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Heataches v Gaieties at Stonor CC, Oxon, May 2001. Curiously this sort of club cricket continues to flourish. Tim Rice is at leg slip while Harold Pinter umpires.
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COMPETITIONS AND CRISIS
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Through July and into August in UK comes the season of endless finals as national and regional competitions at all ages come to their finales and we will endeavour to report as many as possible.
There is however a crisis in England and Wales club cricket compounded by the ECB inspired Premier Leagues and the rampant professionalism it has brought in its wake. There are now clubs within clubs-the payers and the paid- and a vast amount of money is being squandered on an elite while club finances, facilities and colts development suffer.
At schools the crazy scheduling of the summer term together with ever more examinations crammed into this period for all year levels is destroying inter-school cricket where it still survived. So far ECB's response has been the blanket approach with massive marketing to Primary Schools and Secondary Schools with Kwik Cricket and Inter Cricket plus a host of 'spin statistics' which indicate huge numbers of children playing these games but not hard ball full afternoon matches.
It is surely time to rethink ECB recreational expenditure and allocate significant sums to specific joint projects with schools and clubs that are already keen and active in supporting youth cricket.
There are an increasing number of major clubs that can not regularly put out a Sunday eleven leaving magnificent facilities unused.
There is surely a huge opportunity for youth cricket to fill this vacuum and for their mums and dads to swell those empty club coffers.
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