Will welsh club cricket survive in it's current form.

Will Welsh Club Cricket Survive in it's current form, this is big question and who should decide what should happen going forward.

 

Welsh Cricket is in my view in decline and if something is not done about it now then many clubs could go to the wall, lets face it when the ECB sold out to SKY they said it was for the best for grass roots cricket, what a load of poppy cock the best for grass roots cricket don't make me laugh.

 

Yet clubs have to jump through hoops just to get funding for a new roof, new machinery, yet some clubs get it a dwindle it away, yes The ECB sold out.

 

Now back to the point in hand Welsh Cricket, yes it is on the decline, many clubs survive on their junior set up, yet many clubs are not allowed to go into schools and encourage these youngsters to come to their club.

 

The Money the ECB have had off SKY is supposed to filter down to the grass roots of the game ie:- The Local Cricket Clubs, yet it is not.

 

In Welsh Cricket there is The Premier League which is formed of sides from East and West Wales, with feeder Leagues from each area, one up and one down from both, but the criteria though is some what confusing as you need to have a junior set up to get promotion, yet sides are not allowed to go into schools to bring these juniors to the club, sides who do not have a junior section get promotion yet other clubs are denied this because the may only have 2 junior sides instead of 3, this is counter productive as it is stopping side moving forward to the next level and encourage these juniors to come to the clubs, the better cricket you play the better the standard is the more chance of getting these junior players to come to your club.

 

Well this is the case in East Wales or should that be Gwent, 11 years ago there was a premier league in East Wales and West Wales and the top 4 sides from these leagues played each other, Divisions should be 10 sides not the current 12 sides which is.

 

On top of that lets go back to getting the kids involved in the game, not many children are seeing the game on TV as, as I mentioned The ECB sold out to SKY taking their Millions, yet this is not filtering down to the clubs who produce these cricketers that go on to play Test Matches, ODI's and T20's.

 

I was brought up on cricket being Free to Air TV on the BBC and Channel4 viewing figures in the millions and at one point in 2005 at 10.2 Million viewers and over 300,000 were women, yet The ECB saw fit to sell Out to SKY.

 

So will Welsh Cricket survive, maybe, maybe not, but unless there is a change it won't leagues of 10 clubs, criteria change allowing clubs to move forward, allowing Clubs to go into schools, give them some funding every year to allow them to improve their facilities, not putting barriers in the way and not having dinosaurs running the ECB and Welsh Cricket get some youthful vibrant people involved who are willing to move the game forward and not live in the past as they are now.

 

I  feel cricket can survive in Wales but it has to change and change for the better and not for the worse and not as said earlier put barriers in the way of side moving forward and improving.  

 

Let the clubs get involved in the future of the game in Wales, not allow the so called people who run the game in Wales decide, the clubs are the one's who play the game, they are the one's on the frontline week in and week out, the people who play the game and are not sat behind a desk making rules and dictating what the criteria is.

 

By doing this the game can survive in Wales and be vibrant and attractive to young cricketers.