OPINION: Never mind the controversy… Northern did themselves and the Comp proud on European adventure

Northern Cricket Club at the European Cricket League in Malaga, Spain

The thing with Sliding Doors moments is, they often turn out not to matter.

For every fabled piece of cricketing drama like Wagner’s wide or Stokes’s overthrows, there are countless more that end up not having an impact.

Saturday lunchtime’s abandonment of Northern’s clash with Hornchurch in Group B of the European Cricket League felt significant at the time. 

Social media and YouTube comments lit up with theories and insinuations, most of them unpublishable. Footage of Hornchurch’s Harry Hankins twice falling in his delivery stride, forward and to the right, was analysed like the Zapruder footage by an enthusiastic handful of partisan viewers.

The ground staff at Malaga’s Cartama Oval can feel aggrieved that the pitch they prepared, which had already hosted one game that day and would go on to host two more, was declared temporarily unfit.

And the fact Hornchurch finished top of the group – and therefore went straight to the final once the game was called off – added fuel to the speculation. 

But with certain obvious exceptions, what happens on the field tends to stay on the field at this level of cricket. The same applies whether a game is being watched by half a dozen dog walkers or thousands of viewers on their phones and smart TVs. 

So we might never know quite what happened, and it’s not really our right to. 

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In any case, it probably didn’t make much difference.

Northern and Hornchurch were the strongest teams in the group and were always likely to meet in the final. 

The abandonment gave Hornchurch a few hours off, but Hankins’ falls meant he missed the final through injury. 

And who’s to say Northern didn’t benefit from some extra time in the middle as they eased past Austrian Cricket Tigers in their qualifier?

There is another matter, of course. Cricketers playing as hired guns will always raise an eyebrow, especially when they’re as good as Pakistani all-rounder Muhammad Irfan, whose batting and bowling won the final for Hornchurch. 

Irfan has played summer cricket for the Essex club as an overseas signing, but not since 2021; the presence of Formby skipper Ian Cockbain in the defending champions’ line-up was another indication of their approach.

But the wildcard rules that allowed this were known in advance. Northern chose to use them for Louis Bhabra and Stephen Lucas – two legitimate signings who will be with the club this summer, filling slots vacated by players who have left, Jac Kennedy and George Harris.

Captain James Cole, who was ruled out by a finger injury, said before the tournament that 2nd XI or squad players would have been used to fill any further gaps.

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That approach is to his and the club’s credit.

Along with director of cricket Chris Laker, who stood in as skipper in Spain, Cole is a firm believer in The Northern Way – a whole-club approach which would have to be torn up to accommodate a marquee wildcard as a short-term signing.

And it’s worth pointing out that Northern were almost good enough to win on Saturday night having barely managed a run off the first two overs. 

No patronising caveats are necessary – they are an excellent side with excellent cricketers, who with a change of luck might have sent Irfan, Cockbain and co packing.

They will compete for the Love Lane Liverpool Competition again this year, along with several local and national cups. The Northern Way is a blueprint for sustainable excellence, not a road map to the moral high ground.

Coming back from a bad start is the hardest thing to do in short-form cricket – that Northern came so close proves there is plenty of quality in the squad already without needing to compromise the vision. 

On the biggest stage available to club cricketers, they played with determination, nous and skill to reach the group final, then fight their way back into the reckoning.

They didn’t win the match; but they won plenty of admirers across the cricketing world.

Having claimed the Love Lane Liverpool Competition’s first ever national title last year, Northern’s players did the league, the club and themselves proud.

So forget about the controversy – all the alternative timelines would have collapsed into this one.

And now the dust has settled, Northern should think of what they achieved and hold their heads high.

from Merseyside Cricket Online https://ift.tt/3OWfecU