Players declare war on ECB
PCA
A Sunday Telegraph poll* has cast a damning indictment on the ability of the ECB. Just 11% of current professionals feel that the ECB is acting in the best interests of the game. The Professional Cricketers Association (PCA), in a press release, has called for the establishment of a Professional Game Board to oversee the sorts of decisions that the ECB has been getting wrong.
What are the players unhappy about? Here are some excerpts from the PCA statement:
It is obvious that the demands of trying to govern the whole gamut of our sport from the England Team down to the smallest grass roots operation is too much for the current structure and personnel.
The dismissal of player views and the recommendations of the ECB Cricket Committee that a 50 over competition be retained within the structure for 2010 to reflect international cricket; opting instead for a new 40 over contest weeks after the announcement of the scrapping of the Pro40 contest.
Without losing sight of the difficulty of finding the correct balance, the PCA are concerned that recent decisions and processes have not been in the best long term interest of English cricket, but have been made for short term economic gain and to cover deficiencies in the ECB’s ability to operate effectively at the top table at the ICC.
ECB - more controversy
Strong words, and about time. Over the past 12 months, the ECB has proven again and again that it is not capable of making the correct decisions. Stanford, the Moores/Pietersen debacle, the farcical to-ing and fro-ing all summer over the domestic structure and, particularly, P20. Even before this, there has been controversy over the loss of free-to-air broadcasting of England home international matches.
How serious are the PCA in their statement? Are they simply aiming to gain leverage within future debates or are they seeking a wider reform? If it is the latter, the support of the players, and the inevitable storm from the media and former players such as Michael Vaughan and Nasser Hussain, will not be enough.
They will need to get the backing of a significant number of the counties, and therein lies the difficulty. The likes of Giles Clarke, ECB chairman, and David Collier, it’s chief executive, have their backgrounds within the counties and have used their support previously to withstand the media storm over the Stanford debate. Indeed, Clarke was almost unanimously re-elected as chairman after the Stanford deal had collapsed so humiliatingly. That said, there are dissenting voices such as Rod Bransgrove of Hampshire, but the ECB can happily use the self-interested backing of the counties to ride out any publicity storm.
The majority of counties are complicit in the short-termism that says that money takes precedence over cricket – it was they who ratified the scrapping of the 50-over FP Trophy in favour of the 40-over league. Expect a brusque response from Giles Clarke (possibly including the phrase “we have just won the Ashes you know”), who will be confident that the ECB and the counties can carry on regardless in their own little world.
All of this neglects the views of the most important people – the fans and spectators who open their wallets. Do you want a strong international team or to favour the county game first? What type of cricket do you want to pay your money to watch? Are the PCA just trying to stir up trouble? Post your opinions through the comments.
* See the original article at the Telegraph.
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