The Ever Changing World Of Village Cricket

 

Village cricket conjured much to the imagination; a patch of land, owned by the local upper class. A pub at hand, barrels primed for the close of play. And a duck pond or river, into which the burly and powerful batsmen can deposit a ball on the full. The teas! how could a person forget about village teas. The delight upon the face of a weary fielder when he(or she, times are changing you know) spies the spread and settles down with a cup of hot, sweet tea.

No other sport could deliver such a rich variety of characters than village cricket, where else in sport could you find old men who can hardly walk but bat as if the spirit of Brian Close or Geoffrey Boycott was within them. In which other sporting arena could you find a home team captain who was personally arrested half of the opposition? And then precedes to act more violently than the afore-mentioned arrested players. And who said cricket was boring!

Village cricket has progressed from more than just old men playing in their old white work shirts, with a wife or a mother of one of the players making the teas. Now teams are making do with more than granddads old bat and ball. Team kit, made affordable by firms such as Stuart Surridge are all the rage, with half the teams in the league now sporting team kit. Teams are even starting to do warm ups. In village cricket. Players are getting serious about winning.

This has even translated itself down to second team cricket, and the situation is compounded by he fact that their is no umpires. This results in some games turning into shouting matches, with the cricket match merely acting to fill in the time between insults. I even have first hand experience of some of the more unpleasant exchanges between players.

As a 15 year old batsmen, i was judged not out for a caught behind appeal. This caused so much rage within the opposition that my personal character was called into question many times. I distinctly remember the phrase: " I'm sure your parents raised you better than that". Sadly this was one of the more pleasant things said to me. The phrase you f-ing cheating C*$%^ was thrown my way. To a 15 year old. 

I'm not saying that all this getting serious is bad for village cricket, pitches and grounds are improving along with the skill of players, which can only be good for English cricket, all I'm saying is that lets calm down, and keep it fun, so that the next 15 year old doesn't get reduced to tears after he has been dismissed. Shall we gentlemen?