by Rohan Wijeyaratna
There’s a belief in England that a strong Yorkshire side means a good, strong English one. The County Championship, which is the ‘plum’ of all English cricket was almost the private property of Surrey and Yorkshire in the fifties and the sixties. Together, these two sides provided almost the entire England side during those halcyon days of English cricket. It would in fact not be unkind to say that either of those two sides would have put out the present England team inside three days without even having to raise a bead of sweat!

Because competition was very high in these two counties and also because there were others who were offering huge incentives to go elsewhere, this matrix of strength slowly dissolved over a period of time. And if such migration helped to resurrect the lesser prosperous counties such as Leicestershire and Somerset for a period of time, it certainly weakened beyond recognition the once powerful sides such as Yorkshire. Of course several other factors helped, such as an overdose of one day cricket, the scrapping of many a cricket playing field for ‘development’, the dying out of the leagues which was the pipeline that fed the northern counties of talent and the unprecedented improvement in overseas cricket. But the fact remains that things were never the same again in English cricket. Therefore if we were to grant that there has been an unprecedented rise in the standard of play in the cricket elsewhere, it must also be conceded that there has been a corresponding decline in the English game. All of which makes one think whether cricket played between 17 counties of equal weakness would have served England any better than the cricket played during the good old days when some of them were a mighty lot stronger than the others.

Well intentioned, but...

The more I think of it, the more I am convinced that if a good player or a promising one were to retain the sharpness of his game or better it, the prescription is the age old one of playing your cricket in equally good if not better company. Certainly not in lesser company. That would be the sure fire way to dull your sharpness, kill inducement to improve, and in the process also prove your undoing.

Therefore, look at it as I might in whichever way, I see the proposed restructuring of the game by the Board much as it is interesting, also a bit scary in its proposed form. No doubt, it is extremely well intentioned, and designed with the hope of reaping a greater harvest of talent from a wider range of sources than at present. The question is whether it will, for what looks grand on paper may not look quite so good at ground level.

Strength through dilution?

This country took an awfully fewer number of years than either India Pakistan or for that matter New Zealand to register its first Test win. And thereafter, through a process of learning and fine tuning, it has achieved a status that can be compared favourably with all those three countries at Test level. In the one day game of course we are a handful for even the better cricketing countries given certain conditions. The inference therefore is that apart from the immense talent we have at the lower levels, there cannot be too many things that are too far wrong with our primary systems already prevalent here.

If that point were to be conceded, then what we may attempt is to improve the quality of the available product still further, and maybe increase their numbers as well. Changes which amount to a process of dilution of prevailing strengths, however well intentioned may not be the best way to achieve it. In fact, it can adversely effect our overall strength in the international arena. Whilst appreciating the Cricket Board’s desire to strengthen the weaker outstation clubs which now serve merely as cannon fodder to the bigger guns, what must be considered is whether all options have been studied before the proposed plan is implemented. Whichever recourse is adopted it will be advisable not to upset the prevalent strengths of the few clubs that serve as the main supply line to the national team at present.

The plus points of the present structure

It would be useful to consider whether Jayasuriya for instance, will be as good if not a better player if we were to shift him from Bloomfield to Matara which is his home town. What drives these men in the Colombo clubs is the intense competition, the better facilities and the higher levels of skill already available here. Consequently, it retains their sharpness and forces them to iron out their weaknesses in order to survive in the big league. This can do nothing but good to their overall performance. Therefore the level of competition that prevails now amongst the topmost clubs must not be tinkered with and the excellent concept of strengthening the clubs in the outstations as thought out by the Board may be tried out using a slightly different technique.

Same goal with a different approach

What we suggest here is the utilization of the services of former Sri Lankan internationals, who have either very recently retired, or are on the verge of doing so, or, who are on their last legs as far as international cricket is concerned. Thereafter attempts must be made to induce them in to prolonging their careers for a couple of years more. I refer to men of the calibre of Aravinda, Hashan, Mahanama, Ranatunga and Promodya. All these men have some cricket still left in them at the highest club level, and if the inducement is right such as central contracts for two years on the same terms as their previous Board contracts, they may agree to pit their lot with a chosen club in the outstations for a couple of years. When their contracts are exhausted, they may be replaced if so needed with the Jayasuriyas and the Atapattus who may have then reached a stage when the international stage is just a touch beyond them. The idea is to make these men play as the club ‘pro’ who much like in the leagues of England, will be involved in ground and wicket preparation, team and district coaching and so on in addition to actually playing if not captaining the side. In this way, we shall be sapping their inputs to the very end for the benefit of our cricket, whilst encouraging them to stay on in the game a bit longer, all the while contributing usefully through direct input. These are men who can raise the level of a team by their sheer presence, and if given such inducements I have a gut feeling they may not refuse. They will still be around if needed for national duty and additionally, the Board will be giving them excellent opportunity to improve their own coaching skills. Most importantly, such a system will do nothing to upset the present status quo of the clubs that have served as the main artery to the national team since the year dot, and not too badly at that either!

A look elsewhere

Apart from England, it is worth having a look at how the domestic tournaments of Australia and South Africa are structured. Australia allows only the main states plus Tasmania to contend for the Pura Cup and in South Africa, adopting a system of relegation allows finally, only eight teams to play for the Super Sport Championship. Realizing that greater and better competition can only come through lesser number of better teams participating, England were screaming silly for even the amalgamation of neighbouring counties in a bid to lower their numbers from a listless 17 to a more vibrant and meaningfully lesser number. Finally they settled for the present two tiered, relegation system, not without good reason.

Conceptually, a good idea

I repeat here that conceptually the Cricket Board idea is a good one, but I would hate to see the present strengths of clubs diluted in an attempt to achieve the end result. What has been suggested here instead is just a hybrid of the one thought out by the Board, with the added advantage of leaving the present system untouched whilst achieving the Board’s objectives through the utilization of senior or ‘ageing’ stars. In this way, these men will be given a new lease in life and will be also tried out as prospective coaches beforehand, prior to thrusting them into that role at national level. Obviously the outstation teams would benefit in terms of the improvement of their strengths in addition to know-how and appreciation of the finer skills. In other words, the fount of Sri Lanka cricket as it now stands will remain undisturbed while there is every possibility of improving the performance of the outstation by leaps and bounds and also generate a great deal of goodwill among the senior or ‘ageing’ stars by contracting them for a further period on full pay, working usefully for our cricket. Our cash strapped cricket Board should have little difficulty in picking the bill of such an exercise.

Let's not upset the present status quo

Considering that the financial well-being of our cricket has been due entirely to the performance of the national team, it will be wise not to upset the present status quo of the clubs, however well intentioned such moves may be. Instead, the Board may consider alternatives such as the one suggested here, or even others, but whatever the final decision may be, it would be wise for the men who matter to remind themselves of two very useful watch words in matters as delicate as this. Through their own contradictions, they tell us all — hasten slowly!