Mr Banks said if members showed support for his plan, he would call a general meeting to secure the support needed for such changes. The members would support him if they had any sense. Because he is right about the alternative that the Gloucestershire club simply disappear without radical surgery. So my fear is that unless they take their fate into their own hands, others will too, and the pool of Test players will shrink and England's selectors (by that stage They would be forced to choose a Test player from among whom he (if available for selection in Test cricket) would be forced to choose a Test player from whom he would play “a long competition between two teams dressed like baseball players and with fireworks going off”. Play only with those you dismiss as such.
“It's time to shelve this crazy nonsense.”
When I talked to him, he said this in disgust about the way the game was run. “The ECB needs radical reform. Woke political correctness seems to be running amok, valuing diversity, equality and inclusion more than cricket or the fans. Frankly, cricket is It's a great sport that brings people together and we should be proud of it. It's time to shelve this unwarranted nonsense and we need the county to come together to ensure this happens. You'd be hard-pressed to find even a cricket fan in the shire.These days it's all about ticking the right boxes.We've somehow gotten lost and forgotten what cricket is. It’s gone.”
He added: “The ECB is trying to crush county cricket with a strategy that can be described as killing by a thousand cuts.” The reason they didn't try to make a marketable product was because they wanted to be like the Dodo.
“The average county cricket club's economic model relies on an annual ECB grant, and without that funding many clubs would not be able to survive.”
No doubt some people will find this idea too radical. In that case, you need to understand how, for example, Hampshire benefited from such diversification. No doubt the ECB will complain that Banks is cheating them, but the ECB has been in trouble in recent years. Domestically, The Hundred proved to be a joke that would fade into obscurity over time before being wiped out after four years by the current television deal. And the ECB has yet to think of anything to challenge or alleviate India's overwhelming domination internationally in cricket, a domination that does not take into account the needs of England's county game. To ensure this important part of our sporting heritage is not lost, others like Mr. Banks must take the lead.
