Stand for cricket this Thursday

A few weeks back I saw the excellent documentary Death of a Gentleman, by Sam Collins and Jarrod Kimber.

The duo initially set out to see if Test cricket was dying, but soon stumbled upon an even more disturbing tale of greed, corruption and self-interest.

On Thursday at 10am, outside The Oval before commencement of the fifth Ashes Test, a three-minute silence will be observed to protest the Big Three’s silencing of the rest of the cricket world.

The last 20 years has seen an explosion in the commercial value of the game, as television rights have soared. As a result, the International Cricket Council commissioned The Woolf Report to review its governance and procedures, which was delivered in 2012.

The report stated:

The game is too big and globally important to permit continuation of Full Member Boards using the ICC as a ‘club’. The ICC’s stakeholders are more than just its members; they include the public, players, the media, suppliers and commercial partners. There is an obligation on the ICC to consider the needs of all stakeholders and define its role to meet the objectives of what is good for the international game.

We now know that the ICC went in completely the opposite direction. Instead of expanding representation beyond the existing 10 full members, a new executive comprising just five was established – with the ‘Big Three’ of India, Australia and England permanently entitled to a seat.

The most obvious conflict of interest is that those permanently on the executive can essentially govern the entire sport, heavily based on their own countries’ self-interest, with zero accountability to the rest of the cricket world.

Subsequently an increased proportion of ICC revenue is flowing to the Big Three. The likes of West Indies, Zimbabwe and Sri Lanka on the other hand continue to struggle to pay their senior playing squad.

The 2019 World Cup is to be reduced to 10 teams. The pinnacle of cricket has effectively been taken away from the leading associate nations so that India can play a couple more inconsequential group games.

In Death of a Gentleman, Giles Clarke, England’s representative on the Executive Committee, staggeringly dismisses the prospect of T20 at the Olympics as it would disrupt the English season. Despite the fact that dozens of other countries would likely benefit from significant government funding of cricket, and that the Olympics only occurs over two weeks every four years.

Since the World Cup, Ireland have played just one rained-out ODI against a full member. Scotland, Afghanistan and the UAE haven’t even been given a single match.

Recently, Australia was humbled by a Northamptonshire side containing three Scots. Associate cricket has never been stronger but these gains will quickly fade while they are increasingly excluded from playing the big teams.

Like Collins and Kimber, I’m disillusioned with the way the game is being run. Their proposal is worth a look, as is the excellent Death of a Gentleman.