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DIFFERENT DIRECTIONS Crispin Andrews examines Australian equipment in both England and Australia. and English cricket culture and Beghin explains that when he first arrived from South Africa in the late 1990s he speaks to a company that liked the thought of 9,000 village cricket clubs, each with its own ground, who operates in both countries played in a country famous for bad weather. If ever there was a market for the portable plastic Flicx pitch that Beghin designed for the post apartheid South African townships, this was it. ricketers in England and “I soon discovered, though, that in Australia both use wooden England village cricket is only played on bats, hit hard leather balls grass pitches,” he says. “And that’s the C and have a primordial case however bad the pitches are and compulsion to beat however difficult they are to maintain.” the other. But when the Australian English cricket was built on wealthy cricket team tours England and clubs and even wealthier schools. complains about the weather, Hambledon, Eton and Harrow, and of green seaming pitches and It’s no course the MCC - which pretty much ran warm beer, you know the surprise English cricket until the 1990s. Today in game over there is in that two England clubs - even small ones with no many ways different from countries money - own their own grounds or have our own. So too when on secured long term leases on them. They Poms visiting Australia opposite maintain their own wickets, pavilions and whinge about Aussie sides of in some cases operate like mini sledging in front of the the world businesses, raising funds, obtaining Melbourne Cricket would grants, securing sponsorship and hiring Ground’s Bay 13. take out their facilities. cricket in In Australia most clubs hire municipal very grounds for match days. Often these different directions. That grounds are multisport venues. “Teams our respective societies, just turn up and play,” says Ollie Uffindall, borne out of different head coach of the Andrew Flintoff climates, histories and Academy, who has coached and played in outlooks on life, would England and Australia. There’s no bar to produce two very different run, no building rates to pay and no pitch cricketing cultures. These to prepare, as the local authority does all cultures also provide the that. It’s just about cricket.” sports industry with a very “It’s less commercial too,” Uffindall different set of challenges adds. “Out there a good cricketer tries to and opportunities. get better to play a higher standard. Over here some just want to find a club, play MARKET there and make a bit of money.” “Tradition plays a big part Paul Gilchrist (no relation to Adam) in English cricket,” says runs Flicx in Australia. “It’s rare that a club Richard Beghin, managing has independent assets,” he says. This director of Flicx UK, a influences how Gilchrist markets his supplier of cricket products. 36 Follow us @SportsInsightUK CRICKET ENVIOUS When he set up in 2011, Gilchrist For the best part of 20 years English England have the likes of Root, decided to advertise on Cricket Australia’s cricket looked at Australia with envious Bairstow, Buttler, Roland-Jones and, if ‘My Cricket’ website, a place where eyes. A succession of great players he chooses England as expected, players from all over the country go to backed up by a lot of very good ones Australian born starlet Sam Robson. find their cricket gear. “A good online made Ashes contests between 1989 If we keep up our winning ways for advertising campaign is essential for a and 2005 one sided. The Australian as long as Border, Taylor and Waugh’s small company,” he says. way, it seemed, was the only way to Aussies did, cricket clubs Down Under Australia is, after all, very big, with play the game. might start doing it the English way. cricketers spread as far afield as Perth in Times are changing. England has Imagine it, Australian cricket clubs the west, Darwin in the north east and, of won the last two Ashes series and are flooding their pitches to produce green course, along the south eastern seaboard. favourites for this year’s double header. seamers, holding weekly car boot sales “Many municipal grounds have all weather While Australia complains about the to raise money and even stocking the or concrete strips,” Gilchrist says. “As the lack of new talent coming through, clubhouse bar with warm beer. club doesn’t own the ground, they can’t leave their Flicx pitch down permanently like they can in England. They have to roll it up and find somewhere to store it.” FUNDING In England a lot of local authority grounds are poorly maintained. Government supports grass roots cricket financially, but the authorities expect clubs to go their own way. Grants are available (albeit there are not so many since the 2010 public spending review) to upgrade facilities, put on coaching and organise events. In return, government, the England and Wales Cricket Board and Sport England expect those who receive funding to do things a certain way - to meet certain national aims and objectives. Often these are nothing much to do with cricket, but more how the authorities see the sport best contributing to wider government agendas. Sometimes government involvement helps the sports industry, like when the ECB bought 800 Flicx pitches in 1999 to try and get more people playing cricket in inner cities. Or when the Youth Sport Trust put on yearly school sport conferences England it’s almost impossible to get this is in Bay 13. But according to Beghin, the and invited the industry to showcase their sort of coverage. That’s the British sense weather in England does provide an goods in front of over 2,000 of fairness. It’s like, if we do that for you opportunity for cricket suppliers: “You get headteachers, school sport coordinators we’ve got to do it for two distinct selling and PE teachers. Other times, it doesn’t. everyone, so we’d be periods. The season “In South Africa I’ve been on national better off doing it “IN AUSTRALIA itself and the long pre- television with former Test match bowler for no one.” season, where clubs Fanie de Villiers and commentator Mike Direct marketing MOST CLUBS and schools train Haysman and got an hour showing people is more difficult in HIRE MUNICIPAL indoors. It’s three if you how Flicx pitches can help cricket and England, Beghin count Christmas, as a help people enjoy cricket,” Beghin says. “In finds. In Australia GROUNDS FOR lot of people buy Gilchrist says it helps cricketing gifts at to get a major player MATCH DAYS AND Christmas.” onside: “If the top OFTEN THEY’RE In Australia the guys are using your brighter, warmer, drier kit, it drops down MULTISPORT weather means through the levels. It cricketers can play first starts a trend, but VENUES” thing in the morning, the top guys don’t later into the evening come cheap, so for a and outside in the smaller company getting some of the summer. In the northern parts of bigger grade clubs to use our gear is a Queensland cricket is played in the winter, better option. They endorse it and you get the area’s dry season. The Australian images of good standard cricketers using summer is monsoon season in the north. your gear for marketing purposes.” “It’s hotter up there,” Gilchrist adds, “so The British weather is about as hot that people are looking to set up popular among cricketers as Mike Brearley evening cricket.” www.sports-insight.co.uk 37.