Mo Gosfield
Well-known member
- Aug 11, 2010
- 6,362
My observations on club cricket are.....
1) Sunday has become a non-cricket day for many senior clubs. They field 5 or 6 teams on a Saturday. League cricket has become everything. Lovely grounds, with good facilities and nothing going on every Sunday. Village cricket is now the bastion of Sunday cricket.
2) Club players, many only playing league cricket, play about 20 games a season. ( I and my peer group played at least 50 games a season )
3) Players miss a lot of games for a variety of reasons. Not just weddings and holidays but all manner of other social arrangements. I see club line-ups showing 4-5 changes every week. I know of at least two good players from my local area, who have given up because they were starting a family. In their 20's and finished with cricket. I can understand the need to spend time at home but surely a balance can be struck.
4) On field behaviour. Much more noisy and aggressive. Clapping every ball as if its a jaffa ( its usually 2-3 feet wide of the off stump) Appealing everything. More dissent.
5) Rate of scoring. Much quicker than 30-40 years ago. All teams want to score at 4-5 runs per over from the outset. Lots of wide stuff chased from the start. Much less discretion. I regularly see 75-1 off 12 overs. I also regularly see 45-4 off 12 overs.
6) Club players get paid. At many clubs. Just like football. The more money you pay, the better player you acquire. If clubs don't pay directly, they do it through ' sponsorship '
7) Some leagues start at 11.30 am, with a lunch and tea and play about 110 overs. Some of these games are hardly local and teams are setting off at 8.30-9.00 in the morning and getting home between 9.00pm and 10.00pm. No wonder Sunday cricket is dying at these clubs!! When I played in the Sussex League, I'm sure it used to start at 2.00pm.
8 ) My local club charges £150 playing membership for the season and £13 match fees. Is this normal?
9) Club captains copy Test Matches and don't have a Third Man. It drives me mad to see every edge go for four. Make them work for their runs.
10 ) Warming up before the game. Proper routines. Cones etc. Far cry from my era. Couple of stretches. quick throw to the keeper, fags stubbed out, into battle. For the batsmen, couple of balls thrown at you and away you went. On away trips, even a couple of pints weren't ruled out sometimes and I am talking 1st eleven level!!!
1) Sunday has become a non-cricket day for many senior clubs. They field 5 or 6 teams on a Saturday. League cricket has become everything. Lovely grounds, with good facilities and nothing going on every Sunday. Village cricket is now the bastion of Sunday cricket.
2) Club players, many only playing league cricket, play about 20 games a season. ( I and my peer group played at least 50 games a season )
3) Players miss a lot of games for a variety of reasons. Not just weddings and holidays but all manner of other social arrangements. I see club line-ups showing 4-5 changes every week. I know of at least two good players from my local area, who have given up because they were starting a family. In their 20's and finished with cricket. I can understand the need to spend time at home but surely a balance can be struck.
4) On field behaviour. Much more noisy and aggressive. Clapping every ball as if its a jaffa ( its usually 2-3 feet wide of the off stump) Appealing everything. More dissent.
5) Rate of scoring. Much quicker than 30-40 years ago. All teams want to score at 4-5 runs per over from the outset. Lots of wide stuff chased from the start. Much less discretion. I regularly see 75-1 off 12 overs. I also regularly see 45-4 off 12 overs.
6) Club players get paid. At many clubs. Just like football. The more money you pay, the better player you acquire. If clubs don't pay directly, they do it through ' sponsorship '
7) Some leagues start at 11.30 am, with a lunch and tea and play about 110 overs. Some of these games are hardly local and teams are setting off at 8.30-9.00 in the morning and getting home between 9.00pm and 10.00pm. No wonder Sunday cricket is dying at these clubs!! When I played in the Sussex League, I'm sure it used to start at 2.00pm.
8 ) My local club charges £150 playing membership for the season and £13 match fees. Is this normal?
9) Club captains copy Test Matches and don't have a Third Man. It drives me mad to see every edge go for four. Make them work for their runs.
10 ) Warming up before the game. Proper routines. Cones etc. Far cry from my era. Couple of stretches. quick throw to the keeper, fags stubbed out, into battle. For the batsmen, couple of balls thrown at you and away you went. On away trips, even a couple of pints weren't ruled out sometimes and I am talking 1st eleven level!!!
......for a developing cricketer, being told to go out and bat for even, say, 10 overs to avoid defeat is great training - technique, patience etc. What happens now is 40 over games are often done in 20 overs for the side batting second in a blaze of slogging once the second team batting know they have no chance of winning. I guess it shortens the day and gets people to the pub earlier.
