The Ashes Tour 2021-22 England's tour of Australia has demonstrated how the county championship has been left to make its own way, while the limited-over competitions have been given priority by ECB and the first-class counties. No matter who was captaining the squad during this attempt to regain the Ashes, the lack of proper preparation, some of it admittedly made more difficult by COVID and the weather, the decision to leave selection to one person and the preponderance of limited-over fixtures towards the end of our summer have left the squad with batsmen ill-equipped to face the very strong and united Australian attack. Even with these handicaps, we have made some surprising decisions to leave out key players in Brisbane and Adelaide and bat on a green pitch in the very first Test match. Surely Anderson and Broad would have loved the first chance to take on the Australian batsmen in Brisbane and that might have set an entirely different tone in the series? However, it is the batting that is the biggest concern. There remain fundamental problems with the development of Test-class batsmen in the county championship. Four-day fixtures have been shunted to fill gaps in the limited-over programmes, pitches have been prepared to ensure a result, all too often in three days, and have favoured the medium-paced seamers, who will never dominate overseas in Australia, and the England and top overseas players do not play on a regular basis. The England batting line-up may be the best available, but where are the reliable county openers, the exciting and consistent stroke-players who can dominate or defend against bowlers without looking vulnerable for long periods? Where is the 'over-my-dead-body' approach from the middle order? We have some wonderful strikers of the ball in one-day matches, when there are no close catchers. Stokes, Buttler, Bairstow and Malan have huge ability, but the first two appear to have two different playing styles in Test matches - all-out attack or nothing but defiant defence, with not much in between. Pope clearly has talent, but looks inexperienced and frenetic, finding ways to get out. Burns is a fighter and the second highest scorer in Test cricket for England this year, but his technique looks shot to pieces. Neither Hameed nor Crawley has looked able to cope against top-class opening bowlers. It must be disheartening for our bowlers. Anderson has done a marvellous job. Robinson is steady and a captain's dream, but there appear to be doubts about his fitness. Is Broad not worthy of a place on pitches that start green? Wood has bowled valiantly and has provided the extra pace that's needed on pitches with slightly variable bounce. Woakes is a very good third seamer, but not an opening bowler on these pitches. Leach needs help in when he bowls and where his field is set, especially to left-handers. Why is Bess in the squad, if he is not selected when the opposition has so many left-handed batsmen? Brisbane and Melbourne were typical English pitches with seam movement and we were completely outplayed by the better Australian team, who had enjoyed the chance to practise by playing the longer format for their states. There will be no easy fixes, but ECB and its counties must look at priorities and put the county championship at the top, even though it does not produce as much gate money as the limited-over matches. So much of the television revenue seems to have been linked to the Hundred, which no other country plays and which is no preparation for Test cricket. There seem to me to be three essential changes, one radical the other two common sense decisions, to be made: 1. Prioritise and incentivise players and teams in the County Championship a. Four Divisions of 10 counties to include Ireland and Scotland in the Premier and First Divisions along with the first-class counties. b. National Counties initially to play in the Second and Third Divisions c. ECB payments to counties to be based on final positions in the championship d. Let each county decide how many full professionals, semi-professionals or amateurs to select e. Start 4-day Premier and First Division matches on Mondays f. Start 3-day Second and Third Division matches on Sundays g. Use Saturdays for a 50-over competition for Premier and First Division teams h. Play a T20 competition in a period in late July and August 2. Prepare better pitches 3. Return to a selection committee and a strong England manager.

 COMING SOON

BOUNDARIES - A MEMOIR BY ROGER KNIGHT

In many ways I have had a charmed life.  I was born after World War II and was too young for conscription; had a supportive mother and father; was educated at a top school, having passed the 11+, and university and grew up in a large school house with thirty boarders, a competitive younger sister and a very big garden as well as having Dulwich College’s playing fields and facilities close by.  Later, two headmasters were prepared to allow me to teach for two terms each year and three county cricket clubs employed me for the other five months; a wife and two children stood by me through the two time-consuming careers in education and professional sport; and, most fortunately of all, I retained good health.

 

At first, I was shy and unconfident.  Few would have predicted what was to come.  At Dulwich College Preparatory School, I was able to cope academically and compete on the sporting field, but the move to Dulwich College at eleven placed me in a vast school with many more competitors and able pupils.  I never struggled to get into sports teams, but I never felt that I was one of the dominant personalities.  I was often made form captain, probably because I was more compliant than the stronger characters and kept to the rules.  With a father teaching in the school, I didn’t want to step out of line.  I was aware of boundaries at an early age.  This desire to conform has always remained.  Perhaps becoming a schoolmaster, a county cricket captain and a Secretary of MCC contributed to the necessity of wanting to wear the right clothes, say the right things and make the right impression.  

 

It did help that I was born in September, right at the start of the academic year and therefore I was always one of the oldest in the year group.  It also helped my confidence that I was tall and fit, blessed with good hand-eye coordination.  It was success in sport that helped my self-confidence to grow.  After A Levels I did stay at the College for a seventh term, to attempt a scholarship to Cambridge.  I never thought that I had a chance, but I did gain a place and then decided to stay on for two more terms at Dulwich to retake and improve my German A Level grade.  By this time I was nineteen and still a schoolboy, so rugby and cricket produced more success.

 

Going up to St Catharine’s College, Cambridge, I soon realised that there were other modern linguists in my year who had read more, spent more time in the foreign countries and were much more able to speak the languages we were studying than I.  Again, it was sport, initially rugby in the first term and then cricket in the summer, which boosted my confidence.  It also made me realise how much fun team sports were.  They encourage banter amongst teammates, a sense of perspective and the need to accept the ups and downs as a group of winning and losing.  I had learned at Dulwich College that wit and humour were essential to keep a balance in life.  Quick-witted South Londoners always had a ready response to lighten the mood.  I think and hope that this part of my character has developed and remained a constant part of me.  It may not always have been apparent to others, because I chose throughout the two careers to take my responsibilities seriously.  However, I knew, as I became more confident, that I could enjoy the lighter side of situations, even though I did so often without showing it to those around me.

 

Standing in front of a class gave me confidence to speak publicly.  Finding success in sport gave me more topics about which I felt able to speak and hold my own in conversations.  Running a boarding house, an HMC independent school, a professional cricket team and a private members’ club taught me about management and defined how I, personally, would lead other people and organisations.

 

Whether we want to or not, everyone is always moving on.  When it happens, do we want to hang on to the past longingly or do we move on and embrace any future challenges?  I have tended not to look back, but to be ready and willing to welcome new opportunities which have arisen.  From cricket combined with teaching to teaching fulltime, from teaching to cricket administration, from employment to retirement, my wife, Chris, and I have moved on and always looked forward to the next challenge.  Of course we have looked back but, as we have been determined not to regret the major decisions we have made, it has been easier to react positively to the new situations.

 

One of the best pieces of advice given to me by John Edrich when I was a young batsman starting out in first-class cricket was not to worry about the last ball you faced.  As he said, if you’re still at the crease, even if you’ve been beaten all ends up, it is the next ball that matters, because that’s the one that can get you out.  As on the cricket pitch, so in life.  There is an appropriate time to learn from past mistakes, but the immediate future has to be embraced and demands concentration.  We have to move on and clear our mind so that we can think positively and operate efficiently.

 

Through it all, I have always realised and appreciated how fortunate I have been.  I am grateful to so many people, who have stood by me, advised and guided me, led me, become colleagues and friends or have been prepared to follow and support me as a leader.  Above all, though, I am grateful to my close family, who have supported me as a husband, father and grandfather, putting up with my humour and competitive spirit.  They are the people who know me best.  

 

All individuals are inevitably influenced in some way by the background into which they are born and in which they grow up.  I was encouraged at home and at school to be part of a team but to remain my own person.  Perhaps that is what drew me into cricket, which requires individual skills and decision-making within a team framework.  It also taught me to respect other people, whether in authority and leading, part of a peer group or those expecting to be led.

 

My life has been a journey through schools and through sports, especially cricket and rugby.  From 1971, when I left Cambridge after four enlightening years bringing greater maturity and independence, I was a schoolmaster who played cricket in the summers.  For the first fourteen of the twenty-four years that I taught in independent schools, I spent only two terms a year at the schools.  In the summer I played professional cricket and, for the first five years, that entailed two separate existences, living in Eastbourne for the winter and in Bristol during the summer.  When I was invited back by Surrey CCC in 1978, the emphasis changed and I became a county captain who taught in the winters.  The years from 1984 until 1993 were the time when I saw myself as a proper, full-time schoolmaster, as a housemaster at Cranleigh and then, subsequently, as headmaster of Worksop College.  New opportunities arose in the years ahead and, from 1994 our family life changed completely as we moved down to London for me to work as MCC Secretary.  

I hope to publish this book in 2021.

ROGER KNIGHT ONLINE

A new website is being developed and will be published in 2021. 

THE BEST VIEW IN CRICKET

This will provide an online Snapshot from 1994-2006

Few people have had the chance to see MCC from so many different perspectives.  I first came to Lord’s for Easter Coaching classes in 1958 where I was coached by Bill Voce.  Each year I received expert coaching from a variety of different cricketers, most of whom had played at a high level.  The one I remember best was Tom Spencer, who became a top class umpire.  He concentrated on praising my off drive and said that I would score a lot of runs through it.  As a Schoolmaster Playing Member I joined the Club in 1968, then was voted on to the MCC Committee twice, which showed me how much effort and thought goes into arranging the fixtures and tours and decision-making on behalf of the membership.  As MCC Secretary from 1994 -2006 (Secretary & Chief Executive became the title halfway through my tenure), I felt that I was right at the centre of all that was happening within the Club.  Being nominated as President in 2015 was a wonderful honour, as was being elected as an Honorary Life Member when I retired from the full-time position of Secretary & Chief Executive in 2006.  My allegiance to MCC and my support for the Club remain very strong and it upsets me to see an increasing number of Members, who seem only to criticise the Committee and the staff.  As in any organisation, not all decisions will suit everyone and some may well be unintentionally misguided, but the hybrid nature of a membership club and a medium-sized business can cause conflicts and frustrations.

 During the years in which I acted as the 13^th Secretary of the Club, there were many matters which arose.  In my book, Boundaries - A Memoir, I have mentioned some of them, but this snapshot is an attempt to give a fuller picture of the way the Club evolved between 1994 and 2006.  The minutes of the committee meetings are all in the MCC library, but I always made my own notes of discussions, proposals and decisions.  The views expressed are personal and others may well see the debates in different ways, but I hope they shed some light on the debates, the changes made and those suggestions, which did not receive support.