The strange case of cricket

[cromwell]

There appears to be a lot of money in top flight cricket these days. The England players last time I looked were on £700,000 each to be on a central contract and £300,000 to be in the one day squad. BT paid cricket Australia £80 million for a five year tv deal.
Some money is actually finding its way down to village clubs too. My old club now has a lovely new pavilion provided by lottery money.
The thing is though at the bottom of the ladder the game is in poor health. In the seventies, eighties and nineties the local club Crofton had two teams. A couple of years ago the club shut, they couldn't raise one team. It's recently been revived by a team of asian taxi drivers from Wakefield, so at least the ground is still in use. Other teams are struggling. Streethouse always used to be a good, Yorkshire Council level team. They can only raise one team now. Old Sharlston still have two teams but mainly that's due to picking up some players when Crofton folded.
There aren't as many teams now. The teams from the pits and the power stations have gone as those places have closed. The Vickers factory in Leeds has also gone I believe.
Other clubs have had their grounds sold and are now housing estates.
I don't know why this all is but at grass roots level the game is in ill health and it is a great shame.

[TheOstrich]

I would certainly echo that from what I've seen down here, Crommers. We do have local county leagues (sponsored apparently by Dorset Funeral Plan!) but it's all very low key and there doesn't seem to be much publicity. I'm not aware of any clubs actually folding but I understand that many teams find it hard to make up numbers.

I'm wondering if much of the problem relates to the lack of opportunity for kids to play cricket outside of school these days. Also, to what extent cricket as a school sport has been subsumed by other activities; for example, the local secondary school here seems to have a much more buoyant hockey section than cricket.

Outside of school, I'd say local rugby clubs have excellent facilities for kids and most run boys and girls teams from age 6 (tag rugby) upwards. The RFU have put a lot of time and effort into the structure of this, nationally, and it seems to work very well. For example, Blandford RFC (where I went last Saturday) say they have over 100 children training with them every Sunday. Perversely, though, it has to be said that adult teams locally are struggling to find players. Clubs running 4 adult teams are now only running 3, 3 adult teams are now running 2. Wincanton RFC appear to have folded completely this autumn.

Local soccer clubs also run kids teams, but not to such a great extent. But cricket? I'm not aware of anything being advertised for children in the summer months.

As far as adult teams are concerned, you've prompted me to do a bit of research and it appears there's 43 cricket clubs in Dorset, including one in Shaftesbury - I have no idea of their location! Some but not all have multiple teams. I assume the leagues run on Sundays, but again, you have to hunt to find anything out.

The ECB website does push Sport England funding and also promotes interest-free loan schemes; there is additionally something called NatWest CricketForce that seems to be a bit something and nothing. But whatever the ECB does, they've got to gain the kids' interest and develop the kids game if the sport is to survive at grassroots level.

[cruiser2]

I can remeber when I was young there were several leagues including the Lancashire league. Several teams provided players who went on to play for LancashireCounty team.
At some of the matches ther could be sevral thousnad spectators.
There is one cricket club near where I live as I sometimes drive pas it. There used to be a cricket field near a large factory but this has been sold for houses. The factory is still there.

[cromwell]

I'm wondering if much of the problem relates to the lack of opportunity for kids to play cricket outside of school these days. Also, to what extent cricket as a school sport has been subsumed by other activities; for example, the local secondary school here seems to have a much more buoyant hockey section than cricket.

Yes Os I would agree with that. We used to play a bit of cricket at school but not much, it was mainly club/village based. I think from a school's point of view the work needed to prepare a good cricket wicket is far more time consuming than marking out a football or hockey pitch.

But if they don't get kids playing cricket it will just become a niche sport, which would be a pity.

[Workingman]

The High School league structure seems to have collapsed. I played for the school first team and we had games every Saturday during the season then some of us would go to play for local clubs on the Sunday. I did an overflight using Google maps and a lot of the schools do not now seem to have cricket pitches, my old secondary school is one of them.

The local minor leagues (Juniors and Adults) also seem to have taken a battering. The clubs still exist but many of them appear to play 'friendlies' rather than in defined leagues and cups. Michael trained and played for the Old Mods, my old club, but the games were nearly always arranged on an ah-hoc basis. Some week on, others just practice against each other and a few dads or anyone prepared to field.

It is also noticeable that a lot of public park pitches where local lads could get together for a game have gone. You know the score, one pad each, no gloves, no boxes, three or four different bats 'borrowed' from school and any old corky ball we could get our hands on.

Cricket has now gone up market where you must have all your own kit - whites and proper spiked shoes, pads, gloves, box, helmet, cap and bag to keep them in. It has become expensive and so the pool of players has shrunk. It has already gone 'niche' IMHO.

Re pitches: our school's was an oil and sand pitch which just needed a quick rake and a roll, it was then covered in a coir mat when a game was on. The outfield was mown at the same time as the rugger and footie pitches.