SHA Small Heath Alliance

We've turned to shit, especially given where we were only a few years ago.

Dan

newblue

mad

Cricket is so important for Sky. There's bound to be loads of fans of non big-6 teams who have subscribed mainly for the cricket as you say than to see their footy team. You can occasion a visit to the pub to see your footy team but rarely all day of cricket.

Johnathan Liew good article in the Guardian again today I saw some of the u19s v Scotland yesterday and wondered who of that lot would be from the streets. Apparently it's just 4 out of the entire squad. That Hampshire opener/all round kid looked very good though

English cricket remains a metaphor for the country at large: hollowed out and stripped down, a place of VIP queues and boarded-up high streets, pristine public school fields and “no ball games” signs on housing estates

.

When I was a kid we used to play cricket in the street, in our garden and down Ward End park (had 4 brothers so always a game on). On a Sunday down Ward End park there would be 4/5 games on. It’s all gone now. Tbf I don’t see kids playing street games of football (or any other games) either. There’s just less informal sport and play amongst kids and cricket is a bit of a hard game to promote. It’s a function of kids doing other things rather than just talking about class. I don’t think it’s been a ‘working class’ sport for a long time. Even when I was a kid it was the Grammar schools that played it to any level.

I know it varies from area to area, but where I live I think it's as big as it's ever been. My club has around 200 juniors, with a waiting list to join as well, with probably a 75/25 split in favour of state schools. Our nets are used almost constantly throughout the summer months. We regularly had 50-60 senior players available for Saturday league matches last season. We've probably got 10-15 other clubs just in a 3 mile radius of us as well.

Our league has expanded massively, last season there were 540 individual teams within the club across around 100 clubs. The main difficulty for most now is finding pitches to play on.