As David Willey enters his last month as a Northamptonshire player, with the grass greener at Headingley, we ponder the rights and wrongs of crickets swerve toward football.
Willey is moving to further his career. He wants a long international adventure and thinks Yorkshire can help him earn a Test place. To be fair to him too, he’s not signed the biggest deal on offer - it’s a cricket decision.
See also: David Willey to swap Northamptonshire for Yorkshire from 2016
Jack Brooks
Three years ago he saw Jack Brooks leave the Northants dressing room and head to enjoy Championship success with the White Rose county. He’s also watched as Yorkshire have churned out Test players, one after another. He’s seen Liam Plunkett revive his career under the guidance of Yorkshire coach Jason Gillespie - if that can happen to Plunkett, what can be achieved with Willey? And there’s the lure of working with a fellow left-armer in pace legend Ryan Sidebottom.
Also, Northamptonshire are a struggling county, punching above their weight again to reach T20 Finals Day, but in a perilous financial position. The compensation they receive from releasing Willey from the final year of his contract will be of some assistance one hopes.
But it’s not as simple as all that is it? Despite the fact that, without my Badger fur, I am a Yorkshire supporter.
I appreciate one key goal of the English county system is to provide Test and ODI cricketers. I have no doubt Willey will flourish at Yorkshire. An equal goal, at least, is surely to ensure 18 first-class counties flourish within an exciting county structure. If not some might as well give up today.
I grew up and got hooked on cricket when money wasn’t talked about anywhere near as much. From the Indian Premier League downward we hear of cricket being a business, not a game. We hear of riches being earned, central contracts, counties struggling to keep up and it unnerves me.
Gone are the days when the smaller counties kept their England men. I watched Lamb and Willey play for Northamptonshire with no talk of them ever leaving. Just down the road, Gower was a Leicester man, until he moved to Hampshire for a final fling. Botham was lured away from Somerset only after his big mate Viv Richards wasn’t offered a new deal. They were moves of circumstance not the norm and certainly not to bolster international hopes.
The move towards a transfer system, where the bigger boys, generally the counties playing from a Test ground, snap up the minnows rising talent is a cause for concern.
Northamptonshire’s captain Alex Wakeley responded in classy style by wishing Willey well on Instagram. One wonders how long he too will remain a Northants player.
Leicestershire have haemorrhaged talent for years and now a cash-strapped Northants are following suit. But what are the repercussions? Cricket is silently and slowly admitting that the smaller counties are second rate and not worthy.
The young lad at Wantage Road that once looked at the headbanded Jack Brooks and said, “Dad, I want to be a fast bowler,” then lost his hero up the M1, That same kid persevered and became a fan of the big hitting Willey, even went home and tried to bowl left-arm at the garage door. He said, “Dad, I want to be an all-rounder now.” Where does he look for inspiration to love the game now? Do Northants have another replacement hero?
It’s only human nature to want to better yourself. You’d think less of any player that didn’t have high aspirations. It’s also ambitious and forward thinking of Yorkshire to seduce Willey into their ranks. They are a great county and he is a fine player. But where does this stop?
Is cricket going to become like football? Are we going to see players circulate around the counties without ever understanding the very different elements that makes each one tick? Are coaches going to become as disposable as their football counterparts?
As the talk of franchises begins to circulate once more. As T20 shows that Willey, Ross Whiteley and other one-day county stars can, with a spark and consistency, travel the world earning huge sums. As first-class counties continue to struggle, surely not all 18 can continue to operate as they are.
Central contracts have been great for England and for the counties shedding their stars to England’s payroll. When Durham suddenly found they had Collingwood and Harmison back on the books at the end of their international careers, after replacing them in the interim, it heavily drained their finances. There are numerous other similar examples.
In a free market it’s always going to be tough to stop the big fish from monopolising the agenda. Yorkshire are not a rich club by any means. In football terms they are destitute, although many would swap their own debts for the £22million at Headingley.
Like many counties they’ve been encouraged / forced by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) to raise the standard of their stadium in order to retain international cricket. Other counties were encouraged to invest in their own to attract it. What is left is a county scene with better grounds, no more bums on seats and county finances worse for it.
But if the likes of Yorkshire, and Surrey who have spent big in recent years in terms of salaries, continue to mop up the best county talent, what is left for the members of Northants, Leicestershire, et al to watch and invest their hopes in?
No one can accuse Yorkshire of buying the title as one could have Chelsea or Manchester City, or even Surrey if it had worked. Yorkshire’s Academy is the envy of the world. A long spell of White Rose domination didn’t dwindle the appetite for cricket during the 1950s and 60s. But we are in different times. The counties that could survive back then, really can’t now.
I also wonder what Yorkshire’s motivation is. If they are true to their word and they want to help Willey continue to play international one-day cricket and break into the Test side, they’ll rarely see him. Bit like saving to buy a big car only to let the nextdoor neighbour drive it.
There’s nothing wrong with ambition, or even competitive greed. It worries me where it leaves many sitting in the shadows of the bigger picture. Cricket needs to be careful what it wishes for.
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James Buttler
As the editor of Cricket Badger he is intent on building the website to give quality coverage of the domestic game around the world.
James was the full-time Media Manager at Yorkshire County Cricket Club between 2007 and 2010.
James is a published author and a writer/video contributor to many cricket publications.
He's unsurprisingly a complete cricket badger!
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What an excellent article and couldn’t agree more perhaps we should rename Northants the Yorkshire academy as that is the second up and coming player they have taken from us.
And yes it looks like we are moving more and more to the Chelsea and man city scenario in English cricket.
Botham left Somerset for Worcs after the ‘sacking’ of Richards and Garner. When Durham achieved first class status he went there.
Dont think Yorks can be compared to Surrey in terms of buying all and sundry.
Except that Gower left Leicester for more success and pound notes at Hampshire and Botham actually left Somerset in his (theoretical) prime years to join Worcester who were a bit of a powerhouse in those days despite the lack of a test ground.