My wife and I walked the kids down the hill to Edgbaston last Saturday afternoon, where our latest attempt at cricket indoctrination was the Birmingham Phoenix versus Welsh Fire game in the men’s Hundred.
Though a one-sided defeat for the hosts – the Phoenix women at least got the win earlier in the day – it was decent enough, with the youngest (six) the only one to get restless before some tactical popcorn lifted spirits towards the back end of the game. The kindness of strangers meant she was happy regardless, having been gifted two foam meerkat paws and a giant red/orange Phoenix flag that looks as if she now supports some obscure separatist movement in the Balkans.
Me? I was happy that everyone seemed happy but also privately wondered how sustainable the whole thing is. Now the ground was close to sold out, the TV cameras were in, Jude Bellingham was signing autographs and the amount of Phoenix merch worn in the stands suggested it has secured a local footprint. But knowing the figures involved, the economics instinctively felt questionable.
Take Usman Tariq, as one small xample. Pakistan’s bandana-wearing mystery spinner is a fun, interesting cricketer. But if he bowls his allocation of 20 balls in the eight games Phoenix play – the knockout stage is now beyond a poorly assembled men’s squad – it adds up to only 160 deliveries for £140,000 in pay. That’s just shy of £900 a pop, given he does not bat and is a bit slapstick in the field.
It is only a mid-range deal, with the men’s salary pots up 45% this year to £2m per squad and the women’s teams up 100% to £880,000. But while payment now falls on the new team owners, the broadcast deal, which runs to the end of 2028, also encompasses international cricket and county tournaments. Until the rights are broken up, the true value of the Hundred is slightly unknown beyond the vast sums teased out of investors hoping for a return. You wonder whether Test cricket, still the big beast in England at least, might be subsidising its younger sibling in the meantime.
Still, for all those thoughts, or the slightly forced-fun feel to the assault of pyrotechnics, music and hyperactive stadium announcers, there was something for grumpy guts here to enjoy. It came in the chase, as Joe Root gracefully stroked his first three deliveries to the rope to begin a frictionless unbeaten half-century that sat in contrast to the freefalling Phoenix in the first innings.
Granted, the pressure was minimal and the mastery my kids didn’t necessarily realise they were witnessing was capped by a 100-ball limit. But it was still a snapshot of pure Root, all balance and poise as he pierced the infield with Swiss clock timing, picked off his runs and killed the contest. It was only with the finishing line in sight that Root wowed them with his pancake-flip reverse scoop.
In an ideal world this would be Root until the day he calls time, just batting and batting and batting. Preferably in the whites of England, ticking off the runs that with a bit of luck should take him past Sachin Tendulkar’s record of 15,921 in Test cricket, and helping the team secure some much-needed wins in the process.
Things are far from ideal, however. Having spent nearly five years as England’s captain previously, a job that ground him down and turned into an “unhealthy relationship”, Root has dutifully agreed to take on the position once more. Aged 35, it is unlikely to be as long a stint as before but inherent is the risk that the extra bandwidth required will cap the output of their premier player.
Root’s runs were not the issue even as the team malfunctioned at the end of his previous spell in charge. But if this return to the job is a 12-month holding pattern – if England are waiting for Harry Brook to mature and get past the 2027 World Cup before stepping up – Root may be less inclined to return to the ranks thereafter. Unburdened, he looks like he could bat on into his 40s like Graham Gooch.
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In Root’s favour in the meantime is the new head coach, Stephen Fleming, who before his 17 years on the Twenty20 circuit was an astute tactician as New Zealand’s Test captain. In theory he should cover off Root’s past shortcomings and perhaps lighten the load in terms of man management. According to Moeen Ali, who has played under Fleming, he “takes the pressure off players and takes it on himself”.
Problem is, Fleming will not be in place for the three-match series against Pakistan that starts on 19 August – Marcus Trescothick will stand in – leaving Root a bit exposed initially. And if a captain is only as good as their bowlers, he will now be marshalling an attack that, in the last two or so years, has lost more than 2,000 wickets of nous through the retirements of Stuart Broad, Ben Stokes, Jimmy Anderson et al.
This rebuild phase was always going to come, of course, but you still look at the broader set-up – much of the same management still in place – and wonder how sustainable this all is too; whether the new approach will truly deliver for England’s flagship, revenue-driving team or if it is a bit of short-term workaround.
Like the Hundred, only time will tell. English cricket has made its choice.
