T Chesterfield: No easy quick fix for England (7 Jul 1998)

7 Jul 1998

No easy quick fix for England

Trevor Chesterfield

London - As the approaching 150th anniversary of WG Grace's birthday looms, England's once proud place among the top three nations at a game the venerable patron saint helped develop, is in a sorry state.

Two tests at centres as veritable as Lord's, home of the autocratic Marylebone Cricket Club, in London and Old Trafford in the more boisterous, extrovert Manchester in the north, show that England are in need of a major shake up.

As Barry Richards put it at Old Trafford on Monday, the county game is no longer breeding players who are of test quality.

"Intensity is the name of the game and with fewer counties and every game counting, the also-rans, who feed on average bowling in the second innings solely to be on the playing staff the following season, need to be weeded out.

"Every player in Sheffield Shield and SuperSport Series has come through the ranks with the sole purpose of playing in tests. Some have not and once they realise it, they have to perform above expectations or they are disregarded.

"It is harsh but it means they can step into the test arena without being out of their depth," he said.

His praise of Australian and South African club players was based on the realization they could, in effect, be only two good knocks away from the test side.

But the club players in England are so remote from the system as to not even warrant discussion.

While many feel the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) are now on the right track, there are those, and Richards who once played for Hampshire is among them, is worried whether all the counties are prepared to embrace the dramatic changes proposed by the ECB to take the game into the next millennium.

It is the view of Richards and Ian Botham that sooner the ECB have been granted the power by the counties to lift the game and thereby provide better players for a stronger, competitive England side, the happier will be Australia, South Africa, West Indies and the world game.

"A weak England side," said Richards, "is bad news for the game."

And while they feel too many one day competitions is not the underlying fault, it has created a problem around the mediocre in a system encouraged by moribund thinking, which is out of date in today's commercial world.

Source :: Trevor Chesterfield, Pretoria News