Former England skipper Sir Andrew Strauss stated that he hopes English cricket may “come together” when the ECB’s high performance review delivers its recommendations for changes to the structure and schedule of the domestic game.
The review, spearheaded by former England captain Strauss, was instituted after England’s embarrassing 4-0 loss to Australia in the Ashes last winter with the goal of assisting England in becoming the “greatest side in the world at all formats.”
Strauss said: “Our approach has been, not to look at it from an opinion-based perspective, but to rather go, ‘what’s our ambition as a cricketing nation?
Do we feel that England can be the best team in the world across all three formats? I believe we can. So if that’s our ambition, where are we relative to that and where can we learn about high-performance systems that work really well?
The other thing about this review is, we’ve also got to be cognisant and recognise that the cricket world is changing unbelievably quickly around us. There’s the rise of the franchises around the world; this is about future-proofing the game in this country as well.” said Strauss while speaking to Sky Sports.
The packed schedule has recently came into clearer focus following England Test captain Ben Stokes’ decision to retire from the 50-over game at the age of only 31, citing the “unsustainable” schedule.
“What we’re trying to do is put together a group of recommendations to the game about how do we come together to allow England to be successful, but also make sure there’s a vibrant, professional game sitting beneath that which prepares players as well as they can for the England team. We’ve got to look at things like player incentives, the pitches that we play on, the balls we use, maybe even the points structure in domestic cricket” said Sir Strauss.
During his tenure as the ECB‘s director of England men’s cricket from 2015 to 2018, Strauss oversaw a period of English dominance in white-ball cricket, which culminated in the team winning the World Cup at home in 2019. However, the demanding schedule of cricket is making it more and more challenging for England to consistently compete in all three formats.
