There is too much cricket

Cameron Ponsonby argues that greedy administrators of cricket will have to put the fork down.

Roald Dahls ’children’s classic Matilda Bruce Bogtrotter is a boy who loves nothing more than eating chocolate cake. He loves eating the cake so much that as a punishment for eating someone else’s cake when he wasn’t meant to, he was given a cake that is about the size of the earth and that he makes himself. What is Brucey’s problem? You love cake.

And Bruce loves cake. So he retreats. Enjoyed it at first, then ate a little more than healthy and then a little more, which makes him feel a little restless before hitting the wall. This is too much cake. At this point, his admiring classmates jump to their feet.

You can do it Brucey! Finish the cake! Eat everyone!

Drunk through a combination of e-numbers and adrenaline, Bruce fights through and finishes every bite. The audience goes wild and Bruce raises an empty plate that has no noticeable value, but that means everything to him above his head at the party. As he begins the tour of honor, the cameras play for the experts.

If we know two things about Bruce. That’s it, he’s a warrior. He will not give up. And that two, he loves chocolate cake. In fact, here he is… Bruce! .Bruce! Well done today, can you tell us how it felt?

Yeah, I mean, it was really hard there for a while. Thanks to Miss Trunchbull, she is a hell rival. But I just had to dig really deep and… look… I have to remind myself that I’m really lucky to be able to do what I do. I love chocolate cake and I just want to improve every day and give these fans what they deserve.

But when the lights in the arena go out and Bruce starts heading home. He begins to wonder why he doesn’t feel lucky. His passion is becoming a burden, and short-term records will be replaced by long-term lows, mainly associated with diabetes.

For too long, the answer to all cricket problems has simply been to get more of it. Trials are sold out, so there are more. A day at ODI? Yeah, then go on. T20s? Love the T20. Give ten.

Cricket fans love cricket and cricket players love playing cricket. Its combination has seen governing bodies increasingly financially dependent on the international game schedule. Let them play cricket and let them eat cake. Strategy sorted, money made. Back of Marie Antoinette.

In reality, the breaking point had been reached long before the news of Ben Stokes, who took an endless break from the sport, came yesterday. Top international players have spent 250 nights a year in yonki hotels. It’s 70 percent of your life in the bright spotlight of top sports and 70 percent of your life outside the comforts and fortress of your family and loved ones. If anything, an international cricketer should receive a health warning as much as a salary.

As Rory Dollard of PA points out, administrators * occasionally * flirt by grabbing this nettle and then run a mile when they see the numbers. Well what now?

Also: English plays too much cricket.

Sorry sponsors, grounds, commercial partners. It doesn’t work, it’s broken and it needs to be stopped.

Administrators * occasionally * flirt by grabbing this nettle and then run for miles when they see the numbers. Well what now? https://t.co/ndKzsfIUiZ

– Rory Dollard (@thervd) July 30, 2021

England has not opted for a full-fledged test for XI years when the India series begins because of the practice of rest and rotation, which is admirable in its intention, but which is also in itself a recognition of the problem at hand. By taking players off the shooting line and planning more and more matches, the ECB is furiously rescuing the water from a sinking ship while holding the hose and filling it at the same time. Something has to be given.

We know that the schedule has been unhealthy for players for a long time, but financial justifications must also be put forward. At what point will the economic value of English matches begin to decline if the first option can never be chosen? Cricket played by more low-quality players degrades the quality of cricket and ultimately makes the same economic choice.

It would be unfair to put this entirely on the ECB’s door. It is a problem in world cricket that has been exacerbated by the pandemic. The IPL has now booked September 20 as the day to continue the race and October 15 as the final day. The start date is just six days after the end of the England-India tour and the end date is just two days before the start of the T20 World Cup. For every English player who plays in all three, it goes straight to the Australian Ash Biosafety Bubble, which families may not be allowed to join.

The game works as if it doesn’t control the root cause of the problem. Games must be canceled and matches reduced. Two possible examples, The Big Bash and IPL, are currently playing double rounds, with 54 game block stages taking the races from eight teams to four. This is an elite sport. If you can’t be in the top half of the table while playing all the other sides of the tournament when you don’t deserve progress. On the other hand, circumvention makes large sums. So take the cake down to Brucey.

The whole game knows that the current situation is unsustainable. Yet the sad truth is that before it becomes financially problematic, change is unlikely to happen. The game requires fewer matches and only then can crickets finally eat their cake and eat it.