ECB pins English cricket's future on bold play, T20 shake-up and starting young

20 March 2017 10:09

England captains Eoin Morgan and Joe Root have been told to play "brave cricket" with "smiles on their faces" as part of a wider strategy by the sport's national governing body to grow the game.

After five years with little change in the number of regular players at grassroots level, the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) is making a big push on boosting participation and on Monday launched a new campaign targeted at five-to-eight-year-olds - and their mums and dads - called All Stars Cricket.

But as well as trying to "get them young", ECB chief executive Tom Harrison wants the players and fans of the future to be entertained and inspired by today's stars.

Speaking on Monday, Harrison said: "(Director of cricket) Andrew Strauss and the England team are very clear that part of their responsibility is playing brave cricket - this commitment to playing an exciting formula of cricket every time they go on the park is linked to (the participation strategy).

"Joe Root and Eoin Morgan understand their responsibility to play exciting cricket for future generations to connect with and for fans to get behind.

"It's a very deliberate strategy. It doesn't work every time but we understand you're more likely to be forgiven for having a bad day if you've tried everything to win a game as opposed to trying not to lose it, which is a key difference.

"Ever since Andrew took the job as director of cricket he saw the link between successful England teams, and I mean successful by approach as much as results, was key."

This commitment to attacking cricket has been seen most consistently with Morgan's limited-overs England sides, particularly in the 50-over format in which England now regularly score more than 300 in an innings and last August posted a record 444 against Pakistan at Trent Bridge.

Having only taken over from Alastair Cook in February, Root has not had a chance to stamp his personality on the Test side yet but a change of attitude is expected.

Citing evidence that people who play the game are more likely to consume it and the importance of instilling those habits young - especially now with so much competition for youngsters' attention, pocket money and time - Harrison said the days of England trying to grind out a one-off Test victory are over.

"People like the fact the team is taking calculated risks, at very competitive limits, but also with a smile on their faces," he said.

But Harrison's vision for English cricket goes far beyond teaching five-year-olds to copy the likes of Jos Buttler and Ben Stokes by swinging for the fences: he wants more people playing, at every age, in every community, and he wants to translate that into a vibrant sport that stands on its own two feet commercially.

Crucial to that financial well-being, in Harrison's view, will be the new domestic Twenty20 tournament he is planning for 2020 - a product that is wholly in the ECB's control and not subject to the whims of Indian fans or international cricket politics.

The basic plan - eight city-based teams of the best players in the world playing each other in a single block of fixtures over a summer - has been much debated already and is clearly heavily influenced by the success of Indian Premier League and Australian Big Bash.

Harrison would not be drawn on giving any more details away, as he said they were still being debated. In fact, he believes there is no rush to finalise the tournament's teams and venues at all, and they will not be settled before he tries to sell its broadcasting rights in the coming weeks.

The former Derbyshire player, who took over as ECB boss in 2015, was bullish on the sport's appeal to pay- and terrestrial-TV broadcasters, as well newer entrants to the market, such as Amazon, Facebook and YouTube.

With the Champions Trophy and Women's World Cup in England this summer, Pakistan and India visiting next summer, the Cricket World Cup in 2019 and a new domestic T20 competition the following year, Harrison said the English game was in a great place to grow participation, bring in new sponsors and sell lucrative broadcasting packages to a variety of outlets.

And on the subject of the 2019 Cricket World Cup, Press Association Sport understands the International Cricket Council is close to agreeing a deal to stage two games of the tournament at the centrepiece of the London 2012 Olympics, now known as the London Stadium, on drop-in wickets.

Source: PA