Former English Wicket-Keeper Batter Jack Russell Slams England Cricket Board For Not Promoting County Cricket
England’s premier domestic red-ball cricket began on 7th April. The County championship saw 8 sides contesting each other across divisions one and two. But Jack Russell former wicket-keeper batter of the national team in a series of tweets has slammed the England and Wales Cricket Board for not promoting the league at all.
He took potshots at the ECB’s marketing guys. He’s a veteran of 465 first-class matches.
It Is Very Short-Sighted: Jack Russell
The wicket-keeper batter played 54 tests and 40 ODIs for English National Team. He scored nearly 2000 runs in test cricket and over 16,000 runs in domestic cricket. He had termed ECB’s marketing team as a disgrace.
In a series of tweets, the 58-year old said:
“Well @ECB_cricket #CountyChampionship has started and unless I’m mistaken you have done absolutely nothing to promote its importance. Who runs the #Marketing Dept? I hope you haven’t got the nerve to pick up your wages at the end of this month? Because this is a disgrace.”
In the 2nd tweet he seemed to remind the board of the importance the county championship carries, he tweeted: “Do you not understand its importance? Do you not understand that future England players are nurtured #CountyCricket Players that will hopefully go on to greatness and win #TheAshes and generate millions of pounds for you to run @englandcricket. So short-sighted its beyond belief.”
His third tweet was more of a disappointment than anything else, it read: @ECB_cricket this is beyond reckless beyond common sense You have the future success of @englandcricket under your stewardship. You don’t understand this basic #CountyCricket2022 is pivotal. Where do you think the players will come from if you choke this competition to death #Cricket.”
The English Test side has struggled in recent times, they lost the Ashes in Australia 4-0 and then have recently lost a Test series in the West Indies too. England’s Test skipper Joe Root after the Ashesh defeat conceded that: “Anyone that’s coming into this Test team at the minute is doing it in spite of county cricket, not because of county cricket. There are definitely things that need to change.”
England has a couple of important series scheduled in the summer against New Zealand and South Africa, they would hope that the county championships provide them with the answers they are looking for.
