Knights in Whites

Is this a principle often overlooked when thinking about the game of cricket?

Cricket is a game of individual performances combined into a “team” as it is very rare that more than 3 people are included in any one phase of play, out of a team of 11. Take the rare example of a run out:

• The bowler bowls the ball (1st person on his team)
• The batsman hits the ball and runs (1st person on his team)
• The batsman at the non strikers end runs (2nd person on his team)
• The nearest fielder to the ball collects it and throws it towards either set of stumps (2nd person on his team)

IF THE BALL HITS THE STUMPS DIRECTLY THEN THERE HAS ONLY BEEN A MAXIMUM OF 2 PLAYERS PLAYING AT THIS STAGE

• If there isn’t a direct hit, then either the wicket keeper or a fielder catches the ball and removes the bails (3rd person on his team)

So how can a game that has such a limited amount of team interaction depend on team awareness and the need for selfless team play and mentality?

In the past this was never a problem. There was an England Cricket Team who would play every facet of the game and remain a united bond and team. Nobody was bigger than the team; everyone was humbled by the opportunity for playing for their Country. Nothing was more important! I believe that this is where the Australian Cricket team is at right now, and to a lesser extent, Sri Lanka (the 2 World Cup Finalists).

This has been something that I feel, has been chipped away at, regularly for a number of reasons in England.

1. The need to separate cricketers into a “one day side” and a “test match side”. E.g. Jamie Dalrymple (one day specialist) and therefore not in the test match squad. The same can be said for Ravi Bopara, ditto Matthew Hoggard, Steve Harmison and Alistair Cook. As far as I’m concerned, if you can bowl or bat well in a test match, you can bowl and bat well in a one day side and vice versa.
2. Players being able to pick and choose the tours that they fancy playing in and those they didn’t mind missing “to take a couple of months off”. Take for example the farcical tour to India a few years ago where players were taking time off simply because they “didn’t fancy it”.
3. A ludicrously efficient and well oiled set of background staff, comprising of: fitness coaches, kit managers, merchandisers, PR officers, HR departments, Psychologists, Physio’s, wicket keeping coaches, fielding coaches, bowling coaches, batting coaches, lawyers, tour guides, players agents, sponsors, autobiography editors, assistants, PA’s, communications officers, analysts, and who can forget the cricket WAG’S (wives and girlfriends).

I believe it is a combination of all the above, that leads to the degradation of the team spirit that is absolutely necessary, for a unit of players that spend so long together, to want to perform for each other, toward one unified goal. we had this in 2005, but i fear we have never been further away from this as we are now.

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