New kids on the block
There's a refreshingly youthful look to many of the squads on the English County circuit, writes Barney Ronay in The Observer , and that bodes well for the future of the national team.
Liam Brickhill
25-Feb-2013
There's a refreshingly youthful look to many of the squads on the English County circuit, writes Barney Ronay in The Observer, and that bodes well for the future of the national team.
Three matches into the current season the County Championship already appears to be undergoing a generational changing of the guard, showcasing not just the much lauded endeavours of Reece Topley – a 17-year-old fast bowler from Essex who is currently the leading wicket-taker in the country – but a thickening posse of young English batsmen with their eye on an early-season Test spot. The present may be racked with financial strife for many counties but the future seems likely to benefit from the breath of regeneration percolating around even the most leathery of dressing rooms.
Syld Berry, writing in The Telegraph, doesn't see the domestic situation in England as quite so rosy. Indeed, he blames the 40-over domestic limited-overs format for England's failure in the 50-over World Cup. Touching on the issue of Associate involvement in the next World Cup, Berry suggests that the easiest way for England to improve by the next tournament in 2015 would be to induct players such as Ryan ten Doeschate, Kevin O'Brien and Paul Stirling into their ranks - a suggestion that even he concedes is "cynical ... But not quite as bad as banning 50-over County cricket".
But it is also irritating that the public in this country are deprived of the excellent spectacle that is a 50-over match on a dry pitch, when the right schedule is so easily attainable: start the season with the championship, go into 20-over cricket in June then 50-over cricket in July, and finish off with the championship, instead of squeezing in CB40 matches at every spare moment.
Liam Brickhill is a freelance journalist based in Cape Town