TALKING SENSE

There's an excellent article in today's Telegraph newspaper (the national broadsheet) in which Michael Henderson bemoans County Championship four-day matches being fitted in anywhere and everywhere around Twenty-20 thrashes, and also suggests England bowlers no longer have the stamina they used to in the days of Trueman and Statham. The columnist's view is players should be bowling as often as possible.
Maybe he should take a look at the way youngsters develop at club level.
The ECB was well-meaning when it brought in restrictions to ensure young players were not bowled into the ground and injured, possibly for many years.
Yet, as I heard a player in a Lincs League match say only the other day: "I can drive, go to the pub but can't have more than seven overs."
It's just plain crazy when a strapping lad in his mid to late teens - possibly the fittest he'll ever be in his life - can't exceed a handful of overs.
Quite how we get anyone at Lord's to take notice is beyond me. Could there be an approach from leagues? Or can we lobby our representatives at the Lincs Cricket Board?
Captains in club cricket are responsible for upholding the Spirit of the Game. That being so, surely we can rely on them to show good commonsense when it comes to deciding whether a young lad has bowled sufficent overs.
It's not easy to say how the current restrictions might be revised. Should they be removed altogether? Or maybe we could just double the current number of overs allowed for each age group. So someone who's already an adult (in all but cricketing terms) could be permitted 14, rather than the current seven.
It would be interesting to know what youngsters within North Lincs clubs think about it all. And to know the views of team captains and those who manage junior teams.
We'd welcome your thoughts. Email scoopfisher@aol.com - or post a comment here.