THE SECRET CRICKETER: In the next decade, 30 to 40 per cent of English pros will be white-ball only

The Secret Cricketer has played county cricket for nearly 20 years and represented England. This week, he discusses the love county pros have for the T20 Blast, and disappointment that funding for The Hundred was not invested in the competition

The Blast is back this week and if you’re involved involved it’s the best time of the season, 100 per cent.

Standing in front of a jam-packed stand at the Oval or the heaving Hollies Stand at Finals Day is the nearest thing I’ll ever get to scoring a hat-trick for England at Wembley or headlining the pyramid stage at Glastonbury.

I remember taking a diving catch at a packed Oval a few years ago, the sort I’d back myself to take nine times out of 10. When I came up with the ball the crowd were going crazy. Okay, several of them might have downed a few pints of over-priced lager but I bowed in front of them which made them lap it up even more. Honestly, as career highlights go including trophies I’ve helped win, it’s definitely up there.

This year will be different. There will be crowds but not in the numbers we have had, although it will be a lot better than the soulless experience of 2020 when we played in front of empty stadiums and – even worse – had to go searching for the ball ourselves when it disappeared into the stands.

I’ve been fortunate enough to play at Finals Day and it’s a unique experience for the average county pro. Trying to pick out your own supporters in a crowd full of neutrals there for beer snakes, the mascot race and an all-day piss-up is not easy. But winning there is very special, even more so if, as happened to me once, your team is coasting to victory in the final and you can lap up the experience.

I really envy the young guns who are making their careers from T20 at the moment, lads like Tom Banton, Liam Livingstone and Phil Salt for example. Even if they don’t play much for England they can still have a very rewarding time playing in the various franchises around the world. If the choice is £40,000 for three weeks of T20 somewhere hot or facing the new ball on a bleak April morning at Derby, it’s a no-brainer.

^{Playing in front of a raucous Edgbaston on Finals Day is an incredible experience for county pros}

Within the next decade I reckon 30 to 40 per cent of English pros will have white-ball only contracts. I’m a massive fan of the Championship and it’s still the competition most players covet above all others, but someone who concentrates on red-ball cricket but who isn’t good enough to play for England can expect to earn about £40,000 a year: decent money but not a sum you can retire on.

These guys will do all the requisite white-ball skills training in the winter and then when the Blast starts they either kick their heels or go and play in the second team. And believe me, there is nothing worse than watching your mates play a T20 in front of a full house having earlier that day played the same format for the seconds at a club ground with 20 people watching.

I speak to young players all the time about not being pigeon-holed. And players who think they are red-ball specialists can absolutely re-invent themselves. If you can play a forward defensive you should be able to hit the ball for six.

If you can bowl a well-disguised slower ball or a yorker you ought to be able to do it again in the same over. You can get stronger in the gym so you can hit the ball further, you can change your practice habits and get coaches on board, even if your habits are ingrained.

"For the £50-60m ECB have spent on The Hundred they could have thrown £300,000 at each club to help with recruitment and marketing and raised its profile massively"

Counties place far more emphasis on white-ball cricket than they did, say, 10 years ago. Yet it’s still the case that most county players will spend a lot of their time during pre-season working with a red ball when increasingly their value to a club will be the ability to bat at a strike rate of 140-160 or bowl four overs under pressure for seven runs an over.

Only by changing that emphasis can we increase the talent pool and give England the squad depth to become the best T20 side in the world.

As for this year’s Blast, I fancy Nottinghamshire, Birmingham, Hampshire and Surrey for Finals Day but both groups look very competitive and I wouldn’t be surprised if two or three of those teams didn’t make it.

I just wish that a few years ago the ECB had thrown a bit more money at the Blast before going down the Hundred route.

For the £50-60m ECB have spent on The Hundred they could have thrown £300,000 at each club to help with recruitment and marketing and raised its profile massively.

It’s a great competition that appeals to the whole spectrum of the cricket audience and some free-to-air TV exposure would have made such a difference too. It’s an opportunity missed. Ultimately, my main hope for the Blast 2021 is that a couple of English young players emerge and make names for themselves.

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