It's Time Counties Stood Up To The Players

Professional cricketers have long taken advantage of the counties they play for. From England fast bowlers bunking off games to save themselves for Test matches to the latest duo of Alex Hales and Adil Rashid, who have recently spurned red-ball cricket in favour of white, county largesse has always assumed to be part of the deal. And it is wrong.

 

- Derek Pringle

 Hales and Rashid have both decided that their future energies are best directed towards white-ball cricket and, in particular, the T20 Leagues that have spawned like pond life around the globe. Instead of being tethered to county and country for most of the year, it is the wandering life for them: a Bangladesh Premier League here, a Big Bash there with a few others like the Pakistan Super League (but presumably not the Caribbean Premier League as it clashes with county white-ball cricket) in between.

Both are talented cricketers who have played Test cricket. Yet, by the high standards of technique and discipline that particular format demands, both have been found wanting. As a result, the pair have been dropped and overlooked ever since, though the England Test team is not a closed shop, especially after such a comprehensive defeat in the Ashes.

Hales (29) and Rashid (30 last week) could, with hard work and application, improve their game and get picked for Test matches once more. Yet neither seems to want to embrace that particular challenge, opting instead for the easy money and easy cricket of white-ball slug-outs.

Many will say they cannot be blamed for what looks to be a rational decision based on effort and economics. When Dale Steyn said the Indian Premier League was the easiest money he’d ever earned on a cricket field, he did not intend it as a slight, more a marvelling at the lack of sweat, skill and stamina required to do the job.

If Hales and Rashid severed all links with their counties and then agreed to be rehired by them on a match-by match basis, I would be less critical, but only a bit. Their decision to ‘Redxit,’ especially if many others decide to follow suit, threatens to dilute the talent pool for red-ball cricket in this country. Like the EU with Brexit, counties should fear its success for the reaction it will stir in others.