The Professional Cricketers’ Association wants a shorter working week. It has asked the England and Wales Cricket Board to reduce the number of hours played each day in county championship matches. The umpires are asking for longer lunch and tea breaks.
Life is too short for cricket. The players themselves are responsible for the stonewalling in their game. Bowlers are taking longer to run up and massage the ball. The third umpire is slow. More time is being spent setting and readjusting the field. Pity the poor cricketers, last of the exploited manual workers, now that the miners have marched into history or mechanisation. They have to spend at least seven hours a day in spasmodic activity on green fields. Then it rains, and they retire to play cards in the pavilion.
So cricket must evolve. It always has. The tea break was introduced not at Lord’s or in the Parks, but in Australia in 1881. The captain of the England touring side gave orders for tea to be brought to him at certain times during play, without consulting the umpires. Now the umpires could take longer over tea to get their weight off their feet, without consulting the players.
The game could be shortened by setting four stumps and three bails for each wicket, and bowling with a smaller elliptical ball on which the seam has already been raised. The England side have shown how the game can be abbreviated under present rules when they are batting. Alternative occupations to cards should be provided for our exhausted, overworked and underpaid cricketers. Something sedentary — such as turning the pavilion into a call centre for them to earn a few extra pounds when off the field.