It is high time England celebrated and protected the upgraded county system that has helped to bring Ashes success instead of regarding it as some sort of guilty secret
George Dobell19-Aug-2015It won’t always be like this. England players won’t often assemble for a sold-out match at the Kia Oval with the Ashes won and the mood of celebration. Just ask Mike Atherton or Darren Gough or Alec Stewart: fine cricketers that represented England with distinction for many years. None tasted Ashes success.So let us not diminish the scale of this England’s team’s achievement. Let us not suggest that home wins have become little more than routine or suggest this Australia team was especially weak. They were, after all, good enough to thrash England 5-0 barely 18 months ago and good enough to beat South Africa away and earn the No. 1 Test ranking almost immediately afterwards. Plenty of Australian sides have visited England before; never have any of them been beaten four times in a series as could happen on this occasion. Defeating them is a significant achievement worthy of praise.But there is a danger, in England in particular, that an Ashes success can be seen as the end of the journey. Such is the tradition, the public interest and the hype attached that the result can appear disproportionately important. Ashes success, in England at least, has sometimes masked failures in limited-overs cricket or against the highest ranked Test sides, while failure has often led to soul-searching, sackings and reviews.That should not be the case this time. Success, while hugely welcome, should represent only the first faltering steps of recovery of a young team who are capable of a great deal more. Success in Asia, success against South Africa, success in white ball cricket: this side has plenty of mountains left to climb.Certainly that is the view of England captain, Alastair Cook. Reflecting on the emergence of his new look team, Cook expressed excitement not so much at their recent achievements but of the challenges that lie ahead.”Perhaps unlike other teams in the past – such as 2005 – where that Ashes series was their pinnacle and what they had built towards for two or three years, I genuinely believe this side has more ahead of it,” Cook said.”I saw a stat that the 2010 side was two or three years older on average so this is a younger side and it’s very exciting.”You’ll see likes of Jos Buttler and Ben Stokes improving as cricketers. Joe Root, even though he is now rated No. 1 in the Test batting rankings, will get even better.”Of course England will be challenged in the UAE and South Africa. Of course there will be more games like Barbados and Lord’s where the faults and inexperience are exposed. These are early days in their recovery. Nobody is claiming they are the finished article.But Cook is excited. Unlike the Ashes wins of 2013 or 2005, he knows this could be the beginning and not the end. “We’ve got an interesting winter,” he said. “We’ve two real tough places to go. But if you’re looking at the balance of our squad, then I think we’ve got a real opportunity to go there and play well in those conditions.”So these next few days at the Kia Oval should be a celebration of the good things in English cricket. It should be a celebration of the obduracy of Cook, the skill of Root, the talent of Stokes and of the environment created by the coaching staff who have nurtured their development.It should be a celebration, too, of the 18-county system that enabled Stuart Broad to learn his trade as a new ball bowler with Leicestershire at a time when a bigger club might have been reluctant to give him such responsibility. It should be a celebration of the 18-county system that enabled Moeen Ali to develop as a spin bowler at a time when his opportunities might have been blocked elsewhere and a celebration of the decision, just over two decades ago, to grant first-class status to Durham. Would Stokes or Mark Wood have had the opportunity to develop as professional cricketers otherwise?And it should be a celebration of the introduction of four-day county championship cricket incorporating promotion and relegation that, since its inception at the start of this century, has seen England win five Ashes series to Australia’s four.It is ironic then, that even while England have been winning the Investec Ashes, discussions have been underway that will threaten the foundations on which this team is built. The county structure that produced this England team – the first England team for more than a decade not to contain a player who was either born or brought up in southern Africa – has rarely faced such a fight to justify its survival.It appears that some at the ECB – specifically the executives employed by the board rather than the counties whose views they are meant to represent – have been pressing ahead in their bid to establish a city-based T20 model despite record attendances in the current competition and impressive growth figures around the country. Only when it became apparent, about three weeks ago, that full-scale rebellion was likely if they attempted to push through the change did ECB management relent.Already is has been decided – in principle at least – to drop the Championship schedule from 16 to 12 games to enable more recovery and preparation time, while at one stage during discussions Nottinghamshire’s chairman, Peter Wright, who is also chairman of the ECB’s cricket committee, suggested an eight-team, city-based, 50-over competition to replace the Royal London Cup.While that proposal was fairly swiftly dismissed, it demonstrates the pressure the counties are under to justify themselves. Alongside the proposed new-look T20 competition – another eight to 10 team tournament – such a development would take several smaller counties a step closer to irrelevance; a step closer to oblivion. The fact that Nottinghamshire – a club that have benefited more than most from buying-in talent from the smaller counties they now seem to want to put out of business – should suggest such a scenario is a painful irony.
England has a domestic system that produces players and a domestic system that is drawing record numbers of spectators. It seems bizarre that it seems subject to such relentless criticism
Where were England’s last world-class spinners (Graeme Swann and Monty Panesar) produced? Northants. Where was England’s captain produced? Essex. Where was England’s wicketkeeper (Buttler) produced? Somerset. Three non-Test hosting counties that, if city cricket is introduced, will face an uncertain future. By contrast, make a list of all the recent Test players produced by Nottinghamshire. It is hard to avoid the impression that the wrong people may be making decisions in English cricket at present.In the long-term, England have plenty of the areas in which they can improve. They need to examine why the quality of spin bowling in domestic cricket is so low – it has arguably never been lower – and they need to examine the development of fast bowlers. They need to reflect on the value of money gained from the centre at Loughborough and research and invest in the quality of pitches in domestic cricket.By comparison with some of their rivals, though – South Africa, Pakistan or West Indies, for example – England’s problems seem pretty inconsequential. They have a domestic system that produces players and a domestic system that is drawing record numbers of spectators. It seems bizarre that it seems subject to such relentless criticism.The point is that, as the ECB look to increase revenues, they have to be careful not to sacrifice the foundations of their success. They have to be careful not to sacrifice long term value for short term financial gain. They have to be brave enough to understand that it is not more money the game needs, but more publicity.This England team has the talent, the style and the charm to win the game a new generation of supporters. The system that produced them doesn’t need changing; it needs celebrating.
