CREDIT: Hector Cappelletti a.k.a YahooOverCowCorner
Twenty years ago, the Glazer family famously purchased Manchester United football club in a landmark and significant moment for the sport. Frustrated and disillusioned with the gradual erosion of the sport’s traditions along with the insidious corporate influence, a group of supporters took dramatic action and formed their own club: FC United of Manchester. Seeking a better balance between the priorities of supporters and the inevitable desires of outside influences, the decision proved almost equally as significant and noteworthy as the takeover of the Old Trafford behemoth. Two decades on the club has progressed to the seventh tier of the English football pyramid and has become the third largest fan-owned club in the United Kingdom.
As English domestic cricket experiences changing and tumultuous times, one ponders if there is an equivalent for county cricket supporters? Naturally, Football provided a ready alternative for supporters fed up with the short shrift that they were being shown in the form of the lower-leagues and the non-league pyramid; the latter recently enjoying a curious renaissance as a consequence. Cricket’s structure doesn’t really allow supporters a viable parallel though. Yes, club cricket remains a staple of the weekend for players but those long, hazy midweek days of watching red ball cricket are only replicated, briefly, by the National Counties and a handful of wandering clubs.
Unlike Football, though, the number of those hazy, midweek days appears likely to reduce in future years; the handful of rounds played during the midsummer months likely the first to be culled as the County Championship is firmly banished to the poles of the season. Red ball cricket remains a staple of the club season’s highest levels though as most Premier Leagues feature a near two month section of the campaign dedicated to timed matches at a juncture of the season when the County Championship enters a sort of hibernation, potentially providing a ready alternative.
The beauty of the Premier League structure is that one doesn’t have to travel too far in order to enjoy a match. One’s personal journey on this particular afternoon measures less than half a dozen miles to the village of Burridge where the hosts will play Bournemouth in the top division of the Southern Premier League. Curiously, Bournemouth elect to field after winning the toss on what appears set to be another hot afternoon. The Dorset club bely their position at the foot of the Premier Division table by claiming a trio of wickets inside of the first ten overs of play; Cole Rushforth and Ollie Breckon, both players with National Counties experience with Dorset, taking early scalps. Burridge wicket-keeper Toby Snell and Dan Stancliffe repair the early damage but a handful of inside edges for boundaries provides the visitors with plenty of hope for further wickets.
As the effects of another hot, sunny afternoon take effect on the softening ball the Burridge batters adopt a more attacking modus operandi. Snell reaches a half century and the partnership approaches three figures when Stancliffe erroneously chips a return catch to Connor Smith. The left arm spin bowler claims a second wicket soon after to leave honours somewhat even at the lunch break.
Curiously, the interval seems to disrupt Bournemouth as opposed to the Burridge batters as Snell and Azim Chowdhury record a half century partnership at almost a run a ball after the resumption. The visiting pace bowlers struggle to extract anything from the wicket as Chowdhury opens his shoulders in recording an increasingly quick half century, dumping a massive straight six over the sight screen into the neighbouring boules courts. Snell, a former Australian under-19 international, is becalmed a little as he navigates his way through the nineties but eventually completes a well crafted century; his second in consecutive weekends as Burridge declare their innings closed at an impressive 304-9 after 61 overs.
Connor Smith en route to a five-fer
Arguably one of the most significant barriers to club cricket enjoying greater support is cricket’s bizarre fascination with status, where matches that are not deemed first-class or List A are far too often viewed as contemptible and not worth one’s time or efforts. The counter argument to such reasonings is to focus on what club cricket is rather than what it isn’t. For instance, during the current season the teams in one’s local Premier League, the Southern Premier League, will feature a couple of Hampshire’s most promising young stars (Dom Kelly and Eddie Jack) along with potentially some of the next generation in the county’s Academy team, a pair of first-team regulars (Felix Organ and Fletcha Middleton) a former Bangladeshi test captain, (Mohammad Ashraful) erstwhile Middlesex, Hampshire and Northamptonshire bowler Gareth Berg at table topping Lymington, a current Namibian international who has played at the coveted List A level and a number of players who have regularly appeared at National Counties level. Earlier in the summer one had watched an all-rounder from the current New Zealand Super Smash champions in the Surrey Championship. Previous generations have seen the likes of Chris Lynn, Glenn Maxwell, Chris Rogers and Luke Ronchi all appear as overseas players during the formative years of their playing careers. Scott Oliver’s two recent publications on overseas stars that have appeared in the local leagues highlight that these are not isolated occurrences to clubs on the south coast. The standard is high, very high, even if the old bugaboo of status seems ready to cast aspersions and dismiss club cricket. Cricketers performing at the next level below first-class remain quality practitioners even if they are not acknowledged by many cricket supporters.
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Despite a hot few hours in the field and facing a not inconsiderable target, Bournemouth openers Luke Webb and James van Gool begin the innings at express pace; a flurry of early boundaries scored as the early overs are plundered at almost ten runs apiece. Both openers fall on the cusp of tea but Ben Rogers and Shaun Fouche take up the reins during the final session as the Dorset club bring up three figures inside of a dozen overs. Fouche, a Namibian international of a dozen ODI’s and 3 T20 equivalents, forges a destructive partnership with Rogers that more than keeps up with the required run rate. Both batters record half centuries as Burridge’s bowlers struggle on a flat wicket just as their Bournemouth brethren did earlier in the afternoon.
Rogers and Fouche all but manoeuvre Bournemouth to within 100 runs of victory when Inayat Ullah, all but bowling unchanged from the boules courts end, disturbs the stumps of both batters in quick succession. He repeats the trick with Lewis Freak en route to a five-fer that alters the course of the contest. The visitors visibly drop anchor, aware that a draw is likely all they can salvage from such a juncture.
Two-ton Toby
Inayat Ullah claims a sixth wicket in a display of persistence as Bournemouth lose seven wickets for little more than sixty runs. Skipper Simon Woodruff offers stout resistance but is dramatically run out by Burridge stalwart Sully White. Requiring just one more wicket, Burridge pressure the last pair for whom Jake Hurley claims most of the strike. The overs begin to drift away as the sun heads toward the horizon, creating a dramatic conclusion that is unique to red ball cricket and one that has been witnessed aplenty in recent rounds of the County Championship. Hurley and Ollie Breckon are required to reach the end of the fifty-ninth over in order to secure a draw but a dozen deliveries from that landmark Hurley edges Dan Stanicliffe to Azim Chowdhury and the hosts chisel out a last gasp success.
In all truth, cricket is unlikely to witness as dramatic a revolution as that of FC United of Manchester or AFC Wimbledon. The dynamics and the set up of the sport are considerably different to those of professional Football for a parallel to take place. But the ethos of the move by those supporters in Manchester and London could be adopted by cricket supporters. Many county supporters have become disillusioned with how the season, in particular the red ball element, continues to shrink and be marginalised. In the absence of county championship cricket during the peak summer months there is red ball cricket to be enjoyed, each and every weekend though. Football has embraced its non-leagues in recent years as fans have searched for an alternative to the hyper commercialism of the Premier League. Groundhopping has become a phenomenon and non-league attendances have mushroomed in recent seasons. Cricket could easily experience its equivalent if only supporters would dispel and disregard the old tropes that seem to have created a barrier between the professional and the amateur game. It would be well worth it. Premier League cricket is rather good, afterall.
