Socerer 01
International Captain
does that mean the ecb, england fans and everyone else associated with english cricket are okay with being whitewashed as long as you get record viewership and income as a byproduct of the entertainment?When considering Stokes declaration and England's Bazball approach you have to do so with the wider concept of what he, McCullum and the ECB are trying to achieve.
On CW, we're all cricket nuts. We spend time debating whether one player who retired 30 years ago is better than another who retired 60 years ago.
We view Stokes' actions in a purely cricketing sense. Was the declaration the right cricketing decision or not.
In England, test cricket is not on free to air TV and hasn't been since 2005. In fact cricket is barely on free to air TV apart from highlights, which until recently were on late at night.
The concern is that as older fans like me die off, where is the next generation of fans coming from when there's no cricket on TV to stimulate their interest.
The ECB want to try to address that with the hundred and with the test team playing an exciting, attacking brand of cricket.
Yes we want to win, of course we do, but it's also about getting new fans in to the sport. In fact thats the key aim.
We lost yesterday but everyone is talking about it. TMS got record figures, for its online updates. Would that have happened if the test was a bore draw - not a chance.
The way we play under Stokes has stimulated interest in test cricket and that's a big part of what the ECB is trying to achieve.
So you can criticise our play at times and the declaration etc but in doing so you're only looking at it from a purely cricketing perspective and there's much more to it than that.