Sorry, “he” is no longer here. He is out looking for

 

Serious Minded Cricket Club Members to Do What Is Necessary to Rescue Club Cricket Back From “Hijackers”

 

 

Motion:  That league cricket should return to a wholly amateur status with no payments made for playing cricket for the club.

 

Argument for the motion:

 

  1. Payment to selected team members of cricket league clubs has:

 

    • forced clubs to look more to raising funds for paying selected team members than maintaining and developing the social atmosphere, and a sense of loyalty to both “mates”, cricket and to their club;
    • invariably attracted players “seeking a few bobs” on the backs of a bunch of amateurs wanting mainly to contribute to the fun, participation and competitiveness of the game.[1]
    • undermined the confidence and efforts of senior club members on whom rest the responsibility of voluntarily maintaining and managing clubs and their facilities;[2]
    • caused resentment and conflicts between player who on the whole give up their time freely to support the team, but now effectively support the “earnings” of semi-amateurs on the backs of cricket; and
    • an implied greater expectation in performance (with the bat and/or the ball) from paid members – which does not necessarily materialise.[3]

 

 

  1. Most club players (used to) join cricket clubs for a variety of reasons: including

a.             their love of the game; or

b.            their view of the progress the club can make and/or enable them to make; or

c.             the contribution they can voluntarily make to the club; or

d.            the perceived good and conducive atmosphere of the club – particularly if it is near their doorstep.

 

These and other valid reasons are important motivations that a sense of loyalty within clubs can generate and are usually generated. Some things, it was often thought, was more conducive than money.

 

  1. Payment for club membership and/or for participation in club activities (with all its associated values – including having an eye on the chairman’s daughter) should really be the major incentive for membership to a club. If the Club pays them, then it is “EMPLOYMENT”.

 

  1. “Importing in quasi-employed players” (or indeed paying them to persuade them to stay) undermines club loyalty by making such “imported” association within the club not dependent on the choice to join and pay for joining a “club of persons”, but on being paid by that club to be an “interim member”. We fail to recognise that County clubs are paid businesses and we should not, despite all the sweeteners, ape them – particularly if in doing so we  sell our “birthright” for a bit of “Astroturf”

 

  1. Amateur Cricket is the “king of sports” – with the capacity for individual and team performance; with the playing surfaces and atmospheric conditions offering additional challenges to enhance performance. Competition adds to its fierceness, but makes the “re-play” over a pint in the bar later the stuff that makes one looks forward to the next game and even next year. There is joy at being at the “top of the league”; and there is a certain intrinsic challenge to do the right things to stay there or to remove from the bottom. Either way, buying one’s way into “staying up” is hardly one of those “right things”. We have blurred the difference between amateurism and professionalism, and thus enabled the hijacking of club cricket.

 

  1. Club cricket was hijacked by the ECB (never mind Packer) as England was not doing well at cricket. The conclusion was that cricket had to be started earlier – in schools and in clubs – and that clubs should be the “nursery” for future English players – the future for England cricket.

 

  1. And there was I thinking I was giving up my Saturdays and Sundays, and perhaps one evening during the week because I love my club and camaraderie they offered me. Well, a “grumpy old man” I might be; but as someone closely connected with three different clubs in six different leagues – and still giving my time freely – I think I have the right to be “grumpy”. Show me the paid “amateur” cricketer seen at his club when cricket is not being played; who is helping to maintain the ground, and/or who has turned up on a Friday evening to help with the youths, or has turned up to account for his contribution to the club, and I will show you the exception that proves the rule. If you cannot or have never seen one such person, then I would ask you to support my motion (not here, but wherever you find yourself).

 

Arguments Against: You must be joking! (Not here!)

 

 

R u afraid of the “big bad wolf”?

Moseley CC at Lords without a single paid player in sight

 


[1] Most cricketers advanced naturally to the “next stage” through amateur cricketers; and traditionally on their way “back down” to league cricket, most adopted the attitude of “giving a little back” or rightly sought compensation for their coaching or other non-playing skills to clubs.

[2] Should these now seek payment for supporting and making league cricket possible? … or are they?

[3] Do un-performing paid members go to the 2nd team?