Cricket: Why the Aussies were able to trounce our lads

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Former Derbyshire County Cricket Club scorer Stan Tacey, still smarting over England’s ignominious loss of the Ashes, describes how Australians instill a love of cricket in their youngsters after watching a complicated game played by under-10s in Sydney some years ago.

TRYING to keep a stiff up per lip following the dis astrous performances of our cricket team in Australia, brought back memories of the way the game is treated “down under”.

While on holiday in King’s Langley, a suburb of Sydney, some time ago, I spent a Saturday morning watching local cricket.

The matches are played on a concrete strip covered with matting and commence at 8am, starting with the under- 10s and then progressing in age groups throughout the day so that the seniors played in the late afternoon.

I sat down to watch the under-10 game and, after five minutes, was completely be mused but, fortunately, the gentleman who sat next to me happened to be on the gov erning body of the New South Wales Junior Cricket Asso ciation and he explained the rules to me.

There were as follows:

Each side consists of 12 players.

Each side bats 36 overs.

The match lasts two Saturday mornings, one side bat ting on the first day and the other side, the following Saturday.

The square leg umpire holds a brush with which he sweeps the wicket at the end of each over.

Each batsman faces 18 de liveries (if he is out, he changes ends with the other batsman so that he cannot be out on two consecutive de liveries but, during his 18 de liveries, he can score 13 runs and be out four times, giving him an average of 3.25 runs)

When the last pair of batsmen are at the wicket, they have to keep changing ends so that each of them receives the full 18 balls and when a batsman is approaching the end of his innings, the scorers in form the umpire who gives the batsman out at the end of the 18th delivery.

Each member of the side, including the wicket-keeper, bowls two overs – making a total of 22 overs.

As no bowler in the side is allowed to bowl more than five overs, the remaining 14 overs can be divided between the best five bowlers, four bowling three each and one, two.

Although wides and no- balls count in the total, the batsman who is facing does not receive extra balls for these and so an unfortunate batsman who is facing one of the poorer bowlers could re ceive three or four wides in an over without the chance to score off them.

At the end of 24 overs, a break is called for drinks and tactical talks from the coach, supplemented with suitable comments from mothers, fathers, brothers and sisters who are gathered around.

King’s Langley’s opponents finally completed their in nings and the score at the end of 36 overs was 45 runs from the bat, 16 wides, 22 no-balls and four byes, giving a total of 87 runs.

During this time, 16 wickets had fallen and, to this, one further wicket was added and the team’s average was given as 5.12 runs.

The reason one wicket was added was because, if the opening batsman had batted throughout the innings, there would be no team average.

Are you confused? I was, even with my knowledge of this splendid game. I’m sure some readers must be com pletely lost but try and work it out.

Having scored for Derbyshire County Cricket Club and spent my time in an isol ated score box, I sympathised with the scorers in that par ticular game who showed great patience with both play ers and parents milling around them to find out the average score that they had to beat on the following Saturday.

Although the whole situ ation sounds complicated, it installs a great love of cricket among these youngsters who, with their lemonade and sandwiches, watched the cricket all day until the final senior match finished.

What a great effect it has had on Australian cricket! I wonder if any of those boys I watched achieved success in the Test side even before the current side which has severely trounced our touring team.

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