Professionalisation in the Tone of Club Cricket.

 

 

I am not football follower but each year I can’t escape transfer deadline day coming around, to follow the sports I’m interested in I follow many sports channels all of which are posting about such things in January or February of each year. In these headlines we read, contract singed, contract extended, new deal agreed or left by mutual consent. Recently in the cycling off season my feed is full of such terms.

But in the last few years another feed of mine if full of these terms, a place you necessarily would not associate with such language if you were outside this very niche circle of people. These are the social media posts of cricket clubs and even newly created transfer rumours anonymous account posting about the movement of players.

I appreciate people are putting a social media spin on things and helping to gain traction, but is this language necessary or even helpful to the wider club cricket environment?

There are plenty of other examples of this throughout the amateur cricket world, which blows a hole in the term “amateur” all together, other aspects of this are more parroting phrases said by professionals but in some cases my view is there is a diminishing of what it means to play a sports recreationally.

 

Transfers

Lets start with the most obvious one here, I see now social media linked to many clubs posting about singed players, new deals, contract extensions etc. But how many people are receiving a real contract? I’ve never singed one nor even seen one for anyone else. You as a player choose where you play your cricket and am free go elsewhere. This vocabulary gives a false impression that clubs operate a professional outfit outside of messaging their mates or people they have played against. I’m not saying this isn’t a good thing but to interpret it in this sort of professional language is disingenuous to me. In additional this post isn’t about cricket, what’s happening at your club?, who’s playing?, when is nets? I am not sure how attractive this is to potential new members who may feel inferior because they have not been handed a “contract”. This sort of language is exclusively pointed at other clubs to say “look who we have got”. This links back to the wording stolen from now famous transfer deadline day.

 

Coaches and Heads of Cricket

This is another new role that has appeared in club cricket, coaches have always been around paid or otherwise, but now we have the rather grand title of Director of Cricket a term stolen from professional counties. Sometimes these are offered as paid positions or they are a respected club member given a more grand job title. This in isolation isn’t necessarily a bad thing but its when this starts to translate into sports science language, cringeworthy posts about the “ethos” or “team spirit” or the more serious formalisation of what should be an enjoyable recreational activity. I noted this recently when a social media post after gaining 1^st team promotion included a long gushing paragraph from the “Head Coach” this AI’ified language was then accompanied by comments about how all the players are paid and how their second team had been relegated for the second successive season. I do think the way people write and people post things is in danger of being subject to the now ubiquitous way of writing produced by the worst people on Linkedin and AI writing aids. People are becoming immune to it and in a way are now expected to speak like this in social media posts. But in many big clubs of which I steer away from in my cricketing career, this is now part of all their posts online and even now players and coaches spouting cliché that would make even the blandest business podcaster blush. These people are not new they are just rebranded for the corporate world but this serves to do two things it gives them a false impression of their relative authority or standing in comparison to other club members, for example they are not my actual work boss and am just another club member to be grabbing a title can promote a hierarchy that has no justification to exist and secondly it goes to alienate those of us who don’t respond to that world, who see things in realist terms and in effect want to pay our fees and play a game of cricket while spending the none playing parts exclusively talking about past games in a jovial and nostalgic way without a lengthily debrief from the “head coach”.

 

Coaching Speak

Now we all have our own phrases that pros say that we cannot stand, mine is the now ubiquitous “execute our skills” which I think came in around 2010 but anyone who can tell me the originator are welcome to chime in. This phrase that means nothing, says nothing and does nothing to change one’s performance is my top hate, I suspect you might have yours as a cricket fan, doesn’t this just say do your role, which is obvious to everyone?

But now this is spotted in the wilds of club cricket, captains, coaches, club stalwarts. To a changing of the guard many elements of clubs “old Guard” being moved on has been a revelation in club cricket, coloured kits, juniors, 4 or 5 or more teams, nobody bowling 25 overs any more the meteoric rise in women’s softball and hardball cricket. But some things about us millennials now becoming the old guard is how the Linkedin generation is infecting the sanctity of cricket at cub level.

We had a heated debate recently about an advertisement for a paid coach at a University Mens cricket team, I commented about why adults need a coach? Others come back with other opinions. The thing is my feeling would be slightly more accepting if every coach I’ve ever met wasn’t a sort of immature man child character who wants to be a kid again living vicariously through their students. Normally displaying favouritism, bullying of ones they seem as inferior and buttering up parents to pay for sessions. For parents fine, kids progress quickly and coaching the skills young really helps to make them a competent cricketer at whatever their ability allows, but for grown adults why are you still falling for this? If you want to improve you game many cricket centres exist rent a machine between two of you and do it yourself. I am firmly of the opinion any player who starts cricket at Under 9’s or All Stars as it is now and plays for the rest of their life (until maybe over 70’s or more) the vast majority of them has an ability ceiling which they never cross due to their overall ability and coaches feed of the notion that you can change this when they never do. The best club cricketers know this consciously or subconsciously and play to this ceiling far more often than others who are less consistent, this is distinctly different to getting better in my view and does not require you to pay a coach.

 

 

Well isn’t all this harmless?

I know what you’re thinking “if that’s how things are going then what’s wrong?” But a few things to think about in this world. Professionalisation and the wording behind it such as “Singed contract” blur the lines between amateur and not. Are clubs amateur or are they actual business, an active bar that’s full each Saturday to see the best players might be profiting of said “assets” but without prise money for winning most leagues this investment is just for local bragging rights. How many people in Birmingham City Centre know who won the Birmingham League this year? If you start talking a professional game then what are you, what are the finances here? Are there taxes that need to be paid on second earnings for players and coaches.  

 

What is missing in a number of these posts are they tend to exclude women’s cricket and, in most cases, exclude junior cricket. When the season begins when there is more cricket to post about these things appear again on various feeds. I feel that this new breed of club members may help to change things. The story of Scarborough CC and other clubs now with committee and even chairperson positions now held by people coming through women’s cricket (softball or hardball) these external voices who took up a game to help them keep fit and meet people cannot help but look at lot of what is spoken above and think well this is so strange.

 

Not everything needs to be commodified.

Overall I fear for this whole process because it saps fun away from something that is supposed to be done for the fun of it. I recently read in a book by Yanis Varoufakis that in some countries when money was offered to give blood the actual donations declined as people had had their good deed commodified. This commodification of amateur cricket is happening before our eyes and I wonder how much fun some people getting paid to play have as opposed to cricket when they are not on Sundays or during midweeks? You couple this with the examples above I feel that the enjoyment filters are getting clogged by, AI written statements, overly professional language, club cricket management positions and the erosion of doing something for fun as opposed to the need for everything to have achievement for betterment and money. People pay gym memberships to get this kind of fulfilment, but they can’t sustain the thought of doing this for cricket anymore and need payment? This I would point out the gym culture more wildly people can go when they want on their own without relying on others and get visible improvements but then it gets an obsession to continue this betterment but in a sport like cricket your ability ceiling is never very far away. This professional language is a smokescreen to the fact that most people never improve at all, the best club armatures just learn what they have and make the most of it themselves, something all of the above language doesn’t want to admit to.

I know there are people out there who do enjoy this stuff and don’t find the huge buzz kill I think it is, but there are deeper things at play which I think clubs need to remember about when thinking their club language is really going to attract people new to the game,  back from years of not playing or trying to set up new teams in women’s cricket.