In the latest edition of our quarterly newsletter “Inside Edge” (email david.robertson81@btinternet.com if you want to have a copy), John Websper drew our attention to what he describes as a crisis in cricket in Kent. He is not concerned about Test matches or the first-class game in general, but about the recreational game in the county. Even though Kent has the second largest number of active cricketers of any county – after Yorkshire, which has as much larger population – the number of clubs able to turn out teams each weekend is diminishing.
As John says, “The Kent League handbook for 2016 contains pen pictures from 67 clubs, almost a third of whom report either serious problems or an issue with the availability of players. Bear in mind that each club in this league fields a minimum of two teams every Saturday and the numbers begin to stack up. The problem is replicated in the Kent Regional Leagues and the two major Village Leagues”.
I have been playing village cricket in Kent for 35 years and we can all see the problem. It is not one of funding: every village club can, if it tries a little, find ways to fund the operation of the club, through grants, cricket charities or local trusts and benefactors. The problem is time. Cricket takes a long time to play – a complete afternoon, even if you are playing at home, and perhaps the best part of a full day for an away match. Even famous wandering clubs like the Band of Brothers are not immune: persuading players to give up a day of their weekend is increasingly difficult, especially for young parents. So the number of clubs is getting smaller, and the matches getting fewer.
Another common reason given for the decline of recreational cricket is that there is almost no cricket played in state schools, so children do not ever learn the basics. A quick glance at the educational backgrounds of the England team will confirm this, but it does not have to be so. James Tredwell is an excellent example. I am not sure if he ever played cricket at his school, but because of his family’s interest in the game, he learnt the game at Brookland village club, and then at Folkestone CC. At Saltwood CC, we coach well over 50 youngsters each season, and run junior matches for them, even though – or maybe because – the local schools do not have cricket in their curriculum. There are many clubs that can say the same
A much bigger problem, to my mind, is the lack of any coverage on terrestrial television and minimal reporting in both local and national newspapers. Do you realise that none of Alastair Cook’s 11,057 Test runs to date have been shown live on terrestrial free to view television? It is a false saving that the ECB have been making all these years by taking Sky’s money and ignoring the impact, or lack of it, of cricket on the public at large. When there is no cricketer on even the long list for BBC Sports Personality in a year when Joe Root and James Anderson both reached number one in the Test rankings, then something is clearly wrong. The newspapers are just as bad. Even the broadsheets, the Times, Telegraph, Guardian, home to some of the great cricket writers like John Woodcock, Neville Cardus and E.W. Swanton, now barely bother to mention cricket beyond the Test arena. A typical report will say something like “Kent made a solid start in their reply to Derbyshire’s first innings total of 286, thanks to 46 not out from Bell-Drummond,” a report which anybody could write from taking a quick look at the scorecard. (Before you look it up, I made that bit up. I don’t think DBD was ever 46 not out overnight against Derbyshire). The press boxes at county games are almost completely empty. And this apathy feeds out to the public.
All these factors combine to make cricket a minority interest sport. Small wonder, as John Websper points out, that a recent survey among young people showed that cricket is not in the top ten sports that they would choose to play.
The Kent Cricket Heritage Trust is concerned with the history and heritage of all cricket in Kent, from the most talented professionals to the least talented village sloggers. Cricket is woven into our social fabric at many levels and it would be a tragedy if it were allowed to fade away. Great landowners of the eighteenth century like Sir Horatio Mann won and lost whole estates on the result of a cricket match, and spent thousands on employing the best cricketers to bolster their sides. The Canterbury Cricket Week is over 150 years old, and over the years it has seen royalty, noblemen, soldiers and farm workers all showing off their skills (and their fashions) at the St. Lawrence Ground. The past is important because of the way it affects the present. If there is no cricket in the present, then the past drops away.
In our collection we have a good number of very interesting club histories, and we would like to see more being produced. One of the things that the Kent Cricket Heritage Trust wants to help with is in the research and writing of club histories. If there is anybody out there whose club needs a history, or to update an earlier history, please get in touch. We want to help, and we want to preserve the history of cricket in Kent at all levels.
And if you or your club wants to join the Kent Cricket Heritage trust, it costs a mere £10 a year, reclaimable as a tax-free charitable donation. Get in touch with David Robertson at Kent County Cricket Club or at david.robertson81@btinternet.com. To paraphrase the words of President Trump, together we can make Kent cricket great again.