Comments on: A Wales National Cricket Team

By: Jac

Jac — Mon, 14 Apr 2014 12:07:33 +0000

In reply to mujtaba Parker. Thank you for you support. Maybe you'd like to tweet your support to @WelshCricket and follow this link to the blog.

By: mujtaba Parker

mujtaba Parker — Mon, 14 Apr 2014 11:22:40 +0000

Hi im from Cape Town South Africa and i firmly believe in development of cricketing nations.I would really love to see a seperate team for Wales.Thanks

By: Matthew James

Matthew James — Sat, 25 May 2013 11:13:59 +0000

Jonathan Edwards MP in this article does a decapitation job on the argument against a Welsh side.

http://www.jonathanedwards.org.uk/towards-a-national-future-for-welsh-cricket?lang=en

By: Keith Parry

Keith Parry — Sat, 25 May 2013 07:10:19 +0000

I used to go to St Helens in cira 1990. You could get in for nothing at 4pm towards the end of play. The bar was open when the pubs shut at 4pm.
Wales should have a National Team and Glamorgan carry on in the county championship. Its not beyond the wit of man.

By: leigh richards

leigh richards — Sat, 25 May 2013 05:12:27 +0000

and after this news what are the odds that little gibraltar wil have its own national cricket team before Wales?

http://www.chronicle.gi/headlines_details.php?id=29430

congratulations to gibraltar by the way – i look forward to their national team playing wales in future qualifying competitions. This is also another nail in the firmly shut coffin of the ‘team GB’ fiasco – let anyone dare challenge wales right to compete in international football now that the likes of gibraltar have been admitted….with the isle of man, jersey and guernsey to follow im sure..

By: Stirling Doss

Stirling Doss — Fri, 24 May 2013 11:03:11 +0000

Jac,
I have waited a hell of a long time for you to say something sensible, as opposed to rabid nonsense, and I have been rewarded for my patience! Your comments about St. Helen’s as the true home of Welsh cricket are spot on – and its heritage and tradition matchless. Swalec is a gulag, and Wales is the land of our committees, all of whom are self-serving. Speaking of Welshmen, I would have liked to hear you wax lyrical about the genius of Majid Kahn, the power of the mighty Viv, and the deadly toe-crushers of Waqar’s reverse swing. As in cricket as in life – diversity is our strength!

By: Jac

Jac — Thu, 23 May 2013 19:29:30 +0000

In reply to treforus.

Glamorgan leaving St. Helen’s was an absurd and perverse decision. It meant leaving the area where a) the supporters were and b) where most of the players had come from over the decades. And all for pie-in-the-sky support in Cardiff that never materialised.

If as you say, the only thing keeping the club afloat is the Sky TV money for Test matches, then that may not last much longer. There is strong opposition in England to Test matches being played in Cardiff. Not just from the traditional Test match grounds, but also from other stadia that have invested in improving facilities, such as the Rosebowl in Southampton (or Ageas Bowl, as it’s now known). Quite honestly, I wouldn’t raise a finger to save the Swalec Stadium or Cardiff City Cricket Club. And I’d do my best to see that no public money was used for the purpose either.

Other comments have hinted at the disconnect between cricket players and supporters in Wales and those who control the game. While the former are generally representative of the Welsh, the hierachy tends to be royalist, Tory, Unionist and of a view that the most appropriate place for a Welshman’s head is in close proximity to John Bull’s arse. Not a lot different to the WRU.

By: treforus

treforus — Thu, 23 May 2013 18:10:39 +0000

All through the 80s and 90s Glamorgan members were told that the club’s only hope was to own its own ground in Cardiff so that it could attract sponsorship, hospitality packages etc. So the club moved away from its base of support . The Swalec ground has proved a millstone not a lifebelt. Crowds are dismal- the boast that the lost members from SA postcodes would be replaced by more from CF and NP never happened and fewer and fewer players are coming through from West Wale, from where the club traditionally had its greatest sources of talent.

The club stays afloat on Sky money from the Tests. It is otherwise irrelevant The number of pies sold on match day is more important than the score.. The old players were well known and respected locally. I wouldn’t recognise more than one or two of the present team if I passed them on the road (and I’ve been a member since Tony Lewis’s days).

By: anon

anon — Thu, 23 May 2013 13:15:50 +0000

In reply to Phil Davies.

I wouldn’t say that Welsh cricket was any more unionist than rugby football. The fans at St Helens were certainly not particularly middle-class and plenty of the players came from working class even Welsh-speaking backgrounds – Alun and Eifion Jones for example. I’m sure that even the likes of Wilf Wooller enjoyed sending the English home with their tails between their legs. The current set-up is all about getting hold of a share of the TV loot, nothing more.

By: anon

anon — Thu, 23 May 2013 13:04:37 +0000

Yes Jac I remember those days at St Helens. I was in college there and for the princely sum of one guinea per annum could lord it as a country member, although it was more fun mixing with the hoi polloi. Tony Cordle was a bit of a hero of mine and with the likes of Shepherd, Presdee, the Jones brothers, Walker, Wheatley, Nash etc games against the likes of Australia were mini-test matches.

Things started to go to pot when they started picking a second eleven to represent the county against touring sides. Give the championship players a bit of a rest, what a daft idea to devalue your biggest game of the season like that.

I don’t give a hoot for Glamorgan now or the Swalec stadium or the E & W board. Yes Wales could play Tests and certainly be in the World Cup. As it is the E & W set-up is a disgrace to Wales.