shortbread
First Class Player
- Joined
- Mar 30, 2011
- Runs
- 2,779
It is very tough for cricketing countries to survive and remain competitive without a quality first-class structure. Irrespective of hiring top class coaching unit and having impressive facilities, a National team cannot be consistently successful without a regular supply of good cricketers working their way up from first class cricket.
Most countries do have first class cricket in one form or the other, the problem lies in the difference in quality vis a vis International cricket. When the gap is too big players making their debut in International cricket tend to struggle. This with time will reflect in the declining fortunes of the national team.
Compounding this problem is the fact that creating a quality first class structure takes years or decades even. Also it is a very expensive proposition which many boards cannot afford. So is there a stop-gap solution?
I think there is.
How about, for eg. West Indies field a permanent team in every season of English county cricket? Playing regular cricket of competitive nature will help improve future WI hopefuls by leaps and bounds. The WICB will take forever to develop domestic cricket of such quality at home. So why not piggy-back on one that already exists.
I don't simply mean an A team doing a one off tour, No! I am talking about a WI county team in English domestic cricket. Or a Zimbabwe/Kenyan team in the SA Sunfoil 4 day series etc.
So when the time comes and Trinidadian youngster wears the WI jersey for the first time he does not feel like fish out of water.
What do you guys think?
Most countries do have first class cricket in one form or the other, the problem lies in the difference in quality vis a vis International cricket. When the gap is too big players making their debut in International cricket tend to struggle. This with time will reflect in the declining fortunes of the national team.
Compounding this problem is the fact that creating a quality first class structure takes years or decades even. Also it is a very expensive proposition which many boards cannot afford. So is there a stop-gap solution?
I think there is.
How about, for eg. West Indies field a permanent team in every season of English county cricket? Playing regular cricket of competitive nature will help improve future WI hopefuls by leaps and bounds. The WICB will take forever to develop domestic cricket of such quality at home. So why not piggy-back on one that already exists.
I don't simply mean an A team doing a one off tour, No! I am talking about a WI county team in English domestic cricket. Or a Zimbabwe/Kenyan team in the SA Sunfoil 4 day series etc.
So when the time comes and Trinidadian youngster wears the WI jersey for the first time he does not feel like fish out of water.
What do you guys think?
