Though I am not much of a sportsman (I’m far too introverted for that), one of the sports that I do vaguely follow at the national level is that bastion of Englishness, cricket. For the fan of English cricket, the last few years have been less than satisfying (barring the odd outlier), and in an effort to restore the quality of the first class game, the English and Wales Cricket Board is undertaking a High Performance Review of the domestic game.

Last Friday, the ECB published the consultation material for this review, the basis for the coming consultation with the First Class Counties and the MCC, an effort to “deliver[ing] the best possible outcomes for English cricket, with a view to ensuring that England are the #1 ranked men’s team across all formats”. Quite the quest, you might be inclined to think, but hopefully enough to overcome the drubbing the team received at the last Ashes series (4-0 to Australia…) and restore a little pride.

The document is a mixture of data (did you know that “England seam bowlers do not travel well”?) and analysis, producing a series of recommendations for further consideration  in the hope of facilitating the team’s ability to “play up, play up and play the game”. Whilst the consultation is a fairly restricted one, largely focussed around the top-class teams, there will no doubt be opportunity for members of those clubs to express their views, hopefully formally, and not just over a post-match pint.

One of the interesting absences in the plan is the lack of discussion of diversity at the top of the game. Domestic cricket still unfortunately has a certain image, one that seems to be backed up by statistics. Although attempts are being made to address this (probably most notably “The Hundred” which attempts to create a more fast-paced accessible variant of the game), it’s clear that more needs to be done.

Whilst it’s not the focus of this particular consultation, one of the problems with doing consultations like this where you are going out to ‘professional’ stakeholders is that it essentially formalises  and firms up problems with diversity. Identifying that you have a diversity problem is one thing, but if all your consultees conform to the stereotypes, then it makes change less likely. Would it not be good to collect other responses too to allow for not only a generic consideration of how the first-class game can be boosted, but also how a more diverse group can be brought into it?

With the ECB threatening fines over diversity issues at the county-level, it’s clear that all levers need to be pulled in pursuit of improving diversity, not only in the short-term, but also the long. We’ll keep an eye on this one to see if it touches upon it at all. In the meantime, I hope you’ll all get in training for next summer’s Consultation Cricket Cup! Howzat!