteran freelance David ‘Plum’ Warner), the Bears’ travelling support, Warwickshire’s players and staff, the St John Ambulance officers, the police and Geoff Cope’s guide dog.

Kindness galore was supplied – and offers of help.

Briefly, courtesy of the excellent Neil Carter, the prospect arose of Sreesanth driving my car back from Scarborough but an image of the Bears’ flamboyant overseas star trying to get 150mph out of my Ka on the M1 was a bit uncomfortable.

Several Bears fans offered to drive it back, as did Geoff Cope’s guide dog. In the end the heroic Mr Mostert did the honours.

Overall, a tough situation was made as painless as possible.

And that, I reckon, is because cricket is a bit special. So singular and strange and long, so life-affirmingly beautiful at times, hair-tearingly infuriating at others, that it attracts a certain type of person. Resilient. Generous of spirit. Black-humoured. Nice.

The soul of English cricket? Still intact, bless it.

Will it survive the plague of venality rampant above and the onslaught of egos and propaganda? Let’s hope and pray.