Cricket Witness No 1 - Class Peace

136 Change of Culture; Change of Cricket or so there was a glittering duel, a feast of cricketing artistry, between Richard Hadlee and David Gower. It was chastening to note that there was but a few score of spectators scattered about that splendid and well- appointed arena. If international cricket is to be the sole criterion, then four or five bases, as to both player production and venues, would be sufficient, as appears to be the case in other Test-playing countries. But if the yardstick were about offering high-class cricket as a nationwide entertainment, eighteen stadia would not be sufficient nor would all the existing ones be at the most propitious points. The Football League offers a reasonable standard of professional football in 92 locations, not forgetting 42 teams in the Scottish leagues and twelve in the Northern Irish premiership. One does not have to travel far to watch a fortnightly game. The interconnectedness of these national divisions emphasises the second flaw in the county structure. It is very rigidified. As of the 2016/2017 season 47 different teams have competed in the twenty-strong English Premier League in just 25 seasons. In the National League, the one just below the three divisions of the Football League, there are no less than thirteen teams that have hitherto played in the superior layers – and there are four or five more in the two feeder competitions to the National League. That is football’s testament to the rise and fall of sporting mobility. Now consider the sheer inflexibility of county cricket. In the last hundred years two counties – Glamorgan and Durham – have joined the county fray and none have departed. There were mild post-WWII flirtations with Devon and Buckinghamshire but they came to nothing. The impulsion to strive and change is absent. Elsewhere I have compared the county championship with two Forts; Knox for getting in and Colditz for getting out. The other factor in this restrictiveness is the compulsory shire styling. Previous mention was made in these pages of the extraordinary narrowness of the origins of first-class cricket clubs, the two major universities with their strong links with the counties being the only other additions of enduring note to the first-class roster. Currently, it is unlikely that any of the twenty Minor County Clubs would consider the financial perils of first-class status, rather preferring the homely comforts of a three day competition of almost entirely amateur standing. English cricket has never searched for a broader range of first-class pedigree club births. Some readers may feel the constant comparisons with association football may have some degree of unfairness about them. It will be urged that the games are totally different in character. But that is part of the issue. The two games had a common origin as national sports in their formalisation by ex-public schoolboys and until about 1900 enjoyed parity of both esteem and popular support. Indeed, cricket probably had the edge before the Edwardian era. Other sports are less visible or less nationwide. Rugby Union took a slightly different route both socially and geographically while Rugby League kept for the most part to a strictly regional core. Of other field team sports, hockey and lacrosse never made significant steps