When was cricket first played in
Wales?
The earliest recorded match to have
taken place in Wales was in 1783 on Court Henry Down in
Carmarthenshire. The match was arranged by J.G. Philipps, who was a
member of the Carmarthenshire gentry and became MP for Carmarthen
Borough in the same year.
Has there ever been a Welsh national
team?
Ninety years ago, in 1923, the first
attempts at forming a Welsh national team took place when Glamorgan
batsman Norman Riches played an influential role in forming the Welsh
Cricket Union. He did this because he believed there was enough
talent in Wales to create a representative Welsh side.
It was decided not to pursue a Welsh
test team because at the time this would have led to Glamorgan
dropping out of the County Championship. Nonetheless, the Welsh
Cricket Union saw a Welsh national cricket team as a longer term goal
and continued to organise international matches against teams such as
Scotland, New Zealand, South Africa and the West Indies, who Wales
defeated in 1928.
In 1969 the Welsh Cricket Association
was formed to organise a Welsh amateur team. During the early 1970s
the amateur national team played several home internationals and
played the MCC once a year.
In 1979 Gibraltar pulled out of the ICC
Trophy and so the Welsh side was asked to take part. The Welsh side
beat both the Netherlands and Israel, narrowly lost to the USA and
had their match against eventual winners Sri Lanka abandoned due to
bad weather. This meant Wales finished 2nd in their group
but could not carry on to the semi-final as only one second placed
team went through and Canada had more points in their group.
Between 1993 and 2001 Wales competed in
the annual Triple Crown Tournament, played between Wales, Ireland,
Scotland and an England Amateur XI. The tournament was hosted by
Wales in both 1996 and 2000.
Between 2000 and 2004 Wales also played
an annual 50-over challenge match against England in June. Wales won
the first of these matches by 8 wickets.
Since 2004 no team representing Wales
has played an international match.
Why is it the right time to
establish a Welsh national cricket team?
Cricket is a game
of history and traditions that have stood the test of time for
centuries.
Wales was in fact
the second country to begin playing cricket, after it was invented in England, with the
first known games taking place in the 18th Century.
Cricket clubs in Wales were also set up at that time, making them
amongst the oldest in the world.
Throughout the
20th Century a Welsh first class team played matches
against other international sides, including in international
tournaments, but a permanent Welsh national team was never
established.
And so until the
1990s cricket in Wales, along with Scotland and England, was governed
by the Test and County Cricket Board (TCCB). But Scotland took the
positive decision to establish its own national side, which gained
ICC recognition in 1994. Ireland had already gained membership to the
ICC a year earlier in 1993.
There are in fact
six ICC recognised teams in the British Isles because even the small
islands of Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man have their own teams.
Wales is, therefore, in the unique position in the British Isles of
being unrepresented.
Wales missed her
chance to establish her own team in the ‘90s because the decision
was taken by the powers that be that Wales would be better off being
represented by England. And so the England and Wales Cricket Board
(ECB) was established once Scotland had set up its national team.
But the idea of
establishing a Welsh side was never forgotten.
The occasional
Welsh player managed to play for England, averaging around one player
every ten years. It has in fact been over eight years since the last
Welshman played senior international cricket – Simon Jones in the
Ashes in 2005. This means a whole new generation of Welsh players in
their twenties have gone without experiencing international cricket.
But now the game
of cricket is changing internationally and Wales must be a positive
part of that change. The Woolf Review into cricket’s governance,
which talks about establishing a Welsh team, came to the conclusion
that cricket needs to become more transparent, to open up and avoid
vested interests if the game is to expand globally.
Twenty20 is also
changing the face of the game and winning over new fans across the
world for the sport. As Twenty20 increases cricket’s popularity, financial opportunities for emerging nations will increase and the
emphasis on test cricket will decrease somewhat. This makes it
absolutely the right time to establish a Welsh national team so that
as these major changes take place we do not miss our opportunity
again but instead reap the sporting and financial benefits.
How popular is cricket in Wales?
Cricket in Wales is somewhat of an
anomaly and is not always very visible. As Dominic Malcolm notes in
his book Globalizing Cricket: 'the curiously anonymous history of
Welsh cricket is... probably a consequence of a failure to either
passionately embrace the game (as evident in the Caribbean) or to
reject it outright (as in America). Rather, for much of the game's
history the Welsh have appeared to be content for their game to
quietly become subsumed by its English big brother'.
Nonetheless, cricket is still regarded
as Wales' third sport behind rugby and football.
This was not always the case because
cricket was the first organised team game in Wales. The establishment
of many famous football and rugby teams in Wales were actually as a
result of cricket teams wanting to keep fit over the winter through
other sports. This is the case for
Premier League side Cardiff City FC, who were established by Riverside
Cricket Club in 1899.One of Wales' most famous rugby teams, Pontypool
RFC, was also formed by Pontypool Cricket Club in 1868.
Since the beginning of the 20th
Century the popularity of cricket has fallen behind that of football
and rugby but cricket is changing. The much shorter Twenty20 format
is opening cricket up to new audiences and expanding the game of
cricket to new nations. Just like the 100m in running is considerably
more popular for viewers than the longer running formats, this is
becoming true for cricket. With the popularity of Twenty20 growing
globally it is likely that cricket in Wales will also see an increase
in popularity.
What will happen to Glamorgan?
The idea of establishing a Welsh
national cricket team is intended to compliment Glamorgan. It is
important that Wales has a strong county representative in the County
Championship. But is also important that the nation has a strong
representative in international fixtures.
Glamorgan is currently struggling as a
county. It is in a large amount of debt and the administration of the
club has led to high-profile resignations and serious questions
raised over the running of the club.
It has already been confirmed by the
ECB that establishing a Welsh team will not effect Glamorgan's status
within the English county system. This precedent already exists in football, where Wales has her own FIFA recognised national team but several Welsh clubs play in the English leagues. The question mark is over Glamorgan hosting
England internationals, which will be addressed later on.
Will the team be any good?
This is a question often raised in
justification for not having a team. It has even been raised by
Sports Wales in the National Assembly.
The question, however, should
not be entertained. The only question that is relevant is “who
are the best 11 Welsh cricket players?” These 11 players will then be
who makes up the team and it will then be the job of the board to get
the best out of those 11 players with the resources available. At
times they will win and at times they will lose. But as a Welsh team
we will support them regardless. This is the nature of international
sport.
What is not in international sports'
nature is to simply not have your own team but to try and get your
players into another country's team. The Welsh football team isn't
particularly good. There is currently no expectation for the team to
win European or World Cups. But few would argue that we should
abandon the Welsh football team and try to get one or two of our best
players into the England team instead. Seeing Gareth Bale play at Wembley, with
the Three Lions and the word England on his chest and 10 Englishmen as teammates would offend most
Welsh football fans' sensibilities. But this is precisely the
situation for cricket in Wales.
Regardless, Wales could certainly rival
Ireland and Scotland and challenge some of the test playing nations.
Ireland, for example, have recorded famous victories over Pakistan
and England. And yet we have more players, we have more clubs and we
have better facilities than Ireland. In Scotland and Ireland they
also have more sports than Wales, with Gaelic football and
shinty/hurling as well as football and rugby competing with each
other. In Wales it really is just the big three that have large fan
bases and participation.
We also already have two first class
teams, Glamorgan and Cardiff MCC University, and we have a wonderful
test ground in the SWALEC Stadium.
Isn't England just a Great Britain
team?
No. In the British Isles there are six
teams recognised by the International Cricket Council (ICC), who are
the sport's international governing body. These are Scotland, Ireland
(the Republic and Northern Ireland play as Ireland), England, the
Isle of Man, Jersey and Guernsey. The England cricket team is not,
therefore, something similar to a Team GB. It represents only England
and Wales, although almost all games are played in England and the
team's name, flag, colours and insignia make no reference to Wales. Wales is in
actual fact the only area of the British Isles with its own national
government that does not have a team.
Why are Glamorgan and Cricket Wales
opposed to establishing a Welsh national team?
Glamorgan believe that they will go
bankrupt if they can no longer host England test matches in the
SWALEC Stadium. Due to the very high levels of their debts it would
seem that they believe hosting some of the incredibly lucrative
England test matches is the only thing that can get them out of this debt.
Establishing an ICC-recognised Welsh
team would not immediately prevent them from bidding for tender for
England matches but they clearly believe that it would lessen their
chances.
And yet, hosting England test matches
is one of the reasons they find themselves in this financial
situation. In the past they have bid too high for the tenders to host
test matches and then failed to make the money back as a result of
very poor ticket sales. This has put them in the position of owing
large amounts of money to the ECB rather than profiting from that
relationship and even having test matches stripped from them. Furthermore, hosting third party matches in cricket is
completely normal. Pakistan and Afghanistan both play all of their home games in the United Arab Emirates.
What is perhaps more worrying for
Glamorgan is that, whether there is a Welsh team or not, there is no
guarantee that Glamorgan will win further tenders to host England
matches anyway since the process is so competitive and there are now
many top-quality grounds in England.
The last tender process led to
Wales hosting none of the test matches for the recent Ashes. Instead,
England played one “home” ODI game in Wales. However, England
also played an ODI in Ireland and Australia played an ODI in
Scotland. This means that England and Australia each played as many
games in Scotland and Ireland as they did in Wales. The key
difference is that Scotland and Ireland have their own national
teams, with 11 players from each country playing in those games. They
also both got international exposure in their own right. For Wales
meanwhile, not a single Welsh person played during the Ashes and our
country got international exposure as a place where England go to
play their “home” games. What message does that send out to the world about Wales.
Cricket Wales's bitterly ironic
opposition to a Welsh team is ostensibly about finance. They believe
cricket as a sport in Wales will suffer because they will no longer
receive funding from the ECB. Instead they will receive funding from
the ICC just like all the other cricket boards in the British Isles.
However, Cricket Wales also seems to be ideologically opposed to
establishing a cricket team for Wales. They have never engaged in the
process with any openness and have not made any efforts to explore
whether establishing the team would be a viable possibility. From the
very first moment they have been absolutely opposed to it and have
made every effort to shut it down.
It is surely the case that an
organisation called Cricket Wales, who receive funding from Sports
Wales, who in turn receive their budget
from the National Assembly for Wales and the
Welsh Government really ought to be
doing everything possible to establish a Welsh cricket
team rather than everything possible to
prevent it.
Finance
Establishing a Welsh team would mean
becoming an ICC member and part off the ICC funding stream. A Welsh
team would in fact open up new funding possibilities. On top of the
standard ICC funding Wales would push to quickly qualify for Higher
Performance Programme funding and, in recognition of the need to
expand cricket to new nations, Wales could receive funding through
the ICC’s Big Better Global Game. There are then, of course, the
lucrative television rights that are available to nations with their
own team. Sponsorship will also play a role.
One of the arguments often made against
establishing the team is that there will be no international matches
played in Wales any more and hence a loss of income. But this
argument comes from people who seem to believe that a match is only
international if England is playing in it. But of course when Wales
has her own team there will be considerably more international
cricket matches played in Wales, which brings new opportunities for revenue.
Qualification for tournaments also leads to increased revenue.
We only need to look to Ireland and see
the sold-out matches they play against England, Pakistan and other
touring sides, along with their appearance at World Cups, to see the
enormous funding potential for a Welsh team.
Ultimately, if you look at the amount
of funding that Cricket Ireland has then it is a similar level to the
money provided to Wales by the ECB. Cricket in Ireland is developing
rapidly and they are able to support a successful national team and
push for test status, which suggests that we would be more than
capable of funding ourselves.
Shouldn't we just make the England
team more Welsh? Wouldn't that be better?
That may be better for Wales than the
current situation but it certainly wouldn't be better for England.
The thing that we have to remember is that this isn't just about
what is good for Wales but also what is good for England too.
The English cricket team is very much a
unique expression of Englishness and English culture. From the
rendition of Jerusalem at the start of games (England’s unofficial
national anthem), to the Flag of St. George, the Barmy Army and the
Three Lions; the England cricket team is one of those rare occasions
where England revels in being English. This campaign is not about taking that away from them in order to impose some hybrid where we
attempt to mash together the cultures and symbolism of our two
countries into one team.
So if there can’t be a Welsh cricket
team then it would be an improvement to see Wales better represented as part of the current
England team (the name, the badge, the kit, the players etc.). But it would be better for all
concerned if we were able to have two teams that fully represent each
nation rather than one team that only half represents both of us.
