Falling number proves short game has lost way

EXCUSE me for sounding like Fred Trueman. But as a young lad I can recall fighting to get into the Vale Douzaine Room for an annual meeting of the Guernsey Cricket Association.

If memory serves me right it was during the presidential days of Bill Robilliard when league clubs cared passionately about what moves were afoot to make their summer evenings better or worse, depending on which side of the fence you sat.

These days most of the membership do not seem to care about what the GCA decides is good for them, highlighted by the fact that at last Monday's EGM at the Cobo Bay Hotel just 13 clubs were present for the crucial league structure vote.

Thankfully, those that were present, made some very sound decisions.

The return to the traditional league ladder was right, as was the rejection of the GCA committee's proposal to refuse lower division teams the long-held right to have rained-off games re-arranged, while still allowing teams in Division One to have a second, third, fourth bite of the cherry.

Whatever the reasoning behind the committee's decision, it cannot be right to treat players of a lesserstandard differently.

They all pay their money and deserve equal treatment.

As it is, lower-league players already have to endure inferior playing conditions.

The GCA argues that they were simply attempting to make its own life easier, as there is nobody willing to re-arrange fixtures. But how hard has the association tried to find one and is it not a little early to be putting up the white flag?

It already costs teams dear to play cricket and it is not uncommon for some to be particularly unlucky with regard to rain-affected games.

The GCA ran the big risk and subsequent controversy of seeing championships decided by the loss of games to rain. The plan was totally unfair.

History shows the island to have the capacity to play more cricket than it does and one has to conclude that while weekend standards have risen markedly, the evening game has seriously lost its way and needs careful attention.

In 1995, the GCA boasted 57 teams spread over six divisions of either nine or 10 per league.

In 2004, the total was down to 49 and of the seven conference-style leagues, three comprised six teams and a fourth seven.

Something has gone wrong somewhere.

The season is shorter, too.

This summer the programme opened, as has been the norm, in the last full week of April.

Its last full week of league fixtures began on 2 August, whereas as recently back as 1998 the league season started on 26 April, two weeks after a fortnight of popular Guernsey Press KO tournament, and ended the week beginning 16 August.

Four weeks have been lopped off the season in six years.

For 2005, I sincerely hope the new GCA committee will look to create as many nine-team leagues as possible, because a 16-game programme is surely the appropriate number.

Behind the scenes, the GCA itself plays increasingly second-fiddle to the main umbrella body, 'Cricket Guernsey' headed by Dave Piesing.

This week Cricket Guernsey announced Jack Birkenshaw as its first head coach, an eminently sensible to provide a common approach to coaching of players young or old.

Under Birkenshaw all coaches should work to the same plan because there is no point in one visiting coach telling the likes of Tim Ravenscroft - an outstanding prospect - how to play one shot and another coaching celeb instructing him differently a few weeks later.

Although a little long in the tooth - he's 64 today - Birkenshaw is a man to be admired for not only what he has achieved, but by the fact that he still has a genuine zest for the game.