Burns' Eye View

The game’s on fire!

I was at Lord’s yesterday to witness one of the best day’s play for a long time. In warm sunshine, and amongst a near capacity crowd, I was entertained by Stuart Broad and Jonathan Trott’s world record partnership for the 8th wicket of 332 runs (beating the previous record of 313), and by Broad, James Anderson, Steven Finn and Graeme Swann’s excellent bowling in taking 14 Pakistan wickets before the close of play.

The legendary Australian commentator and former Captain, Bill Lawry, loved to describe a player or a team as being ‘‘on fire’’. England were ‘‘on fire’’ yesterday, but by the time I got home late last night, the breaking news revealed that several of Pakistan’s players had been implicated in a ‘spot-fixing’ scandal during the Test. 

Potentially, Cricket is on fire and it needs to do more than fan the flames because the integrity of the game has been challenged. The experience that I, and thousands of others at Lord’s, had been lyricising about in the various bars around Lord’s, has been severely compromised by unfolding events.

Instead of the game being ‘‘on fire’’ metaphorically, it could be on fire literally, unless the authorities can deal effectively with the ‘fixers’ once and for all. Otherwise, the joys of watching the glorious uncertainty of the sport will be met with suspicion and cynicism at every turn. If one cannot look at the game through pure eyes, then the experience of watching Cricket is not what it could, or should be, and people will turn their eyes in other directions in favour of other sports and alternative entertainment.

If today’s news contribute to the unthinkable, and it is the ashes of modern Cricket’s credibility, the irony is that on the 29th August 1882, ‘the Ashes’ was born. On this day in 1882, it was the climax of one of the most famous Test matches in history. Set only 85 to win at The Oval, England were 51 for 2 before WG Grace was out. After that, Fred ‘The Demon’ Spofforth bowled Australia to an amazing win by seven runs, with 7 for 46 and 7 for 44, and a mock obituary of English Cricket was written in ‘The Sporting Times’ the following day.

To wake up this morning, and to read the shocking newspaper headlines, and see the News of the World’s expose on the subject acting as the supposed middle-man between the players and the ‘fixers’ has left me feeling very sad, but not completely surprised. Rumours circulated around the game about some of Pakistan’s cricket matches in Australia last winter which suggested that the under-performance of Pakistan was not just due to the quality of Australia’s cricket. Today’s news will add grist to that particular mill.

Whilst the matter is now in the hands of the Metropolitan Police at Scotland Yard, I imagine the official comment from Cricket will be ‘no comment’, but the game is in some strife as a consequence of today’s revelations, and will be in terminal decline if the authorities do not deal with this situation quickly and effectively.

I have just witnessed Stuard Broad score his maiden Test Century in the 4th Test between England and Pakistan at Lord’s, and seen the broadest of smiles match a very broad bat.

In keeping with some of the finest players to have graced the game at Lord’s, Stuart used the full face of the bat to maximum effect throughout his wonderful innings. He played some breathtaking strokes which found the boundary with ease, and wrested the initiative from Pakistan’s bowlers in the process.

England’s cherub-faced opening bowler played like a proper middle order batsman, revealing the childhood batting ability which saw him open the batting for Oakham School, and Leicestershire’s age-group teams. He will return to the home dressing room tonight, safe in the knowledge that his name will soon be inscripted on the Lord’s Honours Board, amongst Hammond, Hutton, Compton, Cowdrey, Boycott, Gooch, Gower, Botham and other greats of English Cricket, who have also scored centuries at ‘The Home of Cricket’ for England.

Stuart’s presence on those famous boards will be a sense of great pride in their family, as father  Chris, never managed to achieve the distinction himself at Lord’s, despite scoring 6 Test centuries, including 3 in a row, during England’s successful Ashes Tour of 1986/7.  Today Stuart and Chris became the first father and son combination to have scored Test centuries for England.
More poignantly, today will be a special moment for a family in mourning, as Stuart lost his stepmother Miche, (Chris’ second wife) to motor neurone disease only a few weeks ago. On Tuesday, the Broad family hosted a special fund-raising dinner for the Motor Neurone Disease charity in The Long Room at Lord’s, which touched heaerts and raised important awareness of a terrible illness.

I imagine Stuart’s performance has touched many more hearts today, and has gone some way to assisting in the family’s healing process.
His century is the best performance (in terms of number of runs scored), by an England number nine batsman, surpassing Gubby Allen’s 122 v New Zealand, also at Lord’s in 1931, and only the third Test century scored by an England number nine.  He still has some way to go to beat the world record score by a number nine batsman, which is 173 by wicket-keeper Ian Smith for New Zealand versus India, in 1990.

Enland were in strife at 47-5 (with the unique event of England’s number 4,5, and 6 batsmen all making ‘ducks’), and 102-7,  but Broad and Trott have navigated their team away from disaster, and a potential match loss and a possible drawn Test Series, by mixing attacking instint with judicious strokeplay. Pakistan’s 18 year-old left-arm opening bowler Mohammed Amir took 6 England wickets to become the youngest ever player to be on the Lord’s Honours Boards, which record players scoring centuries or taking 5 wickets in an innings or ten wickets in a match in a Lord’s Test. Remarkably, some of the most famous names have been unable to write their names into Lord’s history, despite many attempts. They include Shane Warne, Brian Lara and Sachin Tendulkar!

As Stuart Broad entered the arena at 102-7, he was probably focused on surviving his first ball and trying to build a small partnership with Jonathan Trott to avert disaster. To end the day on 125 not out and Trott on 149 not out as part of an undefeated partnership of 244, with England clsong in the ascendancy on 346-7 a few hours later.  As he reflects on his dream performance, he will never forget the 27th August for as long as he lives.

For good measure, when he looks at Cricket history, he will realise that his special day also co-incides with the birth of two others who have displayed a broad bat throughout their careers. Sir Donald Bradman (1908) and Mohammed Yousuf (1974). Yousuf is in the opposition at Lord’s today, and is best known for his world record-breaking year of 2006, when he scored 1788 runs with nine centuries in the calendar year to beat the great Sir Vivian Richards’ 30 year record, while Bradman’s feats and Test average of 99.94 speaks for itself.

To add further gloss to Stuart’s special day is that on the very same day in 1973, the greatest all-round cricketer ever, Sir Garry Sobers signed off his Test career at Lord’s with a century and a world record in Tests of 6 catches in an innings to go with his century (the last of his 26 Test centuries) which led to  huge win by an innings and 225 runs. His Lord’s performance was the most stylish of farewells to the iconic venue by the world’s best and most stylish cricketer.

Sir Garry finsihed with 8,032 Test runs at an average of 57.78, and also took 109 catches in his 93 Tests, to go with 235 Test wickets. 

In reality, Stuart Broad is only beginning his career at international level despite his success in England colours since his debut three years ago. He may evolve into a genuine all-rounder over time himself. If he continues to drive the ball through, and over the covers like he did today, and pull to the legside with a swivel off his back foot, he may draw further comparisons with the greatest cricketer who ever lived.

When England won the ICC World T20 in Barbados last April, the input of two South Africans, Kevin Pietersen and Craig Kieswetter was significant. Kieswetter’s opening partner Michael Lumb (from Johannesburg) also played his part in England’s tournament success, by getting his team off to a ‘flier’ . Doesn’t it seem ridiculous that all England’s top three batsmen could all have been playing for South Africa in the same tournament?

Tonight, I have been watching a CB Pro40 League match between Derbyshire and Middlesex. At the end of the match, former England batsman, Nick Knight, interviewed both Captains for Sky Sports Television, who were broadcasting the game live for satellite viewers.

Losing Captain Neil Dexter explained away his Middlesex team’s woes while the winning Captain from Derbyshire, Greg Smith, was suitably magnanimous in his post match comments. No problem there then…. Good content, very professional contributions….

However, more disconcertingly, both of these Captains of English County Cricket Clubs are from South Africa! The stand-out batting performance came from Derbyshire’s Wayne Madsen from Natal, South Africa!

This season, Derbyshire have also employed South African born Tim Groenewald, Garry Park, Robin Peterson as ‘Non-Overseas’ players as well as Loots Bosman from South Africa as an Overseas Player.

Meanwhile, as well as Captain Dexter from Durban, Middlesex had Dawid Malan (Cape Town), Gareth Berg (Cape Town), playing key roles in their team. Additionally, Middlesex had Pedro Collins (Barbados) and Tom Scollay (Australia) in their team. I may be out of step with the times, but what happened to English County Cricket?!

A quick look at some of the other teams and some of the stand-out performers and it reveals a Southern African dominance in key roles. Durham’s former Championship-winning Captain and top batsman Dale Benkenstein (from Durban); Essex all-rounders Ryan Ten Doeschate (from Cape Town) and Grant Flower (from Harare); Hampshire’s batsmen Michael Lumb, Neil McKenzie and wicket-keeper Nic Pothas (all hail from Johannesburg); Kent’s best batsman Martin van Jaarsveld (Pretoria); Lancashire’s opener Stephen Moore (Johannesburg); Leicestershire’s most successful bowler, the spinner Claude Henderson (Cape Town); Northamptonshire Captain Nicky Boje (Bloemfontein) and key all-rounder Andrew Hall (Johannesburg); Somerset’s Nick Compton (Durban), Alfonso Thomas (Cape Town), Craig Kieswetter (Cape Town), Charl Willoughby (Cape Town); Surrey opening bowlers Andre Nel (Johannesburg) Jade Dernbach (Johannesburg), Stuart Meaker (Durban); Sussex’s  leading batsman Murray Goodwin (Harare); Warwickshire’s England batsman Jonathan Trott (Cape Town) and leading all-rounder Neil Carter (Cape Town); and Yorkshire’s best batsman Jacques Rudolph (Pretoria) plus wicket-keeper Gerard Brophy (Welkom, Free State).

When one factors in, HD Ackermann (Cape Town) who dominated Leicestershire’s batting for the last six years and also captained the County; Kent all-rounders Justin Kemp (Port Elizabeth) and Ryan McLaren (Kimberley); plus a number of young players yet to dominate County teams, and one realizes how much the English County salary structures are being stretched to fund ‘non-English’ players.

In some cases, players have left South Africa as teenagers and come to England to make it their home, such as Somersewt’s Craig Kieswetter, or Surrey’s Stuart Meaker, or Somerset’s Nick Compton who have been through the English schooling system, and in the case of Compton and Meaker played for England Under 19’s. There are other similar examples of Andrew Strauss and Matt Prior who were born in South Africa, but moved over to England with their families and have been educated for the best part of their school days in the UK, and would regard themselves as 100% English, and would never consider playing as a ‘local’ player in South Africa, just because their formative years were spent in a country where their parents were employed.

My biggest concern is that so much of this evidence reveals what I perceive to be an unhealthy system in Cricket. It highlights that, (in the apparent opinion of their employers) despite significant investment, young English players are not proving to be superior players to the foreign imports.

Or is it that young English players are not being given the chance to grow into the opportunity?

Is the short-term thinking, and perceived needs of the County Clubs (to win trophies or avoid relegation), getting in the way of player development?  When the England team effectively underwrite the rest of the game financially, my question is: are too many of the 18 County Clubs serving their own needs rather than those of the long-term health of the England team?

The influence of Southern African players in England also reveals an unhealthy system in South Africa. Otherwise, why would the players migrate to the UK? Money is a big factor with a weak Rand versus a (relatively) strong Pound, but fundamentally, I suggest the situation is flawed.

I love South Africa, and I continue to enjoy the company and generous hospitality of South Africans on my regular visits there. I am also fortunate to enjoy a valued, quality of friendship, with some of the people I have listed above.

However, in my opinion, English Cricket needs to take a closer look at how the distribution of its’ wealth. It appears to be invested in an unhealthy system which, if not addressed, may turn English County Cricket into the English Premier League (Football) where the teams are effectively global franchises, and no longer represent the communities in which they reside, or the collective interests of English Football. Recently, we have seen what this has done to the performance of the England team at the FIFA World Cup. If the England Manager has to observe matches in the second tier of the domestic League to identify talent then England could become another Scotland at international level if they aren’t careful in managing the process of player development better.

If English Cricket is unable to find sufficient players of the requisite quality to fill its domestic teams, isn’t it time to look at the structure of County Cricket, and reduce the number of teams? I am a traditionalist and wouldn’t like to see this, but the way the circumstances are unfolding, suggest that such a measure would be a pragmatic and wise decision. If County Cricket is underpinned by the commercial success of the England eam, then it has to be geared to serving the neeeds of the England team, and improving the quality and number of players available to succeed in England colours.

If the County structure was funded according to players developed to play for England, I am sure this would concentrate minds on the top priority: building a sustainable structure in each County and region to underpin the future success of the England team. At present, the County Clubs appear to be like a Post Office who receive income and then distribute it to players in order to put a decent team onto the field, irrespective of where the players come from or their suitability to be an England player of the future.

If the aspect of ‘the business’ which generates the income to feed the game is England’s success, then I believe that everything else must be aligned to that vision..

A culling of Clubs funding and a new commitment to focus the resources on the Clubs and geographical areas which are producing quality young cricketers to play for England has to be the way forward if Cricket is to emerge leaner and more commercially viable beyond the current economic crisis.