Invest in school cricket or the game will wither

‘AT A time when there are obvious divisions in society, cricket has a great role to play in bringing people together from all sorts of diverse backgrounds and faiths,’ said ECB director of cricket Andrew Strauss (below). He’s right, and Moeen Ali’s match- winning performance at Lord’s on Sunday was proof of that.

Another of Strauss’s assertions was harder to justify. ‘There is no reason why cricket shouldn’t be the No 1 alternative to football,’ he said. But there is, and it’s a big reason.

The equipment costs a fortune and so does the playing surface, in man hours. The reason cricket now struggles in schools is because budgetary restrictions do not extend to the financing of adequate gloves, pads, bats, helmets and other sundries — and a cricket square has to be maintained by a groundsman, not some bloke from the council on a tractor who turns up once a month to drive in big circles cutting the bit of the school playing field that hasn’t been sold off for housing. If cricket is to regain its status, the ECB, through local clubs, are going to have to work a lot harder at engaging, maybe even financing, school cricket teams. Donating old kit, donating club volunteers to maintain a wicket and an outfield in reasonable condition — even donating the club facilities as the school’s home ground for midweek matches or Saturday morning games. The kids on ECB schemes who invade the outfield at Test matches to play glorified rounders with a tennis ball are never going to provide the next generation of cricketers. That will take time, money and proper organisation. Moeen, like most modern Test players, is a product of his father’s love for the game. That limited pool will only get English cricket so far. To truly reach out, the ECB must go back to school.