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:
- 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.
- undermined
the confidence and efforts of senior club members on whom rest the
responsibility of voluntarily maintaining and managing clubs and
their facilities;
- 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.
- 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.
- 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”.
- “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”
- 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.
- 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.
- 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”?

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Moseley CC at Lords without a single paid player in
sight

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