England’s abject show in the recently concluded Ashes 2021-22 has led to calls for significant changes in county cricket with Joe Root being critical of its current state. England drew one and lost four Tests as they suffered a 0-4 defeat to Australia.
Following the display, Root pointed said the players are doing well at the international level are managing so not because of county cricket but despite it.
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“Anyone that’s coming into this Test team at the minute is doing it in spite of county cricket, not because of county cricket,” Root had said after the defeat.
Root wants changes to the current system which he feels will make a significant impact. “I think there are definitely things that need to change, some things that need to change over a long period of time – it won’t happen overnight – but there are a lot of things that can change quite quickly that would hopefully make a significant impact for youngsters and guys in and around this team to ready themselves better,” he said.
However, in his column for the Daily Mail, veteran bowler Broad said while English cricket can take a few lessons from Australia, it’s unfair to put the entire blame on county.
“The analysis of defeat shows the difference between the scrutiny placed on red ball and white ball cricket in our country. Yes, you can try to tweak things as Australia have done in the past by introducing the Dukes ball to the Sheffield Shield. But sometimes the county game gets harshly treated,” Broad wrote.
Dipping into his own experience, Broad, who has 854 first-class wickets to his name, wrote that it’s important to not disrespect the domestic competition but did suggest some changes.
“I’ve played a lot of county cricket since the start of 2019 and I believe it’s important not to disrespect it. Yes, you could play more in June and July, and take the seam on the ball down slightly,” the 35-year-old wrote.
However, he’s against the introduction of Kookaburra ball.
“For what it’s worth, I don’t think introducing the Kookaburra ball would be a good thing because in my opinion it is not of good enough quality to cope with English moisture. It would swell,” he pointed out.
But he does accept that pitches could be better.
“I accept that some pitches could be better – I am lucky as I get to play on very good surfaces at Trent Bridge – but it’s hard to blame all our batting failures this winter on county cricket because we also failed at home against New Zealand and India last summer,” he observed.
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