Collapse of England
Simon Heifer believes that Mr Blair's touchy-feely society is undermining cricket by reconciling it to mediocrity
Since it is always helpful to blame the government for most things, it might be some consolation to those of us who sat shellshocked at Lord's last weekend, and watched South Africa obliterate England, to reflect on how politics has brought about the decline of English cricket. Such an analysis will bring no short-term comfort to those who must prevent further thrashings of the national side; but only by understanding the causes can we hope, in due course, to eliminate the symptoms.
Class is at the heart of the problem. For various reasons, few state schools engage in serious competitive sport any more, and cricket has suffered especially. It requires more time than most games, and that is in short supply thanks to the National Curriculum. The timing of GCSE and other examinations early in the summer terms further limits the opportunities for organised sport in the cricket season. The kit — all those pads, bats, balls — is pretty pricy. The playing fields have been sold off. And teachers' contracts now limit the time they can devote to supervising games after school or at weekends. There are youth schemes run through local clubs, but these are stronger in some parts of the country than in others. The result is that fewer and fewer boys get a chance to play cricket, and even those who do get the opportunity to turn out for a club youth team have usually started cricketing much later in life than would be ideal. This means they have had less exposure to high-class coaching and practice than their counterparts in countries with really successful Test teams. like Australia, South Africa or Pakistan.
Despite these handicaps, men who have not been to independent schools — where the opportunities to play cricket are better than ever — get into county sides, and these days form the bulk of the Test team. Nasser Hussain, who recently resigned as England captain, went to a private school and Durham University: his successor, the excellent batsman Michael Vaughan, went to a Sheffield comprehensive. However, the proportion of privately educated players who end up in the England side has often, in recent years, exceeded their proportion in society as a whole. Vaughan, like Graham Gooch before him, is palpably of the right stuff despite not having had a privileged upbringing, and is helped by a rare and conspicuous natural talent. Too many of his team-mates have less ability, less character, or a fatal combination of the two. That the England coach, Duncan Fletcher, could have observed that his players did so badly at Lord's because of 'complacency' vividly illustrates the character weakness.
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