Today the England Cricketers, or those on central contracts who are likely to make up the squad due to tour Australia later this year will be briefed on the plans in place should the Ashes tour of Australia go ahead. They will be given the proposed schedule and the restrictions that will be placed upon them should they wish to tour.
It is believed that they will be given the weekend to confirm whether they are willing to be considered for selection under these conditions. The Selectors will meet next week and select the squad based on the players that have made themselves available.
As discussed in Podcast 99 The England and Wales Cricket Board have found themselves stuck between a rock and a hard place. The word is that they were happy to call off the tour, however Cricket Australia need the funds that an Ashes tour generates, so were asking for financial compensation; how quickly they forget they pulled out of a tour of South Africa even after the South African Cricket Board had bent over backwards to meet all of their demands! Of course the difference there was that South Africa is not a powerbroker in World Cricket.
England had conceded that some of their top players may make themselves unavailable for the tour due to the restrictions rumoured to be placed upon them due to the Covid Pandemic. That was when the broadcaster stepped in, and it is alleged that they claimed that would look for compensation if a second string England team was sent to Australia.
The Ashes is without doubt one of the great sporting contests but one does tend to have a great deal of sympathy with those who are separated from loved ones all around the globe who quite rightly say why should these sports stars be allowed into Australia when their loved ones can’t get home, or they cannot get out of Australia?
One feels for the players as being a high performance athlete you work on a clarity of knowing what is happening, when it is happening and where it is happening. Sadly in these times that is not possible. Welcome to a world that many in business or other walks of life face, where everyday new challenges are thrown up and faced.
Sadly as usual a great deal has been written that has been based on hearsay. One of the rumoured conditions under which the England team would be required to tour Australia was that they would have to remain in an ‘isolated bubble.’ The story was that they would be operating in this bubble and if the wives and girlfriends were to be granted permission to come to Australia as well, they would have to live outside of the players bubble and contact would be limited. It was reported that the players did not want to be away from their families when they came out.
This has probably been the issue that has seen the most backlash from fans. There are many people in many jobs who have to travel for work. The FIFO (Fly In Fly Out) workers spend periods of time away from their families on a regular basis. They know when they take the job that this is going to be the case. As do many others who work in occupations that take them away from home. Rarely if ever do their families have the opportunity to travel with them. So, if reports are true and some players are not prepared to travel if they cannot have their family with them, it is not sitting well with many fans. After all these players earn exceptionally good wages by comparison, and they are doing what many would dream of doing, representing their nation on a World stage.
What is more presumably when they signed their first professional contract they dreamt of representing their country. After all any one who looks to play a sport professionally wants to play to the highest level they can to test their ability. So when does that focus shift? Could it be once you gain a Centralised contract?
It is worth casting our minds back to yesteryear, when cricket tours were far longer than the modern day ones. As recently as the late 1980’s and early 1990’s the Wives, Girlfriends and families would only be allowed to join the players towards the end of the tour. Some players would arrange for their wives to travel out separately and stay at another hotel and would secretly meet up with them. One British and Irish Lions rugby player was famously caught visiting a room in another hotel on a regular basis and the management were advised that he was having an affair. Only when they fronted the said player did they find out that it was in fact his wife!
Of course the dawn of the Centralised contracts and far greater pay for the players meant that the various national bodies could no longer stop players flying their wives of girlfriends out to be on the tour with them. All they could do was prevent them staying at the same hotel.
It is worth remembering that before that era the players travelled by boat and that alone took a couple of months before a ball was even bowled. In fact sometimes it is important that we remind ourselves as to how lucky we are.
For example the 1946/47 touring team to Australia sailed on the Stirling Castle which was still being used by the Government of the day to take wives, fiancees and children of Australian servicemen who had served in Europe and become families to a new life down under. As the great cricket writer J.M.Kilburn described it, “She was a ship of austerity, sailing from Southampton to Fremantle without an intermediate port of call. She provided no luxury of accommodation and few of the customary amenities of life at sea. Cabins were stripped and partitioned to fit at least four people into the space normally offered to one. There were no swimming pools, no sports decks and very few deck chairs. There was no bar – there was indeed, officially no alcoholic drink.” One can think of a couple of Australian players who would never have left shore under those conditions!
For those selected for that tour a trip to Australia was a very welcoming prospect than staying in England under food rationing during a northern hemisphere winter in post War Britain, and having to try and find employment. There was also the honour of representing England in one of the oldest sporting rivalries there is.
Today players are earmarked for a place on the England team at a very young age as they are set upon one of these dreaded pathways. So rather than dreaming of a call up to their national team many are told that they are headed for that and the target is to have them ready in a ‘x’ number of years. This has to change the way a player looks at the game and the sport. The goal now is not necessarily to play for their country, but to land a centralised contract. As the centralised contract today not only gives a player security, but can set them up for life.
One of the reasons we see the same players playing at the top for so long is down to the centralised contract. Apart from the fact that the centralised contract has made the gulf between state and county cricket to International level greater, as the top players rarely play for those sides, it also means that few players are ready to make that jump. It also means that selectors are loathe to drop a centrally contracted player, and will not bring in a player from outside that ‘pack,’ as the wages to those on central contracts still have to be paid.
One of the things that has baffled most fans during this ‘is-it-on-or-off’ saga, is the line being taken by those in power. In a regular position of employment if you are asked to travel and you decline your chances of advancement – depending on your reason – may well be impaired for the rest of your time within that organisation.
For those on central contracts Cricket is their livelihood; of course after several years at the top they may no longer need that livelihood. However surely as a centrally contracted player there is an obligation to play when selected. If you choose to decline that offer, where does that leave your lucrative contract?
Each player will have their own views and opinions, and we as fans should respect those views, but at the same time they have to understand that they are in a very privileged line of work. Australian off spinner Nathan Lyon understands that point of view. When asked about the England players hesitancy to travel he was quoted in the Guardian as saying, “I can probably understand it but I think as professional athletes and cricketers we’re so lucky in what we do. I think it really comes upon us to give back to the game that has given us so much.” Many would agree with him and will be prepared to head to Australia and will comply with the restrictions that will be placed upon them. The player Aussies love-to-hate, fast bowler Stuart Broad, is one who has already said that he is prepared to tour. Whether he still has what England need to win the Ashes is another matter.
All will no doubt become clear over the weekend. Hopefully while these cricketers ponder the restrictions that are to be imposed on them when they head to Australia, they consider how lucky they are to be given the opportunity when so many families are being kept apart.
Whatever the outcome, there can be no doubt that the hesitancy of the players has shown that the centralised contract has tipped the balance of power in their favour. They hold all the aces. Maybe, just maybe, those running the game in various countries will take a look at this more closely and the brave ones will realise that the centralised contract is in fact doing more harm to the game than good.
