It was a coincidence that the MCC scheduled its winter 1918 committee meeting on 12 November, though if pressed Lord Hawke might have professed it presentiment and canny planning. Either way, on the very first day after the armistice, the MCC’s ordinary committee got together to get on with the business of organising the next domestic schedule. They had a lot to talk about. Through four years of war, there had been no county cricket at all. Now it was back, no one seemed to agree exactly what it should be. Opinion was split. On the one side were the reactionaries, on the other, the reformists.
Which is a row that seems to have been around as long as the game itself. The old joke is that the English invented cricket to give themselves some conception of eternity, but really they did it so they’d have something to bicker about during it. There’s always talk that something must be done. And occasionally something actually is, something more than the constant tinkering and tampering with schedules and formats that means no two seasons ever seem to be quite alike, something significant, like the launch of the Sunday league or the T20 trophy.
Written by Andy Bull
This news first appeared on https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2019/jan/01/ecb-one-day-cricket-world-cup-the-spin under the title “The Spin | A century after MCC revolution, ECB stakes everything on one-day game”. Bolchha Nepal is not responsible or affiliated towards the opinion expressed in this news article.
