Cricinfo - Blogs - Rob's Lobs - Yes please, Prime Minister

As Ed Smith, the most literate county captain since Mike Brearley, pointed out in The Guardian, nearly 60% of Britain's medallists at Athens in 2004 went to independent schools. “Chasing cherry-picked Olympic dreams in which the winners are the privileged, cynics say, is a misappropriation of the public purse,” he wrote. “After 11 years of New Labour, British sport seems less meritocratic than ever.” I’ll second that emotion, and third it.

Surely the priority, if you really do insist on flinging money at sport, should be with those who truly make us feel proud, or at least better. And since team sports remain the last refuge for semi-selfless endeavour and true collectivism, and since you did used to be something of a leftie, that priority should probably lie with soccer, rugby union and cricket, each of them a nourishing crust in our daily bread. That said, soccer doesn’t deserve it (fancy putting club before country!) and rugby union doesn’t need it, so that leaves cricket.

I realise that, being Scottish, all this might mean less than nothing to you. Even if it does, you’re probably still peeved at the way Douglas Jardine, Mike Denness and Gavin Hamilton were treated by the selectors. But have you forgotten? Labour won the 2005 General Election on the back of an Ashes triumph. If you want to take your subjects’ minds off the property crash, not to mention secure a second term, you wait and see how feelgood the feelgood factor is when the urn is regained next summer. Mark my words – calling a snap election for early September will pay dividends.

Of course, simply chucking millions at causes, however worthy, isn’t necessarily the answer. It depends on how you chuck ’em. Have a look at the upper echelons of the current county averages (you’ll have to go online; the papers can’t be bothered printing them anymore) and note all those Africans, Aussies and non-Flying Dutchmen. And the reason for that, once more, is privilege. Which brings us to your beloved school system.

You and your party are forever blathering on about broadening educational opportunity, and the need to give half the country a university degree (given the plummeting standards of literacy and numeracy in secondary schools, the latter was not, on reflection, the cleverest idea, but hey, you can blame that on your old mate Tony B). But what kind of a country sells off most of its playing fields for supermarket development? Unless your parents can afford to pay by the barrowload for your education, the chances of being coached properly at school are miniscule. And you only have to look at the talent little ol’ Sri Lanka are turning out of their schools (yes, Sri Lanka!) to appreciate the value of such a breeding ground.

So, Gordon, if you really, really want to do something for sport, the answer should be as clear and plain and, well, dull as your demagoguery: buy back those playing fields and crank up the wages of the teachers who will have to work overtime to raise our future Kevin Pietersens and Darren Pattinsons. OK, Jimmy Andersons and Monty Panesars. And while you’re about it, sending a sicknote to IOC, confessing to your undying regret that staging the Olympics could bankrupt the nation, wouldn’t hurt either.

Yours sincerely

A Hopeful Romantic (Socialist branch)

If this is some kind of a venting blog, then lets label it that way, first Rob you came up with Rob the man, pathetic as it was, this one takes the cake. You got to be kidding me, cricket is trying to be in Olympics, and here you are insulting Olympians. I am surprised how you have been able to write this stuff, this bad, this consistently, it must take some effort to get this approved and posted. Can someone please take away the blogging rights. Freedom of speech is one thing, but standing up in a theater and shouting there is a bomb in here falsely is just plain ridiculous.

My apologies if this is too plain, but come on, fix it or loose it.

There's only one thing the government should do to help cricket in this country - ensure the terrestrial broadcasters are forced to put in a competitive bid to show cricket. Nothing else. They aren't wanted or needed thank you very much. What is the point of teaching the values and laws of cricket to foul mouthed chavs who prefer to hit people with bats and stumps than use them properly? The phrase "that's not cricket" means something to you, me and the other readers of this site. It doesn't to those in schools now.

This government is as spineless as the ICC when it comes to fronting up to the big issues (remember Zimbabwe?) and as obsessed with control freakery as the BCCI. Get televised cricket back on terrestrial tv. That's how to make a positive start.

Am I the only one who's sick and tired of all the whingeing about the so-called "privileged?" One would think that Britain's medallists somehow bought their way in to the Games, instead of undergoing gruelling training for years and passing trials- otherwise known as "earning" it. Even in cricket, some of the greatest names in the sport were amateur players. Did they only gain selection climbing on the backs of the working poor? Heaven help the next national player who's actually intelligent enough to go to Oxford.

As for staging the Olympics "bankrupting the nation" I don't see how. More publicity, more tourists, more money coming in- all sounds good to me, although I think they could do a little better for Britain's image than rain and public transport.