Off the long run
It’s a pity cricket is run by committee
David Hopps
Fifty years have slipped by since I first became disillusioned with cricket committees. It was an immediate eye-opener. The chairman had a marginal interest in proceedings at best, but he was a respected village figure, and being of cultivated stock he even owned a gavel to call the meeting to order.
When it came to Any Other Business, he fielded concerns about creaking rollers, mole infestations and player shortages with the magisterial phrase: “Something will have to be done.” Then, at 10 o’clock sharp, he abruptly brought the meeting to a close, but only after a vote of thanks had been recorded in the minutes.
Something had to be done, but very little ever was.
TS Eliot’s J Alfred Prufrock measured out his life in coffee spoons, aware that time was drifting by without purpose. Occasionally, I feel as if I’ve measured mine in county cricket structural reviews, which appear to be ever-present, and compared to coffee much less stimulating.