Save village cricket! |
I once made a BBC radio feature calling for cricket to be banned. It was in response to the death of a boxer, who had sustained fatal injuries during a fight. There were the usual calls for the sport to be outlawed, so I pointed out that, as cricket killed more people than boxing, surely it too should be forbidden. Auberon Waugh played along, saying how beastly he’d found cricket at school, what with the viciously hard ball coming towards you at high speed and you being expected to catch it. Danny Baker cited the same reasons for his dislike of the sport.
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Cricket became political last week, when Reform announced that they would save village cricket from the health and safety regulations that have challenged it in recent years. In the Essex village of Danbury last summer, three teams were ordered by the local council to stop playing on a field that has hosted matches for over 200 years. The ban followed an incident in which a passer-by was hit on the ankle by a ball while unloading his car. None of the players were aware of anyone else being hit in living memory.
Quite how widespread a problem this is for cricket clubs can be debated, and of course........