Nine of a recent England Test XI were educated at a private school, highlighting problems of exclusivity that run through the game, and which appear to be becoming more entrenched. James Wallace examined an uneven playing field in the October issue of Wisden Cricket Monthly.
Read more from WCM’s cricket’s diversity crisis series here
First published in issue 36 of Wisden Cricket Monthly
Test cricket is a game of contrasts: bat/ball, spin/pace, out/not out. It’s risk vs reward, creamy whites and cherry reds. Days of meticulous planning against a moment of sheer instinct. Division is also at its core: batsmen play bowlers, county vs country, a history of amateurs and professionals. Great rivalries give the game oxygen. So when things become too samey, too comfy, it’s a problem.
Scyld Berry has covered a lot of cricket – 43 years of the stuff – so when he notices something, it’s worth paying attention. Last month he wrote a column for the Telegraph titled ‘Why England would be a better team with more state school players in it’, in which he noted that the top-six batsmen for the second Test against Pakistan and, unprecedentedly, nine of the total XI, were the products of a fee-paying education. Too samey. Too comfy.
Berry believes that this homogeneity leads to ‘group-think’ on and off the field, pointing to the example of the interchangeable dismissals of their batsmen when England were reduced to 27-9 (eventually 58 all out) against New Zealand at Eden Park in 2018, and their “stiff upper lip” reactions off it. He describes the omission of Lancashire batsman Liam Livingstone – who was part of the squad but is yet to make his Test debut – as a “lamentable waste of talent and failure to embrace heterogeneity”. Livingstone was in good form, having scored a fluent 88 in a warm-up match and shown an aptitude for audacious shots. The point being that his more homespun style may have given the Kiwis something more – or at least something different – to think about.
“Of course I’d have stopped the rot and got a hundred…” Livingstone tells WCM, tongue firmly in cheek. He saw Berry’s piece and was flattered. “The way I grew up, playing club cricket is different to lots of lads. I wouldn’t change anything, even if some of the pitches in the northern leagues were terrible. It stood me in good stead.”
Boys against men in club cricket is a schooling of different sorts, and a pathway that Graham Thorpe, England’s assistant coach, recognises. “It was very much the clubs,” he says. “Our club set-up locally was fantastic. I think a lot of the counties now direct a lot of these younger players to the private schools. With Surrey, Rory Burns, Jason Roy, Dom Sibley all went to Whitgift [an independent school in South Croydon]. It’s possible they get directed in that way.”
Someone who has vast experience of this is Dr Sarah Fane, the newly appointed director of the MCC Foundation, who spent the last 18 years running the Afghan Connection charity, which she established in 2002. Fane has seen how cricket can transform lives, her work reaching places that sat untouched by sport or education. She is hopeful that a network of 55 (and growing) MCC Hubs, which are “unashamedly about talent, totally free to access and absolutely for state-educated kids”, can help to reach those children who might fall through the cracks.
There are plans in place to pilot the hubs in more inner-city areas, working closely with existing community groups and networks. She mentions plans for a new hub in Croydon, working with the Refugee Cricket Project, which brings together young refugees and asylum seekers to offer not only opportunities to meet and play but also to offer advice and support on things such as homework, safe use of the internet and ‘form completion’. Helping with this thorny stuff and letting children who find themselves in this position be children for a precious hour or two sounds unfathomably vital. It’d be some story if just one of these kids went on to pull on an England shirt in 15 years’ time.
Scyld Berry believes that the game in this country is in danger of becoming the sport of a “privileged and receding niche”. The English cricket teams should be more representative of society as a whole. If the aim is to inspire the hearts and minds of those watching, then the audience wants to see a reflection of themselves on the pitch. Someone they can point to and say: ‘They made it, why can’t I?’ If everyone they’re watching comes from the same few places and has an identikit story, then the dream remains just that, too distant to grasp.
