Lord Patel steps in to save cricket
THE England Cricket Board are appointing a British Asian director for the first time as part of an ambitious campaign to develop the game in new areas and across social barriers.
The official announcement today of cricket enthusiast and Labour peer Lord Patel of Bradford OBE becoming an independent member coincides with England starting the 69th Ashes series against historic opponents Australia but with the ECB committed to being anything but traditional in improving participation.
This includes supporting every version of cricket, whether played in the back streets, parks or even on one of Britain’s many beaches in the knowledge that drastic action has to be taken to stem the rapid decline in numbers playing 11-a-side cricket.
It will be stressed that it is the game of cricket in all its forms that is being encouraged, rather than English cricket, so that no nationality feels disadvantaged. Lord Patel, a keen club cricketer in the Bradford leagues and a Yorkshire academy coach, is seen as a crucial asset in helping the ECB to unite communities, particularly Asians, in becoming fully involved in cricket.
l TENNIS is one sport that has benefited from the IMG takeover by American talent agent Ari Emanuel’s William Morris Endeavor. Emanuel has made big cuts elsewhere in the sports management business but is spending money on tennis, with new deals or partnership agreements with Petra Kvitova, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, Eugenie Bouchard, Madison Keys and Nick Kyrgios. JOHN McEnroe saying Nick Kyrgios is great for tennis doesn’t say much for a sport if it needs an arrogant, foul-mouthed, obnoxious Australian to boost interest. This lauding of Kyrgios, who showed his true colours with his truculent attitude in the press conference after his defeat by Richard Gasquet, certainly doesn’t please top British coaches, who see him as the worst possible role model for youngsters. If McEnroe (above) thinks that it’s great for the sport that a player, asked why he wasn’t returning services, replies: ‘I’ll give you the racket and we’ll see how many times you can return his serve’, then God help the sport.
l THE Wimbledon moderators who host the press conferences receive media training to prepare them for the role — and so should some of the players. Even Andy Murray, with all his experience, puts his hand in front of his mouth before answering questions as a kind of defence mechanism, although he takes his hand away before he speaks. Not so Aussie brat Nick Kyrgios, who basically speaks through two fingers to the media.