“No News is Good News” is the old idiom, implying that if
there is nothing to talk about, then everything must be going well. With everything that has happened in the last
week, I wonder if Andrew Strauss believes the opposite; that it is necessary to
create news for things to be well.
For those who have been avoiding all news, not just cricket
news (as this story broke down those barriers like Dan Christian in a changeroom after being given LBW), ex-England Captain Andrew Strauss was made
Director of Cricket for the English Cricket Team and started his reign by
telling Kevin “KP” Pietersen he wasn’t going to be picked for England.
This may not be shocking in itself, but KP had just scoredover 300 runs in a First Class game and had been previously told that he would
get picked if he scored runs.
Given Strauss’ relationship with KP, his handling of the
situation is hardly surprising, though England hardly has a list of players
scoring 300+ runs in a game that they can call on.
Strauss’ nepotistic management style dominated his time as
England Captain and cast a long shadow on the team after he left, as the team
was unable to continue winning when one of the preferred players suffered a
loss of form or retired.
It was hardly about developing a winning culture for the
benefit of fans, but a comfortable culture for the benefit of himself.
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| I'm comfortable, how about you? |
KP has indicated that this (Strauss’) approach is now being
embedded at the ECB, with Strauss telling him that England were prepared tolose the Ashes this year so they can develop new players.
Now, I don’t know how familiar Strauss is with running high
performance sports teams, but he would do well to look at the recent plight of
the Melbourne Football Club in the Australian Football League (AFL).
The AFL has a draft system for all new players, with the
worst performing clubs getting the better draft picks to help them get better
in future.
Some years ago, Melbourne took the odd step of deciding that
they weren’t going to get any better by being better, so started getting worse
to get better. Get it?
 |
| Got it. |
The decision by the Executive group at MFC to lose games toaccess better draft picks ruined the club to the point that the AFL had to step
in to find the club a coach and CEO as the losing mentality had permeated every
element of the club.
Now that Strauss has decided to go down a similar path,
without the benefit of a Draft of players to pick from (England are won’t to
pick other teams players already), its baffling to think what the benefit may
be.
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| Anyone? |
Should England start to fail further and turn more fans away
from the game, will the ICC interfere?
Surely England could be demoted or penalised for deliberately being
uncompetitive? Will the ICC allocate
revenues to better run countries (e.g. Ireland) to help them coax players to
them and create better development pathways?
Probably not.
Regardless, the other impact that Strauss probably should be
a little concerned about is book makers.
These poor fellows have their livelihoods supported by the ability to
rig the outcome of cricket games, or even deliveries within games, and if
England stops being competitive; whatever are they to do?
Poor bookmakers.
Whatever the reason for his decisions, Strauss is certainly
making a name for himself.
Enter the Dragon
In an interesting coincidence, rumours have continued to
spread about the development of a break-away cricket league featuring legends
of the game. I’m always excited at the prospect of these leagues as they
achieve two things most immediately:
1. Provide competition to current administrators, forcing
them to improve the management of the game; and
2. Develop changes within cricket that inevitably improve it
as a product
The most obvious example of this was World Series Cricket,
which did impact the Australian team (in particular) for almost a decade, but
also saw it become much more customer-focussed.
With all the rumblings in the ECB, a healthy alternative
couldn’t come soon enough.
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