English County Cricket Research Articles

Governance responses to international agreements: The impact of the Kolpak ruling on cricket 1998-2021

ABSTRACT This article investigates the impacts of global legal rulings and political agreements on domestic sport, and charts the responses of national governing bodies to these changes. The article studies rulings and agreements that impacted on employment practices within professional sport. The impact of the 2003 Kolpak ruling and the 2000 Cotonou Agreement on the movement of sportspeople is analysed. Through the context of English county cricket, this article develops Appadurai’s conceptualisation of global flows, particularly ethnoscapes and finanscapes, to investigate how these international rulings and agreements particularly impacted South African migration into the UK. The responses of cricketing governing bodies in England and South Africa are analysed, and the response of the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) to ‘Brexit’ is also examined. Longitudinal data were collected on the migration of cricket players within English county cricket from 1998 to 2021 (n = 2,192), a period encompassing the duration of which the Kolpak ruling applied. Further data were collected regarding the financial situation of the England and Wales Cricket Board, Cricket South Africa and the domestic cricket teams. We find four distinct periods within the timeframe, influenced by international policy. Despite cricket governing bodies in the UK and South Africa setting mitigating regulations, the Kolpak ruling led South African cricketers of international standard to migrate to the UK. Ultimately, it required Brexit for cricket’s governing bodies to control the migration of sportspeople into the UK.

County Club Finances and the Decline of Amateur Cricketers in England

The purpose of this paper is to identify the changes in the finances, expenditure, and membership levels of the English county cricket clubs in the years 1919 to 1962, and to then evaluate the degree to which these changes helped to alter the relationship between the professional and amateur cricketers in the first-class game. The study finds that the decline of the amateur in cricket was partly brought about by the rise in revenues that enabled the clubs to employ more higher quality professionals, and effectively squeeze out the amateurs. It also means that one of the main contributions of the amateur cricketers was to help the lower revenue sides to survive in first-class cricket.

Incidence and prevalence of lumbar stress fracture in English County Cricket fast bowlers, association with bowling workload and seasonal variation

ObjectivesSince much of the previous epidemiological research into lumbar stress fracture was conducted, there has been a marked increase in the amount of cricket being played. The aims were to...

Howzat? The Financial Health of English Cricket: Not Out, Yet

In 1997 a review of the financial health of English county cricket highlighted strategic weaknesses within the professional game, principally an over-reliance by clubs on the annual grants provided to them by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB). Without such grants the teams, in general terms, would be insolvent. Using the financial statements of the First Class Cricket Counties, this paper explores how the financial position and performance of the county game has changed, 20 years on from the seminal study. A series of structural changes to the game had been made, yet financial problems are still evident. Counties are as reliant on central grant income as they were in 1997, although there are cases where clubs have made strategic enhancements and are becoming self-sustainable as going concerns. Rather than the ECB directly funding county revenue it should be working in collaboration with individual clubs to achieve developments in the game from the grassroots upwards, in order to help clubs grow their own revenue streams.

Quantification of bowling workload and changes in cognitive function in elite fast bowlers in training compared with Twenty20 Cricket.

Bowling overs are the primary recorded measure for workloads in cricket for youth through to professionals. However, the validity of this measure has never been tested. Additionally, despite the cognitive component of cricket being suggested to be very high, changes in psychomotor processing speed has again not been explored. Eight professional English county cricket bowlers participated in the study. Participants wore global positioning systems with a tri-axial accelerometer during a Twenty20 match and training. Bowling overs were expressed relative to external forces. Additionally, cognitive function (as measured by psychomotor speed) was assessed pre and post Twenty20 game and training. When expressed relative to high intensity running distance or external forces from the tri-axial accelerometer, the cost of each over (6 deliveries) was over 100% higher in a Twenty20 game compared to training. Psychomotor speed was unchanged although error within the cognitive task increased post Twenty20 (391±82±547±104 ms) and training (414±110±561±238 ms). This data suggests that reaction time is unchanged from cricket but the chance of making the incorrect decision is increased. Movements in fielding should be quantified or bowling workloads adjusted to account for the high intensity fielding associated with Twenty20 cricket. Cognitive function was impaired following bowling, suggesting practitioners may also monitor psychomotor changes when assessing fatigue and allow appropriate time to mentally recover.

Changes in Strength, Power, and Speed Across a Season in English County Cricketers.

Previous research has investigated changes in athletes' strength, power, and speed performances across the competitive season of many sports, although this has not been explored in cricketers. The aim of this study was to investigate changes in lower-body strength and jump and sprint performances across an English county cricket season. Male cricketers (N = 12; age 24.4 ± 2.3 y, body mass 84.3 ± 9.9 kg, height 184.1 ± 8.1 cm) performed countermovement jumps (CMJs) and 20-m sprints on 4 separate occasions and back-squat strength testing on 3 separate occasions across a competitive season. Both absolute (12.9%, P = .005, effect size [ES] = 0.53) and relative lower-body strength (15.8%, P = .004, ES = 0.69) and CMJ height (5.3%, P = .037, ES = 0.42) improved significantly over the preseason training period, although no significant change (1.7%, P > .05) in sprint performance was observed. In contrast, absolute (14.3%, P = .001, ES = 0.72) and relative strength (15.0%, P = .001, ES = 0.77), CMJ height (4.2%, P = .023, ES = 0.40), and sprint performance (3.8%, P = .012, ES = 0.94) declined significantly across the season. The results of this study show that neither the demands of the competitive cricket season nor current in-season training practices provide a sufficient stimulus to maintain strength, jump, and sprint performances in these cricketers. Therefore, coaches should implement a more-frequent, higher-load strength-training program across the competitive cricket season.

Caught Behind or Following-On? Cricket, the European Union and the ‘<i>Bosman</i> Effect’

English County Cricket has struggled for a number of years with the problems posed by ‘foreign’ players. This issue has been magnified by the judgments of the European Court of Justice in the Bosman and, latterly, Kolpak cases. Many ‘foreign’ players now play first-class cricket in England unrestricted as a result in the regulations adopted by the England and Wales Cricket Board in the light of those judgments. This article contends that cricket may, in fact, be in a position to legitimately exclude such players within the limitations of European Community law. It is argued that the unique structure of professional cricket within the European Union and globally places it in a different legal position to that of more widespread sports, such as football. Similarly it is argued that the internal configuration of cricket means that the protection of development of domestic players as a means of supporting the international team is a legitimate one. This is not least because international cricket provides the bulk of the finance for cricket in England and without this the game at all levels would struggle to be viable. The article contends that the socio-cultural importance of cricket means that discrimination aimed at, and proportionate to, the protection of the international game ought to be considered as lawful. It further argues that such an approach is supported by the existence of other measures aimed at this objective, such as central contracts and the re-structuring of domestic competition. Finally, the article contends that such an approach may be perceived as being valid where it also strives to enhance the game of cricket at a European level.

Horace Ové, Cultural Icon

Horace Ove is internationally known as one of the leading black independent filmmakers to emerge in Britain since the post-war period. His feature film Pressure (1976) is cited in the Guinness Book of Records as the first black feature film to be made in the UK. It stars Herbert Norville, Norman Beaton, Sheila Scott-Wilkinson and Oscar James. In it, Ove follows three generations of a black family living in Britain - from the parents who arrived as part of the Windrush generation with their first son, who becomes part of the Black Power movement, to their younger, British-born son who struggles to find his place between the two cultures. Beyond that, Ove's career has produced a diverse range of films.Baldwin's Nigger (1969) was shot in the UK with James Baldwin and Dick Gregory. During the course of the film the two discuss and compare the social and political struggle of black people at the time in the UK and the US. His 1970 documentary Reggae was the first in-depth film on reggae music. Filmed at Wembley Stadium, it recorded the first reggae concert to be held in Britain. The film visually illustrates the social and political messages behind the music, and is narrated by the Jamaican writer and journalist, Andrew Salkey.Ove's King Carnival (1973) is acclaimed as the best documentary ever made on the history and festivities of Trinidad Carnival, which has become one of the major carnivals in the world and has spawned carnivals throughout the Caribbean and its diaspora including the Notting Hill Carnival, now the biggest street festival in Europe. The documentary Skateboard Kings (1978) provides an in-depth look at the skateboarding phenomenon at its height in the 1970s and features a young Tony Alva, Stacey Perralta, Jay Adams and the Dogtown Crew. Made for the BBC's World About Us series, it was a uniquely styled and groundbreaking documentary focusing on the tribal nature of the various groups involved in skateboarding at that time. Hole on Babylon (1979), produced for the BBC's Play for Today, was an adapted true story of two West Indians and an African holding up an Italian spaghetti house to finance an African studies programme for black British children after a refusal from the authorities. The film made an early use of cross-cutting archival news footage with dramatic sequences. Some of the actual restaurant staff were used as actors and the film was shot on the actual location. Ove himself lived in Italy for four years in the 1960s.In the early 1980s, Ove also directed the documentary Asian Arts, featuring a young Anish Kapoor. His film Who Shall We Tell? (1985) documented the Bhopal gas disaster, while Dabbawallahs, produced that same year, chronicles the existences of tiffin carriers of Bombay (now Mumbai) who endanger their lives daily delivering home-cooked lunches across the city by train, bike and on foot. Playing Away (1986), a cinematic feature written by Caryl Phillips, details a Brixton cricket team's journey to play an English county cricket side and the cultural clashes that ensue. The film stars Norman Beaton, Nicholas Farrell, Joe Marcell and Stefan Kalipha.Ove directed various episodes of the groundbreaking television series Empire Road (1978-79), which was the earliest attempt at addressing the multicultural society that existed in Britain. Ove made his mark on the series by taking it out of the studio and onto real street locations. It starred Norman Beaton, Joe Marcell and Rudolph Walker. He directed The Latchkey Children (1978-79), the first multiracial children's drama, for the UK's ITV network, and also directed an episode of The Professionals titled A Man Called Quinn, starring Steven Berkoff as an ex-secret service agent.In 1991 Ove directed The Orchid House, a four-part period drama set and shot on the Caribbean island of Dominica. Based on the novel by Dominican writer Phyllis Shand Allfrey, it tells the story of the decline of an old colonial family from the point of view of their black nanny, and stars Madge Sinclair, Elizabeth Hurley, Nigel Terry, Lenny James, Indra Ove and Frances Barber. …

TheBritish Journal of Dermatology: 125 years, 28 editors, enduring values

The<i>British Journal of Dermatology</i>: 125 years, 28 editors, enduring values

‘Everyone seemed to be “with it”’: cricket politics and the coming of the one-day game, 1940–1970

This article explores, historically and in some detail, the political deliberations that led to the establishment of one-day cricket in England. It traces this debate from the temporary arrangements for one-day cricket during the Second World War to the inauguration of a one-day competition, with commercial sponsorship, in 1961 and beyond. It examines the various arguments and political factors that were in play and it will suggest that a number of factors contributed to the arrival of one-day cricket, initially in England at this time. These included: changes in the political and economic standing of the British aristocracy; an ongoing financial crisis among the English county cricket clubs; the growth in influence in British political and cultural life of the elites of what the American sociologist Alvin Gouldner called ‘impression management’; the politicisation and greater bargaining power of professional county cricketers; crucial changes in the consumer market for cigarettes; and what may be seen as fresh attitudes to leisure and sport on the part of sections of the English public.

Wielding the Willow: Processes of Institutional Change in English County Cricket

We examine institutional change processes through a longitudinal archival study of First-Class County Cricket in England. We find that institutional change occurs in mature organizational fields when organizations located at the field center, periphery, and in between trigger different multilevel processes. Our results show that when society-level evolutionary change created organization-level resource pressures that undermined the central values of a mature field, the group of actors between the field center and periphery served as intermediaries in the institutional change process bringing the societal, field, and organizational levels back into alignment. Our process model was supported over two cycles of change.

Creating opportunities for institutional entrepreneurship: The Colonel and the Cup in English County Cricket

This paper examines how actors within a mature cultural field use their field positions to create opportunities for institutional entrepreneurship. Our analysis of the product innovation of a Knock-Out Cup in English County Cricket between the 1930s and 1960s shows that when the economic viability of a mature cultural field is threatened, actors learn to recursively create market and political opportunities for institutional entrepreneurship by deploying the resources of their field positions in tactics targeted at shifting product category boundaries. We find that ‘lone hero’ institutional entrepreneurs who experience failure from working in relative isolation learn to acquire new resources and deploy them in new tactics leading to a more collective approach, which is necessary for disrupting the institutional gatekeeping work that maintains a mature cultural field.

Tuning In: Diasporas at the BBC World Service

This article looks at diaspora through the transformations of an established public service broadcaster, the BBC World Service in a fast changing landscape of global broadcasting, by considering some of the findings of the AHRC-funded Tuning In: Contact Zones at the BBC World Service, which is part of the Diasporas, Migration and Identities program. Tuning In has six themes, each of which focuses upon the role of the BBC WS: The Politics of Translation, Diasporic Nationhood, Religious Transnationalism, Sport across Diasporas, Migrating Music and Drama for Development

Public relations practice in English county cricket

PurposeThe main reason for conducting this research was to conduct an analysis of the extent of public relations activity in domestic first‐class cricket in an attempt to offer a strategy for effective, proactive public relations.Design/methodology/approachThe research objectives were achieved by using an exploratory case study approach to evaluate the extent of public relations within the two cricket clubs, Durham County Cricket Club and Yorkshire County Cricket Club. The constructivist approach was adopted, as primary qualitative research strategies provided the bulk of the findings. A purposive sample of respondents was identified for semi‐structured, open‐ended interviews that were conducted face‐to‐face and via the telephone.FindingsPublic relations is extremely important at Durham County Cricket Club. Durham CCC's approach to public relations is the exception rather than the rule amongst the 18 first‐class counties. Yorkshire CCC does not have a dedicated public relations professional on the marketing team. Though there is clearly a place for public relations, other commercial techniques seem to be more important at Yorkshire. The consensus is that public relations is essential to the future success of the sport but the reality is that it is not fully implemented to the extent that it should be or that many in the game would like it to be. If cricket is to have a viable future, it must address its image problems and become more appealing to a demographically different audience than has traditionally been the case. Public relations, more than the other elements of the contemporary promotional mix, offers a potential solution.Research limitations/implicationsThe major limitation to this research was that interviews could not be arranged with a Yorkshire player to balance that held with the Durham player. The information gathered by the researcher was necessarily indirect but it was felt that this did not invalidate the research, as a range of secondary sources was used to underpin the primary research findings. As this research was a snapshot in time, it would be useful to conduct further regular research in order to monitor changes in attitudes and approach to public relations in cricket.Practical implicationsThe findings from this research are applicable to all sports and can be implemented and adapted accordingly. It is felt that all sports organisations regularly need to review their communications strategies and implement public relations much more widely.Originality/valueNo such research has previously been conducted and all the findings and recommendations are original. Durham CCC has already implemented some of the proposals and the author's continuing work with other sports organisations has been founded on this research.

Professional Sport in Australia and New Zealand: An Introduction to the Special Issue

Professional sport in Australia and New Zealand is an important and increasingly significant feature of the Australasian sport landscape. Australia and New Zealand sustain a wide range of professional sport leagues, including a multitude of professional football leagues, one of them a uniquely Australian brand of football. Numerous high profile Australasian athletes are successful in professional sports such as tennis, golf and surfing, sports traditionally dominated by Europeans and Americans. The two countries also share involvement in one of the truly transnational professional sporting competitions: Super 12 Rugby Union. There are currently fifteen national leagues in Australia covering the following sports: Australian rules football, rugby union, rugby league, football, netball, softball, waterpolo, and both men's and women's leagues in cricket, basketball, field hockey, and surf lifesaving. New Zealand teams compete in professional leagues based in Australia such as the National Basketball League (NBL), professional soccer (the Hyundai A League), and the National Rugby League (NRL). Many of these leagues allow athletes to earn their living as professionals.Both countries also have successful elite athlete development systems that provide playing talent not only for domestic competitions, but also for overseas professional sports as diverse as English Premier League Football, Rugby League, Rugby Union and County Cricket in the UK, the National Football League, Major League Baseball, the National Basketball Association, the Womens’ National Basketball Association, and the National Hockey League. Athletes from Australia and New Zealand also feature prominently in the world Top 100 for professional sports tours as diverse as tennis (e.g., Lleyton Hewitt and Alicia Molik), golf (e.g., Karrie Webb, Michael Campbell, and Adam Scott), surfing (e.g., Layne Beachley, Joel Parkinson, Chelsea Georgeson, Luke Egan) and motor racing (e.g., Mark Webber).

An investigation of home advantage and other factors affecting outcomes in English one-day cricket matches

We examined the factors affecting the outcome of cricket matches played in the English one-day county cricket league. In particular, we focused on the home-field effect and the importance of winning the pre-match toss of a coin to determine a team's strategic decision to bat first or second. A home-field effect appeared to be confirmed in that home teams won 57% of all matches with a win/loss result. A logistical regression model was used, with the outcome variable defined in terms of a home team win/loss. We found that while winning the toss is an important aspect of a one-day cricket match, other factors tend to dominate in determining the result, especially team quality and match importance for the home and away teams in the overall league context. Our results also indicate, not surprisingly given the nature of cricket attendance and spectating, that the crowd effect is largely insignificant. The results of our study do not support any rule changes requiring the abandonment of the coin toss to determine batting order.

Stress fractures of the lumbar pars interarticularis in athletes: a review based on long-term results of 18 professional cricketers

The physical demand of the modern game of cricket on the fast bowler is known to cause stress fractures of the lumbar spine. Between 1983 and 2001, we diagnosed pars interarticularis defects in 18 professional cricketers contracted to a single English County Cricket Club. Eight of these players were treated conservatively, with rest, supervised rehabilitation, bowling action analysis and re-education where necessary. The remaining 10 were treated operatively, 9 by Buck’s repair of the spondylolytic lesion. All 18 players returned to professional sport. We recommend treatment of this select group of sportsmen in a unit consisting of a specialist physiotherapist, a bowling coach and a spinal surgeon. Should conservative measures fail, we recommend Buck’s repair as the operation of choice.

‘Time gentlemen please’: The decline of amateur captaincy in English county cricket

(2000). ‘Time gentlemen please’: The decline of amateur captaincy in English county cricket. Contemporary British History: Vol. 14, Amateurs and Professionals in Post-War British Sport, pp. 31-59.

Cricket's Global 'Finishing School': The Migration of Overseas Cricketers into English County Cricket

This paper introduces the controversial topic of the international movement of sport labour and explains its significance for the understanding of modern sport develop ment. Specific emphasis is placed on the impact of sport labour migration on the maintenance and development of sporting talent pipelines in both host and donor countries. The motives and objectives of the migrant athletes themselves provide a central focus. Reference is made to the historical development of cricket migration, the cases for and against and the steps taken to facilitate or restrict such movement. Player directory based quantitative analysis reveals the size and complexity of the practice, and interviews with migrant players offer insights into the athlete's experience.

Timetabling County Cricket Fixtures Using a Form of Tabu Search

Eighteen teams currently compete in the major English county cricket tournaments (although one of the teams is Welsh, the system as a whole is generally known as ‘English’ cricket, and is referred to as such throughout this paper). There are four such competitions: the County Championship, the Sunday League and two knock-out cups. The first two of these are run on a league basis; under the current format, every county plays against every other county exactly once over the season, which lasts from late April to mid-September.