11 days. It took just 11 days to decide the winner of 2021-22 Ashes. That is quicker than any that could be imagined. After over 2 years of extreme hype, with England planning for this very tour, things derailed rather quickly. The English media and the public have lambasted their team and rightly so. They did not show any spine and rolled over easily. The two and the quarter game was the absolute nadir. Can things get any worse than what they are now? Are England that bad a side that they are made out to be? What is ailing English cricket?
Fingers pointed at the county championship
Various commentators across the entire spectrum of English media pointed out that the reason for this debacle is because the county championship is played during May and the latter part of the season. Bowlers as such were never required to learn any skill to pick up wickets. All they have to do is put the ball in the right area and wicket is there for the taking. Batsmen are never really settled and as such they find the going tough because the ball swings throughout the day. Batsmen never really learn the patience and the temperament that is required to build a long innings.
It is a fact that a few years ago, the English Cricket Board decided to give lot of importance to the white ball game at the expense of first class cricket. There are multiple reasons for this.
Possible reasons for white ball being given preference
First, England at that point had never won a ODI World Cup. They were just sent packing by Bangladesh in the 2015 World Cup in Australia. They had the ignominy of losing to Ireland and less known nations. The ECB seems to have had enough and set about revamping the entire white ball scenario. This resulted in the spectacular revival of English cricket. They redefined the way white ball cricket must be played. So much so that, in any tournament in any part of the world, it is England who are among the favourites. All of these culminated nicely in the 2019 World Cup triumph at home.
Second, the ECB wanted to wheel away their international players from playing at the IPL. How can they do this? They cannot tell the players not to play in IPL. This was tried before and it resulted in upheaval among the squad with Kevin Pietersen battling for IPL quite vehemently. The ECB had only one way and that was to introduce their own IPL in the form of The Hundred. This tournament was marketed and promoted so widely that it was a grand success. It is here to stay and the slot, middle of the summer is where it will be forever.
Third, the biggest motivator. Money. It was clear that first class competition wasn’t earning that much from the way of sponsorship. It is only the short formats that earns revenue. Hence, it must be given prime importance. Without the revenue, English cricket will be hard pressed to pay the salaries of the players, officials and every other individual connected with the game.
The English weather
The biggest problem with English cricket is not that county cricket is being played when the conditions are more in favour of the bowler. It is the English weather. England is not blessed with unlimited sunshine throughout the year. Only the Asian nations, South Africa, West Indies and Australia are blessed with that. As such, they have only a limited window in which they need to get through with their entire games. The Hundred, County Championship, 40-overs competition and one other. Something had to give and it is County Championship.
Experts must give probable solutions
It is all well and good for the experts to advise the ECB and ask them to give priority to County Championship and bring it back to the prime slot during the peak of the summer. However, what they failed to understand is that first class competition is not fetching the revenue that the ECB so desperately needs. It is really a catch-22 situation. There is absolutely no easy way out of it. Having said that, is England really that bad a team? I do not think so.
They still remain one of the three teams to have won atleast one test series in all the countries where they have played over their entire cricketing history. They recently won a series in South Africa 3-1 and have won 5 consecutive tests in Sri Lanka and they managed to win one test in India too. The players more or less remain the same as they ones that are involved in the Ashes. It is that when they fail, they fail spectacularly as what happened at Melbourne.
Ashes given too much importance
Ask any English or Australian fan what would he or she want their team to do? Prompt will be reply. Never lose to each other. Such is the obsession of the Ashes amongst the fans of both the teams and more precisely, the English supporters. For them, nothing in cricket exists but the Ashes. This was clear in how the Indian and New Zealand tests were treated during the summer. Far too many players were given breaks when they should not have been and that too when the Ashes was safely 3 months away. Yet, Silverwood thought that the players needed rotation. I had met an England fan back in Europe. He never cared about England playing any other nation. He said he will not watch those games. For him and for a lot of England supporters, winning the Ashes is of paramount importance.
This sort of pressure is tough to bear for any side and as a result, they are unable to face that pressure.
Conclusion to what is ailing English cricket?
There is definitely not a foolproof plan to resurrect England. I do not see any of the white ball games moved around to accommodate county championship. Mind you, playing on flat wickets in the middle of the summer is not a guarantee to Ashes success in Australia. The ball bounces a lot there and England will not be able to reproduce that in England. The one thing that ECB can do is to get rid of the Duke’s ball. It is not used by any other team anywhere. Let the bowlers learn to use Kookkabura which is what is used across most of the nations.
The other thing that they can try is to play half of the county championship in a country like UAE. If marketed properly, the expenses can be recouped. Let us remember that just because they lose to Australia in Australia, they are not that bad a side. However, success in Australia is what counts for majority of their supporters and hence, there is no easy way.