Nicholas Craig column

Apr 7 2006 By Nicholas Craig, The Journal

Cricket is a real success story in the North-East. Our region has a first class team, is playing host to the Sri Lankans and has the first Women's Academy in the country.

The English team includes local heroes Steve Harmison, Paul Collingwood and Liam Plunkett. We've a great deal to shout about, and to look forward to this year.

Yet businesses are slow to support the game. The Durham Committee of the North-East Chamber of Commerce is an honourable exception, actively backing the Riverside club's Sign the Bat campaign which aims to attract an Ashes Test match to Durham CCC.

But businesses, on the whole, take a passive role, simply entertaining clients at the more prestigious matches. I would rather see them take up a bat themselves and play the game.

Count how many corporate five-a-side football teams there are, against company cricket teams.

Football is thriving, but corporate cricket teams are dwindling. It is baffling, as all ages can play an enjoyable part in cricket, whereas five-a-side football requires a level of fitness that is difficult to maintain as maturity advances.

I challenge any local business to take on the might of the Watson Burton cricket team. The more, the merrier. We should create a league, a cup, a series, a world tour.

The sudden mass popularity of cricket with the Ashes win last year led to instant forecasts that it was the new football, which it is not. It is, however, assuming a greater prominence in schools.

When I was younger, winter meant rugby and football, and summer focused on cricket, with a burst of tennis. In recent years, cricket has lost its central position in many schools and as a symbolically British pastime.

It is heartening to see so many youngsters now setting up makeshift stumps to emulate their current heroes.

Encouraging their enthusiasm helps to strengthen those traditions that are inseparable from cricket and notably absent from other sports.

If we continued playing cricket in our adult years, it would assume a consistently high ranking in British sports, however the England team was faring.

Businesses should lead the way - so take up the Watson Burton cricket team challenge and we'll campaign to create a corporate cricket craze.

Nicholas Craig is a partner at Watson Burton law firm