THE GOOGLY: TEACHER, LEAVE THOSE KIDS... TO WATCH CRICKET

FOLLOW HUW TURBERVILL @HUWZAT

The contents of Ernest Hemingway’s suitcase. The books from the Library of Alexandria. The half-life’s work of Nikola Tesla. The ECB document stating that the national team is 11th on a list of teenagers’ favourite sporting brands.

We will probably never read any of the above. Lost in the mists of time... or in the case of the latter, in the back of an ECB filing cabinet. It is a handy statistic to show how cricket can grow in the Colin Graves/Tom Harrison/Andrew Strauss era. Like Nasser Hussain’s England losing to New Zealand, at home, in 1999; and sinking to ninth, and bottom, of the ICC Test rankings. As Yazz and the Plastic Population once sang, the only way is up!

There was a time when cricket had no trouble engaging the masses.  My friend’s father, Dr Bill Pagan, is 80. He told me a wonderful story about how his class was allowed out of his Hampshire school, Oakmount, in June 1948 to watch the Invincibles at the County Ground.

The Australians were in a spot of bother, making only 117 in their first innings, in reply to 195. Don Bradman had taken himself off to London for a few days. He caught wind of the tourists’ travails, and sent a telegram to the team saying: “This is unbearable… heads up and chins down.” They duly obeyed and beat Hampshire by eight wickets. Dr Pagan skipped algebra and Chaucer for two whole days. Can you imagine the fuss parents would make about that now?

I think we can all agree that – to state in an understated, British kinda way – cricket does have a bit of a scrap on its hands to recapture former glories: the heady summers of 1953, 1981 and 2005, perhaps, when housewives watched the Test as they did the ironing (this happened 11 years ago if anyone thinks I am sexist).

This summer’s challenge for cricket has undeniably been tough, competing against Euro 2016 and the Olympics. Next year looks more appealing, however, with tours by South Africa and West Indies (although it would be better if it was the other way around), and the short-but-sweet ICC Champions Trophy, staged in England. Whether they will deliver enough water-cooler moments remains to be seen, though. Many believe terrestrial television exposure is key, but that debate has been well-chronicled. 

Brief highlights on BBC Sport Online, which have started this summer, cannot do any harm. I know through my own children that youngsters’ attention spans for watching, undistracted, a programme or sporting event can be miniscule, inversely in proportion to their obsession with frittering away hours on electronic devices. I rather enjoyed the 120-second package of Jason Roy’s 162 against Sri Lanka at The Oval myself, though. Fast food compared to five-course fare I concede, but quite tasty nevertheless.

The ECB list shows how cricket is slipping here. India do not have that problem (although their fans are generally fixated more by T20 than Tests). And neither do Australia. There, cricket is not seen just as a fun thing to do in your spare time. Australia has a population of 23m, and nobody is left by the wayside. Schools have teams from A–F. Sport is a weapon in establishing national identity. We all must play a part in  re-establishing a renaissance for our beloved game here.