Reflections on attending the Cricket World Cup

Juggling with stumps and cricket bats at Chester-le-Street
- the blue van in the background is a CWC2019
mobile toilet support van!

Soccer-mad Boffin Kevin follows up his earlier post on the Cricket World Cup: Commiserations to England's lionesses on their loss to the USA in the FIFA Women's World Cup semi-final!  Today another England team in a different sport have a must-win match to ensure their qualification for the semi-final stage - in the Cricket World Cup, being held in England and Wales at the moment.

Your correspondent, a seasoned cricket watcher, attended two matches - West Indies v New Zealand at Old Trafford in Manchester (normally home of Lancashire), and West Indies v Sri Lanka at the Riverside, Chester-Le-Street (normally home of Durham).  Both seemed extremely well organized with the ground at Manchester being especially easy to get into, with almost no queue.  There was more queuing at Durham, but the tournament volunteers (or 'cricketeers') kept the queue entertained by announcing facts about the two teams playing.  Temporary stands were erected at both grounds to provide cheaper seating, the view from both being excellent, and plenty of catering, bar and toilet capacity was provided, especially at Durham where an army of temporary toilets was deployed alongside the already large existing facilities in the ground. A broad range of catering was provided and the area behind the stands at both matches used to set up a carnival atmosphere with a range of stalls selling merchandise and cricket equipment, as well as entertainers such as Carribean dancers and jugglers.  Beer fans will also be interested in the Indian craft keg beer that was sold, Bira 91 - the IPA was pleasant.  The on-field action was of high quality too, though the resurgent Windies team were unable to win on either occasion despite their valiant second innings performances. This despite the surprise presence of the Barbadian singer Rhianna at Chester-le-Street!

Panoramic view of the action at Old Trafford

Despite the fact that attendances at domestic cricket can be small, both grounds are already experienced at holding international cricket when England play at the venues and so this meant that existing capabilities could be rolled over by the counties and ECB to deliver a flawless spectator experience. By playing matches in one group of ten and rolling the host grounds from the south-west, with early matches held at Taunton, Cardiff and Bristol to the north-east as the tournament progressed, equipment such as portable toilets and catering as well as in-ground entertainers could be moved around the country. The Indian beer reflects the sponsorship direction of world cricket today, which sees brands that are targeting South Asian and especially affluent Indian consumers partnering with the ICC instead of western brands - the main western brands present were Uber and Coca-Cola, both of which are known for attempting to penetrate Asian markets.  The presence of existing capabilities in a single sport makes hosting the event easier than a multi-sport event such as the Olympics or Commonwealth games where events often happen on greenfield sites with no heritage of holding the sports in question.  The flaw may be the limited impact on local economies - your correspondent spotted many shirt wearing Sri Lankans heading south on the A1 after the Durham game, suggesting a repeat of 1966 finding that many visiting fans preferred to stay in one place centrally, rather than staying near host grounds.  One pleasant impact has been that domestic cricket has continued due to the limitations of the playing season, and so during the tournament the counties have moved out to play more at secondary venues, known as 'outgrounds', with Lancashire and Durham playing each other at Sedbergh School this week.

The ECB, who are much more powerful in their sport than their soccer equivalents, are frequently criticised for their management of the English game, while the ICC has often been criticised for their overt focus on the South Asian market while failing to invest in the growth of the game in non-Test playing nations. But on this occasion, the tournament seems to have engaged visiting fans from around the world together with broadening the fan base in England, and so the ECB and ICC have scored a century and taken five wickets each - howzat!

The Cricket World Cup Starts Tomorrow!

Time to get your pads on!  England is hosting the 12th Cricket World Cup, which starts at The Oval tomorrow at 10.30am with a match between England and South Africa.  Cricket's equivalent of football's biggest spectacle will involve the top ten 'Test' playing teams and culminate at Lord's on Sunday 14th July, with a structure somewhat different from the football version - all ten teams will play each other in the first round, before the top four teams go on into the semi-finals. England have hosted the Cricket World Cup four previous times - 1975, 1979, 1983 and 1999, but have yet to lift the trophy themselves; famously they exited the competition in 1999 before the official single was released. Perhaps England will triumph this time? Compared to the soccer version, the tournament has been cheap to hold, as existing cricket stadiums have been used - the main case of boosterism in the tournament's history is the infamous 2007 edition in the West Indies, when a reported US$500m was spent constructing new stadiums and supporting infrastructure, but attendances suffered as supporters from the game's commercial heartlands in India and Pakistan found travelling to the Windward and Leeward Islands difficult, perhaps encouraging their teams' early exit from the competition (Majumdar, 2009)!

So why is this tournament of relevance to soccer-mad boffins?  Firstly, there are many historic links between the two sports.  Cricket, a sport favored by the English gentry, emerged as an organized sport a century (or more) before football, and many football clubs were founded to keep cricketers fit during the winter.  Cricket was a bastion of 'gentlemanly amateurism' (until 1973 professional players had to use a separate dressing room from amateurs) and this allowed for many players to play both sports, most notably perhaps C B Fry, who briefly played in the Football League for Southampton. This has become difficult more recently as both sports have professionalised, but many young players still try their hand in both disciplines - of relatively recent players Phil Neville of Manchester United fame played as an opening batsman for England under 15s.

Amateur cricket played on a village green

Secondly, the amateurism theme is one which is important for the history of Sport in Britain in general, and cricket tried to cling onto its amateurism to the extent that in many counties in the South of England eschewed the development of competitive league structures, as they were felt to encourage professionalism. The research of top cricket historian Duncan Stone on this topic is worth reading!  Cricket is still struggling to establish a viable institutional context for professionalization today, with ever shorter forms of the game being introduced, and new franchises complimenting or replacing the traditional county or state based structures around the world.  Though, there is a good commercial reason for this - if played in Test Cricket form, in which games are played over five days, the World Cup would probably take around three months to complete!

Thirdly, it has a link to 1966 - cricket, then a much more visible TV sport than today, cooperated with the English FA by suspending Test Matches for the whole of July 1966!

So, there are plenty of reasons to fish out your long wave radio and tune into the tournament!

Here is a visual guide to cricket for the uninitiated should any of the jargon above (and cricket has a lot of jargon) have you stumped!