Behind the Boundary

With the rise of Twenty20 cricket and dwindling crowds at county games, the shift of power in the game to India and the lack of cricket broadcasting on UK terrestrial television, English cricket is faced with probably the most challenging time in its history - particularly when it comes to the one-day and first-class formats of the game that are so crucial for success on the international stage. Graeme Wright - former Editor of Wisden Cricketers' Almanack - has travelled the country to talk to county administrators and cricket-lovers about the economic and social issues confronting cricket today, trying to find a way forwards for a sport that finds itself at a crossroads. Can the professional game still support 18 first-class counties? Does our current set-up allow us to develop the cricketing talent on which the national team so relies? What is the impact for fans, players, the counties, and indeed the very game itself - of non-terrestrial TV coverage? What he finds behind the boundary is not just a sport in crisis but 18 complex businesses coming to terms with the reality of an ever-changing commercial world. Cricket in England is bound up more closely than any other sport with our sense of "Englishness". So what do these current shifting sands mean for cricket's place in the social fabric? Graeme Wright offers a fascinating and entertaining evaluation of cricket mirroring the changes in English society, and of where we go from here.