During the pandemic, cricket clubs and leagues have shown they can react quickly and innovatively but challenges remain.
Looking back at 2020
Remembering back to Lockdown 1.0 in March 2020, once it became very clear that COVID-19 was not some flash in the pan, here today gone tomorrow affair, the thoughts of cricket clubs and leagues quickly turned to what season 2020 would look like with the first ball due to be bowled at the end of April 2020.
Before long, it was apparent that cricket would not start on time and the leagues would have to make some quick decisions. Early calls were made in virtually all leagues that normal rules of promotion and relegation would be cancelled, which allowed clubs to make key decisions not to engage overseas or other paid players. Most clubs’ only income is their bar takings during the summer and there was real uncertainty at the time about the restrictions on hospitality and their impact on clubs’ financial sustainability. A conservative estimate (even where ground staff are volunteers) is that it may cost in the region of £500 per week for a club to put games of cricket on its pitch.
Matters ebbed and flowed on a daily basis. On one day. Boris was announcing in the Commons that a cricket ball was a "vector of disease". Queue furore, the Telegraph conjuring up images of summers past and Michael Vaughan, using the power of social media to highlight the need for exercise generally and specifically for juniors.
The government started to ease their position and the country slowly started to open up again for the summer months. As it turned out, the leagues and the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) worked together well and the now-famous ‘adapted play regime’ came into play.
Broadly this meant a number of social distancing measures on and off the field of play. Clubs scurried away to do risk assessments in preparation for turned out to be half a season of mini local leagues, friendlies in all but name.
The adapted play rules involved players turning up changed, not using changing rooms (a controversial rule often breached) and the hallowed cricket tea abandoned for the season, in favour of players bringing their own food. On the pitch, sanitisation breaks every six overs, no hugging, no dumping paraphernalia with the umpires and the umpires not touching the ball (shades of the vector of disease reappearing). Running lines for the batsmen were marked onto squares. All this meant that most leagues reduced the over lengths for matches down to 40 overs, to fit games in with the various adapted rules.
Everything considered, the measures worked well. Umpires often had to give reminders during games, but with most games being in effect friendlies most games passed without incident, with clubs able to open their bars and spectators able to drink outside. Cricket clubs became the largest beer gardens in the country.
The real issue during the season was how leagues and clubs responded to local outbreaks and isolation requirements. Hours behind the scene each week saw club and league officials discussing this and games being cancelled. Often one positive test could lead to five or six games being abandoned. Towards the end of the season as local spikes started to occur a number of clubs and areas finally decided enough was enough and curtailed their seasons.
Junior cricket in 2020 was able to have a limited window of about six weeks play, but junior cricket above club level i.e. at district and county level was all but abandoned for the year.
Financial support for clubs was another key theme in 2020. The ECB provided a range of much needed return to cricket grants. Via local authorities, clubs with rateable values received grants often around £10,000 at the start of the pandemic and other grants over the winter due to their bars being closed. In one sense, a number of clubs have had something of a windfall winter and it is to be hoped the funds are spent on long-term projects rather than on players! Some clubs who do not own their own grounds or are part of multi sports clubs may have seen very little benefit from this and have been hunkering down to survive on donations and the like.
The ECB has also given 18-month payment holidays on their 5-year interest free loans for clubs with capital projects for example changing rooms.
Looking at 2021
So what is in store for 2021 and what was learnt from the 2020 season?
The expectation is that there will be a full season but that there will be elements of adapted cricket remaining. At the start of the season, clubhouses are likely to remain closed until at least Wednesday 12 May. The fear will be financial concerns for clubs, if cricket is allowed to be played but for some reason the hospitality sector is not opened up as anticipated. This could leave clubs with no income and yet ongoing expenses to put on matches. This may lead to clubs pulling certain teams out of competition for the year. This is very much looking on the downside and hopefully the roadmap out of lockdown will not have this particular bump in the road.
Leagues are petitioning the ECB to allow changing room access, the view being that makeshift gazebos outside in the rain are probably less socially distanced than a well-run changing room that has been properly risk assessed.
There is likely to be no teas until at least mid-May and I would expect leagues and clubs to perhaps cancel teas all year. This really might be the death knell for this tradition. A wonderful tradition in my opinion, but for most clubs a big expense and also effort in getting volunteers each week.
There is a real clamour for as normal a season as possible, with promotions and relegations and a full junior programme at league and county level. Without this, there is a fear that players will drift away from the game.
Looking beyond
During the pandemic, clubs and leagues have shown they can react quickly and innovatively. Issues on the agenda which were previously taboo because they were seen as breaking traditions are firmly on and will remain on the agenda. For example the thorny issue of cricket teas and more importantly the real possibility of all but the highest level of senior cricket moving to shorter matches, with in play rules amended to move away from players spending six hours on a Saturday not batting or bowling and fielding at fine leg at each end.
At junior level, the hope is that the well-publicised fall away of teenagers from cricket can somehow be arrested. The ECB programmes of Dynamos and All-stars at the under-11 age group has been a great initiative but there needs more thinking outside the box for the 14 - 20 age group. Hopefully, the creativity seen in dealing with COVID-19 can be put to good use to help arrest the decline of this age group in local cricket.
If you would like to discuss any of the issues raised in this article and how we can support, please contact Richard Hepworth.
