It has to be said that such a move would deny good Welsh players the opportunity to play at the top level. I presume you're ok with that.Originally Posted by Whisperer
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It has to be said that such a move would deny good Welsh players the opportunity to play at the top level. I presume you're ok with that.
Absolutely
They'll never play Test cricket, so what will happen, like Ireland, the best players won't bother to play for Wales so they can become England qualified, which they probably already are because of the UK's status. It isn't like football, at all. Wales will be playing 2 odi games and funding for the game will dry up, meaning facilities will decrease and less kids will be playing cricket. We'll play at best, 2 games a year, probably lose them because they'll be in Nepal etc, and we'll never get anywhere.
There are 9 decent Test sides (I'm not counting Zimbabwe) in the world, and then a handful of smaller nations that will never get a seat a the top table, cricket is a closed club, regardless of what the ICC say.
I'm a bit saddened that the many people who want to watch Wales play cricket don't actually watch Wales play cricket. I mean there is a team called Wales and they play other counties at minor county level. If the thousands of fans started turning up to these games, people would see the demand for Welsh team representation and it could start from there.
At the moment the protesters feel like the best way to get their aims is to spout off on message boards and start petitions, whilst at the same time 1 man and his dog are actually turning up to games.
The message sent is that people actually involved in either running or supporting cricket in this country are not interested in Wales. It would take a huge change in structure for us to run anything near a professional structure in this country as an independent nation.
I would be happy if the press/media/pundits started to say 'the EWCB' instead of 'the ECB'.
Ideally the matches would be England & Wales vs whoever, not England vs.... but that is a much bigger change and against the weight of history and custom. After all, it took Tobago decades of messageboard campaigning before they got the recognition they deserved!
I've got no problem with people not supporting England, however the ECB does fund cricket in Wales, if your kid gets coached that coach is qualified via ECB money.
The situation with cricket in Wales at the moment is that it is struggling. Clubs are going to the wall at a good rate. There is no support at club level, there is no support at minor counties level, and the county team that represents Wales are one of the lowest supported in the structure. The ECB want to cut clubs to increase the standard would be more than happy for Wales/Glamorgan to go it alone.
For that to happen the structure needs to change dramatically, people need to support their clubs to ensure money is going in. Whenever i have asked why the people who want a Wales side do not support the current Wales side the usual response is that they are not that interested in cricket.
The politicians calling for a Welsh national team are idiots. Bethan Jenkins says look at the stands during a national game to see the desire for a Welsh team. Well, the full house vs Australia is impressive, but that's Australia in a test match, not Nepal in a poxy ODI. Without the ECB funding, cricket would struggle even more. I played for Chepstow until I moved up North, and our new nets were paid for with an ECB grant. They're fantastic and Chepstow had 4 adult teams, and 2 sides for each age group at youth level.
The ECB 100% think there are too many counties, the problem is, there isn't an easy way to get rid of them, I'd think they'd be more than happy to let Leicestershire and Northants etc go to the wall. The main issue in Wales is, why aren't we producing a player of test quality, the last was James Harris (possibly) and before that Simon Jones.
I can see why people are uncomfortable with the situation and the pompous media are the main reason for this. I think it is easier to stomach if one looks on it as seeing "England" as the brand.
Robert Croft in his England days likened playing for Glamorgan as playing for Wales and playing for England as the British Lions.
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