County cricket will not forget the absent majority amid triumphant return

PAUL EDWARDS: Though crowds will be permitted at The Oval and Edgbaston the empty seats which will dominate matches across the country still leaves a sour taste

• FRIEND: Liam Plunkett as motivated as ever
• Leicestershire CEO Sean Jarvis discusses how COVID-19 has affected county cricket

As Simon Hughes pointed out so carefully earlier this week there was much to admire about Stuart Broad’s achievement in taking 500 Test wickets. The problem was that there were very few people at Emirates Old Trafford on Tuesday morning to show their admiration. The traditional media were present, of course, and the social variety was replete with hosannas. Sky even set up video messages from Broad’s family but at the moment when the England seamer had Kraigg Braithwaite leg before wicket the stadium contained maybe 150 people. One of the great moments in a cricketer’s career was marked by a smattering of applause.

Many people commented on the fact that Braithwaite was also the batsman dismissed when James Anderson reached the same landmark three years ago. Rather fewer noted the contrast between the occasions: a packed Lord’s on a very warm Friday evening with David Lloyd cheerfully losing it in the commentary box as against an almost deserted Old Trafford in the cool sunlight of a weekday morning and Mike Atherton honouring the occasion as best he could given there was no background hubbub. Acclamation sounds very odd when only one person is doing the acclaiming  

Did it make any difference to Broad? No and yes. He is a great England cricketer even if no one ever again pays money to watch him bowl and swipe. He knows his worth to the team and does not need mass worship to prove it. Yet he admitted it was a shame that apart from his dad, who was the match referee, his friends and family could not be there to see the sort of moment about which he dreamt when a boy at Oakham. And he probably wished the Barmy Army had been able to celebrate his achievement with one or two choice choruses and a new anthem. Up to a point, we do care what other people say about us, and rightly so. It is damaging to live in a bubble of your own self-assessment. Kipling got it right: all men should count with us, but none too much.

VISIT THE COUNTY HUB

Moving from the specific to the general, the strangest moments of a fine series against West Indies, who incidentally deserve enormous praise for turning up at all this summer, came when batsmen played exquisite strokes and…nothing happened. The commentator had to fill those seconds with words when all we should have heard was applause and all we should have seen was young and old showing their pleasure and appreciation. Let us remember that cricket is a spectator sport; until the crowds return it will not be complete.

So one of the pleasantest aspects of the three games I’ve attended this season was that other people were allowed to watch them. All were recreational matches, of course. Last Saturday, I saw Formby beat my own club, Southport and Birkdale, by 25 runs in a fine contest at Cricket Path. The usual restrictions were in place but at least a hundred or so folk rocked up and the whole affair would have been eerie in the extreme had there been no one around but players, officials, and press. As it was, the now-familiar restrictions were in place, the protocols were observed…and several people still drank for England. 

Such freedoms will not be available on Saturday when I report on county cricket for the first time in over 10 months. Surrey and Warwickshire are letting a limited number of spectators into The Oval and Edgbaston to watch their matches in the Bob Willis Trophy but neither members nor punters will be allowed into the Riverside to see how Durham get on against Yorkshire. I do not dispute the good sense of this decision at all: we are groping our way towards recovery from Covid-19 and every step we take must be carefully considered. With luck, there may be a few thousand spectators watching T20 cricket in mid-September. That would be a triumph and it may yet not happen. Until then we must take things slowly.

^{County cricket makes its triumphant return this weekend}

At the same time, the absence of spectators will mar what should be a joyous occasion for everyone connected with the game at Chester-le-Street. Throughout April, May and June we all understood that cricket did not really matter very much; now, though, it is one of a hundred barometers of progress. If Adam Lyth continues the fine form he found in the warm-up game against Lancashire he will want to share his pleasure with spectators. Their attendance is a part of a normal game and it is remarkable how many sportswriters mention crowds in their reports.

Nothing revealed the complacent ignorance of some people more clearly in the early days of Covid-19 than their bland assertion that spectators at County Championship matches had been socially distanced for years. Some supporters may indeed be perfectly content with their own company but others spend their summers with friends they may not see from September to April. And many of those who sit by themselves do not consider watching cricket a solitary activity. One of the most life-affirming aspects of the early summer was the willingness of young cricketers to telephone supporters who were self-isolating and remind them they were not forgotten.

The journos will miss the supporters, too. One of the joys of my trade is travelling to different grounds across the country, especially on the days before games begin, and getting used to a different environment, a fresh workplace, new people. Such joy is nothing new. It was, I think, first expressed in Neville Cardus’s Autobiography when he described his visit to Kidderminster to watch Lancashire play Worcestershire in 1935:

^{Crowds will be permitted at two venues during the opening round of matches}

“Your connection arrives – a train that obviously has never been in Manchester. The people on it have just as obviously never been in Manchester. Here, unmistakably, you are in a fresh hemisphere, entering on the last lap of your journey, through a drowsy landscape. And how peaceful is the closing hour of a day’s railway travel; the mild agitations of the morning have spent themselves. The senses are tired at last of responding to new scenes, new sounds, new odours…”

Except that my senses are never so fatigued. That is particularly so when visiting the North-East, which has always seemed to me one of the warmest and welcoming regions of England. It is, Lord help me, nearly 15 years since I first went to Chester-le-Street to report on a game. Durham were playing Derbyshire and the sky turned black at 6pm on the second evening, thus heralding a tremendous thunder and lightning show. The ground was puddled inside ten minutes. It was only my third assignment for a national newspaper and I was a kid in a sweetshop. In that respect, absolutely nothing has changed. It never will. 

And even then I was writing about spectators and supporters: their frustrated outbursts, their dry humour, their vulnerable love. So to all those who would otherwise be at county matches this weekend please be assured that we will miss you. Stay safe and see you soon.  

For unrivalled coverage of the county season, subscribe to The Cricketer and receive four issues for £15