Who am I?

I am 37 years of age, and in approximately 6 weeks, I will be more than likely be added to the latest UK unemployment statistics as a result of the latest round of local government cuts.

The main intention of this blog is to give me something to do with all the free time I am about to acquire. It is not intended to be a rant or moan about the situation I am currently in. I am happily married with 2 wonderful young children and don’t feel particularly unfortunate at this moment in time – there are a lot of people in the world worse off than I am.

No, the idea here is for me to compile thoughts on a number of issues for anybody who might want to read them. They will probably be mainly sports related as that is my major interest – and after all there’s a Cricket World Cup on at present to keep me occupied and give me ideas.

My main interests relate to Everton Football Club and Derbyshire & England Cricket, although I am an interested follower of most sports and try to maintain as much of an impartial view as possible (although it is sometimes difficult!)

I hope some of the things that I write may be of interest to you, and if they are then comment on them or share it with other people, I don’t really like talking to myself!

ICC and the Associate Nations

In the last week the ICC have announced their decision to reduce the number of teams in the next world cup to 10 and as such limit the opportunities for associate nations to take part.  

This was followed very quickly by some very one sided world cup games involving Canada and Kenya thus apparently justifying the decision of the ICC to limit their involvement.

However, on Tuesday I sat and watched the Netherlands put up a valiant performance against England, which brought up the issue once again.

Now, I realise the issue is that the associate nations struggle to compete as well over the longer form of the one day game, and so the ICC would rather they concentrate their development in Twenty20 cricket instead.

But is this not a vicious circle. If teams like Canada, Kenya and the Netherlands are only allowed to compete at the top level in T20. How are they going to learn to build an innings that would make them competitive over 50 overs. The whole nature of T20 is short sharp innings and big hitting – hardly the long patient knocks required to build a competitive 50 overs total. Too many players get out for 20 or 30 already, to concentrate on T20 will only exacerbate the problem.

There is a concern amongst some cricket watchers, that top level cricket will be affected by regular T20 games and a player will lose the ability to bat for 50 overs (never mind a whole day of a test match). For players of slightly lower ability, this will be exaggerated even more so and hamper any development for associate nations whenever they get the opportunity.

Associate nations are already hampered by rules which allow Test nations to take their players so easily, but then they can’t be returned once discarded from their brief appearances. Imagine for example if Dirk Nannes would have been available to open the bowling for the Netherlands on Tuesday! However, his few appearances for Australia have now made this impossible.  

If cricket is going to develop over the world, then associate nations need to be given all the help they can, not hindered at every moment. By all means, reduce the number of teams that take part in the world cup, but make sure they have the chance to take part, otherwise what incentive is there for the better players to stay when the likes of England, Pakistan, Australia or South Africa come calling again.