An alert government would have hauled the ECB over the coals for presiding over England’s fifth World Cup performance in a row that has disgraced the nation.
Sending the England team to the World Cup when knackered before they started would be item 1 on the charge sheet — although the ECB would no doubt argue they were a victim of circumstances, and will make sure that an Ashes series in Australia and the World Cup will never coincide again in the same winter.
But item 2 on the charge sheet still stands: that the ECB does not give the England team a fair chance of doing well in World Cups because it has banned 50-over county cricket, and persists in a tin-pot 40-over competition, flying in the face of the advice of the ECB’s own cricket committee.
Sunday sees the opening of this year’s CB40 and, assuming the weather holds, some good games may be played this afternoon as Yorkshire take on Holland at Headingley, and Lancashire meet the Unicorns (the amateurs who beat three counties last season) at Old Trafford.
But the fundamental point is: to the England team, which pays most of county cricket’s bills, this competition does more harm than good.
Source link: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/cricket/international/england/8468460/Englands-World-Cup-hopes-dashed-by-forty-over-game.html
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