Cricinfo - Blogs - Rob's Lobs - The heavy price of cost-cutting

It didn’t have to be this way. The decision to reduce import quotas was entirely financial, a means of cutting those soaring wage bills. On every other level, it was wholeheartedly misguided. I have spoken to three highly respected county coaches and one prominent ECB official over the past few weeks and not one thought the rethink would reap any worthwhile rewards. In fact, they believed entirely the opposite.

Their message was unequivocal: playing with and against the galaxy’s best is precisely the sort of finishing school every aspiring Englishman should be compelled to attend. Indeed, with Inzamam-ul-Haq now sporting the white rose of Yorkshire, it is hard to think of another world-beater over the past 40 years who has not graced the shires, however briefly, bar Jeff Dujon, Ian Healy and Adam Gilchrist, keepers all. Name me a leading spinner who has not played in the County Championship since it was split into two divisions in 2000 and I’ll buy you a lifetime’s subscription to the Home Shopping Network.

Consider the following XI: Langer, Sangakkara, Younis Khan, Chanderpaul, Inzamam, Laxman, Clark, Harbhajan, Nel, Kaneria and Murali. Or this one: Fleming, Marshall, Hussey (D), Katich, White, Klusener, Yasir Arafat, Vaas, Steyn, RP Singh and Mushtaq Ahmed. They’ve all been treading the boards here this season as unqualified foreign goods. And there was me forgetting the boy Warne. What a silly billy.

Nobody would be so daft as to claim that this necessarily prepares Englishmen (and honorary/naturalised ones) for the rigours of the international fray better than their counterparts across the globe. But don’t tell me that Mark Robinson, the Sussex cricket manager, is talking gibberish when he attributes the development of Luke Wright in good part to the experience and lessons he has gleaned from tackling the likes of Murali and Warne. Or that Surrey’s meteoric 18-year-old paceman Chris Jordan has not enhanced his prospects by dismissing Chanderpaul, Di Venuto and Inzamam in his first month as a pro. Or that Mark Alleyne, the most successful county captain of recent times, now chief coach at Gloucestershire, is kidding himself when he claims that even a month spent in the same dressing room as a notable achiever is preferable to none.

Yet by reducing the scope to attract the best - whose availability, in any event, is increasingly constricted - those county chairmen have chosen short-term gain over long-term investment. Besides, in all likelihood, those savings will be redistributed to/frittered away on (take your pick) Kolpak signings and wannabe Brummies, but that’s another highly-emotive issue for another time.

As for that hoary old theory that imports restrict opportunities for unequivocal Poms, do me a favour. Are its proponents really suggesting that there are more than 300 putative world-conquerors lurking out there between Land’s End and John O’Groats? Not even the Professional Cricketers’ Association, the body most concerned with preserving jobs for the (local) boys, would claim that with any vestige of faith or credibility.

It also bears mentioning that top-quality professional sport is about entertainment, not restrictive trade practices that deprive the audience. Would football’s Premiership be lionised the world over, much less attract so many sellouts and broadcasting billions, if it did not offer its customers such an array of talented wares? In cricket, the fact that centrally-contracted players, the nation’s best, seldom turn out for their counties was the rationale for restoring import quotas from one to two when the Championship embraced promotion and relegation: to give the clubs an alternative tool with which to raise interest, membership and crowds. That playing standards have risen, as is almost universally agreed, surely cannot be unconnected.

For all its dependance on profits from international fixtures (which can only improve if its home products are better prepared to graduate), county cricket would dearly love to stand more steadily on its own two feet. Measures such as this suggest its most powerful constituents would rather shoot a hole in each shoe.

Sorry Anjo, Danish is playing for Essex, did so last season and will be again next season.

Thought provoking stuff this. As a real Brummie I'm very disenchanted with Warwickshire's raiding of the South African cupboards and their tasteless pursuit of Mushtaq. But Warwickshire aren't the only county doing it and looking to exploit loopholes. Shane Warne as a German citizen? It wouldn't take long for one day or Twenty20 crowds to come up with something distasteful/amusing to chant at Herr Varne. Was that really Warnie's idea or Rod Bransgrove's?

Herein lies the real problem. Smarter businesspeople seem to be at the clubs than at the ECB, so whatever ideas the ECB come up with, they will look to exploit loopholes. Hardly the Spirit of Cricket some would say. What the real motivation of the people running clubs might be isn't for me to say.

Just remember that, Ashes slaughter aside, England are still rated 2 in the world test rankings. 2 divisions and 2 overseas players per team can't be completely unconnected with that.

I don't know what the answer is - CMJ's suggestion that if you represent one country at a level beyond under 13 (IIRC) then you can't represent another country seems sensible on the surface. I for one will be checking the fixture lists to see if I can go and see Warnie (or Varnie) next season. The overseas players (as opposed to some of the Kolpak Krew) are also an attraction, players of standing we can all learn from.