Mark Butcher has called for greater revenue sharing among boards to foster more competitive Test matches outside of the 'big three'.
England beat the West Indies by an innings and 114 runs in ther first Test of the three-match series at Lord's last week. The game did not last even seven sessions, with the final wickets falling before lunch on day three. Ahead of the Test, the West Indies played only one warm-up match in England, against an ECB Select XI which several of their squad-members were unable to participate in after being stranded by Hurricane Beryl.
Speaking on the Wisden Cricket Weekly podcast, Mark Butcher emphasised the importance of warm-up matches and put the onus on the wealthier full member nations to bear some of the costs for touring sides. "One warm-up match – regardless of whether or not you've been playing or whether you haven't been playing any red-ball cricket, even if you come into it off the back of a West Indies first-class summer – one touring match in English conditions is just simply not enough," said Butcher. "Let alone the fact that you've got batters making debuts, guys who haven't played a lot of first-class cricket, let alone Test cricket.
"All of that adds up to what we ended up with, which was two days and less than a session for the match. In fact, if it hadn't been – and it's not a sideshow – but if it hadn't have been for Jimmy's [Anderson] last Test match it would have been very forgettable, barring the value to the debutants for England that did so well."
The lack of warm-up matches on overseas Test tours is not a new debate. On their tour of India last winter, England opted to forgeo any warm-up games in the country; instead, they had a 10-day training camp in Abu Dhabi before arriving in India three days before the start of the first Test.
"If you dig a little bit deeper into the reasons behind this, Jason Holder went to quite great lengths to explain something to people who were listening as to why it is so difficult for touring teams to spend much time in the countries that they go to," said Butcher. "At least the ones who don't have the finances, and that is simply because of the cost.
"He said that, back in the old days, I can't remember how long ago this was now but back when I started playing Test matches, there was a revenue-sharing agreement in terms of television money whereby the touring team would pick up a percentage of what was made throughout the course of the series. That would either cover the cost or give them [the touring side] a bit of a buffer once their costs were paid for.
"But now, nothing goes to the touring team. So the cost borne by flying your team over, putting them up for however long it might be – it might be a month, it might three weeks – is all borne by the home board. We know that times are tough everywhere but England, India and Australia. So there are reasons behind it and I hope it didn't come across that I mean the players don't want to come away an tour anymore, there might be a bit of that I don't know, but more likely it's that the boards simply cannot afford for their side to be away for six to eight weeks and be ready to be much more competitive.
"There needs to be an agreement – and it's for the good of the game as a whole – the more competitive it is the more watchable the game becomes, as it's always been. It's always incumbent on the people who have more to give a leg up to the people who have less. We have 12 Test-playing nations. You could argue whether that's a good or a bad thing, but the reason behind Sri Lanka being able to win a World Cup in '96, India now being the pre-eminent team in the world, Pakistan being a huge force as they were through the '80s and '90s, was due to the fact that they were helped out in the times where they weren't.
"You cannot have a situation where you end up being the only show in town. You need people to play against and in order to have people to play against they need to be able to keep their heads above water. Sometimes that means they need a bit of help from someone else."
England have won the first Test against the West Indies by an innings and 114 runs.
— Wisden (@WisdenCricket) July 12, 2024
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Butcher also praised England's debutants for their outings in the Lord's Test. Gus Atkinson took 12 wickets in the match, including seven in the first innings, to record the second-best figures for an England bowler on men's Test debut. Surrey wicketkeeper Jamie Smith also impressed, scoring 70 in England's innings and keeping a clean sheet behind the stumps.
"It's a dream debut for Gus Atkinson obviously, a little bit like Anderson 21 years ago," said Butcher. "A good opposition to make your debut against in decent bowling conditions. The pitch was pretty blameless, it was pretty much as you would expect at Lord's for this time of year given also the average weather that we've had, I thought that was a pretty good pitch. His performance was stellar really.
"And then equally, Jamie Smith did exactly what they want from somebody playing in that position. Batting behind the top order with the tail, showing that he had the ability to go through the gears and accelerate when the tail was in and, as the biggest bonus, no byes for the Test match. He kept very tidily indeed.
"Both of them as we all know will have sterner challenges in the time ahead but it's a damn better place to start in your Test career with confidence and not feeling out of place at that level, park everyone that had a go in the 90s, than it is if you're starting off scratching around and wondering if you're cut out for it.
"What they wanted was another top-order player really, who could play in the mode that the rest of the top six can play in. That's what they got with Smith. You can see a time in the future where he could bat three or four and not keep wicket anymore: perhaps get into the side as a batter.
"But, at the moment, England have wanted that depth in terms of the batting lineup, wanted that dynamism as well, and he's the guy who has it. If the keeping improves at the sort of rate that most guys who get given that sort of responsibility does then he'll be pretty decent at that for the time they want him to do it for."
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