By Charles Randall
25 July 2014
Club cricket has been under assault for a number of years in a changing society from more directions, possibly, than ever before. One could mention land developers, social media, red tape, drink-driving laws, youth attitudes, council indifference, league regimes, funding, committee workloads and even the fortunes of the England team. But a trend to inequality and polarisation might be emerging as the unexpected and most serious problem faced by the amateur game.
Small clubs, especially, tread a tightrope life well illustrated by the current plight of Codicote CC. The village club in north Hertfordshire is simply running out of players as they seek to stabilise in Division Six of the Hertfordshire League. The competition is a very successful vertical structure that jumbles all teams together, with a premier table at the top. ECB status is due to be confirmed for 2015 after the split from the Home Counties League last year.
Codicote have issued a general invitation for a merger with any interested party, including wandering clubs looking for a home. Their ground is a pleasant recreation field with a basic multi-purpose council pavilion with good upgrade potential.
In the 1990s a group of former colts players reformed Codicote as a Sunday side and then joined the Herts League with one team seven years ago for Saturday cricket, winning promotion in six of those seasons. But suddenly in 2014 they found they could not always field 11 men.
Carl Richards, the captain and a pivotal all-rounder from the original team, said that a group of old players had retired together and not enough younger replacements had emerged to fill the gaps. He felt the local area was too small to support a youth section. Generally one-team clubs have been steadily disappearing, at least six in eight years from Hertfordshire alone. Richards said: “The younger players don't want to spend all Saturday afternoon playing cricket. They often want to do something else.”
In the South East house price inflation has had some effect as home-buyers look to live further out, sometimes many miles. Richards added: “As a village we find that if people move away, it is usually quite far away and they don't come back to play. ”
The big difference between the haves and have-nots – ECB club marque and 'the others' – has added stress to the one-team clubs because they tend to exist without coaching resources, facilities or turf quality enjoyed by many large clubs with access to grants. Richards played down that aspect when he said: “I could say that it's mainly because of the bigger clubs, but that isn't really the case with us because some of these big clubs are in trouble as well, not getting enough players.”
The ideal for Codicote and other clubs would be a merger as in the case of Stratton-on-the-Fosse CC, who lost their ground, moved and changed their name after almost 100 years in existence.
Stratton won the North Somerset Division One title last year in 2013 and were contacted by Chilcompton Sports after it was announced that their Downside School pitch would not be available from 2015. They were invited to start a cricket section at Chilcompton Sports in January and they decided to take on the name to integrate themselves while bringing in three senior cricket teams and, they hope, a new youth section. They started fund-raising towards the preparation of a cricket square this year and the purchase of a Stothert & Pitt roller. Some people might have thought that losing the old name was a high price to pay, but at least cricket continued for the benefit of the community, the key mantra of the Club Cricket Conference.
Most clubs in distress might be less lucky than Stratton-on-the-Fosse. As with Codicote, the Nottinghamshire club Ollerton Colliery CC, one of the oldest in the Retford area, have staggered into a crisis barely able to raise one side in Bassetlaw League Division Six after two promotion seasons. Dave Parnham, the captain, said: “Our squad went down to about 14 to 15 players. Three new players joined after an article in the local paper, but we will struggle to field a side in August. We have seven ECB Club Marque clubs in the area, and parents tend to send their children where there is the best coaching and the best facilities. I don't blame them.”
Ollerton have the additional problem of their ground - lacking investment with no certainty of tenure - but the treasurer Peter Haddrell did not beat about the bush when he spoke about inequality in club cricket to the local Hucknall Dispatch. He said: “Cricket is becoming a regionalised sport – sometimes even elitist. There are teams who have great facilities, backed up by super Lottery-funded sports developments that have monopolised the pool of available players – especially younger players.”
Haddrell added: “In recent years several clubs have folded whilst the bigger clubs have got bigger and bigger. If this situation does not change, many more established clubs will face the same situation as us in the future. We have had no grants at all. Our facilities are very poor to say the least. It’s impossible to attract new players, especially younger ones, when you’re competing against other wealthy clubs.”
While funding is a crucial point, match format might be important for youth participation. Richards said: “A lot of the problem is how long a game goes on for. I think young players prefer T20. This whole thing definitely needs looking at. I think we need to reduce the overs format for league cricket, and I would say 35 overs would be about right, as it's too much to jump from 50 overs down to T20. The older players might not be happy, but people would start getting used to it.”
As for providing opportunity, the Bassetlaw and Hertfordshire are two leagues considering dual registration, an interesting rule that would allow players to represent another club if their own could not find them a game. Ollerton specially registered a 15-year-old bowler one Saturday and he took 6-24 on his debut. “He could not get a game at all for his previous club,” commented Haddrell. “This cannot be right when clubs like Ollerton are desperate for players.”
These cases seem to suggest that the dominance of ECB favoured community clubs with good access to funding could undermine the amateur game in the long term if action is not taken.
The Club Cricket Conference has already planned to address the problem by setting up charitable access to non-mainstream funding. One-team clubs, community groups and ethnic park leagues would be obvious targets. The fix can never be enough, like sticky tape on a fractured bat handle, but the initiative is much better than nothing.
Alf Langley, the Club Cricket Conference chairman, said: “We all want to see more cricket being played not less. This will have to mean a better spread of funding, but leagues can play their part in an amateur game by taking a sensible view on registration, match formats and so on.”
The Conference's charitable arm, the Club Cricket Charity, will play its part, led by Robbie Book, of Totteridge Millhillians CC, as chairman of the trustees. Book said: “The charity aims to provide support for those many 'other' teams, for example by providing access to professional coaching for park sides or buying match equipment such as portable scoreboards. Another important objective is to encourage ground-sharing to maximise use of facilities.”
The launch of the Club Cricket Charity is due in August.