Everyone has a beef about something and sadly many of the core values are drifting into oblivion. Has the electronic age made us complacent, do we expect too much, is winning everything, do players want to play less, do wives and girlfriends really dictate Saturdays, is schools cricket important to club cricket, have we abandoned university cricket, should the amateur clubs break from the professional clubs, why are the umpires disappearing, do all players need to be paid, where is the respect for the opposition, umpires, administrators and the game, are supporters only interested in bragging rights, where have the genuine supporters gone, are facilities getting worse rather than better, are we interested in Cricket Ireland, why don’t retired played come back to the game, are the local rules and regulations killing the spirit of cricket, do teams want to play or take advantage of the rules, why don’t we socialise with the opposition any more, why are clubs folding, why are teams disappearing, why are memberships falling, why is there so little enthusiasm for representative cricket, do we want shorter matches, do senior players practice enough, are they fit enough, is our season too short, why do we struggle in the Irish Senior Cup, is grassroots cricket represented at national level, are we interested in our history, our heritage and our traditions, or does the modern generation feel their predecessors are dinosaurs? Does it matter?
We live in an era of instant cricket. Television beams live matches all over the world and the Internet and mobile phones have emerged as the most powerful tools in global communication. There is so much transparency and inevitably through the power of email we have a caustic breed of armchair crickets all too eager to brandish their views on forums from anonymity. We also have excellent posters with constructive comment. God bless them. It is a very different cricket scene to 20 years ago and certainly light years from local cricket in the Eighties when the modern resurgence of interest really took off. It brings back memories of those immortal words reputedly spoken by the hotel porter to the late George Best-“Where did it all go wrong son?”
Little wonder George laughed it off. After all, he had a wallet full of notes, an international celebrity reputation, a glitzy lifestyle amongst the rich and famous, he was staying at the Ritz Carlton in London and as the story goes, there was the added bonus of a former Miss World warming his bed in the Penthouse Suite.
Is there an analogy with local cricket? After all, the modern players are reportedly fitter, better trained, more skilled, and paid for their services. There are more sponsors in the game, more competitions, lively clubhouses and awards. But below the surface lie the questions already highlighted in this article and which will challenge everyone involved in the game going forward. Is it starting to go wrong for local cricket or is this a part of an evolution process that will change the picture of the local game for ever and reduce former players to nostalgic recollections of “in our day.’
The struggles down the teams are perhaps more poignant and they will get worse as the older stalwarts disappear and the modern generation fails to stock the larder. If cricket fails at the bottom rung of the ladder there will be no step up to senior cricket. The malaise is already upon us as clubs struggle to field teams and fewer and fewer umpires are coming into the game. Many retired players have had enough and don’t even return to watch games. Some have even gone to golf!
But all is not lost, as there are solutions to most problems. However, the key to the future is facing the challenges and addressing all the key issues, even if there are discussion topics as opposed to radical changes. We don’t need to test issues with rule changes at every AGM, but we do need to get back to discussing issues at the AGM for healthy debate and exchange. If we can’t talk about the matters that concern our game then our Ostrich mentality will eventually bury us.
Next month is the AGM so let’s see a few topics on the agenda for debate during that deafening silence when they are counting the votes.
Clarence Hiles
Editor
