Dobell does it again

George Dobell is fast becoming one of my favourite cricket writers, with a succession of well-written and informed pieces on the web.

The latest appeared today and can be seen at

http://www.cricinfo.com/magazine/content/story/469787.html

The article paints a sorry picture of cricket finances, with development projects outstripping the ability of individual counties to pay for them and make them work. His reference to the "Category C" funding is, to my knowledge, what Derbyshire used, along with their own resources, to fund their recent developments. That's a big difference to taking the money to be "bailed out", however, like some are doing.

For me, the most interesting comment is that "this winter, we'll see some decent players released by clubs that simply can't afford to keep them," while another county "is talking of utilising a clause that is inserted in all contracts but never previously actioned, that entitles them to release any player who has been injured and unavailable for selection for more than thirteen weeks."

Hmm. If things are that bad then we might see a county that balances the books, like Derbyshire, taking advantage of the misfortunes of Test ground counties. It is just ridiculous that such grounds are encouraged to develop with no guarantee of the required fixtures that would underpin them financially. John Morris said recently that the twentieth best player at a club like Surrey might be just what we need and he's right. Last week I read Ronnie Irani's autobiography, where he recounts his frustrations at life at Lancashire, where he got little opportunity. He then went on to a glittering career at Essex and subsequently for England. There might be a few like him on the periphery of the county game, needing just the right environment in which to flourish.

As for the second point, many fans out there would support such a move and could cite players at their club that they would offload accordingly. I suppose that if it is in a contract it could be deemed legitimate, but such action may well see a few lawyers rubbing their hands together. Could a player who turned his ankle and injured ligaments in a foothold then file a claim for negligence? Could one who played when not 100% fit and aggravated a complaint claim he was pressured into doing so? I'm not a lawyer so I don't know, but in this litigation-crazy world I would not be surprised.

In other areas, I was disappointed to read in the press today that Atif Sheikh had been dropped by England Under-19s for being out late with skipper Azeem Rafiq of Yorkshire. The latter then compounded his error by moaning about the coach on his Twitter account, not the brightest of things to do. If you put things in the public domain you can expect someone will read it at some point and Rafiq, a talented player, was naïve to say the least.

As for Sheikh, he needs to learn from the episode and realise that his talents have got him into a position thousands would envy. He still has a long way to go, however and can live without blemishes on his record that may come back to bite in the future.

Finally there's a lengthy and eminently sensible piece on 606 tonight by Charles Collins to which I subscribe 100%. Sadly, I suspect it will fan the flames of the "Morris Out" brigade's fires, with people seemingly looking for someone to lead us to a position of national dominance that quite frankly we have never had.