Yeah, that pretty much covers it. Other possible factors are our black population still being primarily urban based (mainly in London & Birmingham) where there's limited first-hand exposure to cricket &, as integration continues over the generations, the influence of cricketing loving parents, grandparents & great-grandparents wanes; & the fact that West Indian cricket itself is in a bit of a fallow period, so young black kids don't have the heroes to look up to & emulate anymore.There are a number of reasons why as alluded to in the article.
Firstly, the changing demographics of the black population in the UK.
Between 1980 and 1997 10 black players debuted for England and only 2 of them (Syd and Neil Williams) were born in England. Lewis, Benjamin, Malcolm, DeFreitas, Small, Slack, Cowans and Roland Butcher (no relation to Mark Butcher) were all born in the West Indies.
England has never had a track record of producing British-born black cricketers.
In 1997 Mark Butcher and Dean Headley debuted. I wouldnt include them in this discussion for 2 reasons. Firstly they are not a typical product of a system as they come from cricketing dynasties with both their fathers being Test cricketers (Headley, father and Grandfather for WI and Butcher, father for England) and they grew up around the County scene. Secondly, they are mixed race.
In the 10 years since 1997 only Alex Tudor has played Test cricket for England.
THere are a number of reasons why, as the article touch on some.
1) Less first generation West Indians brought up on cricket in the Islands.
2) The change in the education system where school sport in the state system was reduced since 1985 and beyond.
3) The explosion of the Premier League and the domination of soccer. Football is easier to get into, pays better, is more glamerous etc. No suprises that more people play it and want to play it. For example in my year group at school out of 130 boys only 2 played cricket and football was the only sport the school offered.
4) Small black population to start with so no real suprise that there are not that many playing. According to the CIA Factbook the UK (as the cricket team doesnt purely draw from England) the population is 2% black.
5) Fashion. West Indian/Black players were very fashionable in the 1980s and going into the 1990s due to the incredible WI team of the time. This led to a number being selected. In fact a Wisden from the 1980s suggests limiting the number of West Indians a team could have. We have seen similar with Australians being fashionable in the 1990s (Mullally, White, McCague, Gallian, Adam Hollioake, Ben Hollioake). All part of England consciencely or subconsciencely attempting to mimic what superior teams were doing at the time with inferior players.
The numbers may be down at the moment but I would suggest that the 1980s had an unrealistic participation level that was always unlikely to be maintained. The current levels are probably closer to the natural 'norms' even if they may be on the low side of that.
Yeah agreed. Hashim Amla had Steve Waugh as his hero and rolemodel. There is no reason why a persons hero has to be of the same nationality or ethnicity.Love the way there's this assumption that black British kids would have Caribbean heroes, anyway...
Not in the current England team tho, which is sort of the article's point. If there aren't black role models in cricket black talent is more likely to be lost to other sports where there is significant black representation.But there are famous black guys everywhere, too - not just in the Caribbean.
I mean, I know you're a fierce advocate of England > Britain but that's just going too far.the EBC
good points there TBH...covers the reasons quite well.There are a number of reasons why as alluded to in the article.
Firstly, the changing demographics of the black population in the UK.
Between 1980 and 1997 10 black players debuted for England and only 2 of them (Syd and Neil Williams) were born in England. Lewis, Benjamin, Malcolm, DeFreitas, Small, Slack, Cowans and Roland Butcher (no relation to Mark Butcher) were all born in the West Indies.
England has never had a track record of producing British-born black cricketers.
In 1997 Mark Butcher and Dean Headley debuted. I wouldnt include them in this discussion for 2 reasons. Firstly they are not a typical product of a system as they come from cricketing dynasties with both their fathers being Test cricketers (Headley, father and Grandfather for WI and Butcher, father for England) and they grew up around the County scene. Secondly, they are mixed race.
In the 10 years since 1997 only Alex Tudor has played Test cricket for England.
THere are a number of reasons why, as the article touch on some.
1) Less first generation West Indians brought up on cricket in the Islands.
2) The change in the education system where school sport in the state system was reduced since 1985 and beyond.
3) The explosion of the Premier League and the domination of soccer. Football is easier to get into, pays better, is more glamerous etc. No suprises that more people play it and want to play it. For example in my year group at school out of 130 boys only 2 played cricket and football was the only sport the school offered.
4) Small black population to start with so no real suprise that there are not that many playing. According to the CIA Factbook the UK (as the cricket team doesnt purely draw from England) the population is 2% black.
5) Fashion. West Indian/Black players were very fashionable in the 1980s and going into the 1990s due to the incredible WI team of the time. This led to a number being selected. In fact a Wisden from the 1980s suggests limiting the number of West Indians a team could have. We have seen similar with Australians being fashionable in the 1990s (Mullally, White, McCague, Gallian, Adam Hollioake, Ben Hollioake). All part of England consciencely or subconsciencely attempting to mimic what superior teams were doing at the time with inferior players.
The numbers may be down at the moment but I would suggest that the 1980s had an unrealistic participation level that was always unlikely to be maintained. The current levels are probably closer to the natural 'norms' even if they may be on the low side of that.
I seriously read NorwayeseLinked to the decline of WI as a force in international cricket, there's been a sharp reduction in the number of overseas players from the WI in the CC. Going back 20-30 years, loads of them played here, and most were highly successful. In fact, there weren't many WI players from the early 70's to early 90's who didn't play in the CC at some stage of their careers. Nowadays, there's very few, and that alone will account for some of the decrease in numbers. That's before you consider the knock-on effect in terms of their being role models and encouraging black kids in this country to play the game.