WHAT IS THE WISDEN CITY CUP?
by Scyld Berry

The Wisden City Cup is an initiative to bring cricket to inner-city communities where the popularity of the sport has manifestly declined, especially since the spike of interest when the Ashes were contested so dramatically in 2005. The objective is to give an opportunity to play on good club grounds to those who do not have the opportunity, and promote social cohesion along the way.

The inaugural competition, of 20 overs per side, took place in London north of the river in July and August 2009. It was run with the blessing of Middlesex CCC and the help of their development officers under Phil Knappett. Angus Fraser had played for Middlesex in the 1980s when the county had a broad spread of cricketers from different backgrounds, including five players of Afro-Caribbean origin. When he became their Director of Cricket in January 2009, he was in the ideal position to co-operate with Wisden in launching this project.

Four teams were created on a geographical basis: West, North-West, North-East, and East, each with its own clothing, coach and sponsor. The main competition sponsor was the Foundation for Sport and the Arts whose generosity was essential. Brit Insurance offered batting and bowling prizes. Wisden offered fielding prizes: and a feature of the competition, which was played on Tuesday and Wednesday evenings with a pink ball that showed up distinctly whether sightscreens were used or not, was the very high standard of catching.

The team that probably benefited most were The Times Tigers, representing London East. The lamentable fact is that there is no cricket ground with a turf pitch in that part of London. So the Bangladeshi community, which is concentrated in Tower Hamlets, has a widespread keenness for cricket but nowhere to play outdoors – except on the artificial pitches of Victoria Park. Over 40 players came to audition when trials were held there in May and June.

Each team played the other three teams twice. Six fixtures for each team, in other words, and the miracle was that in such an unsunny summer only ten overs were lost. With their excellent facilities, Hornsey, Brondesbury, Southgate and Eastcote hosted the games. The Middlesex Cricket Board supplied the umpires and the scorer, the indefatigable Johnny Marr. The age range was 16 to 25, although a team could field two players above that age. The unanimous opinion was that the competition was played with the utmost intensity yet in exactly the right spirit of multiracial harmony.

The final was contested between West, the Barclays Tigers, and East, The Times Tigers. So great was the keenness of the Tigers that even though they had a total of only 129 to defend, they did so, and celebrated just as joyfully as England had at the Oval a few days before. One measure of the standard was that West had two players of first-class experience: Shaftab Khalid, the offspin and doosra bowler who had played for Worcestershire and England A, and their coach Chris Peploe (if a team played their coach, he could bat no higher than number seven).

A second measure of the standard was that when the Wisden City Cup XI – drawn from all four teams – played a 20-over match against a Middlesex XI at Southgate on September 20, the WCC XI won by four wickets. The Middlesex team had no regular first-teamers, but half had first team experience while the other half were members of their Academy, so amateurs beat professionals.

Thus the official mainstream of premier league and county cricket in North London was connected to the alternative, or unofficial, mass of cricketers who play ‘beneath the radar’ but have their skills, hopes and ambitions. The Wisden City Cup offers a fast track to the top – Middlesex will give expenses-paid training to the most promising WCC player – for those cricketers outside the system. As long as the competition lasts, Middlesex will be able to say they have left no stone, or grass-root, unturned.