We win the World Cup... and now the ECB sideline 50-over game

  • England's Cricket World Cup success is about to be diminished by The Hundred
  • The ECB has disregarded the format of the World Cup their players have just won
  • Simona Halep's Wimbledon final win may have been short but it was dominant
  • Lewis Hamilton’s Monaco home is always portrayed as a stain on his character

In the opinion of Sir Clive Woodward, and many others, the RFU frittered away the legacy of England’s Rugby World Cup win — but it could have been worse.

Imagine if, on returning from Australia, the governing body had decided to abandon rugby, almost in its entirety. And not even for a hybrid version, like sevens.

Imagine if they had devised an entirely new format of the game and decided to focus on that. Fives. Eights. Thirteens. Imagine if just as England had reached the pinnacle of the sport, it was made redundant.

England's Cricket World Cup success is about to be diminished by the ECB's The Hundred

England's Cricket World Cup success is about to be diminished by the ECB's The Hundred

Welcome to English cricket, 2019.


Think this is the start of a brave new era? Think again. From here, the best England cricketers will not play 50-over matches, unless selected for the national team or the Lions. Indeed, the only players who will gain experience of the format used for cricket’s World Cup will be those considered inferior. Those unwanted by the shiny, new franchises of The Hundred.

The ECB has decided this game, with its amalgamated city-based teams and its supposed appeal to those who don’t like cricket — not one ball of it, let alone 100 — is the money-spinning future. And the casualty, squeezed out in this desperate search for new markets, is the long-form, short-form game. The 50 overs used at the World Cup. The format it transpires we have got rather good at.

There are eight of these new franchises and, after three overseas players have been recruited for each, the clubs will require squads of 15. So 12 English players per team. Multiplying eight by 12 gets 96. So, the 96 best white ball cricketers available to England will, from next summer, never play the World Cup version of the game until elevated to international level. This is the equivalent of six-and-a-bit World Cup squads.

As Andy Murray and Serena Williams found in the mixed doubles at Wimbledon this year, knowledge and experience of any format is vital. On paper, Murray and Williams looked unstoppable as a doubles pair. In reality, they were beaten in round three by Nicole Melichar and Bruno Soares, two players whose impact as individuals is negligible.

The 100-ball format means England's best 50-over players will no longer be playing that game

The 100-ball format means England's best 50-over players will no longer be playing that game

Melichar is ranked 713th in the world in singles tennis, Soares has never risen higher than 221 on his own and that was 15 years ago. Yet together, they were the No 1 seeds in the mixed doubles because it is a specialist form of tennis and they work hard at it. As such, they comfortably defeated two players with 42 Grand Slam titles — singles and doubles — between them.

It is not as if relevant evidence does not exist in cricket, either. Between 2011 and 2013, the ECB abandoned the 50-ball game and were rewarded with a 2015 World Cup performance that redefined incompetence. Needing to finish top four in a seven-team group, England recorded two victories — against Afghanistan and Scotland — and failed to make the quarter-finals.

Highlights? The 111-run defeat by Australia at the MCG, Sri Lanka surpassing England’s 309-run total for the loss of one wicket, being bowled out 15 runs short of the 275 set by Bangladesh.

It was this debacle that provoked the revolution in England’s approach, culminating in World Cup victory. How could the ECB have witnessed this narrative unfold and decide abandoning 50-over cricket a second time was the way to go?

Future Test players can still hone their talent for building long innings, or for exhausting spells of concentration in the field, in the county championship. Those who excel in the shortest forms of the one-day game are particularly well catered for these days. Yet next season’s domestic 50-over competition will be the preserve of the most unexceptional county cricketers, or for youth who will be whisked away to The Hundred the moment they show any capability.

The public do not like the 50-over game, it is argued. Too long. Too dull. This is the ECB’s mantra — cricket for people who don’t like cricket. The marketing department asked people who didn’t watch cricket what they didn’t like about cricket and most of them said the cricket, so that’s what they are trying to get rid of.

Jofra Archer celebrates after England won the Cricket World Cup in dramatic fashion at Lord's

Jofra Archer celebrates after England won the Cricket World Cup in dramatic fashion at Lord's

If they can just remove the cricket from cricket, they figure, then people will come to watch it being not played. It’s a genius idea, you’ve got to admit.

Families are the target audience so alcohol will be banned also, otherwise people will just come for a booze-up. Anyway, it’s not as if anyone might need a glass of chardonnay to ease the tension of taking a party of schoolchildren to a sport they all hate. That’s why The Hundred emphasises how little cricket there is going to be. ‘No, seriously, you can do this one sober. It’s not like we’re going to start batting or anything.’

Yet, strangely, if this World Cup has proved one thing, it is that the modern 50-over, white-ball game can be fabulously entertaining and has benefited greatly from the rise of Twenty20. It is faster, more furious now, yet with enough subtlety and nuance to captivate those who love Test matches. Cricket fans, they might be called.

Even the final, played on a slow pitch by a New Zealand team whose success is built on defending low scores with miserly bowling, boiled gently to an astonishing climax. The match might, at times, have resembled a throwback to several decades ago when too many teams tried to build a one-day innings as they might a Test score, but the final hour was sport at its very best.

Alternatively, we can pander to those who demand instant gratification and reduce cricket to a series of Instagram moments. Why have 50 overs, why have 100 balls? Cut straight to a super over.

There are many reasons to be wary of The Hundred but more troubling than any of them is the ECB’s casual disregard for the World Cup their players have just won. No sooner was the trophy held aloft, than it was metaphorically discarded.

The England team’s lap of honour was conducted at the Oval on Monday amid hundreds of happy schoolchildren. What was the ECB’s message to them? ‘This is cricket, kids. And if you love it and work really hard, one day you might be paid not to play it?’

 

Don't knock Halep's fast show 

It is very easy to draw negative comparisons between Saturday’s Wimbledon ladies’ final, over in 56 minutes, and the men’s match between Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer which ran at three minutes under five hours.

By the time the men had completed their first set, the women’s final would have been done.

Clearly, measured by time on court, those attending on Sunday got more bang for their buck.

Looking at length of a match overlooks Simona Halep's incredible performance on Saturday

Looking at length of a match overlooks Simona Halep's incredible performance on Saturday

Yet this overlooks the incredible performance of Simona Halep against Serena Williams, surely one of the most complete individual displays the competition has seen.

In her 6-2, 6-2 victory, Halep made only three unforced errors and one of those is considered debatable.

It was a stunning display of athleticism against a champion who has pushed the physical parameters of the sport. And, yes, it was short. But that doesn’t mean it wasn’t sweet.

 

Why is Lewis singled out over tax?

The strange thing with Lewis Hamilton’s tax affairs, is that they never seem to affect Paula Radcliffe, or Chris Froome, or Jenson Button, or Geraint Thomas.

Hamilton’s Monaco residence is always held up as some kind of stain on his character in a way it never was, or never is, for other British sports heroes who reside there. It’s almost as if there is something else setting him apart, something other. Maybe the barely concealed contempt Rio Ferdinand referred to on Monday.

‘Was Jenson’s Britishness ever questioned for living in Monaco?’ wrote Ferdinand. ‘Not a chance. I will tell you why — because he looked similar, sounded similar, dressed similar and walked similar to the people who raise questions of Hamilton. The level of disrespect and racist undertones in questioning Hamilton’s patriotism should not be underestimated.’

He’s right. Nobody ever says Radcliffe was less than British having now lived in Monaco for two decades, nobody said it of Button, or of Britain’s Tour de France winners, either.

Yet Hamilton constantly battles against negative perceptions, with his tax status used as flimsy moral justification. He wears diamond earrings and flamboyant clothes, too. Why can’t he be meek and down-to-earth like all those other Formula One drivers? It’s not as if being the best at racing the fastest cars on the planet might lead to a man developing an extravagance of style.

Lewis Hamilton’s Monaco residence is always held up as some kind of stain on his character

Lewis Hamilton’s Monaco residence is always held up as some kind of stain on his character

At Silverstone on Sunday, Hamilton won his sixth British Grand Prix, a record for any driver, not just a British national. Michael Schumacher, by contrast, won three. Those who don’t get it argue Hamilton drives the best car. But that’s not an accident, either. The best drivers end up with the best constructors, in the best machine. Hamilton did not demand to drive for Mercedes. They chose him. And they did so because he is the finest out there, one of the greatest pilots around a circuit there has ever been.

And like a lot of the greatest sports people — Andy Murray, Serena Williams, Tiger Woods, Vijay Singh — he had no right to be as good as he became. Black kids from poor families in Stevenage do not become Formula One champions. Black kids from rich families in Stevenage don’t, either.

Hamilton is an outlier, an unprecedented force of will and, as such, an inspiration no matter where he lays his hat. ‘I go to all these races and I lift the British flag proudly,’ he said. ‘There is no one else in this sport that has raised it so high.’

Indeed. And if that is troubling, it might say more about you than it does him.

 

Bruce's exit shows up EFL financial folly

Steve Bruce did not play in the era when Premier League wages exploded. Still, as a former captain of Manchester United and a manager since 1998, now working at his 10th club, he probably doesn’t go short at Christmas. In other words, he is not about the money. It is not surprising that the contract Bruce is negotiating with Newcastle is for a comparatively low basic wage, bolstered by bonuses linked to where the club finishes.

Karren Brady says that during her time at Birmingham, Bruce was alone among managers in never submitting an expenses claim for scouting missions.

So the Newcastle job will be, in part, a labour of love. It was his boyhood club with personal ties. Yet his prospective move also serves as a timely reminder about the limitations financial fair play regulations are placing on striving clubs in the Championship.

Steve Bruce's move to Newcastle shows the strain FFP laws are placing on Championship clubs

Steve Bruce's move to Newcastle shows the strain FFP laws are placing on Championship clubs

Sheffield Wednesday’s owner, Dejphon Chansiri, almost certainly has greater ambitions than Mike Ashley at Newcastle. He would like to invest more — and Bruce knows this — but his hands are tied by a soft transfer embargo and the fear of punitive further punishments for contravening EFL rules on spending.

This is why even a club offering low wages, a depleted squad, a famously miserly recruitment policy and a chairman who would sell up in a heartbeat if a serious offer came along — we can probably now consider the gentleman from Abu Dhabi as the latest in a long line of pretenders — is viewed by Bruce as the better bet.

The Wednesday fan who confronted him on the touchline during Saturday’s friendly with Lincoln might wish to take his complaint up with the league’s executives. They are the ones putting a tax on ambition.

 

Global glory no advert for Brexit 

Jacob Rees-Mogg celebrated World Cup victory in foolish fashion by attempting to link England’s success to Brexit.

‘We clearly don’t need Europe to win,’ he brayed, shot down in flames instantly by those who pointed out that the influential captain, Eoin Morgan, was born in Ireland. Indeed, the number of nationalities England collaborated with hardly speaks of defiant independence.

Players like Ben Stokes and Jason Roy were born abroad — New Zealand and South Africa — but came to this country as schoolboys and progressed through the English system.

This England team represent the global nature of modern life and its need for openness

This England team represent the global nature of modern life and its need for openness

Yet Jofra Archer arrived as a fully fledged international cricketer from Barbados a matter of months ago and Trevor Bayliss, the coach credited with England’s huge improvement in the one-day game, is very much an Australian, who will return home after the Ashes series.

Indeed, what this England team and their victory represent more than Rees-Mogg’s small-minded nationalism is the global nature of modern life and its need for alliances and openness.

And if this is the level of understanding of those who have hijacked the Conservative party and therefore our next government, do not get too used to days like Sunday.

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