March 2010 Archives

WHEN Charles Lister Higginbotham was fetched from his cell in Birmingham prison in 1889, he was asked if he had anything to say.
"They ain't gave me nothink to eat," replied the condemned man. In his last hour of life, his only complaint was that he would go to the gallows on an empty stomach.

For Higginbotham, poor wretch, 121 years on, read the county championship which, in all probability, next week begins its final journey.

The championship season will start on April 9 when Warwickshire face Yorkshire at Edgbaston. The Bears' chances of winning the title for the seventh time are remote. Without Ian Bell and Jonathan Trott for much of the season, upper mid-table appears a realistic objective. Perhaps a bowling attack led by wrist-spinner Imran Tahir might force enough wins for a surprise tilt at the title. Let's hope so, because it's probably the last chance.

In 2011, the "championship" may well consist of three "conferences" (Don't you love that word? So much more gravitas than "groups") of six. More and more counties, seduced by the short-term till-clinging of Twenty20, are warming to the idea of making that format central to the county game. Emphasis has been shifting for some time and will continue to do so this summer when Warwickshire play 16 T20 games as the heart of the season, mid-to-late June, is handed over to that competition.

The championship? Well, a quarter of the Bears' programme will be played by May 7, shunted into spring before the weather warms up. Their four-day season reaches halfway after the home game with Somerset on June 7, after which Edgbaston's next championship fixture will be on July 20. After June 7, there will be 12 days championship cricket in Birmingham.

The message to punters from both the England and Wales Cricket Board and counties is clear. Come to championship matches if you like. If you don't like, who cares? That apathy from the top explains why, each year, a decreasing number of diehards bother.

It's the Higginbotham Syndrome. He's condemned anyway, so why feed him? Ambivalent to the championship, the ECB has neglected it for years. Making the itinerary a shambles. Denuding it of England players. Starving it of publicity. Allowing umpires to write off countless hours of play due to "dangerous" conditions (damp grass). And sitting idly by while counties allow match after match to meander to excruciatingly dull draws.

About that latter point, Warwickshire supporters know plenty. In 2008, seven of eight championship games at Edgbaston were drawn, several petering out in desperate fashion. Last season, six were drawn, several horribly drearily, the exceptions coming only from Durham's excellence as they won by ten wickets in June and Worcestershire's ineptitude as they folded by an innings in September.

All those stale-mates are no fun for the players either, of course. And Bears captain Ian Westwood would love to see more "positive result wickets" in championship games. Two rain-affected summers partly account for the recent surfeit of draws but flat pitches, prepared to order by groundsman Steve Rouse, are another and Westwood admits that players as well as spectators would be delighted for those orders to change.

"We will be looking to have positive result wickets this season," Westwood said. "Whether that is with the ball spinning a bit more or doing a bit more for the seamers we'll see but it's important that we get back to competing for victory in every game and forcing results. We want to be involved in matches that go close to the wire. That's how we are going to get high in the table.
"Certainly speaking for myself - and I know a few of the guys felt this way as well - it is not enjoyable to just play cricket when you are only playing for bonus points and personal stats. It's hard to motivate yourself and go out there and perform at the highest intensity when there is nothing on it."

With an increasing number of county chief executives turning to the notion of three six-strong conferences for 2011, if there is any will to preserve the status quo, it would be a good idea to manifest it in some entertainment.

"Towards the end of last season it was decided we were going to leave a bit more grass the pitch," Westwood said. "Having said that I'm sure we would have had more results if we hadn't lost pretty much a day's play out of most of our home games. Hopefully the weather will be good and we will be involved in a lot more exciting games."
"We will be looking to get more results this season though, having said that, the points system and the league being so tight makes contriving games pretty awkward, especially when you are in the process of trying to rebuild the team."

Quite. There's nothing that Westwood and the rest of the players on the county circuit can do to preserve the competition that has formed the backbone of English cricket since 1890. It's those above who have shamefully abused it by neglect. The biggest shame of all is, as the closest thing we have to Test cricket, the championship is still potentially what it always has been at its best: a high-calibre, intense, competitive, entertaining product.

Sorry, I was forgetting. First-class cricket? That's so twentieth century. Twenty20 is king.
The championship, like poor Higginbotham, can go hang.

Birmingham Mail Cricket Blog Quiz Question, no. 286.

Which Aston Villa match, played on a county cricket ground, is being described here?

"The pitch was moved nearer to the centre of the ground to give an opportunity of a better view of the game being obtained by spectators on the cricket pavilion side of the enclosure."

Prize for first correct answer: Ticket stub from Exeter City v Walsall, March 27, 2010.

The Parks cricket ground at Oxford, so magnificently set among the trees, is a glorious venue on a sunny day but this week, amidst cold breezes and drizzle under glowering skies, looked rather gloomy and anachronistic. Long gone are the days when county matches there, against strong university teams, attracted big crowds. These days, just a hardy handful of spectators bother, joined fleetingly for a few moments by joggers and dog-walkers as they pass. In 2010, England's selectors could find no more anonymous corner of English cricket in which to meet than The Parks, as they did yesterday.

A far cry from 1972 when Warwickshire took on the students there with a powerful side including a top five of Whitehouse, Abberley, Kanhai, MJK Smith and Amiss - and lost!
After the Bears sustained a first innings deficit, Kanhai (167 not out) and Smith (80) enabled captain AC Smith to set the students a target of 218 in just under three hours. They made it for the loss of eight wickets with two balls to spare.

In Oxford University's first innings, Michael Heal scored 124 not out. It proved to be his only first-class century.

Dank and subdued though the scene at the ground was this week, it will always be evocative to stand beside the little old pavilion, hitch up one's trousers, take in the sound of bat on ball and the sight of the trees shimmering along the pathways around the boundary and visualise all the true greats of the game who have played there.

Ladies and gentlemen there will be no cricket at The Parks today. Overnight rain has left the ground, on which the run-ups are not covered, far too wet for play.

Tea: Warwickshire 195 for 4 (43 overs). Ambrose 38, Ord 0.

Clarke hit 74 from 67 balls with 13 fours before slicing spinner Sam Agarwal to slip.

It's gone very dark with every possibility that it will soon pour down so they will not resume after tea so, vivid entertainment though this has been, I think I'll hit the M40.

Imran Tahir will land in Birmingham on Sunday and be available for the championship opener against Yorkshire and, all being well, the rest of the season

Warwickshire 156 for 3 (37 overs) Clarke 69, Ambrose 19.

Westwood was caught in the gully for 37 from 95 balls.

Clarke has 69 from 57 balls with 12 fours. The attendance is 20: 18 human beings and two dogs.

They have resumed in low-key fashion on very soggy grass under very heavy cloud.

Warwickshire 88 for 2 (21 overs) Westwood 29, Clarke 22.

Chopra fell lbw to Barnard for 21. Troughton was caught behind off Barnard for 10. Clarke has clumped his way to 22 of 11 balls.

Rain has stopped play

Warwickshire 36 for 0 (13 overs) Westwood 17, Chopra 17.

In a ramshackle, dripping hut just to the left of the pavilion, England's selectors are meeting to pick their squad for the Twenty20 World Cup.

Good morning ladies and gentlemen. Remarkably, there is cricket going on as the rain which is sweeping the country hold offs for now at The Parks.

It's very gloomy though and the field is saturated, far too wet for cricket really, and Warwickshire wouldn't send their bowlers out there but Oxford UCCE have said they'll have a bowl so the Bears are batting.

Team: Westwood, Chopra, Troughton, Ambrose, Clarke, Ord, Botha, Woakes, Carter, Tahir, Miller.

Warwickshire 23 for 0: 7 overs. Westwood 12, Chopra 11.

During the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries Southend had a prosperous oyster industry. But there was trouble in 1724 when Kentish fishermen claimed that the Southend oyster beds were common, not private, property, and 500 of them raided and pillaged the beds over a period of several days.

The invaders were eventually seen off from the beach by local constables and withdrew their boats. When the issue reached the courtroom the judiciary took a firm stance against the raids. The court ruled that the oyster beds were the private property of the people of Southend and imposed upon the raiders heavy fines which took numerous Kentish fishing villages many years to pay off.

Essex 1 Kent 0.