Pride & Prejudice - story of English Cricket & Great Romance: Broad, Bairstow & Hamilton-Brown

Do people really describe international cricket as "sexy"?  I understand the idea that cricket seduces spectators and that once you fall in love with cricket you never leave it and rarely cheat on it.  Under the summer sun and panama hats the game captures you, not able to look away, you watch every swing, every sweep, every turn and every spin.  It is a passionate love affair with a sport so deeply English that you're proud to be a countryman (or woman!).  So why, in a country so in love with cricket, have very few of us been seduced by the domestic game?

To be seduced by the county game one has to go looking for it.  County sides are playing hard-to-get and they're getting even harder.  Domestic cricket isn't the 'big hitter' for online reporting and county sides don't sell newspapers, so naturally their achievements are slowly becoming less and less significant with many games in empty grounds with no atmosphere.  How hard must that be for young English players, who dream of one day playing for their country to the roar of the Barmy-Army.  The economic troubles of county sides contribute to this, making the situation appear worse, clubs can't pour money into advertising and media and must instead rely on die-hard cricket fan's passing their love for a domestic club down to the next generation.  This isn't working.  

International cricket has drawn in so many new lovers over the past few years, me being one of them.  Individual brilliance and team effort has seduced me and so many others into a love affair with cricket.  It's now part of my summer and a part I look forward too.  How has the England team succeeded in romance where the domestic clubs have failed?  Exposure.  International cricket sells, particularly the development and achievement of young players, given the chance to be followed, to seduce and to enthrall.  The greatest example is the rise of Stuart Broad.  Entering the scene in 2006 at the age of 20, the youngster never left and  has risen to become one of the finest cricketers of his generation.  Stuart Broad being exposed at 20 and becoming a semi-regular appearance in the England T20, ODI and test squads allowed spectators and media to follow and fall in love with this player.  This is what domestic cricket lacks, the opportunity for us to fall in love with players whilst they develop and expand, whilst they seduce us.  

There are so many 'Stuart Broad's' out there, every county team has one, but with such a strong England squad there's no opportunity to captivate.  A player like Jonny Bairstow, wowed in his 'out-of-the-park' style innings during the first ODI against India last summer, could be the next great romantic, but a space in the England side so hard to come by, players must now rely on love at first sight.  This is difficult and though so memorable to watch, Bairstow hasn't made me fall in love, hasn't seduced me to his playing, hasn't made me turn to Yorkshire to watch more.  Cricket writers, both amateur and professional, need to identify the 'Stuart Broads' and give them a platform to make us fall in love with the game all over again.  

For me it's Surrey.  A side with young players, it's a perfect place to go looking for cricket romance.  Rory Hamilton-Brown, the youngest Surrey captain for 138 years, is just one of their 'Stuart Broads's'.  The astonishing thing is that Hamilton-Brown has never had a first class England cap, no opportunity to seduce the widest audience of International cricket.  It is up to the media, the journalists and the bloggers to bring the domestic teams out of their hard-to-get days, to put them out there to allow the cricket and the cricketers to sell their game.  Money isn't needed for advertising, a subtle injection of romance is all that's required to allow Hamilton-Brown and his peers to begin their romance, a romance that would bring in more spectators, sell more seats and provide more income.  This is the England of the future, lets allow ourselves to fall in love now and we all know, once a player and their team have seduced us - we never leave.

Surrey's ground the Kia Oval during England v India 2011 test series.  All five days of this test match were sold out.  

Surrey's ground, the Kia Oval showing large numbers of empty seats for a domestic match.  

  

England's best Soap Opera: the Comeback Kings

Firstly, please excuse my long absence from the blogging scene.  Just because I haven't been writing doesn't mean I haven't been watching! What a winter.

I think my views of the Pakistan series are pretty well voiced.  I felt that England should have taken more risks, played around with their failing batting order and looked outside of the box.  Evidently my radical thinking (echoed by the great Bob Willis on SkySports) was not the way Flower and Strauss wanted to play.  Cowering behind the sofa, I couldn't watch and frankly I didn't want to. 

Bring on the ODI series.  Not usually the cry from an England fan, particularly when the opposition is Pakistan, however where on earth did the form come from?  Whitewash victory is just what we needed to reconcile the awful test performance.  

As I am writing England are still world number one, but boy did they make it interesting.  Under the watchful eye of huge traveling support, the England test cricket soap opera began.  I seem to be attracted to teams who like to keep things interesting, as a Liverpool supporter I'm used to 'expecting the unexpected' and when it all looks too good to be true, it often is.  During the first Sri Lankan test, my very proud half South African friend, Jacob Kaye, knew as well as I did that if England didn't win, South Africa would steal our world number one spot.  Although Jacob would never admit it, the smile on his face made me realize that if we lost our ranking he'd never let me hear the end of it and that my university cricket conversations would be ruined....at least till the summer!

England left it till the very last minute to save my cricket conversations.  Sri Lanka taking the early advantage, England had to win the second test.  Why, oh why do the teams I support always have to be down and out before they bring something back?  The comeback came from a surprising source, KP.  Pietersen, who has played dismally against spin all winter and who's presence at the crease changes the attitude of the batsman at the other end (I forget exactly when, but I have recollections of Cook's attitude changing when KP entered the arena , Cook was noticeably worried for his team-mate at the other end) and it was not the obvious 'comeback king'.  But, his 151  from 165 balls sparked real promise, a player who has struggled so much with spin, particularly left-handed spin, is the one who can dig deep enough and perform - a really cricketer!  Granted, Pieterson fell to an LBW, but his performance was inspired.

I still got stick from Jacob, who reminded me that KP is a South African rather than a true Englishman - but I could cope with that.  As long as KP and our other 'South African' players have  lions on their chest, I don't care much about the 'are they really English?' chirps.  Lions are lions.

Swann finished the job with a tremendous 6-wicket haul, England could breathe a sigh of relief.  With our world number one ranking in tact, it was only the batsman's egos that were broken.  We had survived a winter storm that was both unnecessary and embarrassing.

Hopefully this summer will be more like the last.  Our form at home is dramatically better than our form in the subcontinent.  But, South Africa (tests, ODIs and T20) will be tough and with the West Indies (tests and T20) and Australia (T20) also visiting, every fan is shouting: "Get your act together England - you're not the football team!"