The 'private school' thing is a bit misleading in Cricketing terms.
Yes, we have had our share of private school boys in the team - but this includes our leading run scorer in Alistair Cook as well as Andrew Strauss, can hardly claim either of them are soft!
It also includes the likes of Stuart Broad - with the small matter of 400 Test wickets - who went to Oakham School especially because of its excellent cricketing facilities as did the Curran brothers who both went to Wellington College on the back of their excellent Cricketing talent.
This also happens in other countries too, the likes of Rabada in South Africa who went to a private school in Cape Town as did most of the other SA players.
The same thing happens in Australia with Rugby where the elite private schools take the Aboriginal and Islander kids away from their homes in their early teens and give them 'scholarships' to their schools so they can have them in their first XV, this happened with Will Genia and Quade Cooper and plenty of others.
Yes but how many are there who would love to be given the opportunity to train and play with the best facilities? Are we saying that there isn't an Archer in one of our inner City schools? An Archer that probably will never get to play cricket simply because our national sport is football not cricket, a sport that isn't even played now in most state schools.
In South Africa Cricket is a national sport and they will then hand pick the promising youngsters and send them to private schools. They are taught to play hard and not protected in the same way as our boys are.
Off the top of my head I believe that Cook, Roy, Buttler, Broad, Root, Ballance, Curran, Jennings, Malan, Billings, Roland-Jones, Jordan, Crane and Overton all went to private schools. They weren't plucked from the streets of London - in fact at least five of them were actually initially educated overseas and enticed here on the back of the promise of funding.
Broad seems to be a relative rarity, as most of our faster bowlers tend to be state educated, fast bowling isn't something "posh boys" do
Steven Finn, for example, went to a decent (partially selective) comprehensive in Hertfordshire. Interestingly our former loanee Nathan Byrne also went there, as did Tom Caroll. I think all the Durham bred players (Stokes, Wood, Plunkett etc) are state educated as well
So, these soft, pampered private school boys are fine when they are beating Australia at home in 2005, 2009, 2013 and 2015 - and away from home in 2010/11 - it's only when they're getting flogged in 2017/18 that their background and education becomes a problem?
Can someone please tell me how going to a state school helped Graham Gooch when Alderman was tearing him apart in 1989 or it helped Freddie Flintoff when he was captaining a 5-0 loss in 2006/7?
How many of the England Rugby World Cup Rugby winning side in 2003 went to private school? Lawrence Dallaglio went to Ampleforth and is one of the hardest, toughest bastards to ever play the game.
Our failures in Australia have nothing to do with toughness or effort - England worked their balls off in every game no matter how bad things were, they were simply not good enough in Australian conditions.
The failures in Australia were because we had too many 'dashers' in the batting line-up who could not grind out big 150+ scores and eschew unnecessary risk-taking and because our system does not allow for the production of 90Mph fast bowlers or high class wrist spinners that are needed in these conditions.
As you saw in Adelaide when the ball is moving then England were bang in the game - when it stopped moving they were out of it again.
Of course England would be better off if the game were played more widely in state schools and there were a bigger pool of players to choose from.
However, those players would STILL be playing in a County set-up that rewards bowlers like Darren Stevens at Kent that bowl 75Mph and nibble it off the seam for 50 wickets per season and batters that crack a quick 70 before they get a ball with their name on it and don't know how to play a long Test innings.
I think Broad's chances were shaped somewhat by having a dad who played test cricket. Private schools have far better facilities, opportunities, they employ former pros as teachers. It's not impossible for someone at a state school if they are interested in cricket to get involved of course... Some of my mates (from both types of school) play club cricket, and have done since an early age. It's about giving people the chance to see if they like it and an opportunity to try it... If they like it there's bound to be a club they can join. Even in the cities. Don't forget there's also the Asian league. Lots of potential England cricketers in the UK aren't part of ECB clubs. I know one guy did play some games for Essex though.
Much more could be done at grass roots if the money and desire was there.
So, these soft, pampered private school boys are fine when they are beating Australia at home in 2005, 2009, 2013 and 2015 - and away from home in 2010/11 - it's only when they're getting flogged in 2017/18 that their background and education becomes a problem?
Can someone please tell me how going to a state school helped Graham Gooch when Alderman was tearing him apart in 1989 or it helped Freddie Flintoff when he was captaining a 5-0 loss in 2006/7?
How many of the England Rugby World Cup Rugby winning side in 2003 went to private school? Lawrence Dallaglio went to Ampleforth and is one of the hardest, toughest bastards to ever play the game.
Our failures in Australia have nothing to do with toughness or effort - England worked their balls off in every game no matter how bad things were, they were simply not good enough in Australian conditions.
The failures in Australia were because we had too many 'dashers' in the batting line-up who could not grind out big 150+ scores and eschew unnecessary risk-taking and because our system does not allow for the production of 90Mph fast bowlers or high class wrist spinners that are needed in these conditions.
As you saw in Adelaide when the ball is moving then England were bang in the game - when it stopped moving they were out of it again.
Of course England would be better off if the game were played more widely in state schools and there were a bigger pool of players to choose from.
However, those players would STILL be playing in a County set-up that rewards bowlers like Darren Stevens at Kent that bowl 75Mph and nibble it off the seam for 50 wickets per season and batters that crack a quick 70 before they get a ball with their name on it and don't know how to play a long Test innings.
Not disagreeing that the county system is set up to suit medium pace "clever" bowlers like Stevens and Masters. The fact that red ball cricket is now going to be played in April/May and September only serves to promote that.
There are potential quick bowlers out there and wrist spinners but we will never, potentially, find them for the reasons already stated. As for having too many "dashers" where do our youngsters learn to "bat and bat"? State school cricket, even if it is available, is limited to 20 over slogs and in club youth cricket players have to retire, up until the age of U15, at 25 or even as little as 20. My son had never been given the opportunity to bat for more than about seven or eight overs 'til he played county cricket and never kept for more than 20 overs 'til he represented Kent.
The only place where that differs are, once again, the private schools where they do play 35-40 over cricket. Those private schools are also the "centres of influence" with former county and international cricketers now the masters in charge of cricket and having a vested interest to promote their kids. School and Club youth cricket equally only runs from May to mid July anyway and with the elongated football season/bad weather here, our kids really only learn to literally play at the game.
If we really do not believe that we are limiting ourselves through the lack of opportunity then just answer this one question - how many of the current winning European and World football teams went to private schools? Then take a look at the current England U19 cricket team and ask the same question.
AA does have a very valid point re private/state schools. However, this is not totally the reason for the poor performance of England abroad over the past few decades. As mentioned on a few occasions in the past, my 13 year old son goes to a state school in Cape Town, there are approx. 70 boys in his year. They run 3 school cricket teams every week in every year - that means about 50 per cent of the boys in his year are actively involved in playing cricket for the school every weekend. Successive governments in UK have decided that cricket (and maybe sport in general) is low in the priority scale, and therefore the comparative percentage of kids playing cricket in England is going to be (vastly) lower than the example given in South Africa. The symptoms being shown in South Africa now of several black players emerging into the Test team shows the effect of mass participation at a lower level. There is a reverse effect at the moment in SA to England , where more kids are able to play and, above all, cricket (and sport in general) is very important to SA schools- whether state or private. This reduces the pool of potential talent (as AA states) quite significantly. I wonder what percentage of boys were playing cricket in state schools in Boycotts/Illingworths era in comparison to now? . That is the primary reason for Englands demise. Ok, conditions and time of 'summer' of playing country games allowing the likes of Stevens to bowl his 70mph dobbers and be successful isn't going to help, but its not a major issue in the overall scheme.
Sadly, my view is its become irreversible. We will continue to be a 2nd rate Cricket playing nation.
Think this is all a massive over reaction to what was an admittedly disappointing series.
Its not an over reaction Callum, its the regular quadrennial post mortem of Englands failings. TBH, I don't want a situation like this again in four years time. If something can be done to at least make us competitive in Australia in 4 years , then now is the best time to plant the seed. IMO the first thing that should be done is Mr Bayliss should be relieved of his duties - his (non) decisions on this tour have shown that he has no real authority or respect with the players - get rid.
Twenty test series were played in the 2017 season (covers 16/17 and 17/18 Australian summers).
Fourteen were won by the home team, two were drawn and four were won by the away team.
South Africa won in New Zealand (1-0) Pakistan won in the West Indies (2-1) India won in Sri Lanka (3-0) West Indies won in Zimbabwe (1-0) Bangladesh drew in Sri Lanka (1-1) Australia drew in Bangladesh (1-1)
If we win the upcoming series in New Zealand, all this will be forgotten and we can start looking forward to the English summer and a couple of comfortable series wins on home soil.
Just to put what I am saying in perspective and to help people understand what can go on at county level, this is the make up of last season's Kent age group for my son, Seb:
9/15 in the squad came from the Canterbury area so just 6 came from the other 7 areas in the county. 9/15 went to private schools with the other 6 all at grammar schools. Of the 6 not from Canterbury, Seb was the only one not to be at a private school. So, from 7/8ths of the county (and that is a massive area) there was just one boy selected who didn't go to a private school.
This is probably an extreme situation and would not be the same for all age groups. However, the bias from two main sources is prevalent in most i.e. the area(s) that the main centres of influence are from and from the schools that provide the best resource and coaches that feed into the county system.
It's not rocket science that if fewer schools play cricket, we will have fewer players coming through.
How many schools these days have the use of two or three cricket pitches to run teams ?
I didn't know about these 'retire after 25 runs' rules. Maybe they should play 8 a side, giving the batsmen time in the middle without have 8 fielders cutting off the outfield which encourages slogs rather than placement, and allows the bowlers to get more overs in?
I think there is a misconception that all the first class cricketers that attend private / public schools are stereotypical 'posh boys.'
Daniel Bell-Drummond was an ordinary Catford boy whose cricketing talent earned him a scholarship to Millfield. I believe Sam Northeast of Ashford earned a scholarship to Harrow similarly even if Rob Key does call him 'Chumley.'
Just two examples from Kent off the top off my head. I'm sure there are similar examples from other counties and, as has been mentioned already, most Durham players are State educated. The same applies to Yorkshire or certainly did in the recent past.
The sad fact is that few State schools play much cricket anymore so talented youngsters are reliant on a good local club or the scholarship route unless, of course, they do happen to be 'posh boys.'
I think there is a misconception that all the first class cricketers that attend private / public schools are stereotypical 'posh boys.'
Daniel Bell-Drummond was an ordinary Catford boy whose cricketing talent earned him a scholarship to Millfield. I believe Sam Northeast of Ashford earned a scholarship to Harrow similarly even if Rob Key does call him 'Chumley.'
Just two examples from Kent off the top off my head. I'm sure there are similar examples from other counties and, as has been mentioned already, most Durham players are State educated. The same applies to Yorkshire or certainly did in the recent past.
The sad fact is that few State schools play much cricket anymore so talented youngsters are reliant on a good local club or the scholarship route unless, of course, they do happen to be 'posh boys.'
And also the drive and desire of someone, typically a parent, to bring them to the game in the first place, because that obviously wont be the state school. I would expect that 90 per cent of kids at 13 years old in England have never played cricket full stop. Compare that with the example of my son in South Africa where I would think 90 per cent have.
I think there is a slight overreaction, as England haven't been rubbish for years. Indeed we've reached number 1 in the test rankings not that long ago, and it's only 7 years since we absolutely hammered Australia away
There have been signs of decline in the last few years though, and much of that has been down to the emphasis on white ball cricket where we used to be poor. Now we have an excellent team with exciting batsmen who can slog as well as the best Australians, Indians etc. I bet our ODI team is very competitive against the Australians next week
This has come at a price though, with T20 matches being at the heart of the summer and 4 day matches shunted to when it's cold and wet, we'll continue to produce more batsmen like Buttler, Roy, Hales and Billings, and fewer like Cook or Collingwood
Agree with your comments KAF, however, I cant get this overreaction bit. We got beat trounced 4-0 - there should be a post mortem. The point about white-ball is sorta correct in that it has affected other countries too in terms of batting , however other countries have 1) Quick bowlers and 2) Spinners who can spin the ball. !
Twenty test series were played in the 2017 season (covers 16/17 and 17/18 Australian summers).
Fourteen were won by the home team, two were drawn and four were won by the away team.
South Africa won in New Zealand (1-0) Pakistan won in the West Indies (2-1) India won in Sri Lanka (3-0) West Indies won in Zimbabwe (1-0) Bangladesh drew in Sri Lanka (1-1) Australia drew in Bangladesh (1-1)
If we win the upcoming series in New Zealand, all this will be forgotten and we can start looking forward to the English summer and a couple of comfortable series wins on home soil.
Do you think we’ll win in New Zealand?
No. Their bowling attack is better than ours and the batting is comparable
I think there is a misconception that all the first class cricketers that attend private / public schools are stereotypical 'posh boys.'
Daniel Bell-Drummond was an ordinary Catford boy whose cricketing talent earned him a scholarship to Millfield. I believe Sam Northeast of Ashford earned a scholarship to Harrow similarly even if Rob Key does call him 'Chumley.'
Just two examples from Kent off the top off my head. I'm sure there are similar examples from other counties and, as has been mentioned already, most Durham players are State educated. The same applies to Yorkshire or certainly did in the recent past.
The sad fact is that few State schools play much cricket anymore so talented youngsters are reliant on a good local club or the scholarship route unless, of course, they do happen to be 'posh boys.'
And a lot of local clubs are folding simply because they don't have the colts coming through - if you don't play cricket at school the chances are that you won't play it at club. The other aspect is that fewer and fewer people prepared to give up their time to volunteer at club level - administrators, umpires, scorers, coaches etc etc are all needed.
A decade or so ago a club like RACS had five saturday sides and two or three sunday teams. They cease to exist now. Very sad.
Who really gives a toss about the World Cup? Our authorities forever seem to be planning for the next one.
Judging by this, I would expect about 2.2 billion 'give a toss'. I wouldn't mind betting that number of viewers in UK watching the WC would far outstrip the number watching , lets say, a home Test series.
Bayliss to step down after 2019 Ashes. 2 years too late in my opinion
What that also means is after the 2019 World Cup! That's what he's been brought in for, and sadly it's been at the expense of the Test team
World cup is from 30 May to 14 July 2019
I bet Bayliss cares more about that than the Ashes afterwards. England winning it for the first time would be a major feather in his cap (and to be fair a major achievement for English cricket as well)
Bayliss was brought in to improve the limited overs results and by that measurement, he's done a decent job.
Think the ideal scenario would be to have a test coach to help reinvigorate things away from home and keep Bayliss on as a limited overs coach but I can't see that happening. Does any country have that kind of set up?
Twenty test series were played in the 2017 season (covers 16/17 and 17/18 Australian summers).
Fourteen were won by the home team, two were drawn and four were won by the away team.
South Africa won in New Zealand (1-0) Pakistan won in the West Indies (2-1) India won in Sri Lanka (3-0) West Indies won in Zimbabwe (1-0) Bangladesh drew in Sri Lanka (1-1) Australia drew in Bangladesh (1-1)
If we win the upcoming series in New Zealand, all this will be forgotten and we can start looking forward to the English summer and a couple of comfortable series wins on home soil.
Do you think we’ll win in New Zealand?
Evenly matched series that could go either way. The ball will do more for us in those conditions and we'll be able to take twenty wickets at least.
Bayliss to step down after 2019 Ashes. 2 years too late in my opinion
What that also means is after the 2019 World Cup! That's what he's been brought in for, and sadly it's been at the expense of the Test team
World cup is from 30 May to 14 July 2019
I bet Bayliss cares more about that than the Ashes afterwards. England winning it for the first time would be a major feather in his cap (and to be fair a major achievement for English cricket as well)
It would be about bloody time too. So many false dawns. Oz will obviously start favourites, being holders, and India you would expect will be close, but no doubt will be without their talisman , Dhoni, who will be 38 by time series comes around.
So 2 billion odd watch the World Cup? Big deal, as I asked who really cares, and I mean cricket lovers. 1.9 billion of those were probably in India and the rest Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. ODI cricket has been killing the game for years and now good old 20/20 is ready to finish it off.
I think there is a misconception that all the first class cricketers that attend private / public schools are stereotypical 'posh boys.'
Daniel Bell-Drummond was an ordinary Catford boy whose cricketing talent earned him a scholarship to Millfield. I believe Sam Northeast of Ashford earned a scholarship to Harrow similarly even if Rob Key does call him 'Chumley.'
Just two examples from Kent off the top off my head. I'm sure there are similar examples from other counties and, as has been mentioned already, most Durham players are State educated. The same applies to Yorkshire or certainly did in the recent past.
The sad fact is that few State schools play much cricket anymore so talented youngsters are reliant on a good local club or the scholarship route unless, of course, they do happen to be 'posh boys.'
Northeast did get his Harrow Scholership having attended Wellesley House, a boarding prep school...
But still I take your point, and it is a shame more state schools don't play cricket these days.
So 2 billion odd watch the World Cup? Big deal, as I asked who really cares, and I mean cricket lovers. 1.9 billion of those were probably in India and the rest Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. ODI cricket has been killing the game for years and now good old 20/20 is ready to finish it off.
Killing it off? Has test cricket really been going downhill since 1971? There has been one day cricket for exactly a third of test cricket's life. The first two thirds must have been fricking awesome. Remember them well?
So 2 billion odd watch the World Cup? Big deal, as I asked who really cares, and I mean cricket lovers. 1.9 billion of those were probably in India and the rest Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. ODI cricket has been killing the game for years and now good old 20/20 is ready to finish it off.
so, 1.9 billion are not cricket lovers then?
As I said, 'I wouldn't mind betting that number of viewers in UK watching the WC would far outstrip the number watching , lets say, a home Test series.' - Sky's viewing numbers for The Saturday of first test v Australia 2015 was 467k, on the friday it was 350k.
You would know, that aside from England,and maybe Oz, Test cricket is dying throughout the world. The appetite for it is waning, as borne out by things such as KAFs comment above saying that India came to SA a week before the first Test , and the impending introduction of 4 day Tests. Its being squeezed by more entertaining and faster forms. The key is that the most powerful cricketing nation on the planet, India has no real attendances to speak of when most Test nations come to town- and when they decide they no longer have the appetite to play Test circket against Zim, or Sri Lanka, or Bangla Desh or New Zealand then that will have huge ripples through the cricket world.
Its stupid to believe that Test Cricket is thriving, its an anachronistic view, whether you like it or not. Its a bit like my widely stated rant about Charlton fans would rather watch Aldershot at The Valley with 3k than watch Athletico Madrid at The Peninsular with 40k. Yawn.
Move on, progress, adapt,move with the times and you never know, you might suddenly change your antiquated views. I know you wont, but maybe give it a little peek, you never know, you might like it !
Comments
In South Africa Cricket is a national sport and they will then hand pick the promising youngsters and send them to private schools. They are taught to play hard and not protected in the same way as our boys are.
Off the top of my head I believe that Cook, Roy, Buttler, Broad, Root, Ballance, Curran, Jennings, Malan, Billings, Roland-Jones, Jordan, Crane and Overton all went to private schools. They weren't plucked from the streets of London - in fact at least five of them were actually initially educated overseas and enticed here on the back of the promise of funding.
Steven Finn, for example, went to a decent (partially selective) comprehensive in Hertfordshire. Interestingly our former loanee Nathan Byrne also went there, as did Tom Caroll. I think all the Durham bred players (Stokes, Wood, Plunkett etc) are state educated as well
Can someone please tell me how going to a state school helped Graham Gooch when Alderman was tearing him apart in 1989 or it helped Freddie Flintoff when he was captaining a 5-0 loss in 2006/7?
How many of the England Rugby World Cup Rugby winning side in 2003 went to private school? Lawrence Dallaglio went to Ampleforth and is one of the hardest, toughest bastards to ever play the game.
Our failures in Australia have nothing to do with toughness or effort - England worked their balls off in every game no matter how bad things were, they were simply not good enough in Australian conditions.
The failures in Australia were because we had too many 'dashers' in the batting line-up who could not grind out big 150+ scores and eschew unnecessary risk-taking and because our system does not allow for the production of 90Mph fast bowlers or high class wrist spinners that are needed in these conditions.
As you saw in Adelaide when the ball is moving then England were bang in the game - when it stopped moving they were out of it again.
Of course England would be better off if the game were played more widely in state schools and there were a bigger pool of players to choose from.
However, those players would STILL be playing in a County set-up that rewards bowlers like Darren Stevens at Kent that bowl 75Mph and nibble it off the seam for 50 wickets per season and batters that crack a quick 70 before they get a ball with their name on it and don't know how to play a long Test innings.
Much more could be done at grass roots if the money and desire was there.
There are potential quick bowlers out there and wrist spinners but we will never, potentially, find them for the reasons already stated. As for having too many "dashers" where do our youngsters learn to "bat and bat"? State school cricket, even if it is available, is limited to 20 over slogs and in club youth cricket players have to retire, up until the age of U15, at 25 or even as little as 20. My son had never been given the opportunity to bat for more than about seven or eight overs 'til he played county cricket and never kept for more than 20 overs 'til he represented Kent.
The only place where that differs are, once again, the private schools where they do play 35-40 over cricket. Those private schools are also the "centres of influence" with former county and international cricketers now the masters in charge of cricket and having a vested interest to promote their kids. School and Club youth cricket equally only runs from May to mid July anyway and with the elongated football season/bad weather here, our kids really only learn to literally play at the game.
If we really do not believe that we are limiting ourselves through the lack of opportunity then just answer this one question - how many of the current winning European and World football teams went to private schools? Then take a look at the current England U19 cricket team and ask the same question.
As mentioned on a few occasions in the past, my 13 year old son goes to a state school in Cape Town, there are approx. 70 boys in his year. They run 3 school cricket teams every week in every year - that means about 50 per cent of the boys in his year are actively involved in playing cricket for the school every weekend. Successive governments in UK have decided that cricket (and maybe sport in general) is low in the priority scale, and therefore the comparative percentage of kids playing cricket in England is going to be (vastly) lower than the example given in South Africa. The symptoms being shown in South Africa now of several black players emerging into the Test team shows the effect of mass participation at a lower level. There is a reverse effect at the moment in SA to England , where more kids are able to play and, above all, cricket (and sport in general) is very important to SA schools- whether state or private.
This reduces the pool of potential talent (as AA states) quite significantly. I wonder what percentage of boys were playing cricket in state schools in Boycotts/Illingworths era in comparison to now? . That is the primary reason for Englands demise. Ok, conditions and time of 'summer' of playing country games allowing the likes of Stevens to bowl his 70mph dobbers and be successful isn't going to help, but its not a major issue in the overall scheme.
Sadly, my view is its become irreversible. We will continue to be a 2nd rate Cricket playing nation.
TBH, I don't want a situation like this again in four years time. If something can be done to at least make us competitive in Australia in 4 years , then now is the best time to plant the seed.
IMO the first thing that should be done is Mr Bayliss should be relieved of his duties - his (non) decisions on this tour have shown that he has no real authority or respect with the players - get rid.
9/15 in the squad came from the Canterbury area so just 6 came from the other 7 areas in the county. 9/15 went to private schools with the other 6 all at grammar schools. Of the 6 not from Canterbury, Seb was the only one not to be at a private school. So, from 7/8ths of the county (and that is a massive area) there was just one boy selected who didn't go to a private school.
This is probably an extreme situation and would not be the same for all age groups. However, the bias from two main sources is prevalent in most i.e. the area(s) that the main centres of influence are from and from the schools that provide the best resource and coaches that feed into the county system.
How many schools these days have the use of two or three cricket pitches to run teams ?
I didn't know about these 'retire after 25 runs' rules.
Maybe they should play 8 a side, giving the batsmen time in the middle without have 8 fielders cutting off the outfield which encourages slogs rather than placement, and allows the bowlers to get more overs in?
Daniel Bell-Drummond was an ordinary Catford boy whose cricketing talent earned him a scholarship to Millfield. I believe Sam Northeast of Ashford earned a scholarship to Harrow similarly even if Rob Key does call him 'Chumley.'
Just two examples from Kent off the top off my head. I'm sure there are similar examples from other counties and, as has been mentioned already, most Durham players are State educated. The same applies to Yorkshire or certainly did in the recent past.
The sad fact is that few State schools play much cricket anymore so talented youngsters are reliant on a good local club or the scholarship route unless, of course, they do happen to be 'posh boys.'
There have been signs of decline in the last few years though, and much of that has been down to the emphasis on white ball cricket where we used to be poor. Now we have an excellent team with exciting batsmen who can slog as well as the best Australians, Indians etc. I bet our ODI team is very competitive against the Australians next week
This has come at a price though, with T20 matches being at the heart of the summer and 4 day matches shunted to when it's cold and wet, we'll continue to produce more batsmen like Buttler, Roy, Hales and Billings, and fewer like Cook or Collingwood
beattrounced 4-0 - there should be a post mortem.The point about white-ball is sorta correct in that it has affected other countries too in terms of batting , however other countries have 1) Quick bowlers and 2) Spinners who can spin the ball. !
A decade or so ago a club like RACS had five saturday sides and two or three sunday teams. They cease to exist now. Very sad.
http://www.totalsportek.com/news/cricket-world-cup-third-most-watched-sports-event/
Think the ideal scenario would be to have a test coach to help reinvigorate things away from home and keep Bayliss on as a limited overs coach but I can't see that happening. Does any country have that kind of set up?
Oz will obviously start favourites, being holders, and India you would expect will be close, but no doubt will be without their talisman , Dhoni, who will be 38 by time series comes around.
ODI cricket has been killing the game for years and now good old 20/20 is ready to finish it off.
But still I take your point, and it is a shame more state schools don't play cricket these days.
As I said, 'I wouldn't mind betting that number of viewers in UK watching the WC would far outstrip the number watching , lets say, a home Test series.' - Sky's viewing numbers for The Saturday of first test v Australia 2015 was 467k, on the friday it was 350k.
You would know, that aside from England,and maybe Oz, Test cricket is dying throughout the world. The appetite for it is waning, as borne out by things such as KAFs comment above saying that India came to SA a week before the first Test , and the impending introduction of 4 day Tests. Its being squeezed by more entertaining and faster forms. The key is that the most powerful cricketing nation on the planet, India has no real attendances to speak of when most Test nations come to town- and when they decide they no longer have the appetite to play Test circket against Zim, or Sri Lanka, or Bangla Desh or New Zealand then that will have huge ripples through the cricket world.
Its stupid to believe that Test Cricket is thriving, its an anachronistic view, whether you like it or not. Its a bit like my widely stated rant about Charlton fans would rather watch Aldershot at The Valley with 3k than watch Athletico Madrid at The Peninsular with 40k. Yawn.
Move on, progress, adapt,move with the times and you never know, you might suddenly change your antiquated views.
I know you wont, but maybe give it a little peek, you never know, you might like it !