JAMES COYNE: It’s undeniable that matches involving the Asian teams in this World Cup – especially those drawing on the bigger fanbases of India, Pakistan or Bangladesh – have felt like different experiences to those which haven’t
You should have heard the noise. Mohammad Amir speared one through Martin Guptill’s defences, inside-edge onto stumps, and the cavernous Edgbaston bowl almost took off into the gloomy skies above. If it’s possible to find the clip online, showing the response in the stands, I urge you to watch it.
This was the day the ECB marked the one-year anniversary of its South Asian Action Plan, the organisation’s necessary – and overdue – attempt to help realise the true potential of the British Asian love for cricket. It just so happened that Birmingham, the city that produced Moeen Ali, was hosting Pakistan v New Zealand in the World Cup at the same time as Graham Gooch was unveiling a new cricket centre in Leyton.
It’s undeniable that matches involving the Asian teams in this World Cup – especially those drawing on the bigger fanbases of India, Pakistan or Bangladesh – have felt like different experiences to those which haven’t. And, as far as this writer has seen, they’ve been all the better.
One of the triumphs of Mike Marqusee’s seminal book Anyone but England was that it shone a light on the cricketing lives of Britain’s immigrant communities – including a few ugly skirmishes in the 1980s and ’90s. Thankfully, there’s been barely a sniff of any of that at cricket in recent years.
On Tuesday we had England v Australia at Lord’s, which played out in front of a generally reserved and respectful audience, perhaps due to the looming sense that England were endangering their place in their own tournament. Much has been made of the potential for the final, back at Lord’s on July 14, to be shown live on a free-to-air platform. That would set up a monumental Sunday of sport free for all in the country to watch – the Wimbledon men’s final on BBC One, the British Grand Prix on Channel 4, and (maybe) the Cricket World Cup final on a format as-yet unclear. We’ll sit tight on that one for now.
Perhaps it was the Lord’s hum, or the fact it was a daytime game early in a working week, but the atmosphere did not seem quite as boozy as you’d expect for a match between the oldest rivals in cricket (well, almost the oldest, as all true cricket fans know that USA v Canada has a longer heritage).
Five weeks from now, England and Australia will reconvene at Edgbaston for the start of the Ashes. Edgbaston has been awarded the opening salvo of the Ashes by dint of England’s superb Test record there, and its reputation for having the most pro-England atmosphere of any major ground. Let’s just say the first Ashes Test will be a more bacchanalian affair than anything we’ve seen in this World Cup.
Edgbaston was a sea of green on Wednesday
The Eric Hollies Stand will fill up with beer snakes (despite the best efforts of Warwickshire and others to cut down on single-use plastic) as Jamaican bobsled teams run gleefully down the aisles. Do not mistake this for a call to separate drinking from cricket. Far from it: these England supporters are the lifeblood of England cricket and the vast majority are just enjoying a fun day out.
But, today, Edgbaston must have been filled four-fifths by Pakistan supporters. The Hollies Stand just had a very different feel to it. No less euphoric, in its own way. It erupted every time Pakistan took a wicket, hit a boundary or pulled off a save in the field. Green and white flags waved in unison. There was a smattering of applause too, for every New Zealand boundary or save in the field.
And all fuelled by little more than enthusiasm and love for cricket, specifically Pakistan cricket. Warwickshire said that, as a share of all food and drink sales, lager sales were at 25 per cent, down from the usual 35 per cent. Coffee and soft drink sales were both up from two per cent to nine per cent.
You can find some of the rationale for The Hundred in all of this. The ECB have looked at their ticket-buying data for England and county games over the last seven years, and say purchasers are 95 per cent white, 82 per cent male and 65 per cent affluent (from the ABC1 demographic). To which many would respond: you reap what you sow, after all these years of live cricket behind a paywall. The quality of Sky's coverage and the money they have put in should not, however, be underestimated.
Whatever the rights and wrongs, the ECB concluded that the game is not bringing in enough casual sports fans, younger fans, women, or indeed the British Asians who turn out in droves for India, Pakistan or Bangladesh in this country. It’s their job, after all, to square this circle between two constituencies, and to cultivate a new following. Otherwise the game will wither away.
The international grounds have been gradually adapting to different tastes in British society for some years now. For this World Cup, Warwickshire have designated the Priory Stand, on the opposite side of the ground, alcohol-free for the duration of the World Cup. In non-ICC cricket it is known as the Drayton Manor Stand – and, while not alcohol-free, it is the family stand set aside for “responsible drinking”.
And we’re not just talking about parts of the South Asian constituency here. Though the ECB have backtracked from initial messages about The Hundred not being for existing cricket fans, many ECB personnel still want The Hundred to offer more of a family atmosphere, and be less dominated by alcohol, than England and T20 Blast games can be. You might say good luck with that one. But there’s plenty of evidence that, as a rule, younger generations are less bothered about booze than Gen X or the baby-boomers. And there is a wider health move against excessive drinking. So ECB attempts to prepare for a less beery future are not entirely without logic.
Sarfraz Ahmed hit the winning runs after Babar Azam had struck an unbeaten hundred
That’s not the same as stamping out drinking altogether, which would be unnecessarily divisive – not to say foolish, given that it generates so much money, is part of the day out at the cricket for many, and would be penalising plenty for the unsavoury actions of a few. But do not be surprised to see the ECB play up a family-friendly atmosphere in The Hundred.
Gulfraz Riaz, the chairman and founder of the National Asian Cricket Council, which works with the ECB on an advisory level and put crucial input into the South Asian Action Plan, thinks a boozy atmosphere at matches should be less of an issue for non-drinkers now that most of the big international arenas – including Edgbaston – have gone to the care to set space aside for faith rooms, and are committed to family stands and responsible drinking areas.
“It [the drinking] may put some people off. But you’ve got designated areas in stadiums now. The counties have been very good," he told The Cricketer.
“It’s all about networking. Good friends of mine in Yorkshire own Regal Bakery in Bradford, and they actually paid for the refurbishment of the faith room at Headingley. So there was an immediate connectivity, to Yorkshire’s credit, to a very successful Asian business in the area.”
Up to now, most of the discussion around The Hundred has centred on the damage it could cause to the existing county formats. And fair enough. (For what it’s worth, this writer was prepared to back the ECB’s initial plans for a new T20 tournament, so long as it attracted the world’s best players and did not cannibalise the existing county formats.) But I reckon The Hundred will stand or fall on the impression it can make on the fans – both old and new.
The Edgbaston team, set to be named Birmingham Phoenix, and overseen by a board involving the Warwickshire and Worcestershire chief executives, will be hoping that many of the Pakistan supporters who turned out for this crunch match in the World Cup can be lured back for Hundred matches at Edgbaston. But can it be done?
Pakistan's fans have brought a huge amount of joy and passion to this World Cup
Gulfraz thinks the crucial factor is getting the world’s best players in The Hundred. For all its virtues, that is not always something the Blast has been able to do.
“What’s going to get people through the door? Will the new format? Possibly.
“For me, it’s AB de Villiers, Virat Kohli, Chris Gayle, Jos Buttler, Ben Stokes, Moeen Ali – they’re the ones that will get people through the door. You’ve got to tap into the superstars.
“Why did people want to go and watch Usain Bolt run the 100 metres when you only saw him for 9.58 seconds? The chance to see that star. So there’s an opportunity there with The Hundred.”
But it’s no given as yet. Finding players to fill the three overseas slots in each team will be easy enough; the challenge will be to access the top-end, blue-riband names, rather than the second tier of T20 and T10 globetrotters. The England all-format superstars, already at risk from burnout, will probably find their appearances rationed, and relied on more to promote the product than play in it. The top Pakistanis like Babar Azam, prevented from playing in the IPL, will be sought-after too.
But the crucial thing is surely India. Up to now, the BCCI has shown no inclination to let its players appear in the T20 Blast – or other overseas franchise tournaments, for that matter – though they do clear them for the County Championship, which goes mostly untelevised and is unequivocally a way for their Test players to improve.
Yes, the ECB's bumper TV rights deal is already landed. But if the ECB can’t get Indians, the hottest properties in world cricket, in that player draft, surely it will have an impact on how much they can realistically charge for tickets.
“The cost of tickets is a factor already in the T20 Blast,” says Gulfraz. “Are people willing to go to watch a Hundred game on a Thursday or Friday? Ideally you’d want games to be on a Sunday, but many Asians are actually playing cricket then.”
A year out from countdown cricket, time is ticking. There’s a furious year of networking ahead for the ECB – whoever wins this World Cup.
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